Chapter 7: TEACHING VOCABULARY AND LEXIS

By Lec. Samarnh Pang

Food for Thoughts

• The knowledge of words is the gate of scholarship.---John Milton

Aims of this unit• What are some of the assumptions about

vocabulary?• What does knowing a word involve?• How can we present new vocabulary

items?• What are some effective ways to

consolidate vocabulary?• How do we help students develop

vocabulary learning?

Understanding vocabulary and vocabulary learning.

• Although grammar is usually integrated with the teaching of vocabulary, we still consider it necessary to introduce ways to present and consolidate vocabulary.

The teaching of vocabulary has been studied for many decades, there are still many uncertainties regarding:

• What constitutes a vocabulary item; • Which vocabulary items should be

taught and learned; • How vocabulary can be taught and

learned most effectively.

1. Vocabulary does not just mean single words: compounds, phrases and even on occasion, whole sentences can be items of vocabulary.

2. Most words in one language can be translated into another language, but not every single word and an equivalent. The article “the” in English, for example, has no exact equivalent in Chinese.

3. Students can be consciously taught about ways of learning vocabulary so that they become keenly aware of every opportunity for vocabulary expansion.

4. If teachers and students know the difference between active and passive vocabulary, they can treat them differently.

5. Translation is not the best way to explain new words.

6. English-English explanation is better than translation, but again it is not the best for vocabulary teaching. There are many other more effective ways.

7. An English-English dictionary can be very helpful, though beginners may find it more comfortable to use a bilingual dictionary.

8. It is more effective when words of related meaning are taught and learned together.

9. Studying vocabulary in language contexts are more effective.

10. Forgetting is inevitable. But if words are frequently used, they are less easy to forget.

II. What does knowing a word involve?

knowing a word means knowing:• its pronunciation and stress;• its spelling and grammatical

properties;• its meaning;• how and when to use it to express the

intended meaning.

1.What does it mean to know a word?• Learning a word involves learning more

than just the word itself. e.g. post office, mother-in-law• There are multi-word units, such as: phrasal verbs, compound words • According to Hedge (2000),vocabulary

learning involves at least two aspects of meaning:

• the understanding of its denotative and connotative meaning;

• understanding the sense relations among words

• Denotative meaning• Denotative meaning of a word or a lexical item

refers to those words that we use to label things as regards real objects, such as name or a sign, etc. in the physical world. E.g. apple

• connotative meaning• A connotative meaning of a word refers to ‘the

attitudes or emotions of a language user in choosing a word and the influence of these on the listener or reader’s interpretation of the word. This words that may express a positive or negative attitude or subtle feelings towards something.

E.g. running-dog, dragon, big apple.

• collocations• Collocations refers to words that co-occur with

high frequency and have been accepted as ways for the use of words. It is believed that teaching word collocations is a more effective way than just teaching one single word at a time.

• synonyms, antonyms, hyponyms• Synonyms refer to items that mean the same,

or nearly the same. Antonyms refer to items that mean the opposite of a word. Hyponyms refer to words which can be grouped together under the same superordinate concept.

Receptive and productive vocabulary

• Receptive/Passive vocabulary/: the words one is able to recognize and comprehend in reading or listening but unable to use automatically in speaking or writing.

• Productive/Active vocabulary: the words one is not only able to recognize but also able to use in speech and writing .

Native speaker:Passive vocabulary: up to 100,000 words, Active vocabulary: between 10,000 and 20,000. Learners of intermediate to upper intermediate level Active vocabulary:3000 to 5000 wordsPassive vocabulary:5000 to 10,000 words

For the teacher: guide and help students to add active vocabularies. At the beginning of language learning, all the words which are taught must be acquired for active use, later, for passive use.

The implications of the English lexical system• Both denotative and connotative meaning need to be

learned:• Words are better understood in context.• A group of related words is likely to be more memorable

than a list of unrelated items, i.e. words learned with synonyms, antonyms or hyponyms;

• Knowledge of word formation is a useful source for developing vocabulary.

