Vocabulary-Chapter 1 (CHRAA) PDF

Author: Richard Frost, British Council Introduction What a student may need to know about an item Ways to present vocabulary Alternative ways of teaching vocabulary Other things to consider Introduction With hundreds of thousands of words in the English lan...

Author: Richard Frost, British Council Introduction What a student may need to know about an item Ways to present vocabulary Alternative ways of teaching vocabulary Other things to consider Introduction With hundreds of thousands of words in the English language, teaching vocabulary can seem like a very daunting prospect. Remember though that the average native speaker uses around only five thousand words in everyday speech. Moreover, your students won't need to produce every word they learn, some they will just need to recognize. Selecting what to teach, based on frequency and usefulness to the needs of your particular students is therefore essential. Once you have chosen what to teach, the next important steps are to consider what students need to know about the items, and how you can teach them. What a student may need to know about an item What it means It is vital to get across the meaning of the item clearly and to ensure that your students have understood correctly with checking questions. The form Students need to know if it is a verb / a noun / an adjective etc to be able to use it effectively. How it is pronounced This can be particularly problematic for learners of English because there is often no clear relation between how a word is written and how it is pronounced. It is very important to use the phonemic script in such cases so the sts have a clear written record of the pronunciation. Don't forget also to drill words that you think will cause pronunciation problems for your students and highlight the word stresses. How it is spelt This is always difficult in English for the reason mentioned above. Remember to clarify the pronunciation before showing the written form. If it follows any unpredictable grammatical patterns For example, man-men / information (uncountable) and if the word is followed by a particular preposition (e.g. depend on) The connotations that the item may have Bachelor is a neutral/positive word whereas spinster conjures a more negative image. The situations when the word is or is not used Is it formal/neutral/informal? For example, spectacles/glasses/specs. Is it used mainly in speech or in writing? To sum up is usually written whereas mind you is spoken. Is it outdated? Wireless instead of radio. How the word is related to others For example, synonyms, antonyms, lexical sets. Collocation or the way that words occur together You describe things 'in great detail' not 'in big detail' and to ask a question you 'raise your hand' you don't 'lift your hand'. It is important to highlight this to students to prevent mistakes in usage later. What the affixes (the prefixes and suffixes) may indicate about the meaning For example, substandard sub meaning under. This is particularly useful at a higher level. Which of these areas you choose to highlight will depend on the item you are teaching and the level of your students. Now it's time to think about how we can get the meaning across. Ways to present vocabulary There are lots of ways of getting across the meaning of a lexical item. Illustration This is very useful for more concrete words (dog, rain, tall) and for visual learners. It has its limits though, not all items can be drawn. Mime This lends itself particularly well to action verbs and it can be fun and memorable. Synonyms/Antonyms/Gradable items Using the words a student already knows can be effective for getting meaning across. Definition Make sure that it is clear (maybe check in a learner dictionary before the lesson if you are not confident). Remember to ask questions to check they have understood properly. Translation If you know the students' L1, then it is fast and efficient. Remember that not every word has a direct translation. Context Think of a clear context when the word is used and either describe it to the students or give them example sentences to clarify meaning further. Again which you choose will depend on the item you are presenting. Some are more suitable for particular words. Often a combination of techniques can be both helpful and memorable Alternative ways of teaching vocabulary Give your students a few items of vocabulary and tell them to find the meaning, pronunciation and write an example sentence with the word in. They can then teach each other in groups. Prepare worksheets and ask your students to match words to definitions. Ask students to classify a group of words into different categories. For example, a list of transport words into air/sea/land. Ask students to find new vocabulary from reading homework and teach the other students in the class. Other things to consider Review the vocabulary you teach through a game or activity and encourage your students to do the same at home Encourage autonomy in your learners. Tell them to read, watch films, listen to songs etc and note the useful words Have a section of your board for vocabulary items that come up as you are teaching. Use different colours for the word / the phonemics / the prepositions / the part of speech It is a good idea to teach/learn words with associated meanings together Encourage your students to purchase a good dictionary and use class time to highlight the benefits of one Teach your students the grammatical names for the parts of speech and the phonemic script Always keep a good dictionary by your side in case a student asks about a word you don't know If you don't and have never heard of the word, tell the student you will check and get back to them. Do get back to them Give extra examples sentences to the students if they are unsure and encourage them to write the word in an example sentence (maybe for homework)  Teaching Vocabulary: Two Dozen Tips & Techniques Handout from a presentation at TESOL 1995 (Chicago) Joseph Pettigrew [email protected] Center for English Language & Orientation Programs http://people.bu.edu Boston University http://joepettigrew.pbwiki.com 890 Commonwealth Avenue Boston, Massachusetts 02215 Permission is freely given for personal use by any teacher. Permission for use on an institutional level is also given provided that the author’s name and university affiliation remain with the materials. I. Oldies but goodies 1. Matching synonyms 2. Matching opposites 3. Fill in the blank sentences II. Variations on the above 1. Choose all the possible answers We ate lunch in the _____. cafeteria restaurant snack snack bar salad bar diner 2. Where would you find... ? an MD _____ a) in the British or Canadian Parliament a Ph.D. _____ b) on a ruler an MP _____ c) on a engine in. _____ d) in a hospital hp _____ e) in a university 3. Compete the phrases to achieve ____ a) a secret to reveal ____ b) an idea to grasp ____ c) a goal 4. Correct the mistakes He felt exhausted after a long nap. E.g., refreshed for exhausted or running to school for a long nap 5. Label a picture monitor keyboard mouse screen Page 1 of 8 „ Teaching Vocabulary: Two Dozen Tips & Techniques „ © 1995 J. Pettigrew 6. Draw a picture (Works for a limited number of words) Draw a target. Draw a bow and arrow and label each one. 7. Cross out the word that doesn’t belong with the others in the group. uncle father aunt brother EST pm Ph.D. BC meadow river yard field 8. Categories - You give the example; students give the category. Or vice versa. Examples: gun, knife, club: weapon Category: weapon: gun, knife, club 9. Complete the sentences I was exhausted after ___________________________________ III. Distinguishing shades of meaning & near synonyms 1. Analogies - Good even at low levels This exercise allows those with limited English to do something on a more sophisticated level than they are usually able to do. easy : hard :: cold : hot warp : wood :: peel : paint skyscraper : city :: tree : forest shatter : glass :: crumble : stone 2. Choose the two possible answers that can complete each sentence. Semantic: She longed for... (a) her freedom. (b) her lover who was far away. (c) some ketchup for her French fries. (only a joke; not serous enough) Grammatical: He pondered... (a) his future. (b) that he didn’t know what to do. (only followed by a noun, not a clause) (c) the meaning of life. Good source for incorrect answers: student errors Page 2 of 8 „ Teaching Vocabulary: Two Dozen Tips & Techniques „ © 1995 J. Pettigrew 3. Semantic categories - e.g., break, damage He dented the... car’s bumper / tree branch / glass of water She splintered the... can / board / mirror He shattered the... mirror / water / curtains She shredded the... can / tree branch / curtains 4. Arrange the words on a scale (most to least, largest to smallest, etc.) hot > warm > lukewarm > cool > cold despise > hate > dislike This is nice to do when possible, but it’s not possible all that often. New words are usually presented and defined with one or two known words. Focus on how the new word differs from the one they already know. For example: 5. Which word in each pair is stronger, more forceful, or more intense? ___ to surprise ___ to boil ___ to toss ___ to hurl ___ to astound ___ to simmer ___ to throw ___ to throw 6. Which word in each pair is slang? _____ a kid _____ disgusting _____ to fail _____ a child _____ gross _____ to flunk 7. Which word would be more polite when talking about a person? or Which word has a more positive connotation? _____ thin _____ fat _____ frugal _____ skinny _____ overweight _____ miserly 8. Complete the definitions - How are these actions performed? thrust = to push ____________________ (forcefully, hard) shatter = to break ____________________ (into many pieces) tap = to hit _____________________ (lightly, softly) Page 3 of 8 „ Teaching Vocabulary: Two Dozen Tips & Techniques „ © 1995 J. Pettigrew IV. Things to do with the vocabulary in a reading passage 1. Guessing word meaning from context - See suggestions in Section V. But make sure it is really possible to guess the meaning from context. A lot of textbooks give students context exercises using unclear or ambiguous examples. This just convinces them that it’s not really possible to do. If you have a reading with a lot of vocabulary words whose meanings you cannot reasonably expect students to get from context, try some of these techniques. 2. Give students the definitions; let them find the words. e.g., find a word in paragraph 5 that means angry. A good way to deal with a difficult article without simply giving students the vocabulary. This also teaches them to focus on context and can be a good complement to work on guessing meaning (section V below). 