The Teaching of Vocabulary

8/12/2019 The Teaching of Vocabulary

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Activity 1: Teaching vocabulary: Goals

Vocabulary is not an end in itself. A rich vocabulary makes the skills of listening,

speaking, reading and writing easier to perform. Learners growth in vocabulary

must be accompanied by opportunities to become fluent with vocabulary. Thisfluency can be partly achieved through activities that lead to the establishment

and enrichment of vocabulary knowledge, but the essential element in developingfluency lies in the opportunity for meaningful use of vocabulary in tasks with a

low cognitive load. (ation, !""#, p. viii$

The goals of teaching vocabulary are:

Meet new vocabulary for the first time

Establish previously met vocabulary

Enrich previously met vocabulary

Develop vocabulary strategies

Develop fluency with known vocabulary

Touch and describe

Ask more advanced learners to talk about each feature of the object they are feeling insuch a way that the rest of the class can identify it. This will require the use of descriptiveterms and the language of speculation, for example:

earner !: "feeling the object# Its hard.

earner $: Whats it made of?

earner !: I think its made of plastic.

earner %: What shape is it?

earner !: Its long and rectangular.

Mainly vocabulary and spelling

earner &: Is it a ruler?

earner !: Yes.


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Activity : Approaches to teaching vocabulary

Vocabulary is the knowledge of words and word meanings. As Steven Stahl (200! "uts

it# $Vocabulary knowledge is knowledge% the knowledge of a word not only im"lies a

definition# but also im"lies how that word fits into the world.& Vocabulary knowledge is

not something that can ever be fully mastered% it is something that e'"ands and dee"ensover the course of a lifetime. nstruction in vocabulary involves far more than looking u"

words in a dictionary and using the words in a sentence. Vocabulary is ac%uiredincidentally through indirect e&posure to words and intentionally through e&plicit

instruction in specific words and word'learning strategies.

A. Direct Vocabulary Teaching

1. Direct vocabulary learningis a conscious effort made by the learner to remember newwords. t occurs when teachers do e'ercises and activities in class that focus the learners&

attention on vocabulary# such as guessing meaning from conte't# matching e'ercises#

s"ider grams# vocabulary games# etc. Vocabulary can also be ac)uired through incidental

learning. *uch of a student&s vocabulary will have to be learned in the course of doingthings other than e'"licit vocabulary learning. +e"etition# richness of conte't and

motivation may also add to the efficacy of incidental learning of vocabulary.

!,hile incidental learningis still where most vocabulary ac)uisition takes "lace# thereis room for more direct teaching methodsin the second language classroom# "rovided

such factors are taken into consideration:

-earners need to come acrossbe e'"osed to the words in a variety of conte'ts.

/e"endence on a single vocabulary instruction method will not result in o"timallearning. -earners best remember words when they have used them in different

ways# so variety is essential for vocabulary teaching. +ecycling and reviewing vocabulary is an im"ortant "art of the lesson "lan as

most new words are forgotten if not reinforced.

or long1term retention# no more than 012 new words should be "resented at a

time.

Vocabulary learning is effective when it entails active engagement in learning

tasks.

Vocabulary tasks should be restructured as necessary. t is im"ortant to be certain

that students fully understand what is asked of them in the conte't of

s"eakingreadinglisteningwriting# rather than focusing only on the words to belearned.

3om"uter technology can be used effectively to hel" teach vocabulary.


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T"E TEA#"$%G &' (A)*+A,-

Traditionally# the teaching of vocabulary above elementary levels was mostly incidental#

limited to "resenting new items as they a""eared in reading or sometimes listening te'ts.This indirect teaching of vocabulary assumes that vocabulary e'"ansion will ha""en

through the "ractice of other language skills# which has been "roved not enough to ensurevocabulary e'"ansion.

4owadays it is widely acce"ted that vocabulary teaching should be "art of the syllabus#and taught in a well1"lanned and regular basis. Some authors# led by -ewis (556! argue

that vocabulary should be at the centre of language teaching# because $language consists

of grammaticalised le'is# not le'icalised grammar&. ,e are going to discuss as"ects ofthe $-e'ical a""roach& in 7art 2.

There are several as"ects of le'is that need to be taken into account when teaching

vocabulary. The list below is based on the work of 8airns and +edman (59!:

; oundaries between conceptual meaning: knowing not only what le'is refers to#

but also where the boundaries are that se"arate it from words of related meaning(e.g. cu"# mug# bowl!.

; )olysemy*distinguishing between the various meaning of a single word form with

several but closely related meanings (head: of a "erson# of a "in# of an

organisation!.

; +omonymy*distinguishing between the various meaning of a single word form

which has several meanings which are 4


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; -hunks of language* multi1word verbs# idioms# strong and weak collocations#

le'ical "hrases.

