Teaching vocabularySebastian Calisto MirandaMagister en Innovación de la Enseñanza, Aprendizaje y Evaluación de InglésUniversidad de Concepción

Introduction• One of the less efficient ways of developing

learners’ vocabulary knowledge• It is an important part of a well-balanced

vocabulary programme

Deliberate vocabulary

teaching

• What needs to be known about a word can’t be dealt at one timeMain problem

• Cumulative process• Teaching can provide just a few encounters• The other meetings should be through

deliberate studyLearning a word

• It provides help when students face message-focused activities

Positive effect of teaching

vocabulary

Ways of quickly giving attention to words

First decision: Is the word worth spending time on?• Nation (2005) states:

• High frequency words are worth spending time on as they meet the needs of the learners.

• Low frequency words should be dealt as quickly as possible unless they are useful for the learners.

What is involved in knowing a word?• When deciding how to spend time on a word, we

should consider the learning burden of the word.

• Learning burden: What needs to be taught about a word.

1. It differs from word to word according to the ways the word relates to the L1 and L2 knowledge.

Teachers have to work out the learning burden considering each aspect of what is involved in knowing a word

Consequently…

• The learning burden of a word helps a teacher make the second important decision about teaching words.

• What aspects of the word should I spend time on?

• As well as providing direct teaching on those aspects of the word, the teacher can also set the learners to work on some of these aspects.

Exercises

• Vocabulary learning exercises that require little or no preparation• Prepared vocabulary exercises

Little or no preparation exercises

Word meaning

Word form Word use

• Find the core meaning

• Word card testing

• Guessing from context

• Spelling dictation

• Pronunciation• Word parts

• Suggested collocates

• Word detectives

Many of these activities involve learners working together in pairs or small groups.

Prepared vocabulary exercisesMeaning • Word and meaning matching • Labelling• Sentence completion• Crossword puzzles • Semantic analysis • Completing lexical sets Form • Following spelling rules • Recognizing word parts • Building word family tables Use • Sentence completion• Collocation matching • Collocation tables• Interpreting dictionary entries

Advantage:They can be made to systematically cover an area of vocabulary and learners can do them independently.

Working them in pairs or groups add the opportunity for learners to learn from each other

Getting repeated attention to vocabulary• Useful vocabulary needs to be met again and again to ensure it is

learned.• Early stages: meetings need to be reasonably close together.• Later stages: meetings can be very widely spaced with several weeks

between each meeting.

• Four strands of a course

1. Meaning-focused input2. Meaning-focused output3. Language focused learning4. Fluency development

High frequency vocabulary needs to be met across all four strands of a course

This approach to vocabulary is based on the following guidelines• High frequency words1. Give it attention, preferably focusing on its learning burden2. Make sure students will come back to the word again

• Low frequency words1. Pass over them without comment or give some brief

attention to it focusing on what is needed in that instant

• Direct teaching should be clear and simple. Rely on repeated meetings to develop an understanding of the complexities of a word.

• The deliberate teaching of vocabulary is only one part of the language-focused learning strand of a course.

Personal reflection• My practice• Deliberate vocabulary teaching• Learning burden• Retention and usage of words rather than memorization.

References• Nation, P. (2005). Teaching vocabulary. Asian EFL Journal, 7(3),

47-54.