Developing a Productive Academic

Vocabulary for Writing

Diane Schmitt

diane.schmitt@ntu.ac.uk

TESOL 2008

New York, New York

Aims

Take a “simple” lexical use problem Use learner corpora to understand how

the lexical item is being used Use expert corpora to help students notice

the gap between their own use and that of more experienced writers

Extract from a student essay – 1a

Secondly, a significant internal reform in China is the acceleration of strong and comprehensive cooperative arrangements between China’s education industry and foreign providers. The most significant development is that non-governmental private education is the fastest growing ____wc____ of higher education in China. Private businesses and enterprises, non-profit agencies, community groups and individuals are establishing non-governmental private institutions

(MoE.P.R.C., 2006).

segment nounsegment [countable]

1 a part of something that is different from or affected differently from the whole in some way

segment of

segments of the population

2 a part of a fruit, flower, or insect that it naturally divides into:

Decorate with orange segments.

3 technical the part of a circle that is separated from the rest of the circle when you draw a straight line across it

4 technical the part of a line or of a length of something between two points

segment of

segments of DNA

(from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English)

area noun

S1W1 [countable]1 a particular part of a country, town etc in an area Only cheeses made in this area may be labelled 'Roquefort.' There were over 2 inches of rain in coastal areas. area of a working-class area of Birmingham Many areas of Africa have suffered severe drought this year. a rural area (=countryside) of woodlands and fields Crime rates are significantly higher in urban areas (=towns, cities etc). The police have searched the farm and the surrounding area (=the area

around it). children from the local area a residential area of the town

area noun

2 a part of a house, office, garden etc that is used for a particular purpose:

a no-smoking area Their apartment has a large kitchen area. Come through into the dining area. the reception area of the hotel a storage area on the ground floor3 a particular subject, range of activities, or group of related subjects: The course covers three main subject areas. This study has clearly identified a major problem area for the National Health Service. We're funding research into new areas such as law enforcement technology. area of reforms in the key areas of health and education

area noun

4 the amount of space that a flat surface or shape covers area of an area of 2,000 square miles a formula to calculate the area of a circle

➔ grey area at grey 1 (7) (from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English)

Extract from a student essay – 1b

Secondly, a significant internal reform in China is accelerating strong and comprehensive cooperation between China’s educational industry and Foreign Service provider. The most dramatically point is non-governmental private education constitutes develop in the fastest growing aspect of higher education in China. Businesses or enterprises, non-profit agencies, community groups or individuals establish non-governmental private institutions (MoE.P.R.C 2006).

aspect noun

S3W1 1 [countable] one part of a situation, idea, plan etc that has many parts aspect of Dealing with people is the most important aspect of my work.Alcoholism affects all aspects of family life.2 [countable] the direction in which a window, room, front of a building etc faces: a south-facing aspect3 [singular, uncountable] literary the appearance of someone or something: The storm outside gave the room a sinister aspect.4 [uncountable and countable] technical the form of a verb in grammar that shows whether an action is continuing, or happens always, again and again, or once: 'He sings' differs from 'He is singing' in aspect.

(Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English)

Do we send the student looking for another word?

feature nounfeature S2W1 [countable]

1 a part of something that you notice because it seems important, interesting, or typical:

Air bags are a standard feature in most new cars.

feature of

An important feature of Van Gogh's paintings is their bright colours.

common feature

Striped tails are a common feature of many animals.

The hotel's only redeeming features (=things that make it acceptable) were that it was cheap and near the city centre.

main/important/significant etc feature

The most distinctive feature of the dinosaurs was their size.

One of the distinguishing features (=features that are different from other things of the same sort) of modern banking is its dependence on computers. (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English)

Extract from a student essay - 2

“Global networks have been dramatically affected by the development of new machines and technologies, [such as] …fiber optic cables, jet planes, audio-visual transmissions, digital TV, computer networks including the internet and satellites, which shrink time-space” (Scott, 1998:5-6). They have influenced the social world in various ____wc_____. One of the most important areas is higher education.

Extract from a student essay - 2“Global networks have been dramatically affected by the development of new machines and technologies, [such as] …fiber optic cables, jet planes, audio-visual transmissions, digital TV, computer networks including the internet and satellites, which shrink time-space” (Scott, 1998:5-6). They have influenced the social world in various aspects. One of the most important areas is higher education.