; rammar of vocabulary* learning the rules that enable students to build u"different forms of the word or even different words from that word (e.g. slee"#

sle"t# slee"ing% able# unable% disability!.

; )ronunciation*ability to recognise and re"roduce items in s"eech.

The im"lication of the as"ects >ust mentioned in teaching is that the goals of vocabulary

teaching must be more than sim"ly covering a certain number of words on a word list.,e must use teaching techni)ues that can hel" realise this global conce"t of what it

means to know a le'ical item. And we must also go beyond that# giving learner

o""ortunities to use the items learnt and also hel"ing them to use effective written storagesystems.

!1! MEM&,- A%D .T&,AGE .-.TEM.

?nderstanding how our memory works might hel" us create more effective ways to teach

vocabulary. +esearch in the area# cited by 8airns (59! offers us some insights into this"rocess.

t seems that learning new items involve storing them first in our short1term memory# and

afterwards in long1term memory. ,e do not control this "rocess consciously but there

seems to be some im"ortant clues to consider. irst# retention in short1term memory is noteffective if the number of chunks of information e'ceeds seven. Therefore# this suggests

that in a given class we should not aim at teaching more than this number. @owever# our

long1term memory can hold any amount of information.

+esearch also suggests that our $mental le'icon& is highly organised and efficient# andthat semantic related items are stored together. ,ord fre)uency is another factor that

affects storage# as the most fre)uently used items are easier to retrieve. ,e can use this

information to attem"t to facilitate the learning "rocess# by grou"ing items of vocabularyin semantic fields# such as to"ics (e.g. ty"es of fruit!.


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The techni)ues >ust mentioned can be used to greater advantage if we can diagnose

learning style "references (visual# aural# kinesthetic# tactile! and make students aware of

different memory strategies.

*eaningful tasks however seem to offer the best answer to vocabulary learning# as they

rely on students& e'"eriences and reality to facilitate learning. *ore meaningful tasksalso re)uire learners to analyse and "rocess language more dee"ly# which should hel"

them retain information in long1term memory.

orgetting seems to be an inevitable "rocess# unless learners regularly use items they

have learnt. Therefore# recycling is vital# and ideally it should ha""en one or two days

after the initial in"ut. After that# weekly or monthly tests can check on "reviously taughtitems.

The way students store the items learned can also contribute to their success or failure in

retrieving them when needed. *ost learners sim"ly list the items learnt in chronological

order# indicating meaning with translation. This system is far from hel"ful# as items arede1conte'tualised# encouraging students to over generalise usage of them. t does not

allow for additions and refinements nor indicates "ronunciation.

Teachers can encourage learners to use other methods# using to"ics and categories to

organise a notebook# binder or inde' cards. *eaning should be stored using nglish asmuch as "ossible# and also giving indication for "ronunciation. /iagrams and word trees

can also be used within this to"iccategories organisation. The class as a whole can kee" a

vocabulary bo' with cards# which can be used for revisionrecycling regularly.


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and "ractice in conte'tual guesswork# for e'am"le# the understanding of discourse

markers and identifying the function of the word in the sentence (e.g. verb# ad>ective#

noun!. The latter is also very useful when using dictionaries.

Students should start using - dictionaries as early as "ossible# from ntermediate

u"wards. ,ith ade)uate training# dictionaries are an invaluable tool for learners# givingthem inde"endence from the teacher. As well as understanding meaning# students are

able to check "ronunciation# the grammar of the word (e.g. verb "atterns# verb forms#"lurality# com"aratives# etc.!# different s"elling (American versus =ritish!# style and

register# as well as e'am"les that illustrate usage.

!0! *.$%G +A%G*AGE

Another strategy for advanced learners is to turn their rece"tive vocabulary items into"roductive ones. n order to do that# we need to refine their understanding of the item#

e'"loring boundaries between conce"tual meaning# "olysemy# synonymy# style# register#

"ossible collocations# etc.# so that students are able to use the item accurately.

,e must take into account that a le'ical item is most likely to be learned when a learnerfeels a "ersonal need to know it# or when there is a need to e'"ress something to

accom"lish the learner&s own "ur"oses. Therefore# it means that the decision to

incor"orate a word in ones "roductive vocabulary is entirely "ersonal and variesaccording to each student&s motivation and needs.

-ogically# "roduction will de"end on motivation# and this is what teachers should aim at

"romoting# based on their awareness of students needs and "references. Task1based

learning should hel" teachers to "rovide authentic# meaningful tasks in which students

engage to achieve a concrete out"ut# using a""ro"riate language for the conte't.

!! T"E +E2$#A+ A33,&A#"

,e could not talk about vocabulary teaching nowadays without mentioning -ewis

(556!# whose controversial# thought1"rovoking ideas have been shaking the -T worldsince its "ublication. ,e do not intend to offer a com"lete review of his work# but rather

mention some of his contributions that in our o"inion can be readily used in the

classroom.

