Rob Waring

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What do learners need to know?

Learners need 7000-8000 word families to read native novels with high vocabulary coverage (98%).

About 2000 General Service word families occur in all types of English. Learners need ‘specialist words’ as well. There are two stages in word learning.

1. The form-meaning relationship (its pronunciation, spelling and meaning)2. The deeper word knowledge its nuances and shades of meanings Its derivations (useful, useless, uselessness, etc.) its collocations and colligations if it’s typically spoken, or written if it’s useful or rare, polite or pejorative the discourse domains the word lives in (e.g. science, music, biology)

What collocations do they need to learn?Verb uses of one word - Idea… “Abandon an idea.” abandon, absorb, accept, adjust to, advocate, amplify, advance,

back, be against, be committed/dedicated/ drawn to, be obsessed with, be struck by, borrow, cherish, clarify, cling to, come out/up with, confirm, conjure up, consider, contemplate, convey, debate, debunk, defend, demonstrate, develop, deny, dismiss, dispel, disprove, distort, drop, eliminate, encourage, endorse, entertain, explode, explore, expound, express, favor, fit, fit in with, follow up, form, formulate, foster, get, get accustomed/used to, get rid of, give up, go along with, grasp, hammer out, have, hit upon, hold, implement, imply, impose – on sb, incorporate, inculcate, instill, jot down, keep to, launch, meet, modify, negate, oppose, pick up, pioneer, plant, play with, popularize, present, promote, propose, put an end to, put forward, put – into practice, raise, refute, reinforce, reject, relish, resist, respond to, revive, ridicule, rule out, spread, squash, stick to, subscribe to, suggest, support, take to, take up, test, tinker with, toy with, turn down, warm to …

What collocations do they need to learn? II

Adjective uses. “An idea is ………...” abstract, absurd, advanced, ambitious, arresting, basic, bizarre, bold,

bright, brilliant, classical, clear, common, commonsense, confused, controversial, convincing, crazy, diabolical, disconcerting, elusive, enlightened, entrenched, exaggerated, extravagant, extreme, false, familiar, fantastic, far-fetched, feasible, feeble, fixed, flexible, foolish, grotesque, hazy, heretical, imaginative, inflated, ingenious, ingrained, innovative, instinctive, intriguing, irresponsible, mad, misconceived, mistaken, monstrous, new-fangled, novel, original, old-fashioned, outdated, out-of-date, outrageous, peculiar, persuasive, preconceived, preposterous, prevalent, provocative, (un)real, (un)realistic, remarkable, revolutionary, ridiculous, risky, sensible, silly, splendid, strange, striking, superficial, untenable, useful, vague, valid, well-defined …

What else do they need to know? IIILexical phrases and chunks of language

How’s things?I’d rather not … If it were up to me, I’d … So, what do you think? We got a quick bite to eat. What’s the matter? What do you mean by that?Well, what do you know? Look who’s just walked in.

Plus THOUSANDS more

What else do they need to know? IVThe grammar systems (e.g. the present perfect tense)

A government committee has been created to …He hasn’t seen her for a while, has he? No, he hasn’t.Why haven’t you been doing your homework?There’s been a big accident in Market Street.Have you ever seen a ghost?

It’s very hard to see the patterns – there are many forms:Statement, negative, yes/no and wh- question forms, Simple or continuousActive or passiveShort answers and questions tagsRegular and irregular - has vs. have walked vs. boughtPresent perfect for ‘announcing news’, PP for ‘experiences’, etc. etc.

The forms of the present perfect tenseI have given.You have given.He/she/it has given.We have given.They have given.Have I given?Have you given?Has he/she/it given?Have we given?Have they given?I haven’t given.You haven’t given.He/she/it haven’t given.We haven’t givenThey haven’t given.What have I given?What have you given?What has he/she/it given?What have we given?What have they given?

I have been given.You have been given.He/she/it has been given.We have been given.They have been given.Have I been given?Have you been given?Has he/she/it been given?Have we been given?Have they been given?I haven’t been given.You haven’t been given.He/she/it hasn’t been given.We haven’t been givenThey haven’t been given.What have I been given?What have you been given?What has he/she/it been given?What have we been given?What have they been given?

I have been giving.You have been giving.He/she/it has been giving.We have been giving.They have been giving.Have I been giving?Have you been giving?Has he/she/it been giving?Have we been giving?Have they been giving?I haven’t been giving.You haven’t been giving.He/she/it hasn’t been giving.We haven’t been givingThey haven’t been giving.Yes, I have. No, I haven’t.Yes, you have.No, you haven’t.Yes, he/she/it has.

No, he/she/it hasn’t.Yes, we have.No, we haven’t.Yes, they have.No, they haven’t……, have I?….., haven’t I?……, have you?……, haven’t you?….., has he/he/it?….., hasn’t he/she/it?….., have we?..…, haven’t we?….., have they?….., haven’t they?

How long will it take to teach them?An average word needs 30-50 meetings for it to be learnt

receptively from reading (more for productive use)Little research has been done into the rate learning of

collocation, colligation or lexical phrases from readingWe know nothing at all about how long it takes to master a

particular grammatical form e.g. a tense

How well are our courses presenting the language students need?Research suggests an average language course:does not systematically recycle the grammatical forms outside

the presentation unit / lessonhas an almost random vocabulary selection without much

regard to frequency or usefulness (mostly based on topic)rarely, if ever, recycles taught words either later in the unit,

the book, or the seriesprovide minimal additional practice in review units or

workbookshas an overwhelming focus on new material in each lesson

The structure of our industry

We break the language up into ‘teachable chunks’ – years, semesters, weeks, lessons, and exercises

The focus is on new. Every unit has something new –• A new vocabulary focus• A new grammar focus• A new pronunciation point• A new a new reading skill• A new function• Etc. etc. etc.

