It has been well documented that crossword puzzles are an effective language teaching tool. Not to mention that they are enjoyable to complete. This ten unit book is designed to help English language learners, both first and second language and both young people and adults, to expand their vocabularies and, hopefully, to let them have fun doing it!
101 Illustrated Crossword Puzzles uses drawings as a visual stimulus to aid in vocabulary acquisition. This type of crossword puzzle works because a pictorial representation puts the word into context. The drawing shows the student what the word is. Result: the student has a picture in her mind of what the thing is. The ten units in this book cover nine themes.
[spoiler="Table of Contents:"]
The units are:
Unit One: Opposites
Unit Two: Outer Space
Unit Three: Safety
Unit Four: Sea Creatures
Unit Five: Taking A Trip
Unit Six: In The City
Unit Seven: Insects
Unit Eight: Musical Instruments
Unit Nine: Health Care
Unit Ten: Combined[/spoiler]
The tenth unit is a combination of words from the first nine units.
Each of Units One through Nine features thirty arbitrarily chosen vocabulary words. Each unit has ten crossword puzzles. In Units One through Nine the first page of each unit has a list of thirty numbered sentences. Each vocabulary word is used in a sentence. The sentences aim to use the words in an everyday context. The teacher can decide how to use this feature. The numbers for the sentences correspond with a pictorial representation of that word on the following page. The drawings page has the thirty words depicted pictorially. The vocabulary word is written beneath each drawing. And below that is a line for the student to write the word. Practicing spelling is the idea. The drawings page can serve as a handy reference tool when completing the crosswords.
Next comes three ten word puzzles with each vocabulary word used once. The illustrations are given with their position on the puzzle (e.g. D7). The word clues are in a row in random order between two rows of five illustrations each. The students match the picture and its word. If a student has difficulty, she can refer to the drawings page. There are two fifteen word puzzles. Each word is used in one of the two puzzles. A checklist of the words in the puzzle is given. Then there are three twenty word puzzles. Each word is used in two of the three puzzles. Again, a checklist is given. Finally, there are two puzzles of the entire thirty word lesson. No checklist is given for these. These test the students recall not only for what the drawing is, but also how that word is spelled. Unit Ten consists of eleven puzzles of twenty-four words each. The puzzles use a mixture of the words from the first nine units and a checklist is given. Teachers may choose to not use all of the activity sheets in a given unit.
This book can be used with other thematically related materials. There is a complete Answer Key included at the end of each lesson.
