Knowing a word, Teaching Vocabulary

The role of vocabulary in ESP teaching and learningVOCABULARY

It involves knowing its

KNOWING A WORD

-PAUL NATION (2001)CRITERIAFrequency: the more frequently a word is used, the sooner it should appearCoverage: words with broader coverage should be taught firstRange: words found in a variety of textsLearnability: words which are similar, easily demonstrated meanings, which are regular.Opportunism: words that are relevant to learners immediate situation.Centre's of interest: lexical sets that will interest learners in a particular group.

STEPSKeep the teaching simple and clear. Relate the present teaching to past knowledge by showing a pattern or analogies.Use both oral and written presentation -write it on the blackboard as well as explaining. Give most attention to words that are already partly known.Dont bring in poorly known related words like near synonyms, opposites, or members of the same lexical set. TEACHING GRAMMAR AND CRITERIA FOR SELECTIONThe role of vocabulary in ESP Teaching and Learning It is wise to direct a vocabulary to more specialized areas when learners have mastered the 2000-3000 words of general usefulness of English. (Nation 2001:187)SUMMARYSpoken and Written Vocabulary- Spoken words like know, think ,like well where as written made up of function words i.e. non content items like pronouns, prepositions etc. Core and non-core Vocabulary- core vocabulary include those words which are more central to the language where as non core include subject-specific vocabulary as far as the whole language is concerned.Discourse structuring vocabulary and Procedural vocabulary- The abstract nouns that have little independent lexical content like assumption, solution, factor belong to the discourse (to summarize) structuring vocabulary where as procedural vocabulary is characteristically used to talk about the other words, paraphrase them, define and organize them.Technical, semi technical and general vocabulary- (TV) that is used in general language and have high frequency.(STV) that has specialized and restricted meanings in certain disciplines.Academic Vocabulary-Word families that occur frequently in the academic texts and is not restricted to a specific discipline.TYPES OF VOCABULARYTeaching and learning strategies a. Contextual Guessing b. Memorizing c. Affixes learning d. Repetition e. Relating with Reality f. Brainstorming Activities

Selection of vocabulary for teaching a. Word Lists at an early stage b. Awareness of criteria c. use of concordances. E.g.:- word families, related meanings.ESP TEACHER AND VOCABULARYAcademic vocabulary & semi technical vocabulary and NOT technical vocabulary.THANK YOU