THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SEMANTICS

AND TEACHING VOCABULARY

BY CRISTINA PILATAXI

JANUARY, 10TH. 2016

VOCABULARY ACQUISITION

THREE STAGE MODEL

THE SEMANTIC TRANSFER HYPOTHESIS

• Form-meaning mapping is one of the basic processes involved in vocabulary acquisition.• A clear understanding of the process is required for any

attempt to develop a theory of vocabulary acquisition.• Form-meaning mapping has remained the focus of attention

in the study of child vocabulary acquisiton.

FIRSTFIRST

SECONDSECOND• It represents a view of form-meaning mapping that is often in

contrast to the assumptions held by many L2 researches.

• It is often assumed that L2 learners acquire new meanings while learning new words.

EVIDENCEEVIDENCE

• The transfer of semantic structures from L1 to L2 was demonstrated in studies.

• Te transfer comes from controlled experimental studies.

• The semantic content residing in L2 words is transferred from their L1 translations.

THE PRESENT THE PRESENT STUDYSTUDY

•The results suggest that whether two English words share the same L1 translation affects

the speed and accuracy of L1 ESL speakers in judging the semantic relatedness of English

words.

LEXICAL COMPETENCE LEXICAL COMPETENCE AND SEMANTIC AUTONOMYAND SEMANTIC AUTONOMY

•Lexical competence has hence become a multidimensional construct

rather than a monolithic concept.

OVERCOMING SEMANTIC OVERCOMING SEMANTIC FOSSILIZATIONFOSSILIZATION

• L2 learners can benefit tremendously from a variety of vocabulary instruction techniques

that help draw their attention to the semantic differences between two L2 words.