Transcript Teaching English Words - the English as a Second Language

Teaching English Words
Patti Trussler
Pretest:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Why do we say "photograph, photography,
photographic" the way we do?
How do native English speakers know where to put the
stress in words such as recreation, education, solution
and suggestion?
What do compartmentalize, computerize and
modernize all have in common? …and Cincinnati,
Hiroshima and Coca Cola?
Why is it that an adult Spanish ESL learner says that
he/she can read academic texts but not understand
English newspapers?
What effects have William the Conqueror and William
Caxton had on the English language?
Answers
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
stress shifts according to its suffix
Native speakers follow the generalizable pattern that
they've heard
These words are all verbs, share the same suffix and are
stressed in the same way …. (all proper nouns with the
same stress pattern)
academic texts use many borrowed words, mostly from
Latin and French origins. Newspapers use many more
common Native words of English
William the Conqueror and the occupation of England
introduced thousands of French words into English;
William Caxton through the printing press increased
language accessibility and literacy rates
How do these relate to our
teaching of English vocabulary?



What do ESL students need?
What do teachers need to do to address
these needs of our students?
How is this presentation going to help?
What do students need?




Learn words as a package
(not only meaning, but part of speech, pieces of the
word: prefixes, suffixes, root, pronunciation, spelling)
Develop a sense of the patterns of English
(meanings, pronunciation, spellings), develop tools so
they can be independent learners and confidence to
enable them to guess as 1st language learners do
Learn words in context
( many pieces cannot be appreciated and therefore
learned when words are learned in isolation )
Learn a 'metalanguage' for vocabulary development,
as they do in grammar
What do teachers need to do to best
address these needs of our students?





Have a systematic and habitual method for
approaching vocabulary
Become familiar with the English system to enable
one’s students
We need to give our students tools for guessing
(meaning, pronunciation, part of speech)
Keep vocabulary studies to contextual situations
Develop a method for maintaining visual reminders in
the classroom to reinforce new concepts (word lists,
terminology for parts of speech, pronunciation
patterns, common prefixes and suffixes)
How is this presentation
going to help?




Give an overview of the history of English and
its relevance to learning English vocabulary
Connect the structure of words to the
pronunciation rules for word stress
Present activities to learn and practice word
stress
Show examples of how students can log
vocabulary
Facts to Consider





80% of English words are borrowed
one third of the first 10,000 words we learn are
native English words
our Core 1000 words , over 800 are common
prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs, common
verbs having to do with perception (feel think touch
hear see), body parts , members of family
The Core words can be traced back as far as 8000
years ago to Indo-European roots
80% of vocabulary used 1000 years ago has been
replaced since 1066, the Norman Conquest
Reference: Stockwell. English Words: History & Structure 2001
English Usage (core) compared
to total English Vocabulary
Woods, Syllable Stress and Unstress, 1979
Origins of Vocabulary
CORE VOCABULARY:
1000 most frequently used words
English 83%; French/Latin 13%
Second thousand: English 34%; French/Latin 57%
Third Thousand: English 29%; French/Latin 62%
Fourth Thousand: English 27%; French/Latin 62%
Reference: Stockwell. English Words: History & Structure 2001
What does this mean for
language learners?


Young learners (not only 2nd
language) need to develop academic
abstract language (loan words) to
achieve success in schools
Young Adults benefit from analyzing
the majority of words for prefixes,
suffixes, stress, pronunciation patterns,
meaning of roots, and parts of speech
How many words are we
talking about?
Native Speakers
 5 yr olds - 5000
words
 each year,
increase of 1000
words
Graduates from
Secondary School
<15,000 words
Second Language Speakers
1st year~ 500- 750 words
nd year~ up to 1500
2
words
rd year~ 2500 words
3
4th year ~ 5000 words
By 7th year, most learners
can be
Vocabulary development is
the single most important
Why is the history so
important?

