Transcript Research Plan for Degree Thesis

Teaching Vocabulary in Module
English Course for Non-English
Majors
Qin Xiaohui Peter Kelly
China Three Gorges University
•
•
•
•
•
Background
Problem
Analyses and Findings
My discussion
Further research
1. Background:
History:
•
The traditional English course for non-English majors, i.e.
college English course, is divided into 2 parts, i.e. intensive
reading and listening.
The teaching of vocabulary is exactly undertaken in the
intensive reading classes. Since the main focus of the
syllabus is to develop the students’ proficiency in reading
comprehension, the classroom teaching stresses the
teachers’ explanation of words and the text. And such design
of the course has led to the low competence of the students
in speaking.
So the college English teaching has been criticized for
being time consuming and low in proficiency for a long time.
• 17,000,000
• 1:130
(2002)
(Zhang Yaoxue,2003)
:
the lack of English teachers
the need for the English personnel required by the
development of the society and economy of China
• A reform is inevitable
Reform:
• At the beginning of 2004, the Ministry of
Education of China issued the new
requirements for College English Course for
the 180 experimental universities chosen by
it.
• Compared to the old syllabus which stresses
proficiency in reading comprehension, the new
experimental one attaches more importance to
listening and speaking.
The reformed English courses:
(This paper takes the reform in China Three Gorges
University as an example.)
• module course and module teaching :
1+1+1> 3
• 2 Module courses:
1. Compulsory language skill course
Intensive reading
listening,
speaking
writing
2. optional course
western culture,
cross-culture,
literature,
appreciating English films,
trade English
……
• Compulsory course:
big Class (100-120)
small class (25-30)
B—Reading and writing
S---listening and speaking
Class Schedule
• The time allocation: (in a week)
1] reading: 1 hour
2] writing : 1 hour
3] listening: 1 hour
4] speaking: 1 hour
5] computer-assisted learning: 4 hours a week
• Cf:
traditional classes: 2 hours for reading and 2
hours for listening
2.Problem:
• Listening, speaking and writing are strengthened, while the
time for reading ( i.e. traditional intensive reading class)
reduces greatly.
• The reason is that the study for vocabulary which takes an
important position in the reading class is left for the students
to learn by themselves with the aid of the computer
programs.
• Thus, the teaching and learning of vocabulary disappears in
the English classes. And this is What we are concerned
about.
Requirements for College English
Course:
According to the new Requirements issued by the
Department of Higher Education of China, the college
students should master 4,500—5,000 words, among
which 2,000 words are required to be learned to use
actively (productive), which means that the students can
use them proficiently in both speaking and writing.
And the ability to recognize unfamiliar words
(receptive) with the knowledge of word-building is also
required.
• Our concern is whether requirements for
vocabulary learning and mastery can be
achieved by the students themselves
without the help of the teachers.
Questionnaire and results:
1.
How much do you know about what should be learned in knowing a
word?
2.
How much do you know about high-frequency vocabulary and lowfrequency vocabulary?
3.
In learning new words, how much do you know about how to
distinguish important words from less important words and deal with
them differently?
4.
Since your reading course provides a CD-ROM with detailed
explanations and plenty of examples to aid your vocabulary learning,
do you think classroom teaching is still necessary for learning new
words?
5.
Do you think your vocabulary learning is efficient?
6.
Do you think the vocabulary teaching in the classroom is interesting?
Results:
(90 2nd-year non-English majors in CTGU)
Table 1
Questions
A lot
A little
Nothing
1
13%
60%
27%
2
15%
21%
54%
3
10%
30%
60%
Table 2
Questions
Yes
No
4
96%
4%
5
11%
89%
6
40%
60%
3. Findings :
1] Students have little knowledge about what should be known about a new
word.
2] Most students are confused about how they can know which words are
important words.
3] Most students have little knowledge about high-frequency vocabulary and
low-frequency vocabulary.
4]] The computer-programmed word list learning does not help greatly.
Vocabulary teaching in the classroom is necessary though it is sometimes
boring.
5] Learning vocabulary is time consuming and the words are easily forgotten.
4. discussion:
• It is clear from these findings that teachers
should change their ideas about vocabulary
teaching and permeate vocabulary teaching
into all types of teaching modules such as
listening, speaking, reading as well as writing
rather than let them go randomly with the
students themselves .
How to teach vocabulary in listening,
speaking, reading and writing:
• What is involved in knowing a word:
According George(1983), knowing a word
needs to distinguish whether it is for
receptive [R] use or for productive [P] use:
R—listening, reading; P—speaking, writing
Form:
Spoken form
Written form
Position:
Grammatical patterns
Collocations
Function:
Frequency
Appropriateness
Meaning :
Concept
Associations
R
P
R
P
What does the word sound like?
How is the word pronounced?
What does the word look like?
How is the word written and spelt?