@is most im"ortant contribution was to highlight the im"ortance of vocabulary as being

basic to communication. ,e do agree that if learners do not recognise the meaning ofkeywords they will be unable to "artici"ate in the conversation# even if they know the

mor"hology and synta'.


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vocabulary# but often of multi1word "refabricated chunks&(-ewis# 55C!. 3hunks include

collocations# fi'ed and semi1fi'ed e'"ressions and idioms# and according to him# occu"y

a crucial role in facilitating language "roduction# being the key to fluency.

An e'"lanation for native s"eakers& fluency is that vocabulary is not stored only as

individual words# but also as "arts of "hrases and larger chunks# which can be retrievedfrom memory as a whole# reducing "rocessing difficulties.


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suggests that it is better to work intensively with short e'tracts of authentic material# so

they are not too daunting for students and can be e'"lored for collocations.

inally# the -e'ical A""roach and Task1=ased -earning have some common "rinci"les#which have been influencing foreign language teaching. =oth a""roaches regard

intensive# roughly1tuned in"ut as essential for ac)uisition# and maintain that successfulcommunication is more im"ortant than the "roduction of accurate sentences. ,e certainly

agree with these "rinci"les and have tried to use them in our class.

0! ,AT$&%A+E &' T"E +E..&%

,e believe that the -e'ical A""roach has much to offer in the area of vocabulary

teaching# and therefore we have tried to "lan a lesson that is based on its main conce"ts#

s"ecially e'"loring the use of collocations.

0!1 #"&$#E &' MATE,$A+

As both the Task1based and the -e'ical a""roach suggest# we wanted to use authentic

material to e'"ose our students to rich# conte'tualised# naturally1occurring language.

or the to"ic of holidays we chose a big number of holiday brochures (about twenty five!

and read them through# trying to notice recurrent "atterns of le'is. 3onfirming what @ill(555! affirmed# this analysis showed us a large number of collocations# s"ecially

ad/ective 0 noun ones# and that some were e'tremely common# such as golden sandy

beaches, rolling countryside and others.

,e did not want to overload students with much reading# which would detract them from

the main task of working with vocabulary# and therefore we selected twenty1one short yetmeaningful e'tracts in which common collocations a""eared.

0!! %&T$#$%G #&++AT$&%. A%D DEA+$%G /$T" MEA%$%G

Although the e'tracts are authentic# we do not think students will have many "roblems inunderstanding most of the collocations# as they contain vocabulary which they "robably

know rece"tively. This again should confirm the idea that students know individual

words but lack collocational com"etence.

,e are going to work as a whole class in ste" to make students aware of the

collocations we will be focusing on# and ho"efully this will enable students to find othercollocations. +egular awareness raising activities like this should hel" students im"rove

their collocational com"etence# and even fluency# as discussed in "art 2.E.

or the few words that we "redict students will not fully understand meaning of# or arenot sure how they are "ronounced# we are going to ask them to look these u" in

monolingual dictionaries. As we said in "art 2.2.# dictionaries are a vital tool for

Advanced learners# and so is conte'tual guesswork# which we are going to encourage


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before they look the words u". ,e are also going to ask students to notice e'am"les

given in the dictionary# observing and recording other "ossible collocations of the words#

as suggested by -ewis.

,e have also taken into account the im"ortance of recording the vocabulary observed

during the class. The list that students will "roduce in ste" 5# to "re"are for the final task#is also a way of recording vocabulary in an organised# "ersonalised and meaningful way#

as suggested by -ewis in "art 2.E.

0!0! G,&*3 /&,4

,orking in grou"s hel" fostering learning inde"endence# and s"ecially in vocabulary

work# learners can e'change knowledge# asking others to e'"lain unknown items.

,e also ho"e that grou" work will be a motivating factor# as students talk about "laces

they have been on holiday to# trying to remember details together# e'changing

im"ressions and even good memoriesF

0!! #"&$#E &' TA.4

As we said earlier in "art 2.6# we find it vital that students are given o""ortunities to use

the language they are learning in a realistic conte't. Therefore# we have devised the finaltask to meet this "rinci"le.

,riting a leaflet is a "ossible task in the 3ambridge 3ertificate of Advanced nglish#

which these students are "re"aring for. t is also a relevant# real life task that we e'"ect

will interest students. always like to mention that the standard of leaflets written in

nglish in =raDil is very "oor# and that they could do a much better >ob.

,e e'"ect that this writing should also enable students to use the vocabulary they have

studied in a realistic conte't# and that they could be motivated to learn even more

vocabulary they feel they need to accom"lish the task.

The com"letion of the final task for homework will also hel" to reinforce and revise the

vocabulary learnt# giving students a better chance to store the items in their long1term

memory# as we mentioned in "art 2..

