Transcript teaching vocabulary

TEACHING
VOCABULARY
Lecture, MA programme,
NYME-SEK
I. THE FEATURES OF VOCABULARY
What is vocabulary?
► 1. All the words of a language.
► 2. The sum of words used by, understood by, or at the command of a
particular person or group.
► 3. A list of words and often phrases, usually arranged alphabetically
and defined or translated; a lexicon or glossary.
How is vocabulary composed?
► word at least one potentially freestanding morpheme (root) and
optional attached morphemes (pre/suffix), or compounds
How is vocabulary organised? (not just lists of words)
► In our MENTAL LEXICON: the representation of words in permanent
memory including the meaning of the word, its spelling and
pronunciation, its relationship with other words, and related
information.
STORAGE
Mnemonic storage
► Multi-word units (draw a conclusion, to be honest)
► Idiomatic expressions (opaque [kick the bucket] vs. Semi opaque [pass the
buck, I saw the light])
► Binomials [back to front, to and fro, clean and tidy]
► Trinomials [cool, calm and collected; ready willing and able; lock, stock,
barrel]
► Transparent phrases [open the door, talk politics, drinks like a fish]
Lexical storage
► Collocation (strong binding form between words)
► Sense relation (choice of words based on syntagmatic, paradigmatic
relations)
► Synonymy / Antonymy
► Hyponymy (organises words into taxonomies)
► Semantic fields (a concept and its related words)
► Homonymy [watch, bank]
► Polysemy [head, foot] (metaphorical extension of the central meaning
► Metaphor (institutionalized vs un~) [I am crazy about you; He bombarded
me with objections]
The mental lexicon
An average educated adults store 100,000 words  there
must be a system
a dictionary (orthography and phonology as well as style,
appropriacy)
a thesaurus
an encyclopaedia (word-association  cross-referencing)
a library (ordination)
a computer (input, storage, retrieval)
- core vocabulary (survival kit or words): most frequently
used ones in the middle of lexical fields (indexing)
[NB: corpora have to be carefully selected and representative
in terms of content, style, date, register, situation,
medium, etc.]
Meaning and cognition
Basic cognitive domains (dimensions: time,
place, temperature, etc) [are universal]
abstract cognitive domains (schemata
theory words do not hold meaning
inherently but only through the access they
afford to different stores of knowledge that
allow us to make sense of them [culture
specific]
Word storage and retrieval
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receptive vs productive retrieval (passive vs. active
vocabulary) A rule of thumb: the receptive vocabulary is
at least twice the size of the productive vocabulary.
receptive size of a college-educated native English
speaker is about 17,000 word families, about 40%
more than first year college students, who know
about 12,000 word families
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prompted vs unprompted recall
Nation (1982): max. 1,000 words over 18 hours – min. 9
words per hour (after 7 encounters the word is
internalised)
Selection of words to teach
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Frequency
Range (occurrence across a wide variety of texts)
Lexical density (carrying of context)
Learnability
Spelling
Phonological difficulties
Syntactic properties
Too close in meaning
False friends
Learner unable to relate experience to word
Learners needs
How many words are needed to do the things a
language user needs to do?
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The measure of usefulness is word frequency.
There are 54.000 word families in English
An educated native speaker knows 20,000 word families
3,000-5,000 word families are needed to provide a basis
for comprehension
A 5 year old will have a vocabulary of around 4,0005.000 word families. A university graduate will have a
vocabulary of around 20,000 word families. An educated
native speaker will be able to understand about
40.000-60.000 words.
Many native speakers use less than 2000 words in their
daily lives.
Organising vocabulary
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Topic
Meaning
Form
Contextual relations (register and discourse)
Presenting vocabulary in the classroom (
comprehension + concept checking, practice,
production)
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Word lists (rote learning, ineffective) 
contextualisation!
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Pre-teaching
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Through form [repair, despair, compare]
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Through meaning [mind maps]
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Through stimuli [mime, text, picture, sounds, noises
realia, rhyme]
Ways to present vocabulary
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Using objects (realia)- teachers can use real objects to
introduce new vocabulary. This can help learners because
they not only hear the word but also receive visual
reinforcement (Hunt & Beglar 1998).
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Illustrations and pictures - most concrete vocabulary can
be taught using illustrations and pictures made by teachers
or found in magazines and other resources.
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Guessing from context - because learners will always
meet words which are new to them, it is important for
them to know how to work out their meaning from the
context.
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Mime, expression and gestures – many words (e.g.
angry, happy) lend themselves to being taught through
movement and gesture.
Contrasts - this technique involves explaining a word by
contrasting it with an antonym, very often an antonym
which is known to the learners.
Synonymy – often you can use words with a similar
meaning they already know, as a point of reference
Hyponymy or enumeration – we give a bigger category
that embraces different items
Translation - in this technique, the teacher explains the
meaning of the new words using the learners’ mother
tongue. Use for comprehension check!!
BEST: a combination of at least 3 techniques!
Learning strategies
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Guessing and inferring meaning
(construction of meaning)
note-taking (vocabulary notebooks,
cards)
Write new vocab on cards for every
group (tiresome but is worth the effort)
learner autonomy
► I.
