Online Tools for Teaching: Quizlet for Vocabulary 

    Have you heard the website called "Quizlet"? It is a website that allows you to prepare online exercises like Kahoot but it is kind of different in some ways from Kahoot. I have been using Quizlet for around 2 years and I usually use it for teaching vocabulary before reading lessons and revising vocabulary.

    In a regular reading lesson, I usually start with some warm up activities for the topic of that day. I either use the course book's activities or sometimes use a video and prepare some comprehension and discussion questions about that day's topic. After that, I teach vocabulary. I used to use some slides, show example sentences and meaning of the words and it always felt like a lecture rather than teaching a language. While I was trying to find ways to enhance my lesson and make it more interactive, I came across Quizlet and started using it. 

1. How do I use Quizlet for Vocabulary

   Basically, for each reading text, I prepare vocabulary cards on this website. I usually have my target vocabulary to teach and write them on quizlet and their meaning. The Quizlet provides me with a flash-card where I can see the word on the front side and the meaning on the back, but how do I benefit from this? In the vocabulary stage, I open the quizlet and one by one, I start to show the words and ask students do you know the meaning of this word in English? Sometimes, I don't get any answers, but mostly, they try to give some answers. If they don't know, I make them guess by giving them some example sentences and I often get some kind of answers. In this way, I make my lessons more interactive and effective. In the end, I also show the meaning that is written on the backside of the word for students who want to take notes. While doing this, I also provide them with the other forms. For instance, if the word is ambition, which is a noun form, I ask them what is the adjective form of it and I make a table on the board and we fill this table with different forms. When I use this strategy, I can see that my students become more active and they don't get lost since we move one by one rather than me explaining everything. 

    In addition, at the end of the reading, to revise the vocabulary, Quizlet has a live game option. In this live game, students just scan the QR code and join it. If I have enough number of students, I use team mode where Quizlet assigns groups and these groups work together to win. In each students' phone there are options for the answers which force them to work collaboratively. This kind of a competition makes them feel excited and have fun during the lesson. After having this activity, every week, my students ask for it and I prepare them. 

2. What is Good about Quizlet?

    The first advantage is that it is a free tool where you can prepare as many tasks as possible. You just register to the website and it is yours. Also, it doesn't show too many ads, it just has ads on the sides which I think is fair since they also have to make money out of this website.

    Additionally, you can keep your exercises in the website and you can share the links with your colleagues so that they can also use the lesson that you prepared. Besides, Quizlet also has a search part where you can search for activities ready made and modify them by yourselves. Lastly, you can also share this link with your students and when they want to study for the meaning of words and see example sentences, they can just go to your profile, if you make it public, they can see them and study them. 

    What I like the most is this flipping option. That is to say, as I mentioned before, you can see the word on the front then the meaning on the back. It really helps me to get some answers from students before giving away the answer. 

3. Concluding Remarks on Quizlet

    In a nutshell, I can say that Quizlet is one of my favorite online tools for teaching vocabulary. I am glad that I found this website and I can make use of it. I have some ready vocabulary exercises for books: Skillfull and Academic Encounters. Here is my profile on Quizlet:

https://quizlet.com/kadernur284

You can also share yours in the comments to let us collaborate more!