3. Teach students when not to look up a word. o Can you get a general sense of the word? e.g., a person? a feeling? a job? something good/bad? o Find all the words on a page that refer to movement (or speaking). o Do you really need to know exactly what each word means to understand the action of the story? How much can you understand before you use a dictionary? o Take a magic marker and block out all the words you don’t know. Can you still tell what the passage is about? Follow-up/reinforcement 4. Parts of speech With a corpus of words you’ve already studied, give sentences that require a different part of speech. (Dictionary use) 5. Different meanings of familiar vocabulary e.g., toll [while driving on the highway] There’s a toll bridge ahead. Do you have any quarters? The highway death toll has declined sharply since police began to enforce the drunk driving laws more aggressively. The bell in the old church tower tolled four o’clock. Page 4 of 8 „ Teaching Vocabulary: Two Dozen Tips & Techniques „ © 1995 J. Pettigrew V. Teaching students how to guess word meaning from context Types of context clues: 1. Cause & effect - Label the sentence C & E; then make a guess. Because we lingered too long at the restaurant, we missed the beginning of the movie. The door was ajar, so the dog got out of the house. 2. Opposite/contrast - Underline the two words or phrases in contrast to one another, then make a guess. Even though I studied for hours, I flunked the test. My last apartment was really small, but my new place is quite spacious. 3. General sense - Focus on SVO, actor & recipient of action. What type of word is it? If it is a noun: a person, place, thing, abstract idea If it is a verb: an action (e.g., movement?), or feeling/emotion, etc. If it is an adjective: what is it describing? good or bad? size? color? shape? emotion? Each summer thousands of tourists flock to the beaches of Cape Cod. The father tossed the ball to his little boy. 4. Synonyms or paraphrases - Found elsewhere in the sentence or paragraph Samuel was deaf, but he didn’t let his handicap get in the way of his success. Sally’s flower garden included dozens of marigolds, which she tended with great care. 5. Examples - if you know the example, you can often figure out the category; if you know the category, you can get a general idea of what the example is. The baboon, like other apes, is a very social animal. 6. Recognizing definitions - Common in college textbooks, newspaper & magazine articles Many children of normal intelligence have great difficulty learning how to read, write, or work with numbers. Often thought of as “underachievers,” such children are said to have a learning disability, a disorder that interferes in some way with school achievement. [from Ten Steps to Improving College Reading Skills] Page 5 of 8 „ Teaching Vocabulary: Two Dozen Tips & Techniques „ © 1995 J. Pettigrew VI. Miscellaneous 1. Word sheets A simple but effective way to review vocabulary from a given unit is to post a sheet of paper with the words under study and talk about them. You can practice pronunciation, conduct oral mini- quizzes, answer students’ questions, etc. Do this as a warm-up for two or three minutes each day. For example: o Which words have +/– connotations? o I’ll give you a word; tell me what o Which words refer to people? the opposite is in the list. o Which words are verbs? o What’s a more polite way of saying X? o What’s the opposite of X? o X is a verb. What’s the noun form? 2. Look for words that mean... When using a magazine or newspaper in the class, you can have students look for words in a certain category while they’re doing other reading and scanning activities. One issue of Time Magazine yielded the following: words for go up: soar, rise, raise, increase, push up words for go down: fall, plummet, sink, decrease Other categories of words that might work: words that describe movement, travel words related to crime names of government positions or occupations (president, mayor, etc.) In a work of fiction or a profile of a famous person: adjectives that describe the main characters, both what they look like and how they act VII. Fun & games 1. Act out/pantomime (Charades) Give students cards with instructions like the examples below. Have them perform the actions without speaking. The other students try to guess the word or expression that the student is pantomiming. Open the door fearfully. Walk across the room cautiously. Page 6 of 8 „ Teaching Vocabulary: Two Dozen Tips & Techniques „ © 1995 J. Pettigrew 2. Crossword Puzzles (a number of software programs exist that allow you to create your own) The clues can be synonyms, antonyms, complete the sentences. Helps focus on spelling as well as meaning. 3. Categories Game ($25,000 Pyramid) Divide the class into teams. One person from a team sits in front of the class. The rest of the team members are given a card with a category, For example: Things that are red. The team members take turns giving examples of the category until the person in the “hot seat” guesses it or all the team members have given a clue. If the person in front cannot guess, the other team can confer and try to guess. NOTE: The clues must be examples, not definitions. In the above example, ketchup, blood, and a stop sign are all acceptable clues. Color is not. Examples of categories: Things that are... yellow, expensive, fragile, made of glass, found on a farm American authors, state capitals, things in a woman’s purse, winter clothing things that are sold in bottles, places where you have to stand in line, people who wear uniforms 4. Password Divide the class into two teams. One person from each team sits in a chair in front of the class. Those two people receive a card with a vocabulary word. The first person gives a one-word clue to his/her team. If no one from the team can guess, the second person gives a clue to his/her team. This alternates back and forth until someone from one of the teams guesses the word, or until a specified number of clues has been given. 5. Drawing pictures (Win, Lose or Draw) This works well if you have an empty classroom nearby. Divide the class into two groups. Give each one a list of vocabulary words (idiomatic expressions also work well for this). The students draw pictures—but no words—on the board so that the students in the other group can guess the words or expressions they’re trying to represent. This is a fun way to review some vocabulary and break up the class routine. A note on keeping score You can keep score in most of these games, but I’ve found things actually go more smoothly when you don’t. No one disputes points, and students don’t seem to mind that there’s no clear “winner” or “loser.” Occasionally, a student will ask why I’m not keeping track of who won and lost. I usually tell him (it’s never a ‘her’) that we’re just learning how the game is played now, so I’m not going to bother this time. I never bother keeping score any subsequent times, either, but I’ve never been asked about it a second time. Page 7 of 8 „ Teaching Vocabulary: Two Dozen Tips & Techniques „ © 1995 J. Pettigrew VIII. Miscellaneous examples 1. A follow-up to a radio interview of a psychologist who discussed money and people’s attitudes towards it. Money Talks Below are some words used to describe people and their attitudes towards money. Working with another student, put them into the proper category. a miser an overspender generous cheap a cheapskate giving tight a tightwad thrifty frugal a spendthrift stingy spends money saves money positive generous connotation negative a miser connotation 2. A follow-up to an article on health Match these medical terms with the parts of the body they involve. _____ 1) to clot _____ 2) asthma _____ 3) a stroke a) brain _____ 4) hemorrhaging b) lungs _____ 5) a migraine c) blood _____ 6) leukemia _____ 7) respiration Page 8 of 8 „ Teaching Vocabulary: Two Dozen Tips & Techniques „ © 1995 J. Pettigrew 10 Vocabulary Overview This chapter includes the following key issues: What is the nature of vocabulary knowledge? Dimensions of knowing a word. What are the main targets for vocabulary learning? Core vocabulary. Academic vocabulary. Technical vocabulary. How can vocabulary be learned effectively? The gradual nature of vocabulary acquisition. Direct or indirect vocabulary learning. The role of memory. The role of learning strategies. What are the principles for vocabulary instruction? Planning vocabulary teaching. Integrating vocabulary teaching into the lesson. How can vocabulary be assessed? 296  Chapter 10 Vocabulary 10.1 Introduction Words and grammar are often thought of as the building blocks of language proficiency. A learner with a large vocabulary is well equipped to develop skills in reading, writing, listening and speaking. And since vocabulary (or lexis as it is referred to in applied linguistics) plays a role in all of the four skills, every English lesson is, at least in part, a vocabulary lesson. The learning of vocabulary often appears to be a daunting task for learners, since all languages contain large numbers of words. Many English dictionaries, for example, list over 100,000 words. However, learners often have restricted needs for vocabulary learning. Vocabulary development in a second language involves developing a core vocabulary which is common to many different domains, genres and text types, as well as building up more specialized vocabulary related to the learner’s own interests and needs, whether these are academic, occupational or social. Learning vocabulary is an incremental process that involves frequent encounters with words and their uses over time. The task learners and teachers face is to answer the following questions: How many words do students need to know, and how can words best be taught and, more importantly, remembered? And to what extent is the learning of vocabulary the teacher or the learner’s responsibility? This chapter explores these and other issues in the domain of vocabulary learning and teaching. Goals for vocabulary teaching Vocabulary does not normally constitute the focus of an entire language course. It is a component of every course, but the emphasis it receives will vary according to which skills the course addresses, the level of the course and the learner’s background. Learners with romance-language backgrounds will find that they already ‘know’ many words in English, since English contains thousands of words of French or Latin origin. However, students with Chinese or Russian as a first language have no such advantage. And since every language contains more words than anyone could master in a lifetime, the goals of vocabulary instruction are not to ‘teach’ vocabulary, but rather to provide opportunities for learners to improve their knowledge and use of vocabulary related to their specific needs. This means that the teacher’s role is to identify learners’ vocabulary knowledge and vocabulary needs; to select materials that can be used as a vocabulary-learning resource; to design activities within a course that focus on vocabulary development and retention of words that have been encountered; and to help learners develop strategies for managing their own vocabulary learning. In order to achieve these goals, it is necessary to understand the nature of vocabulary and vocabulary learning and to consider the different instructional options that can be used to facilitate second language vocabulary development. 