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3'' ~achingnd eXplainingvocabulajr

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This chapter looks at teaching.and,learning activities. It looks at thejobs that teaching activities need to perform, how teachers can eom-municate the meaningsof words to learners and a wide range of activ-ities for vocabulary teaching and learning.Learning from teaching and learning activitiesThis section looks at the psychological conditions that need to occurin order for vocabulary learning to take place. It is organised aroundfour questions that teachers should ask about any teaching or learningactivity.

activity use t o h&&3. W h a m b s e r v a b h s h at learning might occur?4. What are t6e desi n features of the activity which set up the+onditions for learning.

The seaion ends with a detailed look at repetition and vocabularylearning.Let us first look at a vocabulary teaching technique to see how these

After enough hands are raised, the teacher asks a learner for a transla-tion or explanation of the meaning. The teacher:~ escriptionMght golike this. The word beng.taught is precise.

, .- 1 :Y ''Sometimes ir: is impoktant to nake a 'precise measurement.Sometimes it is not important to' be precise. bocto rs need a lot of

Teachingatad explaining vocabulary~informationo find the precise nature of a disease. If you te11 me yourprecise age, you will te11 me how old you are in years, manths, anddays! When you give someone precise instructions, the instructionsmust be accurate and complete . . '

When using this technique several things are important. First, notoo much kformation is given about the word at the beginning, so--that the learners have to listen attentively to the word i n a r a w ocontexts. Second, the teacher reveats the sentences saving each sen. "tence at least twice when it is firs; used and going back over the previously said sentences. The teacher does not ask the first learners whoraise their hands for the meaning of the word (a translation, asynonym, or a definition), but keevs on desaihiw+eneihmst-&.theciass hav raised their h&ds. If this technique &;sed properly, thelezrners will have made a very good star t to knowing the word preciseIt is however easy to use the &chnique badly: by Zving yh_e miii?igtoo quickly, by not repeatinn the sentences,b~ rernovingany--6hIIengfon This i s z t he r way of saying thai there are features inthe effectiveuse of the technique that encourage learning. These designfeatures are the repetition of the word and its contexts, the presence oa variety of rich contexts, and the need to give careful attention to theword and its contexts in order to be able to complete the activity byworking out its meaning.These features set up conditions that research tells us are importanfor language acquisition. These conditions include having a positivattitude to the activity (helped by its puzzle-like nature), noticing the

, item severa1 times and thoughtfully processing its meaning. These coni ditions help reach the vocabulary 1 is therefore important that teachers are aware of the important features of techniques s1 that they know how to use them and what to look for when they arei being used (see Loschky and Bley-Vroman, 1993: 165).When the technique is being used the teacher should be looking fo

signs that it might be achieving its learning goal. These signs includethe learners are interested a d paying alftentinn; hey are-m-hdawe and t h e d e nswer b o t oo soon.

We will now look at each ofthe four questions in detail.W ha t is the learning goal of the activity?

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~ k b l e.1; TheilearnSriggoalsof gome vocabuhry activities, : .: ;. . . . ,. . : : , ' . i . . ' ' . . ,

. . ..iavlr). ' harninggoals.,. ,~ o r dneaning, coliocatesLearn a stra'tegyLink orm tomeaning,word meaningLearn a strategyLin$ formtomeaning,word rneaningLearn a strategy~ r - & ~eceptive vocabulary into. .productive use

?t7smy word . 'Learners present ~ & c hord form,meaningand usewords they havemet Develop an awareness of what is involvedin knowing a wordteaching and leaming activities, we can answer this question in a verygeneral way by saying a vocabulary learning goal. But we can also bemore specific by considering al1 the aspects of what is involved inknowing a word (see Table 2.1) and deciding which of these is thelearning goal of the activity. For example, is the learning goal to learnthe speiling of some words, their proiunciation, or, more cornrnonly,to recognise a word form and link it t o its meaning? In general whenlooking at learning goals and analysing how a goal will be reached, itis sirnplest to consider only one leaming goal at a time. Most activitieshowever can achieve severa1 learnine:crods. Let us look at some vocab-"ulary activitie; to see what their specific vocabulary learning goalmiaht be.

& order to reach a goal. the knowled~e r information that rnakes*ug that goal needs to be avaiiable. ~nvformationabout words, forexample words' meanings, can come from textual inuut such as areading or listening text, or the context provided on a worksheet;information can come from a reference sou;ce such as a t e a c k or adiffwiar;tor it can come from the 1 arners 'in a group who alreaCTyPnow something about the word. Newron's (fokhcorning) studyfound that when learners discussed the meanings of words from aworksheet with each other, the vastmajority of diicussions resulted inuseful and accurate kforrnation being pr~ vided boutthe words. Thisidno't &rprising. Vbcabulary tests of Jearners who have rougYy thes q e proficiency lev,el usually, " .,+.show,-. 'a remaykable diversity of knbwl-;e&e (SarGi, ~2i on .a .nMeistr, 7.8) All'leaijiers usually know the' h i g h k i frquenty i&ds', hn8&eFr'zh;o;.;!iarneis;:know m*? 6f the,.. r; + . .. . ,> ' ., . .. , .' . !' .

Teaching.andexpiaining vocabulary 631 other words appropriate to their leve1 of proficiency. Newton (1993)i! for example, found that in his pre-test to the speaking tasks, 35% ofthe 111 ested words were known by al1 learners, 54% by one or more! learners but not everyone, and 11% were not known by anyone. itt was the 54% that were known by at least one person that could most; usefully be discussed by the learners. In addition, the leamers could: use the context clues to work out the meanings of the words that' nobody knew before the activity.$ Wh at psychological cond itions does the activity use to belpreach tbe learning goal?

There are three important general processes that may lead to a wordbeing remembered. These comprise noticing (through formal instruc-tion, negotiation, the need to comprehend or produce, awareness odinefficiencies), etrieval, and creative (generative) use. These processescan be viewed as three steps with the later steps including the earliersteps.NoticingThe first process encouraging learning is noticing, that is giving atten-tion to an item. This means that learners need to notice the word, andbe aware of it as a useful language item (see EUis, 1991; McLaughlin,1990; Schmidt, 1990 for discussions of noticing). This noticing maybe affected by severa1 factors, including the salience of the word in thetextual input or in the discussion of the text, previous contact thatthe learners have had with the word, and learners' realisation that theword fills a gap in their knowledge of the language (Schmidt andFrota, 1986; Ellis, 1990). Noticing also occurs when learners look upa word in a dictionary, deliberately study a word, guess from context,or have a word explained to them.M&&on andJmxes+ are irnportant enabling fornThe choice of content can be a major factor stimu&ing inter

: est. h is study of leaming from listening, Elley (1989: 185) foundquite different results from the sarne learners listening to two differenstories. Tliis seemed to have been.due to the lack of involvement of thelearners in one of the sto~iesbecause of its sarangeness, lack ofopportunity far other conditions favouring learning to take effect' Although there is no generally accepted.theory of why interest is1 irnponant and the 'faetors hat arouse interesr, teachers need to watch

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