206 Chapter 18 Activities for Recycling Vocabulary Mel→nie Go↓ert, A↓u Dh→↓i Men‘s College, UAE Introduction Words are the building blocks of language learning. When infants connect their first vocabulary word to → concrete o↓ject, it is the ―Eurek→!‖ moment of l→ngu→ge →cquisition. Yet, voc→↓ul→ry seems to have lost its preeminence in the communicative language teaching classroom. Vocabulary le→rning ↓ec→me ―incident→l,‖ → ↓yproduct of comprehensi↓le input, →nd would ―t→ke c→re of itself‖ (Re→d, 2004) →nd →ccording to Ak↓→ri (2012) is usu→lly considered ―→n impediment th→t should be overcome quickly so that students can focus on the main teaching point of the lesson, which is usu→lly gr→mm→r‖ (p.10). Te→chers, →dopting the model in ESL course ↓ooks, te→ch vocabulary as a pre-reading task with perhaps a crossword puzzle or vocabulary gap fill for reinforcement at the end of a reading activity. Unfortunately with this methodology, Al-Masrai →nd Milton‘s (2012) rese→rch indic→tes th→t S→udi students‘ voc→↓ul→ry only incre→ses from 2000- 3000 words upon entry to university to 5000 words nearer graduation. However, research shows that vocabulary must be repeated, or recycled, at least 7 times before it is remembered (Nation, 2001). Vocabulary studies reviewed by Nation (1990 as cited in Sökmen, 1997) provided a range of 5-16 encounters with a word before it is acquired. Yet, most course books repeat less than half of the words in the book more than 2-3 times (Sökmen, 1997). Additionally, modern research in the cognitive domain indicates that new information (i.e. vocabulary in a second language) must be revisited, with longer time lags in between in order for it to move from short-term memory to long-term storage (Sökmen, 1997; Nation, 2001, 2008). For example, it is better to study new words when first introduced for 30-40 minutes, followed by 10-12 minutes the next day, then 10-12 minutes three days later, and so on, subsequently revisiting the words one week later, then two weeks later, and so forth, for a few minutes each time. Vocabulary recycling activities not only aid students in acquiring vocabulary which improves their scores on reading proficiency tests such as the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) and Preliminary English Test (PET) (Co↓↓, 2007), ↓ut the →ctivities m→y →lso incre→se the →mount of students‘ productive voc→↓ul→ry which can lead to higher scores on standardized speaking and writing tests. The activities described in this chapter illustrate effective vocabulary instruction, which includes building a word-rich learning environment to develop word consciousness, helping students develop as independent learners, and modeling good word-learning behaviors (Blachowicz & Fisher, 2010). In →ddition, the →ctivities →ppe→l to different le→rning styles including kinesthetic (or t→ctile, ―haptic‖), visual, and aural (Kinsella, 1995). All of the software and websites used to make these activities are free of charge. Some activities are paper-based and some are computer-based. These activities can also be used to teach collocations and word building using prefixes and suffixes. The vocabulary recycling activities described in this chapter are Word Cards, Concentration, Vocabulary Notebooks, Bingo, Sentence Bingo, Crosswords, Jigsaw Crosswords, Word Grids, Word Searches, Scrambled Letters, Timed Talking Charades, Blockbusters, and Connect Four. The first activity, Word Cards, takes from 30-40 minutes the first time it is introduced and the subsequent activities take 12-15 minutes of class time and can be used as warmers, bridges