CHAPTER 10 – VOCABULARY: STUDENTS IN CHARGE

Presenter: Laura Mizuha

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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.

How did you learn most of your vocabulary?2

Vocabulary Acquisition: The Goal

Producing words speaking or writing.

Aspects of words:1. Basic meaning2. Other meanings3. Parts of speech4. Usage5. Connotation6. Collocation7. Level of formality8. Frequency of

appearance

Comprehending words reading or listening.

It’s easier to comprehend than to produce. 1000-2000 words daily

conversation. 7000-10,000 words

most average texts. 45,000-60,000 words

educated native speaker.

Productive Command Receptive Command

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.

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Learning and Teaching Vocabulary

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.

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Learning and Teaching Vocabulary

Intermediate Level 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. Read more on p. 174-175 Usually not high school level.

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1. The Discovery Phase2. The Memorization Phase3. The Familiarization Phase

Strategies for Learning Vocabulary:

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1. The Discovery Phase

A. Dictionaries 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: 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).

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1. The Discovery Phase (cont.)

B. Guessing Words from Context 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).

C. Texts with Glossaries 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.

D. Vocabulary Lists 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).

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2. The Memorization Phase

A. Concentration 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)

B. Repetition 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).

C. Meaningful Manipulation Using words in a meaningful way helps you remember (eg. in a

conversation). Therefore, communication with new words helps you remember

them.

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.

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3. The Familiarization Phase

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. 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: 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.

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Evaluation

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. Good score = know vocabulary. Bad scores = students don’t know vocabulary.

80% of what you learned, is lost within 24 hours, if not reviewed (Gairns & Redman, 1986,

90). NO CRAMMING (=only study the night before

exams); it’s not a good way to learn.

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Evaluation (Cont.)

1. English word – definition

2. Local country equivalent – target word

3. Fill in the blank4. Sentence with

target word – response

5. Matching6. Writing sentences

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For good BACKWASH

the best evaluation is in listening,

reading, writing, and

speaking activities, not

just translation.

For good BACKWASH

the best evaluation is in listening,

reading, writing, and

speaking activities, not

just translation.

If you have to

give exams or

tests, THEN...

If you have to

give exams or

tests, THEN...