We need to be able to recognize and
understand the influences it has had on
our present vocabulary (for meaning,
grammar as well as pronunciation)
Historical Influences on
English
Timeline
Approximately
2200 years ago
-Early Germanic
branch of Indo European
( earth, make, drink, house, meat,
wife,winter, bird, woman)
43 - 400 A.D.
-Celtic tribes ruled by Romans
400 A.D.
-Angles and Saxons left Denmark
to settle in southern and eastern
England
Historical Influences on
English
Old English
~450-1066
-Celts driven west by AngloSaxons
(cross, curse, cradle, London, Kent, Thames,York)
-Latin
*Christianity ( candle, devil, discipline, offer, mass)
*Scholarship (alphabet, describe, history, paper,
school, translate)
-Scandinavian (Vikings, Old Norse) ruled England
787-1042
*Names (Jackson, Carnaby)
*Household (bag, die, knife, skin, they, skirt, dike,
till)
Historical Influences on
English
Middle English
1066-1476
-Norman invasion of England
-French 10,000 new words, 75% still
used today
*government (army, mayor, state, tax
parliament,)
*Scholarship (art, science, literature,
medicine, music, poet, surgeon,
tragedy, grammar)
*Common words (very, city, mountain,
close)
*Mixed compounds (gentleman,
talkative, cheerful)
Historical Influences on
English
Early
Modern English
1476-1776
Printing Press, Caxton 1476 and
Discovery of New World
more people had access to words, literacy rose from
2% to 60% in 3 generations
4,500 new words a decade
*New intellectual activities
Classical Latin (curriculum, investigate, radius, calculus,virus,
evaporate)
Greek (atmosphere, drama, irony, syllable, rhythm,criterion)
Italian (balcony, bazaar, opera, duet, soprano, etc.)
*Business activities
Dutch (pickle, yacht, knapsack, cookie, bully, kid)
Spanish/Portuguese (banjo, cocoa, jerk, lasso)
Historical Influences on
English
Modern English 1776-present
Continue to borrow as
well as create new
words
-for words in new
unfamiliar areas,
customs, etc. we borrow
from modern languages
Examples of how we have created
new words before and today










New creations: Kodak, Kleenex, nylon
Blending: smog, brunch, medicare, urinalysis
Acronym: NASA, radar, modem
Initialisms: CBC, UFO
Shortening: phone, plane, flu, zoo, edit
Derivation by affix: sweat – sweater, hard – hardly, graceful-disgraceful
(meaning not transparent)
Derivation without affix: major ( adj/n/v), account ( n/v), anchor (n/v)
chair (n/v)
Compounding: largest source of new words outside of borrowing; good
bye ( God be with you), woman ( wife-man), ice-cream, sweetheart,
highlight
Eponyms: based on names, guy, watt, boycott, sandwich, cheddar,
china, denim, spartan, atlas, platonic, morphine, xerox, band-aid
Echoic: oh, flap, thump, sizzle, wheeze etc.
What is the relationship between how
our vocabulary has developed and
how we say words?
Pronunciation
Word Stress Rules


Native English Patterns (rules &
examples)
Foreign Borrowed Words (rules &
examples)
NATIVE ENGLISH STRESS
PATTERNS (Anglo-Saxon)


One Syllable Words:
Examples: bed, chair, clothes, wall
Rule: stress monosyllable
Two Syllable Words: stress base syllable
a. Examples: answer, apple, daughter, carry, after, early,
yellow, travel
Rule #1: stress first syllable
b. Examples: about, afraid, because, invite, today, until
Rule #2: Two Syllables with prefixes, stress the base
syllable (2nd syllable), not the prefix
NATIVE ENGLISH STRESS
PATTERNS (Anglo-Saxon) cont’d


Three & Four Syllable Words:
Examples: history, interest, popular, article,
honourable, personally
Rule: stress base (first syllable)
Unstressed Words:
Examples: function words ( am at, her, than,
that, were, your, etc)
Rule: only content words are stressed, all
others are reduced partially or to a schwa [ə]
STRESS PATTERNS for words of
foreign background (Latin, French, Greek)



Predictable rules
Word patterns
Words with suffixes
Word Stress Exercise:
Read over the following list of words and
determine where the stress is.
sixty
organize
activity
insult (n)
sixteen
present (n)
optimistic
CNN
turn over
convertible
associate
democratic
sympathetic
Canadian
bookstore
volunteer
capability
get along
engineer
politician
invitation
originate
incredible
festivity
take away
fireman
preservation
present (v)
hairbrush
specialization
CIBC
fifty
magic
insult (v)
recognize
VCR
musician
separate
fifteen
telepathic
We can put these words into
groups.
Their stress patterns are always the
same and follow predictable rules.
 What groups do you see?

