Transcript Chapter 10 – Vocabulary: Students in Charge

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CHAPTER 10 –
VOCABULARY: STUDENTS
IN CHARGE
Presenter:
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How did you learn most of your vocabulary?
For Snow: After basic words from lists in textbooks, most words came from reading
them in books, stories, news, etc.
Students need to learn vocabulary as they encounter them.  SO teach them how
to do it. And to do it on their own.
Vocabulary Acquisition: The Goal
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Productive Command
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Producing words  speaking
or writing.
Aspects of words:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Basic meaning
Other meanings
Parts of speech
Usage
Connotation
Collocation
Level of formality
Frequency of appearance
Receptive Command
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Comprehending words 
reading or listening.
It’s easier to comprehend
than to produce.
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1000-2000 words  daily
conversation.
7000-10,000 words  most
average texts.
45,000-60,000 words 
educated native speaker.
NOTE (and CAUTION): Many English courses don’t separate
production and reception of vocabulary.
Learning a word using that word. It is more difficult and to produce words.
Personal Example
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You should think of 4 or 5
personal examples or
experiences and add them
anywhere you want. It can
be about one point or a
couple points together.
Don’t make an example
for each point AND don’t
worry to find one example
that matches every point.
Learning and Teaching Vocabulary
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Remember: It’s important that students learn vocabulary on their
own.
SO, this chapter focuses more on how students learn vocabulary
more than how to teach it.

Beginning Level
 Most
words come from textbooks.
 Most words are high frequency words.
 Students need productive and receptive skills.
 Try to introduce and practice as much as possible in class.
 Quizzes and tests – test productive and receptive ability.
Learning and Teaching Vocabulary
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Intermediate Level
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NOTE: At intermediate level for EFL, students become better readers
than speaking and writing (because reading is receptive and receptive is
‘easier’)
Teach students the difference between productive and receptive ability
 Students start to separate words they need to produce (productive)
and words they only need to understand (receptive).
Motivate students to learn more and more words everyday. (ex. daily
quizzes, games, activities using target vocabulary)
Quizzes and tests – separate productive and receptive quizzes.
Advanced Level – concerns vocabulary learning when students
can almost understand native English.
Read more on p. 174-175  Usually not high school level.
Personal Example
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Strategies for Learning Vocabulary:
1. The Discovery Phase
2. The Memorization Phase
3. The Familiarization Phase
1. The Discovery Phase
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A.
Dictionaries
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Many advantages: they show definitions, double meanings,
connotations, usages (example sentences), etc.
Students are self-sufficient to find the words by themselves.
Take time to teach students how to use dictionaries. Questions while
checking the dictionary:
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Does this word have a local language equivalent or not?
How is this work used?
Does the work have a strong connotation?
Is this work markedly formal or informal?
How is it spelled?
How is it pronounced?
** Caution: Some bilingual dictionaries, especially electronic dictionaries only give one or two translations for
words and no example sentences. This makes students think every word is directly translatable (has 1
perfect matching word).
1. The Discovery Phase (cont.)
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Guessing Words from Context
B.
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BE CAREFUL: Students can only GUESS the meaning of a word if all other words
around it are clear (95-98%).  Easy texts.
Problem: most students don’t read EASY texts. They read textbooks and prepare
for tests.
Recommendation: Teach word roots, prefixes (ex. bi~, re~, un~), and suffixes (ex.
~ed, ~er, ~ation).
Texts with Glossaries
C.
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Glossaries – are vocabulary lists with translations or explanations.
Many advantages: faster than dictionaries, more accurate than guessing, words in
context.
Suggestion: Students can/should make their own glossary. When they see words
they don’t know, they can make their own glossaries.
Vocabulary Lists
D.
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If you have textbooks that give lists to students. It’s good if you help students with
definitions to save time (students can work together to define lists in the textbooks,
if needed).
2. The Memorization Phase
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Two aspects of memory: long term and short term.
Short term memory can hold some information (about 7 items) for a short time.
The goal is to store (=keep) words in long-term memory.
Concentration
A.
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Stay alert (everyone knows the feeling that your eyes are reading, but your brain is
not).
Mental and physical activity together enhances memory.
Response or action (ex. Making a sentence with the word without looking, or self
quiz)
Repetition
B.
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The more you see a word, the more likely you are to remember it. (ex. Remember
the name game from Ch 5)
Research says  it’s better to encounter (study/find) these words in natural context
 reading, listening, or writing (not just repeating them).
Meaningful Manipulation
C.
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Using words in a meaningful way helps you remember (eg. in a conversation).
Therefore, communication with new words helps you remember them.
3. The Familiarization Phase
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This stage is for fluency skills for advanced learners.
Generally, at this stage, students know definitions well already 
pay more attention to usage, connotation, collocation, level of
formality, & level of frequency.
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Laura’s example: buscar = seek/look for/search & procurar = seek/look
for/search  “Se vocês querem conversar mais, me *busca depois.”
It’s not a grammatical rule, it’s usage/collocation
Teachers can explain some of these things if it comes up in class,
but:
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Warning: Not too much or you will spend all your time explaining. Let them
read, listen, study, practice.
Students mostly learn these these things with extensive reading.
Personal Example
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Evaluation
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Vocabulary is essential to language, SO  every
test of every skill includes vocabulary.
However, it’s good just to test vocabulary alone,
because it has good backwash.
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Good score = know vocabulary.
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Bad scores = students don’t know vocabulary.
80% of what you learned, is lost within 24 hours, if
not reviewed (Gairns & Redman, 1986, 90).
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NO CRAMMING (=only study the night before exams);
it’s not a good way to learn.
Evaluation (Cont.)
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1.
For good BACKWASH
the best evaluation is
in listening, reading,
writing, and speaking
activities, not just
translation.
2.
If you have
to give
exams or
tests,
THEN...
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4.
5.
6.
English word –
definition
Local country
equivalent – target
word
Fill in the blank
Sentence with target
word – response
Matching
Writing sentences
Personal Example
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Practice Listening Activity OR
Discussion Questions
Note to presenters:
 You have a choice to make discussion questions.
AND/OR
 You can demonstrate a listening activity in the class.
YOU ARE THE TEACHER and the class will be your
students. Don’t explain what you would do. You have to
teach like a real class.
 NOTE: It should be a short and simple activity, do not
prepare elaborate materials. It’s just a closing to your
presentation.