,e are going to e'"lain what the final task will be right after ste" 6# in which they should

notice what kind of te't the e'tracts come from. =y doing this we want to motivatestudents to do the enabling tasks# mainly to show them the need to learn new vocabulary.

As this is a borrowed grou"# it might be the case the students are not yet familiar with the

leaflet format# in which case more in"ut would be necessary before the conclusion of thefinal task.


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f students are really interested in the task# this could be transformed into a "ro>ect#

involving research and the "roduction of a leaflet or web "age in the multi1media centre.

How Should Vocabulary Be Taught?

4ew words are learned directly and indirectly (4ational +eading 7anel 2000!. /irectteaching of key words can be worthwhile# but research tells us that children can only

learn eight to ten new words each lesson through direct instruction (Stahl and airbanks

59! because learning re)uires re"etition and multi"le e'"osures. Students will re)uire

fre)uent o""ortunities to use new words in oral and "rint conte'ts in order to learn themon a dee" level (=lachowicD and isher 2002!.

Students should also study the structural and semantic nature of words. They should use

the surrounding conte't andor word "arts ("refi'es# suffi'es# bases! to unlock meaning.-earning key word "arts will enable students to master new words that are semantically

connected.

n other words# looking words u" in a dictionary and learning definitions are not enough

to ensure word learning. @owever# dictionaries and other reference works can add interestto a vocabulary "rogram. *ost students learn word analysis strategies ("honics# conte't!

in the "rimary grades. They also begin to learn about reference tools. or e'am"le# they

may know how to use a dictionary# but they may not know the enormous variety ofelectronic and "rint dictionaries now available. They may know the conce"ts of synonym

and antonym# but they may not know how to use a thesaurus. (Some of the electronic

ones available are really fun to useF! '"licit "ractice with all these strategies for

unlocking word meanings will hel" students learn to use them automatically. So avocabulary "rogram should focus on reinforcing and e'"anding the strategies students

have already learned. *oreover# teachers will be encouraging students to become wordsleuths# a habit that they may well carry with them throughout (and beyond! their schoolyears.

*ost vocabulary is learned indirectly or s"ontaneously through discussion# reading# or

listening. So another im"ortant "rinci"le of vocabulary instruction is to read aloud to

students. 3hoose books with wonderful words and "owerful language. Share your ownfavorites. ncourage students to do so a well. f students will be tackling a new or

difficult conce"t in the content areas# begin by reading them some "icture books that

address the to"ic. n addition to their many other benefits# read1alouds hel" increasechildren&s oral vocabulary# which is an im"ortant ste""ing stone to reading

com"rehension.


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$ spy

Language: 'ocabulary for objects in the room

Procedure

1 (egin by choosing an object to refer to in the classroom and then say, I spy with my

little eye something beginning with ... "the initial letter of theword for the object

you have chosen#. )xplain, if necessary, that I spy means I can see.

2 *nvite the learners to try to guess what it is.

Teacher: I spy with my little eye something beginning with B.

earner !: Book?

Teacher: o.

earner $: Board?

Teacher: Yes.

3 The winner takes over your role.

earner $: I spy with my little eye something beginning with !

+ou could widen the scope of this game by asking learners to imagine that they are

somewhere else, for example, Imagine that we are in a supermarket.

I spy with my little eye something beginning with ...

.ilent speaking

Language :Any area of vocabulary, focussing specifically on pronunciation of limited setsof words, for example, colours, numbers, animals, minimal pairs.

Preparation hoose a topic you would like the learners to practise.

Procedure

1 (rainstorm on to the board words related to the topic you have chosen.

2 -elect one of the words and speak it silently to the class, moving your mouth as ifspeaking it, but not making any sound.


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3 Ask the class to identify the word.

4 ave the learners take turns doing the same thing with a partner.

.tories in ten words

Language: /sing and recognising key words from any story or topic

This may be objective when everybody agrees, or subjective when a personal explanationis necessary. *t can be left as a vocabulary activity or lead to discussion.

Preparation hoose a well0known story, e.g. "ittle #ed #iding $ood.

Procedure

1 Ask the learners to guess the name of a familiar story by listing key words and phrasesfor them. 1or example:

Teacher: I am going to tell you a story. %ell me what the story is.

&irl' mother' grandmother' basket' forest' wolf.

earner !: "ittle #ed #iding $ood.

2 Ask learners to repeat this activity in pairs. 2ne learner lists five to ten key words froma familiar story, and the other identifies the story. Then they switch roles.

Mainly vocabulary and spelling

3e0telling a story, using key words, is a good way of building confidence. The learnersfeel they have achieved something by identifiably representing an extended text. As abasic technique, in the earlier years, the volunteering of single words naturally leads tothe volunteering of longer phrases and eventually of complete sentences.

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The Teaching of Vocabulary