10.2 The nature of vocabulary knowledge There are many aspects to knowing a word, as is illustrated in Nation’s description of dimensions of word knowledge (Nation, 2001): 297 Part 3 Language and the four skills Form Spoken R What does the word sound like? P How is the word pronounced? Written R What does the word sound like? P How is the word written and spelled? Word parts R What parts are recognizable in this word? P What word parts are needed to express this meaning? Meaning Form and meaning R What meaning does this word form signal? P What word form can be used to express this meaning? Concepts and referents R What is included in the concept? P What items can the concept refer to? Associations R What other words does this make us think of? P What other words could we use, instead of this one? Use Grammatical functions R In what patterns does the word occur? P In what patterns must we use this word? Collocations R What words or types of words occur with this one? P What types of words must we use with this one? Constraints on use R Where, when and how often would we expect to meet this word? P Where, when and how often can we use this word? R = receptive knowledge P = productive knowledge We generally think of words as single lexical items, although words often occur in multi- word groups, which are discussed below. And research using corpus analysis has revealed a great deal about the kinds of word groupings that occur in natural language use and how words are used in both spoken and written English. O’Keeffe et al. comment (2007: 60): And what corpora reveal is that much of our linguistic output consists of repeated multi-word units, rather than single words. Language is available for use in ready-made chunks to a far greater extent than could ever be accommodated by a theory of language which rested upon the primacy of syntax. O’Keeffe et al. (ibid.: 65–7) give examples of the most frequent two- to five-word chunks in a five-million word corpus, which include: 298  Chapter 10 Vocabulary Two-word chunks: I mean, sort of, and then, do you, if you, don’t know. Three-word chunks: I don’t know, do you think, you know what, but I mean. Four-word chunks: At the end of, I don’t know if, or something like that. Five-word chunks: You know what I mean, all the rest of it, and all that sort of. ? Do you include multi-word units like these in your teaching? What resources are useful for introducing learners to these kinds of expressions? Dimensions of knowing a word Word relations A.I The meaning of a word depends not only on its core meaning but also on its relationship to other words. For example, start is linked to finish (an antonym), to begin and commence (synonyms) and to other words having the same core or root: restart, starter, starting. Some words exist in a hierarchical relationship to other words. Seat, for example, refers to a category of words that includes chair, bench, stool and so on. Learning words, therefore, involves learning a network of relations among words, and these are important in teaching and learning vocabulary. It is easier to learn words if they are presented in connected groups, rather than as a list of unrelated items. Multiple meanings A.I Many words have multiple meanings, and the more meanings a word has, the more likely a learner is to encounter the word. A learner may first learn hold, in the sense of gripping something in the hand, and later encounter it in many other uses, such as hold on, hold up, hold an idea, hold a position or hold a meeting. The first meaning of hold above can be regarded as its ‘core’ meaning and often would be the meaning taught first, although it might be possible to learn a fixed expression, such as hold on – said, for example, on the telephone – without knowing the core meaning. Other less central meanings generally would be acquired later. Vocabulary learning is not simply about learning new words, but also about learning new uses of previously encountered words. Register Register refers to the kind of vocabulary that normally occurs in a particular kind of discourse (e.g. teacher talk, children’s talk, men’s talk), in a particular subject area (legal talk, business talk, medical talk) or in a particular social situation (public talk, private talk), in a particular mode of discourse (spoken language vs. written language) or even in a particular location (e.g. the capital compared to a regional area). Some words have very general usage (e.g. laugh), compared to others that are found in particular registers (e.g. chuckle, giggle, guffaw); some are used in more formal than informal contexts 299 Part 3 Language and the four skills (e.g. boss, kid vs. employer, child); and some may be more typical of everyday, as opposed to literary, usage (e.g. face vs. visage). A doctor talking to an adult patient might speak of acute abdominal pain, but to a child, the same condition might be referred to as a tummy ache. I was once on a panel interviewing applicants for a university teaching position. One applicant on entering the room greeted the panel with ‘Hi everyone’. Her choice of hi as opposed to the more formal good afternoon nearly cost her the position she was applying for. Collocations The term collocations refers to restrictions on how words can be used together, such as which prepositions are used with particular verbs or which verbs and nouns are used together. Knowledge of collocations is vital for effective language use, and a sentence that is grammatically correct will look or sound ‘awkward’ if collocational preferences are not used. For example, we can say blond hair, but not blond car; lean meat, but not slim meat; perform a play, but not perform a meeting. We say bitterly disappointed, rather than sourly disappointed. Many common verbs collocate with particular nouns. We do our hair, make our bed, do the dishes and make a noise. Things turn or go grey, brown or white. But people go mad, rather than turn mad. Similarly we catch a cold, we take a photo, we have a meeting, we take a phone call, we make progress, we lose track of something and so on. Vocabulary development, therefore, involves expanding knowledge of the collocational patterns that known words can enter into. The most common verbs in English collocate with particular nouns, and the permitted combinations that occur are unpredictable, creating an important aspect of vocabulary learning. O’Keeffe et al. (2007: 53) comment: One may conclude that collocations, along with semantically transparent and opaque idiomatic chunks, form the main component of the multi-word lexicon and that the multi-word lexicon is at the heart of advanced-level lexical knowledge, given that the challenge, at this level, is as much to do with grappling with observing recurrent collocations and chunks (which will most often consist of words already known individually), as it is with simply pushing for a (never-ending) linear increase in the vocabulary size based on single words never seen before. Multi-word expressions Much use of language involves the use of words in multi-word expressions. These are items made up of two or more words, and whose meaning can often not be understood from knowing the meanings of the individual words in the expression, making them particularly problematic for second language learners. For example, knowing hold does not help in understanding hold up, and knowing the meaning of face does not necessarily mean the learner will understand the following idiomatic expressions: let’s face it, on the face of it, keep a straight face, face up to or fall flat on one’s face. Multi-word expressions in English include idioms, such as those above; phrasal verbs, such as turn off the light, take out the garbage; phrasal prepositional verbs, such as put up with, look forward to; as well as fixed expressions made of as many as five words, such as as far as I know or in a manner of speaking. 300  Chapter 10 Vocabulary A marked feature of conversational discourse is also the use of a subset of the multi-word units – conversational routines – which often have specific functions in conversation, and which give conversational discourse the quality of naturalness (Nattinger and DeCarrico, 1992). These perform a variety of functions in spoken English, and the teaching of these and other multi-word units is a feature of some recent English courses, such as the Touchstone series (McCarthy et al., 2005). Hence, when a learner uses English, in order for his or her usage to sound natural, utterances need to be expressed in the way they are conventionally said in English, and this is something that it is often not possible to predict. For example, why do we say, when we meet someone for the first time, ‘Nice to meet you’ and not ‘To meet you is nice’? Both have the same meaning, but the former is said and not the latter. Our linguistic, or grammatical, competence provides the basis for creating many different ways of saying things; however, only a small subset of possible utterances is ever actually said. Nation (2001: 343) recommends the use of activities, such as the one below, to help learners memorize multi-word units, particularly with low-level learners: 1 Write each chunk on a small card, with its translation on the other side so that there has to be active retrieval of its form or meaning. 2 Repeat the chunk aloud, while memorizing it. 3 Space the repetitions so that there is an increasingly greater interval between learning sessions. 4 Use mnemonic tricks like the keyword technique, putting the chunk into a sentence, visualizing examples of the meaning of the chunk, and analyzing its parts. This increases the quality of the mental processing and helps learning. 5 Don’t learn chunks with similar words or meanings together. They will interfere with each other. 6 Keep changing the order of the word cards to avoid serial learning. ? Can you think of other ways of helping learners remember multi-word units? Grammatical properties of words Although grammar and vocabulary are often presented separately, the boundary between them is not rigid. In fact, it is sometimes difficult to separate the two. To use vocabulary effectively, learners need to be able to learn the main grammatical categories of words, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, and to know what grammatical patterns words fit into, such as which verbs can be used with the present continuous and which normally cannot, which nouns are countable and which are uncountable, which verbs are transitive and which are intransitive, which adjectives can be used predicatively and which cannot and what the normal order of adjectives is when more than one occurs. For 301 Part 3 Language and the four skills example, many different kinds of adjectives can occur before a noun in English, including those describing opinion, dimension, age, shape, colour, origin or material. Normally, no more than three adjectives occur before a noun, and when they do so, the order of adjectives follows a regular sequence (although we noted in Chapter 9 that use of more than two adjectives before the noun is more common in written than in spoken English): A beautiful old French house (opinion–age–origin). A huge round red cushion (dimension–shape–colour). A hideous brown plastic ornament (opinion–colour–material). A tiny old Italian ring (dimension–age–origin). Learners also have to learn the many different prefixes and affixes that can change the grammatical function of words, turning happy into derived forms such as unhappy, happiness, happily and so on. Knowing the meanings of the most frequent affixes and what their grammatical functions are can help learners learn the meanings of many words they encounter in texts, and using knowledge of prefixes and suffixes to recognize new words is an important way in which learners expand their vocabulary knowledge. (See Appendices 1 and 3 for two different lesson plans for teaching affixes and word families.) Cross-linguistic differences The way languages categorize meanings often appears arbitrary, and there are often considerable differences between languages. English, for example, distinguishes between peas and beans, a distinction that appears obvious to speakers of English, but not necessarily to Koreans, who make no such distinction. Family in English refers to what people in some languages mean by immediate family, and for whom family is closer to relations in English. Words that appear similar in two languages, but which have different meanings are sometimes referred to as false friends, such as demand in English and French. In English demand refers to a forceful request, whereas demander in French simply means to request. A teacher comments on an amusing confusion of two such false friends: Words with different meanings in the L2 While quite pregnant with my first child in Mexico, I was waiting for a city bus to go by, and a student of mine stopped and greeted me. We chatted for a few minutes, and he asked me in Spanish, ‘How long have you been waiting?’ I looked at my watch and said, ‘Not long.’ He looked at me again and asked, again, the same question. It finally dawned on me that he was asking me how long I was pregnant – how far along was I in my pregnancy, and not how long I had been waiting for the bus. The verb in Spanish could be used for two actions [and means wait or expect]. One could be waiting for a bus or a person, but also the word could be used for expecting a baby. We started 302  Chapter 10 Vocabulary laughing, because he and I realized our misunderstanding with a simple word. I finally said I was eight months pregnant. This is an example of how confusion can be part of a simple conversation and how we solved this miscommunication in two different languages. Martha Lengeling, teacher and teacher educator, Guanajuato, Mexico Nation (2001: 56) suggests that the grammatical learning burden of words depends on similarities or differences between English and the learner’s first language: If a second language word takes the same grammatical patterns as its rough equivalent in the first language, then the learning burden will be light. If words of related meaning, like hate and like, take similar patterns, then the learning burden of one of them will be lighter because the previous learning of the other will act as a guide. 10.3 Targets for vocabulary learning How many words does a learner need? And how many words do native speakers know? The latter issue is difficult to measure since one could hardly devise a test of the 100,000 or so words in a dictionary to see how many words native speakers ‘know’. Usually, estimates of the size of people’s vocabulary are based on how many words they recognize from a sample of the words in a dictionary, with an estimate of their knowledge of the total number of words in the dictionary done from there. Studies suggest that English native-speaking university graduate students have a vocabulary size of about 20,000 ‘word families’ – a head word and all its related words, such as democracy, democratic, democraticize, etc. (Schmitt, 2000). However, most second language learners will know or need far fewer words, unless they plan to do advanced academic work in English. ? The following are 25 words that commence entries for words beginning with the letter ‘C’ in a dictionary. How many of these words do you know? How many of them do you think learners need to know? cab, cabal, cabaret, cabbage, cabbie, caber, cabin, cabinet, cable, caboose, cache, cachet, cack-handed, cackle, cacophony, cactus, cad, cadaver, caddie, cadence, cadet, cadge, cadre, caesarean, café Identifying the number of words learners need to learn was a major focus of early research in applied linguistics, an area of research that focused on vocabulary control, or procedures for limiting the number of words to be taught. This was a principle that was used in the 1930s to develop a basic vocabulary syllabus for teaching English as a foreign language and for the preparation of graded readers. The aim as stated by Jeffery (in West, 1953: v) was: 303 Part 3 Language and the four skills To find the minimum number of words that could operate together in constructions capable of entering into the greatest varieties of contexts has, therefore, been the chief aim of those trying to simplify English for the learner. Using available information on word frequencies in written texts, as well as other practical criteria such as usefulness in the classroom and coverage of common topics and concepts, the result was a list of some 2,000 words, which was published in 1953 as the General Service List of English Words (GSL – West, 1953), and which had a huge impact on the design of teaching materials and coursebooks. The GSL also included the frequency of the different meanings of words. In discussing knowledge of words, an important distinction is usually made between a person’s active, or productive, vocabulary and their passive, or receptive, vocabulary, since our passive vocabulary is generally much larger than our active vocabulary. In spoken English, for example, native speakers may use a relatively small number of words in daily conversation – as few as 1,500 different words – though they recognize far more words than they use. For passive vocabulary knowledge, researchers suggest that knowing a minimum vocabulary of 3,000 word families (which equals some 5,000 words) is required to enable a person to understand a high percentage of words on an average page of a text, and that 5,000 word families (some 8,000 words) is required to be able to read for pleasure (Laufer, 1998). Hazenberg and Hulstijn (1996) found that twice as many words as that were needed to read first-year university materials. It is also important to distinguish between knowledge of content words (those that carry the main meaning of sentences, such as nouns, main verbs, adverbs, adjectives and question words, e.g. why, when, what), demonstratives (this, that, these, those) and function words (those that express grammatical relationships, such as articles, prepositions, auxiliaries, pronouns, conjunctions and relative pronouns). There is a small, finite list of function words in English, but a very large set of content words. When people expand their vocabulary knowledge, they add to their knowledge of content words. Core vocabulary O’Keeffe et al. (2007: 37–47) suggest that based on their research on the frequency of items in spoken English, a basic or core spoken English vocabulary for second language learners contains several different categories of words: Modal items: These describe degrees of certainty or necessity and include modal verbs, such as can, must, should, may, etc.; lexical modals, such as look, seem, sound; and adverbs, such as probably, definitely and apparently. Delexical verbs: These are words with little lexical content but high frequency, such as do, make, take, get, and their collocations with nouns, prepositional phrases and particles. Stance words: These communicate the speaker’s attitude towards something and include words such as just, whatever, actually, really, basically, clearly, honestly and unfortunately. 304  Chapter 10 Vocabulary Discourse markers: These are words that are used to organize talk and monitor its progress, such as you know, I mean, right, well, good and anyway. Basic nouns: These are nouns referring to common activities, events, situations, places and people, such as person, problem, trouble, birthday; days of the week; family members; and colours. General deictics: These are words that relate the speaker to the world in terms of time and space, such as here, there, now, then and ago. Basic adjectives: These are words that communicate everyday positive and negative evaluations of situations, people, events and things, such as lovely, nice, horrible, brilliant, terrible and great. Basic adverbs: These are adverbs of high frequency referring to time, frequency and habituality, such as today, tomorrow, always, usually, suddenly and quickly. Basic verbs for actions and events: These are verbs describing everyday activities, such as give, leave, feel, put and say. Some of these types of words are not found in vocabulary lists for ESL/ELT learners because such lists have often been based on frequency counts of written language, rather than spoken English, which, as mentioned in Chapter 9, highlights the importance of corpus research in language teaching. Beyond the core vocabulary, O’Keeffe et al. (2007: 48–9) suggest the following targets for vocabulary learning: A receptive vocabulary of some 5,000 to 6,000 words would appear to be a good threshold at which to consider learners at the top of the intermediate level and ready to take on an advanced programme. Such a programme would ideally have the following aims: T  o increase the receptive vocabulary size to enable comprehension targets above 90% (e.g. up to 95%) for typical texts to be reached. T  o expose the learner to a range of vocabulary at frequency levels beyond the first 5,000– 6,000 word band, but which is not so rare or obscure as to be of little practical use. T  o inculcate the kinds of knowledge required for using words at this level, given their often highly specific lexical meanings and connotations. T  o train awareness, skills and strategies that will help the learner become an independent vocabulary learner, and one who can continue the task for as long as he or she desires. However, once learners reach the intermediate level, they often fail to make sufficient gains in their vocabulary knowledge. A study of college students’ vocabulary development in China found that during their first two years of university study, an English major’s vocabulary increased by 1,500 words on average each year; but in the later two years, their vocabulary increased only by 250 words on average each year (Fan, 2007). 305 Part 3 Language and the four skills Academic vocabulary In addition to core vocabulary, there is another set of words common to academic disciplines, sometimes referred to as the basis for an academic vocabulary (see below). Coxhead’s Academic Word List (Coxhead, 2000; 2010) refers to 570 word families that have high frequency in a wide range of academic texts and which are important words for students to know if they are pursuing academic studies. The words do not occur in the 2,000 most frequent words in general English and are grouped into ten sub-lists that reflect word frequency and range. The most frequent words on the list are: analyse, approach, area, assess, assume, authority, available, benefit, concept, consist, context, constitute, contract, data, define, derive, distribute, economy, environment, establish, estimate, evident, factor, finance, formula, function, income, indicate, individual, interpret, involve, issue, labour, legal, legislate, major, method, occur, percent, period, principle, proceed, process, policy, require, research, respond, role, section, sector, significant, similar, source, specific, structure, theory, vary A website that enables a teacher to determine the number of academic vocabulary items in a text is the Compleat Lexical Tutor (www.lextutor.ca/vp/bnc/). By pasting a text there, the percentage of academic vocabulary it contains is calculated. Technical vocabulary Learners may also need to acquire a technical vocabulary; that is, the words that are most frequent in a particular subject area, such as computer science, law or medicine. A medical text, for example, may contain technical words such as microbe, gene, organism or cell. ? Think of a class you teach. Which of these categories of words are important to your learners? 