Stress Patterns - Rules and
Patterns





A) Compound Words hairbrush, bookstore
Rule:
B) Numbers
fifty, fifteen
Rule:
C) Verb Phrases
turn over, take away
Rule:
D) Abbreviations
VCR, CIBC
Rule:
E) Noun-Verb
insult, present
Rule:
Words with Suffixes
i) Suffix “ion”:
Rule:
ii) Suffix “ity”:
Rule:
iii) Suffix “ic”:
Rule:
iv) Suffix “ible”:
Rule:
v) Suffix “ian”:
Rule:
preservation, specialization
festivity, capability
optimistic, democratic
convertible, incredible
Canadian, musician
Words with suffixes continued
vi) Suffix “ize”: recognize, organize
Rule:
vii) Suffix “ate”: associate, originate
Rule:
viii) Suffix “eer”: engineer, volunteer
Rule:
Teaching Pronunciation of Word
Stress: the holistic approach





What is stress?
Practice listening, discriminating, saying
stressed syllables
Discuss Basic English Stress Rules
Discover Rules with Suffixes and other
patterns
Revisit, remind and review as
vocabulary studies evolve
Classroom Management of
Vocabulary





Have a systematic and habitual method for approaching
vocabulary (vocabulary ‘books’, organized by theme or part of
speech, include ‘family of words’ )
Identify words whole class will learn (including family of words,
all parts of speech); independent study is ideal but difficult to
manage and unrealistic for most learners
Keep vocabulary studies to contextual situations
Maintain visual reminders in the classroom to reinforce new
concepts (word lists, terminology for parts of speech,
pronunciation patterns, common prefixes and suffixes)
Evaluate correct use, part of speech, ability to manipulate
usage rather than merely meanings of words
Organizing Words
Vocabulary Calendars
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
3
4
5
6
7
aboriginal
treaties
harsh
reserves
Constitution
Metis
Inuit
10
11
12
13
14
17
18
19
20
21
Examples of Vocabulary Logs
Level 3-4 Canadian Studies
Word
1.Liberal
Part of
Speech
Family of Words
Adj/n liberally (adv),
liberty (n),
liberalize (v)
liberation (n)
2.Conservative Adj/n conserve (v),
conservatively(adv)
conservation (n)
Meaning
supporting political and
social changes to make
people more equal,
willing to accept
different ideas about
people
Supporting a free
market, low taxes and
traditional ideas about
family life
Level 1 Vocabulary Log
photo
Word
Part of
Speech
Sentence/meaning
1. Secretary
Noun
The secretary works in
the main office.
2. Custodian
Noun
The custodian cleans the
school.
3. Library
Noun
We read and use the
computers in the library.
Assessing Vocabulary
Level 4/5
Choose six words from the vocabulary list.
Identify two words from each word’s family.
Write two sentences, using one of the words in each
sentence. Show how the different part of speech is used.
Example:
There are many strategies we can use to learn
vocabulary.
We need to be strategic when we are trying to
learn vocabulary.
More Assessment Examples
Level 4-5
Quiz

Fill in the chart below for 6 of the words we’ve studied.
Choose 6 from the list below. Include at least 3 more
members of each family. Remember to state the part of
speech for each member of the family.
critical
Word
Example
critical
valuable
Part of
Speech
Adj
necessary
Words in family
criticism (n), critic
(n), critically (adv),
criticize (v)
vital
Synonym
Disapproving,
serious
Assessing Vocabulary Logs
Level 3-4
0
0-49%
1
50-59%
2
60-69&
3
70-79%
Correct part of speech
word families
spelling
Completed all entries
Meanings clear, own words
Neat, easy to read
Overall Mark
4
80-100%
Final Thoughts


Useful dictionary for ESL students?
Oxford’s ESL Dictionary and CD “ESL
Genie”, accessible meanings, usage,
pronunciation, electronic, helps with
reading webpages, Word documents
Learning Words……


Takes Time and Effort from both
Teachers and Students
We owe it to them