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Oldies but goodies /Joseph Pettigrew /
http://people.bu.edu/jpettigr/Artilces_and_Presentations/Vocabulary.htm
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Matching synonyms
► 2. Matching opposites
► 3. Fill in the blank sentences
► 4. multiple choice
II. Variations on the above
1. Choose all the possible answers
He ate lunch in the _____.
cafeteria / restaurant / snack / snack bar /
salad bar / diner / etc.
2. Where would you find . . . ?
a)
an MD _____
a Ph.D. _____
an MEP _____
in. _____
hp _____
b)
c)
d)
e)
in the EU Parliament
b) on a ruler
c) on a engine
d) in a hospital
e) in a university
Complete the phrases!
to achieve ____
a) a secret
to reveal ____
b) an idea
to grasp ____
c) a goal
Correct the mistakes!
He felt exhausted after a long nap.
Possible corrections: "refreshed" for
"exhausted" or "running to school" for "a
long nap"
Label a picture!
► monitor
► keyboard
► mouse
► screen
Cross out the word that doesn't
belong with the others in the group.
► uncle
► EST
/ father / aunt / brother
/ pm / PhD / BC
► meadow
/ river / yard / field
Categories: You give the example;
students give the category. Or vice
versa.
knife, club: weapon
► weapon: gun, knife, club
Or
► Bassoon, oboe: woodwinds
► Predator birds: hawk, falcon, buzzard
► gun,
Complete the sentence!
was exhausted after
_________________________
Or
I was ______________after running the
marathon.
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Analogies
/good, even at low levels/
easy : hard :: cold : __________ (hot)
skyscraper : city :: tree : _____________
(forest)
warp : wood :: __________ : paint (peel)
shatter : glass :: ____________ stone
(crumble)
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
as a joke]
Grammatical
He pondered . . .
(a) his future
(b) that he didn't know what to do.
[ungrammatical]
(c) the meaning of life.
Word domains (?)
e.g., general category: 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
Which word in each pair is stronger,
more forceful, or more intense?
to surprise
to astound
to toss
to throw
to boil
to simmer
to hurl
to throw
Arrange the words on a scale
► hot
- warm - luke - warm - cool – cold
► despise - hate - dislike
► peckish – hungry – starving - ravenous
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Scales are nice to do when possible, but they're not possible all
that often. It's rare that words are encountered all together like
this. More common - in pairs (known word + new word)
Which word in each pair is slang?
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a kid / ___ a child
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disgusting / ___ gross
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to fail / ___ to flunk
Which word has a more positive
connotation?
or Which word would be more polite when
talking about a person?
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thin / ___ skinny
► ___ fat / ___ overweight
► ___ frugal / ___ miserly
Complete the definitions!
How are these actions performed?
► thrust
= to push _________________
(forcefully, hard)
► shatter
= to break _______________ (into
many pieces)
► tap
= to hit _____________________
(lightly, softly)
IV. Things to do
with the vocabulary
in a reading passage
Guessing word meaning from
context
► But
make sure it is really possible to guess
the meaning from context.
► If so, teach students techniques for
guessing (see Part V). If not, try #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.
Teach students when not to look up
a word.
► a)
Can you get a general sense of the word?
e.g., a person? something good/bad? a
movement? a way of speaking?
► b) Take a magic marker and block out all
the words you don't know. Then read the
passage and answer the comprehension
questions.
Different meanings of familiar
vocabulary
(Driving on a 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.
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.
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.
► Because
2. Opposite/contrast: underline the two words
or phrases in contrast to one another, then
make a guess.
though I studied for hours, I flunked
the test.
► My last apartment was really small, but my
new one is quite spacious.
► Even
3. General sense: focus on S,V,O, 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? colour? shape? emotion?
► Examples:
► 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)
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.
► Samuel
5. Examples in the text
► The
baboon, like other apes, is a very
social animal.
6. Recognizing definitions: common in college
textbooks, newspaper & magazine articles
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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 Reader's Choice Baudoin, et al., 1977, 1988 University of Michigan)
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Vocabulary practice activities
Anagrams (ECLAND)
Circle the words (e.g. synonyms, words with the same stress, etc.)
Hangman
Noughts and crosses
Memory games
Definition game (2 groups, cards, timed)
Taboo
Scrabble (Word square)
Word chain (boy-bay-may-man)
Word bingo (pronunciation!)
Tessa’s vocab cards
Vocab cards and questions (owner tries to elicit word on card with questions)
Word matching (ss get word card, make up def/syn/ant…on another one)
Synonym cards (T reads known text, a few words replaced by synonyms, SS shout when
their word is replaced)
Definitions in pairs (SS get words, write def, read out and recognise each others’ words,
2ss have same word)
(Inverse) guess who
Odd one out (definitions)
Chinese whispers
Word family folding game (S1 writes related words, S2 identifies category, S3 writes
related words, etc)
Collocations game (e.g. to be guessed: tight. Hints: skirt, budget, control)
What would you be?
A list of sites with vocabulary activities
► http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/esl/e
sl-lessons-and-materials/esl-vocabularyactivities.html