• Exploring sense relations among/between words kelp learning and remembering words.

• Teachers and learners need to be aware of the difference between receptive and productive vocabulary

Ways of presenting new words 1. Some suggestions for the teachers Different teachers have different ways to present

new words. Whatever methods are used, the following suggestions may help teachers:

1) Try to provide a visual or physical demonstration whenever possible.

2) Provide a verbal context to demonstrate meaning.

3) use synonyms or antonyms to explain meanings.

4) Use lexical sets pr hyponyms to show relations of words and their meaning.

5) Translate and exemplify, especially with technical words or words with abstract meaning.

• 6) Use word formation rules and common affixes to build new lexical knowledge on what is already know.

• 7) Teach vocabulary in chunks.• 8) Think about the context in real life

there the word might be sued.

• 9) Think about providing different context for introducing new words.

• 10) Prepare for possible misunderstanding or confusion that students may have.

• (Look at Task 5 on P125)• Task 6: Choose four items and give a mini

demonstration.

2. Words are best taught in groups.Language is a system and each word has its meaning defined in relation to other words. This insight leads to an easier, more effective and sounder way of explaining. It is helpful to explain difference of meaning rather than meaning itself.An individual word in a language acquires a meaning because of the relationship between it and other words. Awareness of certain kinds of relationship makes explaining vocabulary easier for the teachers, and learning it simpler for the students. Here are some relationships.

(1) synonyms. Big-large(2) Antonyms. Hot—warm—cool—cold(3) Complements. single/married.(4) Converse. parent/child, employer/employee. (5) Hyponyms. Car, van, bus ,lorry are hyponyms of vehicle.

Ways of consolidating vocabulary• 1. Libeling. Students are given a picture. They

are to write the names of the objects indicated in the picture.

• 2. Spotting the differences. Students are put into pairs. Each member of the pair receives a picture which is slightly different from his partner’s.

• 3. Describing and drawing. The student having the picture must tell his partner what to draw so that the drawing ends up the same as the original picture.

• 4. Playing a game. Students are shown a picture or a tray with many objects on it, or a series of different flash cards or magazine pictures. They have to tell what they saw, or write everything they can remember seeing.• 5. Using word thermometers. These are

useful for indicating different degrees in size, speed, age, distance, emotion etc. Students are given a list of words in jumbles order. They have to place these words in the correct place on the thermometer.

• 6. Using word series. Students construct the series following the example. Cutlery: knife, fork, spoon

• 7. Word bingo. Students draw nine squares on a piece of paper and put nine words connected with shopping in the squares. The first student who cross out a line of three words either horizontally, vertically or diagonally should shout out “ Bingo” and he or she will be the winner.

• 8. Word association. The teacher says a key word, e.g. traveling. The students have to write down all the words they can think of connected with the traveling. • 9. Odd man out. The teacher writes a

set of words on the blackboard and ask students to find the “odd man out”. For example, in the set: cheese eggs oranges, bread soap and meat, the word “soap” is the “odd man out”.

• 10. Synonyms and antonyms. The students are given a list of words and ask students to find pairs of words, either synonyms or antonyms.

• 11. Using word categories. Students put the jumbled words in the middle into the box marked with different categories.

• 12. Using word net-work. Students fill in the blanks in a network with words that are under the same category or sub-category.

Developing vocabulary building strategies Due to the limitations of time, students

cannot learn all the necessary vocabulary in the class. We need to help students develop their own vocabulary building strategies so that they can effectively acquire more vocabulary on their own.

1. Review regularly. Evidence shows that regular review helps students to maintain largest amount of recall. Look at the following figure.

龙岩学院外国语学院 精品课程 --《英语教学法》

Practice!!!

• Form• Grammar• Collocation• Denotation• Connotation• Synonym, Antonym, Co-hyponym…

Academic Vocabulary Examples• analysis • approach • area • assessmen

t • assume • authority • available • benefit

concept

consistent

constitutional

context

contract

create data definiti

on

environment

established

estimate

evidence

export

financial

formula

function