Teaching Vocabulary

TEFL PST OMN 111February, 2014

Learning objectives1. Teachers will list at least six aspects that we need to know about words and explain why each aspect is useful.2. Teachers in groups will demonstrate application of at least one strategy for teaching vocabulary and at least one conventional activity for practicing vocabulary3. Teachers will analyze a student text to determine (a) which vocabulary items in the text to teach (b) when to teach these items during the lesson (c) techniques or activity types they would use to teach the words they selected.

Before We BeginHow will you teach these words to students?

• Wet• Extraterrestrial• Extinguish• Red• Women (vs. woman)• Informer

Audience, did each teacher teach each word the same way? What was different? Why?

Brainstorm in groups

• What are different kinds of things that people know about words?

• How do teachers decide what kind of information is most important to teach about which words?

• How can these teaching decisions have something to do with the characteristics and needs of students?

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO KNOW A WORD?

12 Things We May Need to Know About Words

12 Ways We Can Know A Word

1. Its pronunciation—

--to include its syllable and stress information (IIII-tuh-ly)

2. Its spelling.

3. Its part of speech (noun, verb, article, etc.)

4. Its related forms. (apply, application, applicant, applied)

/Pһo-tһey-Doz/

5. We Also Need to Teach Morphology

That is, the “forms” within words.

• Stems (or roots) and affixes are the major morphological forms

Affixes (prefixes and suffixes) can be:

– Inflectional: provide grammatical meaning; e.g., “ly” is usually an adverb.

– Derivational: provide meaning; e.g., ‘trans” “across”

Knowing A Word Also Means Knowing:

6. Its definitions (note: the different definitions in the dictionary are called “entries”)

7. Its grammatical and semantic restrictions(e.g, depend “on,” not “of” & “cars” can’t “murder”)

8. Its Register and Context: • register: level of formality– “to throw up” informal,

“to vomit,” formal.

• context: in family you might say “to throw up” but when you’re out with friends at the bar you might say “to puke,” and in biology/science you might say “ to regurgitate.”

Knowing A Word Also Means Knowing:

9. Its synonyms and antonyms.

10. Its collocation: associated words (hat, shirt, shoes, pants, socks, etc.)

11. Its connotation (negative or positive—e.g.,

“ignorant” often has a negative connotation) and its denotation-- the opposite of connotation. Denotation is the dictionary meaning of a word.

12. Its translation.

Teaching Vocabulary

Some ways you have been taught vocabulary

•Context •Pictures /Descriptions

•Gestures •Synonyms/antonyms

•Explanation•Exploring semantic fields, which can be constructing “mind-maps” or matching

activities

 

Guessing Words from Context- Exercise

Yesterday I went to see a filmu. There was a new filmu with Brad Pitt that I wanted to see. I arrived about ten minutes

później. I was waiting for my przyjaci so that we could go see the filmu together, but she didn’t come, so I was później. I

bought a pić because I was thirsty and some popcorn because I was hungry. The theater was full and there were only a few

miejsc. I had to szukać a miejsce that was free. It was trudno to understand what was happening because I missed the first ten

minutes of the filmu, but after a while, I started to understand better. I liked it a lot. It was zabawny too – everyone in the

theater was laughing.   

1. What do these words mean?

filmu miejsc

później szukaćprzyjaci miejscepić

trudnozabawny

2. Are they nouns, verbs or adjectives?

3. How did you get information about the meaning and grammar

categories of these words?

4. Why is guessing from context a useful skill?

 

I’m a…

• Ask learners to imagine that they are one of the vocabulary words and describe themselves

• (I’m red. I am good in salads. I am round. I live in the garden. I start with the letter “t”)

• Variation: this could be expanded to ask classmates to guess what the learner is in the form of a question: Are you a tomato?

• Can you think of an example of this from vocabulary from one of your stories?

Sentence Completion/matching

Learners complete sentences about new vocabulary. You can vary the level of difficulty and creativity by using more or fewer blanks.

Tomatoes are __________.Potatoes are used in__________.My family eats __________ in __________.__________ costs __________.__________ is __________.

