Hey Yingwen, glad you're still kickin' too. And glad that you responded to my post in your usual astute manner. Like Fish's post, yours has given me food for thought. I love your idea about having them clearly define what they see, well...clearly. It's similar to some power point presentations I did last term. Lot's of pictures meant to stimulate responses. It started out more as a lesson in using verbs beyond the same old tired ones that second language learners get stuck on. Like for example, "Is that guy really 'walking' through the park - or is he actually strolling, sauntering or meandering." That worked so well that I started getting more creative with it and so did they. In the days when I didn't have access to power point I used to get the class to bring colorful pictures to class. I encouraged them to bring pictures that illustrated action. The class would then choose three or four pictures to post in the front of the classroom. Then we would make lists on the blackboard/whiteboard, usually with different colored chalk, of verbs, nouns, adjectives and adverbs that they could derive from looking at the pictures. Then of course I would ask them to make sentences and ultimately stories from the list. It works pretty well.
The interesting thing about vocabulary acquisition and use, though, is that research has shown that a second language learner must use a new word from 16-20 times for it to actually sink in. As you said, it must be in a variety of contexts that they use that word or, for that matter, target language of any kind. And, as you also touched on, this becomes the responsibility of the learner.
Yeah, rote learning, works pretty well for passing tests sometimes. But cramming, as we all know, is not the best way to serve our long term memories. In fact I've discussed this with my students on occasion and last term even revealed to them some research that has been done in China that shows that students whose expressed interest in learning English is simply to pass the necessary exams, on the average, don't do as well as those whose expressed purpose is some form of communication.
Interestingly, I teach both English majors and non-English majors, and my own interviews have shown the above to be true. Some of the non-English majors are actually better communicators than the English majors who feel they just MUST score high on the TEM exams. True enough, the aforementioned good communicators are those who don't feel the need to outdo their classmates on passing the exams; they simply want to pass and have communicating with foreigners as their main reason for applying themselves.
Well, I seem to be digressing, and I really would rather respond to your post when I'm not suffering from a nagging toothache as I am now. Time to take some more pain killers and antibiotics and call it a day...................