1 [countable] one part of a situation, idea, plan etc that has many parts aspect of Dealing with people is the most important aspect of my work.Alcoholism affects all aspects of family life.

22 occurrences of aspect across 9 student papers

Wordsmith Tools

Change the word?

By using the word choice (wc) editing code I’m encouraging the students to look for a new word

This ignores that fact that many of the students are attempting to use the word aspect

An alternative approach would be to focus on the word (or phrase) students are attempting to use

What is inappropriate and what’s not?

What can we learn from students current use of the word aspect? What is causing the awkwardness?

Word knowledge

More to Word Knowledge than Just Meaning

spelling

associations

collocations

formality connotation

frequency

grammar

pronunciationmeaning

word

What do we mean by correctness when talking about vocabulary use?

Word knowledge Partial knowledge

Partial Knowledge

Spelling (Fitzpatrick, 2007) Affixes (Schmitt & Zimmerman, 2002) Collocation (Gyllstad, 2007)

What do we mean by correctness when talking about vocabulary use?

Word knowledge Partial knowledge Incremental view of vocabulary learning

Tracking Incremental Learning through repeated extensive readings

0= I definitely don't know what this word means

1 = I am not really sure what this word means

2 = I think I know what this word means

3 = I definitely know what this word means

(Horst, 2000; Cobb, 2007)

Time n +1

reading

10 1 2 3

0 75 27 9 3

1 4 20 20 6

2 2 4 13 35

3 0 0 7 75

The Scope of the Vocabulary Learning Task

Large vocabulary needed Various kinds of word knowledge needed Vocabulary learning is incremental Vocabulary learning requires consolidation Vocabulary learning requires enhancement

of partial knowledge Need to know phrasal vocabulary as well as

individual words

How can students get beyond this kind of usage problem and enhance knowledge of aspect?

How can students get beyond this kind of usage problem and enhance knowledge of aspect?

Students should read widely to see howthis word is used in texts

How can students get beyond this kind of usage problem and enhance knowledge of aspect? Students should read widely to see how

this word is used in texts

Occurrences of aspect AWL word (sub-list 2)39.4 per million in the BNC2000 most frequent words

Common frequency benchmarks (Biber et al., 1999)

Occurrences per million words

Speech – occurs once every:

Writing – occurs once every:

1000 8.5 minutes 2.5 pages

200 42.5 minutes 12 pages

100 85 minutes 25 pages

40 200 minutes 60 pages

20 400 minutes 125 pages

10 800 minutes 250 pages

How can students get beyond this kind of usage problem and enhance knowledge of aspect? Essay specific mini-corpus

9 texts (116,254 words) 25 occurrences of aspect(s) across 6

texts

Wordsmith Tools

How can students get beyond this kind of usage problem and enhance knowledge of aspect? Essay specific mini-corpus

9 texts (116,254 words) 25 occurrences across 6 texts

Student writing mini-corpus11 texts (24,621 words) 22 occurrences across 9 texts 15 problematic in some way

22 occurrences of aspect across 9 student papers

Wordsmith Tools

Learner data1 he demands of market. Actually, the two aspects are the essential parts within t

2 g the most obvious examples. In various aspects, China can and will be of paramo

3 ization of higher education is economic aspect. Educational quality is increasin

4 more likely focus on the following five aspects: Firstly, Chinese higher educ

5 ld in linking together and affects many aspects. Higher education plays one of t

6 ciety to facilitate and advance in many aspects in China.

7 lobalization has an undeniably material aspect in so far as it is possible to id

8 start doing analysis is to decide which aspect of it we will delve into. As

9 stitutes develop in the fastest growing aspect of higher education in China. Bus

10 n the world is affecting almost all the aspects of our societies. It seems a ver

11 transformation of high education in the aspects of society, economy and itself.

12 rspective, globalization impacts on all aspects of UK's higher education. This e

13 ines the context relating the following aspects of China's higher education. In

14 rrying out the policy was a fundamental aspect of cultural construction." In th

15 r policy led to profound changes in all aspects of Chinese society. The higher e

16 plores the transformations of HE in the aspects of society, economy and itself i

17 ransformations and changes in different aspects of high education, such as the g

18 , the WTO's attempts to standardize all aspects of education around the globe c

19 l exchange has been enhanced in various aspects: students and staff flows betwe√

20 earning affect higher education in many aspects, such as, change the organizatio

21 e of the most remarkable and noteworthy aspect. That is not only because high ed

22 rse culture, even to interchange in few aspects to benefit from each other. Acco

Learner data1 he demands of market. Actually, the two aspects are the essential parts within t2 g the most obvious examples. In various aspects, China can and will be of paramo3 ization of higher education is economic aspect. Educational quality is increasin

5 ld in linking together and affects many aspects. Higher education plays one of t6 ciety to facilitate and advance in many aspects in China.