 Learners match the word with its definition, description or function. 1.Bananas a. grow in a bush 2. Tomato b. is white in the inside 3. Orange c. is round 4. Potato d. grows inside the land

The Magic Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two:

Some Limits on Our Capacity For Processing Information

George Miller (1956) (in Psychological Review 63 (2): 343–355)

Means that to be sure students retain new words, they have to encounter them several times within a reasonable period of time

—ideally in different ways.

Teach a Word’s Sound

•Research suggests that our mental lexicon (a type of dictionary) is arranged according to the sounds of the words.

•This means that it is important to practice pronouncing new words with students. If a student is unclear about how a word is pronounced, it is s/he will be able to “store” it.

Teach Cognates: Friends and False Friends

• Cognates are words that are similar in (two or more) languages (like “important” in English and French).

– Cognates make vocabulary learning easier and maintain student confidence.

• False cognates are words similar in form that have a different meaning in the two languages; e.g., “preservatives” in English means chemicals that preserve a product; in Spanish, it means “condoms.”

• What cognates or false cognates can you think of?

“Notice” Key Words in Lessons NoticingNoticing is when the teacher stops in a lesson

and highlights a word that students may recognize but may not yet know well.

• Noticing makes receptive vocabulary active.

• Noticing is a way of addressing vocabulary in the while teaching a lesson on another subject.

An Approach to Teaching Vocabulary in any Class

(1) Teach 3-5 key words before the lesson (2) Notice 3-5 words during the lesson (3) review 3-5 words while wrapping up the lesson.

Activities

Classroom Vocabulary

Different Forms of the Same Word

ADJECTIVE NOUN VERB ADV

develop

* biologically

behavior

human *exhibit *

Complete the table below with the correct form. If you see an * in a box it means that form does not exist. After you finish, practice pronouncing the different forms with your teacher.

Parts of Speech (2 activities)

1. Label the Parts of Speech of each word in the sentence below:

• Volcanoes that erupt regularly are known as active

volcanoes.

2. Match the words below with their parts of speech:

• Nation Adjective• Carefully Preposition• Listen Verb• Advice Adverb• At Noun

Roots and AffixesROOTS AND AFFIXES • Evolutionary: e = out; vol =turn or develop; tion = state

of; ary = adjective. revolve, involve• Primitive: PRIM = first: primary, primer, • Biology: BIO = life; logy = study of, biography, antibiotic• Prehistoric: PRE = before: prepare, previous, prenatal, • Species: SPEC = unique: special, specific, specify

Match the prefixes with the words to make opposites:

Prefixes dis, il, ir, im, in, mis unVerbs appear, believe, do pack,

qualify, understand

Adjectives comfortable, correct, honest, legal, patientresponsible

Teach Synonyms and Antonyms• Similarities and opposites form conceptual

frameworks to organize word knowledge.

SYNONYMS: Match the word in column A with its synonym in column B: COLUMN A COLUMN B 

Amazing Guide 

Probe Surprising 

Reasoning Demonstrate 

Direct Poke 

Exhibit Thinking

ANTONYMS: Find the word that is the OPPOSITE of each word. 

Similar ≠ ___________________  

Failure ≠ ___________________

 

Minor ≠ ___________________  

Unlikely ≠ __________________

 

Modern ≠___________________

Teach Multiple Meanings of Words• Many words have more than one meaning. The appropriate

meaning often depends on specific contexts where the word appears.

• If you were teaching high beginner students how to carry out an experiment in Science, and a student said, “Teacher, what’s “STEP?” which meanings below would you teach (& how would you teach them?)

stair STEP take a STEP STEP in a process

foot STEPSTEP Motherjust a STEP awaySTEP up production

Teach Collocations

• Complete the Noun Stars with “example words.”

vegetables pastime family

ADJECTIVES NOUNS

mathematical poet

major journal

entire misunderstanding

private breakthrough

prize winning exercises

Sample Collocations that ALWAYS cause HEADACHES for English Language Learners

Have

breakfast a good time

a problem

a headache

Make

dinner the bed

a mess noise

Do

1) Complete Collocations2) Discuss with your partner, what you would do with them and how

you would reinforce the vocabulary once finished!

Take

Some Other Common Ways to Practice Vocabulary

• Listen and repeat (work so students can pronounce intelligibly)

• Fill in the blank

• TPR

• Games

• Use the word (correctly) in a sentence