10.4 Learning vocabulary The gradual nature of vocabulary acquisition As we have seen above, there are many different dimensions involved in ‘knowing’ a word, and not all aspects of the meaning and usage of a word are acquired at once (Nation and Gu, 2007). Vocabulary acquisition is a gradual process as different aspects of vocabulary knowledge are learned. For example, a sequence of order of acquisition for words might (hypothetically) look like this: 306  Chapter 10 Vocabulary Knowing: 1 how to spell the word. 2 how to pronounce the word. 3 the core meaning of the word. 4 the word receptively. 5 related words (antonyms, synonyms). 6 the grammatical function of the word. 7 the word productively. 8 other meanings of the word. 9 the affixes the word is used with. 10 the collocations the word occurs with. However, learners differ in terms of how they build up their lexical knowledge and which aspects of vocabulary they acquire first, depending on their exposure to words and their first language. Schmitt (2000: 120) summarizes vocabulary learning in this way: [Vocabulary acquisition] is incremental in a variety of ways. First, lexical knowledge is made up of different kinds of word knowledge and not all can be learned simultaneously. Second, each word-knowledge type may develop along a cline, which means that not only is word learning incremental, in general, but learning of the individual word knowledge is, as well. Third, each word-knowledge type may be receptively or productively known, regardless of the degree of mastery of the others. Taken together, this means that word learning is a complicated, but gradual, process. Direct or indirect vocabulary learning Vocabulary instruction is not generally the focus of a specific course, but is usually integrated into the teaching of other skills, such as a component of a reading or writing course, where it may either be taught directly or indirectly. However, general English coursebooks now often feature vocabulary input and practice as a syllabus strand. Direct vocabulary instruction (also referred to as explicit learning) refers to activities that seek to teach students particular words, or word groups, and to help them remember words they have already encountered. Incidental vocabulary learning is learning that takes place without specific vocabulary instruction. It is learning that is a by-product of engaging in other activities, such as reading or listening, and depends upon the frequency with which learners encounter words. Any form of reading is a good source of incidental vocabulary learning, since it involves learning words from context, and graded readers are a useful way of providing spaced repetition of core vocabulary (see below). Researchers have sought to determine the amount of vocabulary learners can acquire through learning from context. Grabe (2009: 272), reporting research by Nation (2001), comments: 307 Part 3 Language and the four skills If a student reads 100 wpm for 45 minutes per day for 222 days in the year, that student would read just under one million words in a year. If students learn one word in ten through context, they will learn somewhere between 2,000 and 4,000 new words, through extensive reading, in a year. Extensive reading allows students to read for pleasure, where the reading is its own reward, and will be covered more fully in Chapter 14. ? Extensive reading can clearly be of benefit to learners. How much extensive reading do your learners engage in? How do you encourage them to read more? A teacher educator and researcher comments on the value of incidental vocabulary learning, through context: Incidental vocabulary learning In my EFL teaching experience in China, I found there wasn’t a single student who didn’t attach great importance to vocabulary learning (or, to put it more accurately, vocabulary memorization). However, the majority of students were apt to spend most of their time memorizing only the word lists from their textbooks, not caring much about the contexts in which these words were used. This, I found, was not very fruitful, and the words so remembered slipped the mind of the students easily, being isolated from their contexts. In exceptional cases, I observed that those who had not only larger vocabulary (both passive and active) but also [were] able to know how to use this vocabulary in the proper contexts were oftentimes among the top students. I talked to them and found that about 30% of their vocabulary was not from direct teaching, but from incidental reading (e.g. simplified readers and novels) and listening (e.g. to pop songs and news). Incidental vocabulary learning is helpful, probably because students who use this method are normally those highly motivated ones who often learn self- imposedly through different channels. Ao Ran, teacher and teacher educator, Yunnan, China; Singapore Advocates of direct instruction argue that it provides better support for learning because it involves a greater depth or level of mental processing. Stated simply, ‘the more one engages with a word (deep processing), the more likely the word will be remembered for later use’ (Schmitt, 2000: 121). Vocabulary techniques that require a surface-level of processing of word meanings (such as writing down a word many times on a page) are less likely to result in learning than techniques that require relatively deep processing. An example of a technique that promotes deep processing is the keyword method (Hulstijn, 1997). This technique divides the learning of a vocabulary item into two stages. The first stage requires the learner to associate a new word with a keyword in the mother tongue that sounds like some part of the English word; the second stage requires the learner to form 308  Chapter 10 Vocabulary a mental image of the keyword, interacting with the mother-tongue translation. Thus, the keyword method can be described as a chain of two links connecting a new word to its first-language translation, through the mediation of a keyword; the new word is linked to the keyword by a similarity in sound (acoustic link), and the keyword is linked to the mother-tongue translation by a mental image (imagery link). For example, if an English- speaking learner was studying Indonesian and wanted to remember the Indonesian word for sport (olahraga), the learner could first make a connection with rugby, which sounds a little like raga – part of the Indonesian word. The learner could then make a mental image of a rugby player kicking a ball. Recalling this image would prompt the word olahraga. ? What techniques have you used to help you remember new vocabulary in a language you have studied? Nevertheless, as mentioned above, students who read extensively in English generally expand their vocabulary knowledge without explicit instruction, demonstrating that the extent of meaningful exposure to vocabulary is a valuable source of learning (Elley, 1991). Both direct instruction and incidental learning are, therefore, important sources of second language vocabulary development, and both processes support and complement each other. The teacher below describes his process for exposing students, in an incidental way, to additional vocabulary during the lesson: Going beyond the book When teaching vocabulary, I try to find extra words related to the topic that students find relevant and interesting. For example, when the book introduces price expressions, such as that’s cheap, that’s expensive, it’s not bad, etc., I also introduce related expressions that could be used in conversation, such as that’s a rip off, that’s a bargain, that’s (not) worth it, that’s way too much. Since students are often familiar with the common expressions found in the book, the new expressions expand their vocabulary repertoire and also provide the basis for further practice. Asking students to come up with examples of things that they think are a bargain or a rip off adds interest and motivation to the lesson. José Lema, teacher and teacher educator, Quito, Ecuador The role of memory A recurring issue in vocabulary learning is the difficulty in remembering words that have been encountered. Learning a new word is not instantaneous. A word may be encountered in a text, understood and then forgotten the next time it is encountered, and several encounters will be needed before it can be considered ‘learned’. Memory is normally conceived as involving two different processes – short-term memory (holding memory for a short period, while it is being processed) and long-term memory (retaining information 309 Part 3 Language and the four skills for future use). Short-term memory is fast, while long-term memory takes a relatively long time. The goal of vocabulary learning is to establish new words in long-term memory. This involves, on the one hand, meeting the word repeatedly over an extended period of time and, on the other, connecting new words to known words through different forms of links and associations, such as word families or words with similar or dissimilar meanings. Baddeley (1997) suggests that when an item is successfully recalled, the likelihood increases that it will subsequently be remembered, and that the process involved in retrieving the item long term appears to be made stronger when it is used successfully. Schmitt (2000) points out that productive vocabulary is more likely to be remembered than receptive vocabulary. Several conditions, considered below, have been proposed which increase the quality of learning and remembering (Nation, 2001; Laufer and Hulstijn, 2001). Noticing This refers to conscious focus on vocabulary as a learning goal and paying attention to aspects of words that might facilitate understanding and learning, such as similarities and differences between words, how the word is pronounced and the grammatical function of the word. Nation (2001: 64) suggests that noticing involves decontextualizing, a process that occurs ‘when learners give attention to a language item as a part of the language, rather than as part of the message’. Nation suggests that noticing occurs in a variety of ways: While listening or reading, the learner notices that a word is new, or thinks, ‘I have seen that word before’, or thinks, ‘That word is used differently from the ways I have seen it used before’. The teacher highlights a word while writing it on the board. The learners negotiate the meaning of a word with each other or with the teacher. The teacher explains a word for the learners by giving a definition, a synonym or a first- language translation. ? Can you think of ways in which new words can become more noticeable to learners, for example, in a reading text? Spaced repetition This refers to meeting a word at a later time and emphasizes that a single encounter of a word is unlikely to lead to learning and that spaced, meaningful repetition over a period of time is needed. Research on learning suggests that repetition that is spaced over time is more effective than massed repetition over a short time period (e.g. a lesson) (Nation 2001). 