Course books have a LINEAR structure with a constant focus on new

A linear structure to our syllabuses

Each unit has something newLittle focus on the recycling of vocab, grammar and so onThe theory is “We’ve done that, they have learnt it, so we can move

on.” i.e. teaching causes learning

Unit 1

Be verb

Simple adjectives

Unit 2

Simple present

Daily routines

Unit 3

Present continuous

Sporting activities

Unit 4

can

Abilities

Unit 5

….

…..

What happens to things we learn?We forget them over time unless they are recycled and

memories of them strengthenedOur brains are designed to forget most of what we meet - not

to remember it

Time

KnowledgeThe Forgetting Curve

What will naturally happen to the learning?

Unit 1

Be verb

Simple adjectives

Unit 2

Simple present

Daily routines

Unit 3

Present continuous

Sporting activities

Unit 4

can

Abilities

Unit 5

….

…..

What does this all imply?A linear course structure is focused on introducing new words and grammatical

featuresdoes not fight against the forgetting curve by its very design cannot provide enough repetitions of words

and grammar features for long-term acquisition to take placeis not focused on deepening and consolidating older

knowledge because the focus is always on new things

Does this mean course books are bad?This is NOT a criticism of course books.

There’s too much to actually teach.Thousands of words plus their collocations, multiple meaning senses etc.Thousands of lexical phrasesThe grammar systems The pronunciation, reading skills, listening skills etc. etc. etc.

No course book can teach all this.

Course books are designed to introduce new language and give minimal practice with it not to deepen that knowledge.

So what needs to happen?

We have to ensure our curriculums and courses:build in recycling and repetition of words and grammar

structuresgive students chances to see how the grammar and

vocabulary are used together in real discoursegive students chances to deepen and consolidate the language

they learn in their course books (or they forget it)allow students to develop their own ‘sense’ of how the

language worksgive students chances to use language rather than just study it

How do we expose them to massive amounts of language?Massive amounts of easy fluent reading with graded readersMassive amounts of fluent listeningThe focus should be on deepening and consolidating

knowledge of things they learnt in their course books

Course work and Graded Readers work together

Consolidating and deepening language knowledge

GRADED READING (Extensive Reading)

Unit 1

Be verb

Unit 2

Simple present

Unit 3

Present continuous

Unit 4

can

Unit 5

…. Introducing language

What are graded readers?

They are books written for learners of English written at various difficulty levels

Level 1 books have very few words and only the simplest grammar

Level 2 books have slightly harder vocabulary and grammarLevel 3 increases the difficulty … and so onThe students progress through the levels reading books that

mirror what they learnt in their course work

Course work and Graded Readers work together II

Level 1 books Level 2 books Level 3 books ….

Unit 1

Be verb

Simple adjectives

Unit 2

Simple present

Daily routines

Unit 3

Present continuous

Sporting activities

Unit 4

can

Abilities

Unit 5

….

…..

Graded readers

Non-fiction too

Beginner level

Easy vocabularyPresent tenses onlyVery simple plot

High beginner level

Little bit more difficult vocabulary

More difficult grammarHarder plot

High Intermediate

Some difficult vocabulary

More difficult grammar

The aim of graded readingTo recycle important and useful words and grammar time and

time and time again to aid acquisitionTo provide massive fluent reading practiceTo build reading speedTo be enjoyable – so they read moreTo build depth of knowledgeTo consolidate and strengthen partly known language

Reading at the right level Students MUST read at their comfortable reading level so they:can read it quickly can read it fluently (so they can read fast)can read a lot (as they need to meet a lot of language)can read with very high levels of understanding (i.e. something

they can read without a dictionary)can enjoy the reading can get the reading habit which they can keep all their lives

If students read something too difficult:the reading is slow and they can’t read muchthe students can get tired easilyit becomes a form of ‘study’

The missing piece of the puzzleGraded readers:allow students to see how the language in their course

books is actually usedprovide the massive practice course books are not

designed to dorecycle, revise and consolidate the languagegive fluency practice and help build reading speedallow students to build a “sense” of language

How much reading should they do?About a book a week or more.Beginners - A book at week at their ability levelThey can meet unknown words easily, so they don’t need

to read much.Intermediates - A book at week at their ability levelThey don’t meet unknown words all the time, but their

books are thicker, so they are reading more.Advanced – 2 books at week at their ability levelThey rarely meet unknown words, so they have to read

more to meet language they don’t know.

Some objectionsNice idea but I have no time in my course.

-> If you don’t have graded reading where will your students get the massive exposure they need?

-> How else will they get the ‘sense of language’ they need?We don’t have the money for this.

-> Ask your schools to reallocate funds so this reading is done; ask for donations; get some free samples etc.

We have to go through our set curriculum.-> Speak with your course designers to build in graded reading.

Re-allocate resources and re-set class hoursWe have to prepare the students for tests.

-> Research shows students perform better on tests if they have a general sense of language, not a deconstructed ‘bitty’ one.

SummaryCourse books and graded readers are two sides of

the same coin – they help each otherGraded reading should be integrated into our

courses. It should not be an option.Choose books at the right level for your students (so

they can read fluently with high levels of understanding and without a dictionary)

Students need to learn to listen fluently too.

Finally…You can review this presentation by downloading the article from

the following website.www.robwaring.org

More information about Graded Reading (Extensive Reading) at…www.extensivereading.net

Thank you for listening.www.cengage.com/elt