CAN STUDENTS DECIDE WHICH WORDS TO LEARN?

[CMagario]

I think that, especially at elementary levels, it is the job of the teacher to decide which words students need to learn in order to make progress and manage to understand basic conversations. However, students should always be given the chance of deciding, up to a certain extent, the type of words that they need. In short, it is not a one-way decision. Both the teacher and the students have something to say about that. The teacher should provide the "skeleton" of their vocabulary but the students can add new words to that skeleton so that, in the end, they feel that they can cope with the basic vocabulary required for every level (elementary, intermediate, advanced) while, at the same time, they have also succeeded in learning the words they need due to their jobs or hobbies. So, once again, the key to success would be to find a suitable balance between what is essential for the level of the students and what the student feels s/he needs to communicate in his/her everyday life.