9 stitutes develop in the fastest growing aspect of higher education in China. Bus10 n the world is affecting almost all the aspects of our societies. It seems a ver11 transformation of high education in the aspects of society, economy and itself. 13 ines the context relating the following aspects of China's higher education. In 16 plores the transformations of HE in the aspects of society, economy and itself i17 ransformations and changes in different aspects of high education, such as the g

19 l exchange has been enhanced in various aspects: students and staff flows betwe√20 earning affect higher education in many aspects, such as, change the organizatio21 e of the most remarkable and noteworthy aspect. That is not only because high ed22 rse culture, even to interchange in few aspects to benefit from each other. Acco

Go to corpus lines and word document!

Steps in my process

1. Read student essays2. Notice awkward use of a word3. Create a mini-learner corpus from all student

essays for this assignment4. Search for patterns of misuse of word5. Compare with another learner corpus6. Compare with native speaker corpus7. Plan corpus informed instructional intervention

Thank you for your attention!

diane.schmitt@ntu.ac.uk

a lot of political , economic and social policy in Hong Kong . In the political

aspect , he implemented a very radical change in Hong Kong . The people in Hong

Which I have watched a documentary on T . V . Everything is change to modernism

aspect in China . For instant , trading , economy and Commercial development whi

songs . I was so embarressed that I could not sing very well . For the academic

aspect , I was interested in Mathesmatic and Science . Both of the subjects did

G on the sidewalk to cross the road of busy traffic safe and sound . As for good

aspect , social rituals provide us with available unitive rules that maintain th

Me , my mind had become more open , and I start to see the world in a different

aspect . Though sometimes I still feel stressful , but I ' m starting to tell my

image in his poem , it ' s liked a gleaner . Reading the poem we can be in the

aspect of inspection or enter into the autumn world and Keat ' s feelings . Keat

ms arising from exempting the valve division from the cutbacks : Concerning this

aspect of a possible solution it is not difficult to realize that the other divi

, because this product had failed to win acceptance in the market . An important

aspect would be the consequences if Maynard will fail . As he owes them 500 . 00

nt role . If a man has enough self - assurance he realizes it as a very positive

aspect that women are intelligent too . There are so many different points of vi

The younger and therefore weaker members of the family . Secondly , there is the

aspect of wrong idols especially teenagers tend to identify with . Such super -

there were more possibilities to find a job . When cities changed their original

aspect there was the necessity to create new structures as there were too many p

fic and buses . As it is possible to see on the map the town will not change his

aspect , can have only benefits from a such choice . Less traffic , less smog ,

2 ) Comfort : the train are really comfortable there is nothing to add . On this

aspect you provide one of the best service I had ever experienced . 3 ) Reliabil

o much . they prefer to perform actions rather than to talk . And then , another

aspect must be take into account : a women loves compromises . But no a man ! He

piece of jewelry , possibly of the last century . In my opinion the most typical

aspect of this market is not only the range of goods it shows , but also the peo

nd themselves involved in some mad project . The need for peace is not a typical

aspect of one of the two sexes . Some may say that women have an innate mother i

lary , a big scene get the force to people , too . But , Movie at home have good

aspect than movie in theaters . Movie at home can stop the movie . If , suddly ,

Of course , I like EJ ELS is very good school . But , I don ' t like fewaspect . For example , tution is very expensive . And there are the school

build

the united States . If it were not for their own rhythmic sense , American music

aspect would be different from now . It is not strange that they have contribute

should not have recieve foreigner to sumo world from the beginning . From these

aspect we should not regard sumo as ordinal sport . I think a nation must have s

ositive point is that I felt it was good for us to dream . And the most negative

aspect was . . . . I couldn ' t think ! 4 . I think money is good for both

evelopment . In development projects , it is necessary to examine various social

aspect : when education project is planned , consideration to public sector ' s

Family members after he ' s retired . But for women , becoming old has many good

aspect I think . First of all , women have a lot of time after their children le