R
P
R
P
In what patterns does the word occur?
In what patterns must we use the word?
What words or types of words can be expected before or after
the word?
What words or types of words must we use with this word?
R
P
R
P
How common is the word?
How often should the word be used?
Where should we expect to meet this word?
Where can this word be used?
R
P
R
P
What does the word mean?
What word should be used to express this meaning?
What other words does this word make us think of?
What other words could we use instead of this one?
•
1.
Vocabulary teaching In listening:
Turn reading vocabulary into listening vocabulary
Nation( 2003. 51-87) :
---1,800words;
a. choose simple and interesting material in which the
vocabulary level is well below the students’ reading level.
b. prediction and dictation exercises build a useful bridge
between writing and listening (Brown & Bernard, 1975)
c. Design activities involving more intelligences to stimulate
more active learning. ( Gardner, 1983,1993,2000;
Armstrong, 1999; Campbell,1999, 2000)
2. Increase vocabulary in listening class:
--the distance between 1,800 and 5,000 words of the
syllabus. The vocabulary cannot satisfy the need for
college English listening.
1] The ability for the teacher to control and simplify the
learning material.
According to Krashen’s(1981)input theory of language
learning, a foreign lg. is learned by understanding
messages that the learner does not feel worried or
threatened by, and that contain some unknown lg. items
which are understandable from the context.
2] Employ the learning method of Discovery (J.S. Bruner, 1990)
to encourage the students to find new words by themselves.
---before listening to a passage, write down the following
sentences on the blackboard (Nation,2003.90):
a. What was the word before/ after…?
b. Could you please say that/play the recording again?
c. How do you spell it?
d. What does …mean?
Vocabulary teaching in speaking:
West(1960) developed a minimum adequate speech
vocabulary of 1,200 head words that would be sufficient
for learners of English to say most of the things they
would need to say.
This seems a very small number of words, but evidence
from the few frequency counts of spoken English
indicates that in spoken English a small number of words
accounts for a very large proportion of spoken language.
Schonell et. al (1956) found in an investigation that
the 1,000 most frequent words covered 94% of daily life
English.
And the first 2,000 words covered almost 99% of the
material. So, in developing learners’ spoken English
vocabulary it is best to give learners practice in being
able to say a lot using a small number of words.
To most of our students who have a vocabulary of 1,800,
they can only read and recognize the words, i.e. their
vocabulary are receptive rather than productive. So, in the
speaking class, besides teaching new words, the teacher
should also create practicing situations for the students to
turn the receptive words into productive words.
Activity:
a. Use Grids (from Channell,1981) :
Being surprised:
Affect
with
wonder
Because
Because
unexpected difficult to
believe
surprise
+
+
astonish
+
amaze
+
astound
+
So as to
cause
confusion
So as to leave
one helpless to
act or think
+
+
+
• Activity b: Clusters: based on Brown(1980)
•
Fahrenheit (adj.) conduct (v.)
Chill (adj.)
Calorie (n.)
The sun
frozen
Heat (n.)
temperature (n.)
melt (v.) swell (v.)
hot (adj.)
thermo (n.)
centigrade (n.)
Vocabulary teaching in Reading Class:
(autonomous learning)
1.
Learning lists of words:
According to Nation(2003.126-129), the great attractions
of learning lists of words is that large numbers of words
can be learned in a very short time. Tips:
2.
Instructing students to enlarge vocabulary from extensive
reading:
3. Introducing strategies to deal with the words in intensive
reading materials ( authentic materials)
Vocabulary teaching in writing class:
•
•
Raimes (1985) attaches importance to an adequate
vocabulary for learners to generate, develop, and express
ideas in their writing.
As Nation (2003, p.147-148) puts it:
“As with speaking, lack of vocabulary may be the result of a large
enough receptive vocabulary but a very limited productive vocabulary,
or it may be the result of a limited productive and receptive vocabulary.
Learning to use a word productively in writing involves considerable
learning that is not needed in listening, reading, or speaking. This
learning includes spelling, the use of words in sentences, and the
organization and signaling of written text.”
•
The vocabulary for writing almost requires the learners to
master all the knowledge concerning a word described by
George (1983).
a. Practice for collocation:
b. Using words to complete a sentence:
c. Spelling training:
d. Using dictionary ( both English-English
and Chinese-English)
Conclusion and Further research:
• As the Module English Course for non-English majors
has just begun to be experimented with in China, there is
no experience about dealing with vocabulary according
to the course design and arrangement.
•
In this discussion about teaching vocabulary we have
tried to probe into ways to solve the difficulties and
problems the students are confronted with in their
vocabulary learning in this new context.
• It is hoped that the importance of teaching vocabulary in
the classroom will one day be reflected in the class and
course arrangement.
• As for the influence of vocabulary
classroom teaching on the learning of the
learners, we do not discuss it here for it
requires further investigation.