310  Chapter 10 Vocabulary A simple technique that provides for spaced repetition is for learners to write words on cards and to review them regularly over time, gradually removing the learned words and adding new ones. Flashcards can be very useful for memorizing vocabulary, especially if they are based on the principle of ‘spaced learning’ (a type of spaced repetition, also known as the ‘Leitner system’); this holds that vocabulary memorization is most efficient if the length of time between practising new vocabulary is gradually increased, but only for those items that were successfully recalled. For example, let us say a learner is trying to memorize two new words or expressions. On day one, the learner takes each card but only remembers Card 1 correctly. Card 2, the learner looks at again later in the day until he or she gets it right. The following day, both cards are checked again. Card 1 is memorized correctly and, therefore, will now be practised again two days after that, but Card 2 will be practised again the next day, and so on. The purpose is to minimize the number of times each card is checked: Words that are easy are memorized and checked at increasing intervals; difficult words more often. Computer software and mobile apps (SuperMemo is one example) are particularly useful for this, as they take the work out of remembering which card was memorized correctly and which one wasn’t, etc. They help learners to practise vocabulary only as often as necessary, while leaving more time for difficult words. Vocabulary recycling can also be turned into a game, as suggested by this teacher educator: Vocabulary games for recycling One popular idea for recycling vocabulary is the use of a vocabulary box/bag/jar. A teacher I observed recently used this effectively for vocabulary revision. One student was given a large jar and several slips of card and was assigned the job of ‘secretary’ for that lesson. Every time a new word came up which the students wanted to remember, they asked the secretary to write the word down and put it in the jar. This empowered the learners, giving them responsibility for choosing the words they wanted to recall. The teacher helped by pointing out if a word was not in frequent use or not particularly useful for their active vocabulary, but the students had the final decision about what went into the jar. The vocabulary can then be recycled at an appropriate stage in the course – perhaps at the end of the week, or even as a warmer or filler activity. Students who arrive early can be encouraged to use the vocabulary jar to see how many words they can remember. Competitions and team games are often a fun and effective way of reviewing lexis and are usually popular with all ages of learners. Some activities I have found successful for revising vocabulary are: a ‘hot-seat’ game, where one student has to try and guess which word is being defined by his/her teammates or, alternatively, one student defines the word for the team; miming games, where one student mimes the word to the rest of the team; and ‘pictionary’ – one student draws the word for the team to guess. Learners could also group the words from the jar into groups or write gap-fill tests for their classmates. Another task would be to try and invent a story, incorporating some of the 311 Part 3 Language and the four skills words. This would show whether they are able to use the vocabulary appropriately. All these tasks also help the teacher informally assess learning. Many students are not disciplined enough to keep a well-organized and effective vocabulary journal. However, by doing it as a class activity initially, they may be motivated to keep better records and learn to recycle vocabulary for themselves. Tina Appleton, teacher and teacher educator, Bath, UK Zimmerman (2009: 10) suggests that repetition of words can be achieved by recycling important words, by including words from earlier lessons in homework and classroom practice, by compiling a list of key words from past units and placing them on a visible location in the classroom, and using activities in which students are encouraged to use newly learned words as often as possible – such as in a ‘words-of-the-week’ activity. The diagram below shows the effect of reviewing on the recall of information. Generative use This refers to the use of a word actively and productively in speech or writing, as opposed to a passive encounter with the word; that is, it involves active practice in word use. Nation (2001: 68) suggests ‘Generative processing occurs when previously met words are subsequently met or used in ways that differ from the previous meeting with the word’. ? Can you suggest activities that encourage generative processing of new words that were encountered in a reading or listening text? Learner involvement Tasks with higher levels of learner involvement, e.g. because they are motivating, memorable or challenging, are more likely to lead to vocabulary retention. A list of words 312  Chapter 10 Vocabulary the teacher has prepared for learners to review is less likely to be remembered than a list of words students bring to class, based on words that are linked to experiences the students had out of class or words that the students had selected themselves from their coursebook and organized in ways the learners themselves have determined. The New Zealand educator Sylvia Ashton Warner wrote about this in her famous book Teacher (Ashton Warner, 1963). The book described how she developed powerful reading materials for young Maori children in rural schools in New Zealand, drawing on words they brought to school from their lives outside of the school. ? What kinds of links or associations could be made to help learners remember these words: repulsive, spicy, restore and reprimand? The role of learning strategies Elsewhere, we described learning strategies as specific actions and behaviours that learners use to improve their skill in learning or using a second language (see Chapter 2). Learning strategies would appear to be particularly relevant to vocabulary learning, since words are items that are easy to recognize and focus on, so, in theory, they should be amenable to the use of specific techniques and procedures to facilitate learning. Schmitt (2000) distinguishes two kinds of vocabulary-learning strategies: strategies for discovering the meaning of words and strategies for remembering words that have been encountered. Strategies for discovering the meaning of words A number of strategies can be used to help understand the meanings of new words (Nation, 2001): Analyzing word parts: Using knowledge of affixes to identify or clarify meaning. Using context: Using information provided by the topic or by the preceding or subsequent words or sentences. Comparisons with the mother tongue: Where possible, comparison with similar first- language words. Using resources: Consulting dictionaries, glossaries or other sources. Electronic dictionaries, both monolingual and bilingual, provide convenient and quick access to word meanings. Strategies for remembering words that have been encountered The following are strategies that can help students remember words: Recording: Noting the word in a notebook, or in any other way, to allow later review, together with information about the word, such as examples of usage and a translation of the word. 313 Part 3 Language and the four skills Organizing: Organizing words into groups, such as by word families or as part of a spidergram or semantic map. Practising and producing: Trying out the word several times in a sentence, either spoken or written, or finding other ways of using words. Nation (2002) suggests a number of ways in which teachers can help learners revisit words they have previously encountered: 1 Spend time on a word by dealing with two or three aspects of the word, such as its spelling, its pronunciation, its parts, related derived forms, its meaning, its collocations, its grammar or restrictions on its use. 2 Get learners to do graded reading and listening to stories at the appropriate level. 3 Get learners to do speaking and writing activities, based on written input that contains the words. 4 Get learners to do prepared activities that involve testing and teaching vocabulary, such as ‘Same or different?’, ‘Find the difference’ and ‘Word and picture matching’. 5 Set aside a time each week for word by word revision of the vocabulary that occurred previously. List the words on the board, and do the following activities: a Go round the class, getting each learner to say one of the words. b Break the words into parts, and label the meanings of the parts. c Suggest collocations for the words. d Recall the sentence where the word occurred, and suggest another context. e Look at derived forms of the words. See Appendix 2 for one teacher’s lesson plan for how to revisit words that have been taught. ? What strategies do you recommend to your students to help them remember words they encounter? 10.5 Principles for vocabulary instruction A number of general principles have been identified for teaching vocabulary (Nation, 2001; Grabe, 2009; Gu and Johnson, 1996). These divide roughly into the areas of planning vocabulary teaching and integrating vocabulary teaching into the lesson. Planning vocabulary teaching Planning effective vocabulary teaching involves determining learners’ vocabulary level, setting vocabulary-learning targets, reviewing the vocabulary content of coursebooks and including a vocabulary strand in skills lessons. 314  Chapter 10 Vocabulary Determine learners’ vocabulary level Knowing the students’ current vocabulary level can help the teacher select reading and other materials that are at an appropriate level of difficulty. A number of simple vocabulary tests have been developed that enable a teacher to estimate whether a learner’s vocabulary is at the 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 word level or higher (Beglar, 2000). These tests generally make use either of a multiple-choice test or gap-filling format. For example, the following test items (from Nation, 1999) assess students’ knowledge of words from the 5,000 to 10,000-word range: 1 The baby is wet. Her dia____ needs changing. 2 Second-year university students in the US are called soph_____. 3 The deac____ helped with the care of the poor of the parish. 4 The hurricane whi____ along the coast. 5 Some coal was still smol____ among the ashes. 6 She was sitting on a balcony and bas____ in the sun. 7 Computers have made typewriters old-fashioned and obs____. 8 Watch out for his wil___ tricks. 9 If your lips are sore, try sal___, not medicine. 10 The new vic___ was appointed by the bishop. 11 The actors exchanged ban____ with the reporters. 12 A thro____ controls the flow of gas into an engine. 13 Anyone found loo___ bombed houses and shops will be severely punished. 14 The wounded man squi___ on the floor in agony. 15 The dog crin____ when it saw the snake. 16 The approaching storm stam____ the cattle into running widely. 17 The problem is beginning to assume mam____ proportions. 18 The rescue attempt could not proceed quickly. It was imp____ by bad weather. The website www.lextutor.ca lets students do this themselves. As mentioned earlier, 10,000 word families, roughly, are needed to read first-year university texts. It’s important to remember, however, that since the gap-filling format tests productive recall of vocabulary, students may score higher on a multiple-choice test, which tests receptive familiarity. 315 Part 3 Language and the four skills Set vocabulary-learning targets As discussed earlier, it is useful to determine realistic vocabulary-learning targets for students, perhaps by lesson, by unit or by week. However, the targets set should not overload students’ capacities. For example, five to ten new words per lesson would be a realistic target, but the learning targets set will depend on the intensity and level of the course. It is better to teach a limited set of words and teach them in depth, with multiple encounters, rather than introduce a large number of words that may never be seen again. ? How many new words do you think your learners should try to learn each week? Review the vocabulary content of coursebooks Commercial textbooks vary in terms of their vocabulary content and how the words they contain were selected. Hedge (2000: 133) contains a checklist for reviewing the vocabulary content of coursebooks, which includes: questions that address the adequacy of the selection of vocabulary items in the book; the aspects of vocabulary usage that are taught; the ways in which vocabulary is presented and practised; the ways in which vocabulary retention is addressed; and the support given in the teacher’s book for vocabulary teaching. See Appendix 4 for two sample vocabulary lessons in a current textbook. Include a vocabulary strand in skill lessons Any lesson can contain a vocabulary strand. Useful words should be identified that occur in listening, reading and other skill lessons and can be used as the focus for a class or homework activity. For example, Zimmerman (2009: 70) suggests that listening to a news report can be used to focus on countable and uncountable nouns by having students listen to a news report and first list as many nouns as they can. To do this they can focus on clues such as pronunciation and article usage. Later in pairs or groups they can compare lists, clarify meanings and classify the nouns as countable or uncountable. Integrating vocabulary teaching into the lesson Teach high-frequency and high-utility words When students ask for assistance with words they encounter in a coursebook or reading passage, it is important to assess whether the words are of high frequency and value and which of them will be important words for student to know, as opposed to words that may only have incidental value and that are not worth spending too much class time on. 316  Chapter 10 Vocabulary The mere fact that a student asks about a word does not necessarily mean it is worth a lot of class time. It is useful to become familiar with word lists that contain vocabulary targets for the first 3,000 words. Students should be encouraged to consider if words they encounter are worth memorizing and to ask about the frequency of new words they are exposed to. Deal with vocabulary systematically Nation (2001: 93–4) argues that teachers should deal with vocabulary in a systematic and principled way. In considering the vocabulary learners will encounter in a reading text, for example, he looks at a number of different ways of dealing with words, with the option chosen depending on the word in question and its importance in the text, or potential usefulness for the learners: Pre-teach. Replace the unknown word in the text before giving the text to the learners. Put the unknown word in a glossary. Put the unknown word in an exercise after the text. Quickly give the meaning. Do nothing about the word. Help the learners use context to guess, use a dictionary or break the word into parts. Spend time looking at the range of meanings and collocations of the word. ? Which of the strategies above do you usually use? Teach words in meaningful groups One of the key problems in helping learners improve their vocabulary is finding effective ways for them to help remember words they have encountered. Gairns and Redman (1986) point out that our mental lexicon is highly organized and efficient, and that items that are related semantically are stored together. This is why it is much easier to recall a list of words that are grouped or organized in a meaningful way, as compared with trying to recall a set of words that are simply organized alphabetically. This could be by grouping them according to topic or in semantic groupings, such as opposites or synonyms. Use graded readers Graded readers (see Chapter 14) are prepared to controlled vocabulary levels and enable learners to consolidate known vocabulary, as well as expand their vocabulary knowledge 317 Part 3 Language and the four skills and develop their fluency in reading (Allan, 2008). If readers are chosen that are appropriate to the learners’ vocabulary level, learners can typically understand 95% of the words in a reader and learn the remaining words through guessing from context or with the help of a dictionary. Nation (2001: 163) gives the following figures for a commercial graded-reading series: Level New words Cumulative words 1 400 400 2 300 700 3 300 1000 4 400 1400 5 400 1800 6 700 2500 Graded readers are often assigned for reading out of class as an extensive reading activity. Use the learners’ mother tongue as a resource If students in the class have the same mother tongue, it is the most obvious point of reference in studying vocabulary. Bilingual word lists, glosses in texts of mother-tongue equivalents of words and flashcards with an English word on one side and the translation equivalent on the other are all simple techniques many students find helpful in learning new vocabulary. ? There is a debate about the role of the L1 in the language classroom, and this includes the area of vocabulary, with some teachers arguing that only English– English dictionaries should be used and others suggesting that translation dictionaries can play a role. What is your stance? Teach students to guess words from context Teaching students to guess the meaning of words from the context in which they occur has long being advocated as a useful strategy, although not all contexts allow the meaning of words to be inferred. The words in the context of the unknown word also need to be known if a student is to be able to guess a word from context. There are various ways in which context can help identify the meaning of words, however: 318  Chapter 10 Vocabulary Contrast: The word means the opposite of another word or expression in the text. Example: ‘A frugal boss will never give a generous bonus at the end of the year.’ [frugal: generous] Cause: The word is the cause of something described in the text. Example: ‘Anorexia is a disease attributed to many deaths in young girls because they want to lose too much weight.’ [anorexia: lose too much weight = death] Consequence: The word is used to describe the result of something. Example: ‘Lung cancer can result from too much smoking.’ [smoking: cancer] Explanation: The meaning of the word is explained, a definition is given or an example is given. Example: ‘Kimchee, a Korean fermented cabbage, is a very delicious food.’ [Kimchee: fermented cabbage] Hyponyms: A reader may be able to see the relationship between a familiar and unfamiliar word by looking at the general word class, such as boat, ship, tanker, where tanker is used as a hyponym of ship, the broader category. Example: ‘We must prevent oil spills from supertankers. An example took place in 1970 near Spain, when an oil spill from a wrecked tanker exploded into fire. These types of ships are difficult to control in busy waters.’ [supertanker: tanker: ship] Definition: Definitions of words may sometimes be found in the text. Example: ‘Neuralgia, a sharp, violent pain along a nerve pathway, can be treated with aspirin.’ [neuralgia: nerve pain] Punctuation: Readers can use the punctuation in the sentence to figure out the meaning of the word they do not know. For example, readers can use such clues as italics (showing how a word is defined), quotation marks (showing the word has special meaning), dashes (showing apposition, definitions) and/or brackets (enclosing a definition). Example: ‘Taekwondo – a Korean martial art – is very good for self-defence.’ [meaning between two dashes] Inference: Contexts give examples from which a reader can infer the meaning of a term. Example: ‘The misogynist manager disliked all the women in his office, so they all resigned.’ [misogynist: woman hater] Nation and Coady (1988) recommend that in order to guess the meaning of new words the learner should first examine the new word to determine what part of speech the word is from. Then he or she should look at the context in which the word is used, both at the clause level and the sentence level. This will help eliminate some possible wrong inferences. Following a consideration of these two points, the learner should then attempt to identify the meaning of the word and then check to see if his or her guess is correct. 319 Part 3 Language and the four skills A teacher comments on the strategy of guessing words from context: Teaching students to guess words from context The more I teach vocabulary in the classroom, whether it be direct or incidental, the more I value the strategy of guessing word meanings from context. Even though a simple search in a dictionary is quick and easy for a student to find the correct definition of an unknown word, I often find my students forgetting the target word days or even minutes later, without deep or critical thinking of the word. If the focus of a lesson is to teach vocabulary, then having the students take time to analyze a word is much more beneficial for a deeper understanding, by having them use their critical-thinking skills. The overall goal when I teach vocabulary in the classroom is not only to have students learn new vocabulary words but to also teach them ways of learning on their own, without always relying on a dictionary. This strategy may be time-consuming and difficult at first, but repeated practice and critical thinking can help make this L2 skill of guessing meaning from context as natural as the way most people guess the meaning of words in their L1. Brandon Narasaki, teacher, Tokyo, Japan Encourage active learning Students can become actively involved in their own vocabulary learning. For example: Students bring words and lexical items they have encountered out of class into class for discussion. Students keep a vocabulary journal in which they enter words they want to remember. The words can be organized by theme or category and examples included of the words in context, as well as other useful information. Students build up lists of words in different categories and their equivalents in the mother tongue and review these regularly. A teacher comments on how he tries to encourage autonomous learning: Helping learners remember words One of the most difficult aspects of vocabulary learning for my students is remembering words that have been encountered or presented previously. Learning new words and remembering them requires effort, both on the part of the teacher as well as the learner. I review lessons my students have studied in the textbook and develop word sets with simple activities to go with them. I try to find other sources of input that use some of the words they have encountered (e.g. songs and games, or extracts from 320  Chapter 10 Vocabulary movies or sitcoms). I also make use of graded readers where new words are recycled. I want my learners to become autonomous learners, to develop their own ways of understanding and remembering vocabulary, to share new words they have learned with other learners in group discussion and to compare different ways of remembering words. Hence, I believe both direct and indirect vocabulary teaching are needed to support vocabulary learning, to maintain knowledge of words and how they are used, to promote autonomous learning – in order to help students discover their own vocabulary-learning techniques. Anuwat Kaewma, teacher and teacher educator, Sakon Nakhon province, Thailand ? The teacher above argues for using both ‘direct and indirect vocabulary teaching’. What is your view on this? What would make for a good balance between the two? Moras (2007) recommends as effective teaching and learning strategies the use of guided discovery and, like Nation and Coady earlier, contextual guesswork, as well as mastering effective dictionary use. Guided discovery involves asking questions or offering examples that guide students to guess meanings correctly. In this way, learners get involved in a process of semantic processing that helps learning and retention. ? Some teachers are not in favour of students using a dictionary during tests. What is your view on this? Would there be cases when it would be best not to let students use dictionaries, either during tests or even during regular classroom hours? Teach word-analysis strategies Teaching students the skill of analyzing words can be part of regular instruction. Aebersold and Field (1997: 144) suggest the following procedures for analyzing parts of words: 1 Ask the students to look at a certain word and divide it into its parts. Tell them to look for familiar prefixes (word parts that precede the base and add semantic meaning), bases and suffixes (word parts that follow the base and add syntactic as well as semantic meaning). 2 Ask them what the base is and what it means. If they are uncertain about whether a part is a base or not, ask them to think of other words they know that have the same part. 3 If there is a prefix, ask them what it means. 321 Part 3 Language and the four skills 4 If there is a suffix, ask what its grammar function is. 5 Have students check the meaning they have come up with to see if it fits the context of the sentence(s) they are reading. Can they think of a synonym for the meaning? Use the resources of technology Computers and the internet provide for an approach known as data-driven learning (DDL), in which a corpus of texts with concordancing software can be used to explore how words are used. As described by Allan (2008: 23): The learner inputs the target word or words into the software and all examples from the corpus are returned, usually in a keyword in context (KWIC) format, with the target word in the middle of the line. These lines can be sorted in a variety of ways that may help to reveal patterns in meaning and usage... Learners then interact with the concordance and find answers to their questions about the target words by looking for patterns in [them], categorizing them and deriving their own hypothesis, rather than relying on a teacher’s intuition or research. An example of a useful corpus is the Cambridge English Corpus, a multi-billion word collection of written and spoken texts. If a learner wanted to find out how the word agree is used in English, he or she could look at examples in the corpus, such as those below. From the examples, the learner can see you can agree on something, agree with somebody and agree to something (www.cambridge.org/corpus):... only time will tell. One thing scientists agree on: In 7.6 billion years, the sun will shrink...... cutting costs won’t be easy. VW last month agreed to guarantee jobs for 103,000 German employees...... Knowledge is power, especially when agreeing to terms with a publisher...... first bird. Today, ornithologists agree that penguins evolved from flying ancestors...... stay active. Health professionals couldn’t agree more. Many elderly still work in the...... matters as much as you got it. I couldn’t agree more. Here it seems the matter of getting him...... most famous divas, the audience couldn’t agree more. One thundering ovation after another followed...... the hip-hop community. Even though I don’t agree with all of your choices, I appreciate the consideration...... She showed the document to him and he agreed it was inflammatory and should be destroyed... You can try the above for yourself. Go to the British National Corpus (BNC) corpus website at www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk, and see if you can find out the difference between scared and afraid. 322  Chapter 10 Vocabulary 10.6 Assessing vocabulary Vocabulary tests may be developed in a number of ways. Vocabulary placement or proficiency tests usually include a range of words representing different levels of difficulty so that the test will distinguish between learners with basic-, intermediate- or advanced- level vocabulary knowledge. Commercial proficiency tests are often designed this way. Achievement tests are based on a sampling of the words from materials the students have studied. An example of a diagnostic test is Nation’s Vocabulary Levels Test, which measures the learner’s knowledge of words at the 2,000, 3,000, 5,000 and 10,000 word levels. These sorts of diagnostic tests may also be used for placement purposes. A vocabulary test for placement purposes in a language course should include a sample of words from different levels of the course to determine the students’ level. Here a teacher comments on the appropriateness of guessing during a vocabulary test: Assessing vocabulary during the course Oftentimes in assessing vocabulary knowledge, students feel the need to guess if they do not know an answer when given any kind of ‘test’ in a classroom (believing that the higher their score, the better). However, it is often the case that when students guess a word, and if they guess correctly, their vocabulary assessment becomes inaccurate. A word they guess the answer to may show, in the results, that the student knows the word, but to the student, they did not know and simply guessed. Even though assessing a student’s vocabulary knowledge in the classroom may seem a simple enough task, I believe it is very important to explain to the students that their grade is not affected by the results of their assessment. The ‘test’ is simply a measurement of their current vocabulary knowledge, and the more honestly they answer the questions, the better it is for the students’ learning. So, for this kind of assessment, I always explain and reiterate to my students to not guess if they are not sure of an answer. Brandon Narasaki, teacher, Tokyo, Japan Nation (2001) suggests that vocabulary tests should contain about 30 items. A number of different item types can be used in vocabulary tests, depending on the kind of vocabulary knowledge being tested (e.g. receptive or productive knowledge). Testing procedures reflect two perspectives on vocabulary assessment. One approach is to test sets of words to measure students’ lexical knowledge, perhaps referenced to a word-frequency list, in order to measure gaps in a learner’s lexical knowledge. The other is to assess vocabulary in the context of a language-use task (Read, 2000). Each approach requires the use of different testing procedures. A test of the first kind might be one in which the learner is given words and selects the correct meaning from choices given. The other could involve testing understanding of the meaning of a word as it appears in a text. The following are examples of test items commonly used in vocabulary tests: 323 Part 3 Language and the four skills Multiple choice: These are common in vocabulary tests, though are difficult to construct and only allow a small number of items to be tested. Matching: Words are matched with synonyms or definitions or with an L1 equivalent. Sentence completion: A sentence is given with a target word replaced by a blank. Sentence writing: Students are given a word and asked to use it in a sentence. Gap-fill (or cloze) test: The learner supplies a word to fill in a missing word in a text. Self-rating: The learner rates how well he or she knows a word. While we have addressed the testing of vocabulary in isolation, vocabulary testing is frequently combined with the testing of other skills, such as grammar. 10.7 Conclusion Vocabulary knowledge is a core component of all language skills; good language learners have large vocabularies and look for ways to expand their vocabulary knowledge. They use a variety of different strategies to help themselves understand words they encounter in spoken and written texts, as well as to help themselves remember them. While reading is a major source of vocabulary learning for students, all lessons contain vocabulary and need to be reviewed for their potential in learning vocabulary. Vocabulary instruction should aim to help expand and consolidate students’ vocabularies, to help students develop strategies to manage their own vocabulary learning and to familiarize students with ways of approaching new words they encounter in reading and other contexts. Targets for vocabulary learning will depend on the learners’ needs and the purposes for which they use English. The goal of vocabulary instruction is not simply to teach knowledge of words, but to help learners to become independent learners. Both direct and indirect approaches to vocabulary learning are helpful; however, direct support for vocabulary development is essential if learners are to acquire the words they need to become effective users of English. Discussion questions 1 Examine a coursebook and look at exercises designed specifically to develop vocabulary. What aspects of vocabulary use do they teach? 2 Look again at the exercises you identified in question 1. What kinds of exercises are used to teach and practise vocabulary? 3 Choose a text that would be suitable for a particular group of learners you are familiar with but that contains a number of words they might not know. Which of the new words do you think are useful for receptive knowledge and which for productive knowledge? 4 Examine the first page of a local English language newspaper. How many examples of collocations and multi-word units does it contain? 324  Chapter 10 Vocabulary 5 If possible, interview two or three learners and find out how they try to remember words they encounter. 6 Examine a few pages from a textbook used in an academic course, such as engineering or agriculture. Check the vocabulary in the texts using the Compleat Lexical Tutor. How much academi