tema 11 b

8/18/2019 Tema 11 b

1/12

THEME 11 : LEXICAL AND SEMANTIC FIELDS OF THE ENGLISHLANGUAGE. LEXICON REQUIRED FOR THE SOCIALIZATION,INFORMATION AND EXPRESSION OF ATTITUDES. TYPES OFACTIVITIES JOINED TO THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF LEXICONIN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE.

The first thing a child does in his/her Mother Tongue, once

he/she has carried out the emission of sound stage,is to say words,

isolated words but with meaning. They areconnected with the world

around him/her and are probably those with which the child has a

narrow relationship. According to the increase of his/her perception

and knowledge of the reality, his/her vocabulary also increases.

So, in order toestablish which vocabulary can have MOREINTEREST for our studentś learning, we must take into accountthe

world they live in andthe purpose they have when they learn a

Foreign Language, with the purpose of being a SIGNIFICANT

VOCABULARY for them.

It must be a vocabulary for COMMUNICATION, based on the

child or being specially interesting to him/her.

So, vocabulary is an important factor in all language teaching :

students must continually be learning words at the same time theylearn Grammar and Phonetics.

Presenting new words is only the first step in the process of

language learning, and students must remember them and make

them part of their own vocabulary. But sometimes it is quite difficult

because there are SOME PROBLEMS that do not allow the

acquisition process to be easier:

• On the one hand, some of the words taught in Foreign Language

lessons occur naturally in sequence : days of the week, numbers,etc… and these series are easily memorized, but the problem

arises when students have to use them out of the sequence.

• On the other hand, some similar words or COGNATES facilitate

the learning of new words ; some of them are“True cognates”, it

is, their meaning is more or less equivalent in both languages (ex.,

“real” = “real” ), and some of them are“False cognates”, which lead

1

8/18/2019 Tema 11 b

2/12

students to confusion (ex., “Actually” means “en realidad”, not

“actualmente” ). In the first case they are easy to remember, but

in the second case we have to help our students.

• Another problemarises when the words in the Mother Tongue and

in the Foreign Language do not cover the same area of meaning. There are words in the Target Language which do not make

distinctions that the Foreign Language does (ex., “trip, travel,

journey,…”). These distinctions imply that there is a change in the

way of viewing reality and, therefore, this change must be learnt

too.

In order to remember this vocabulary better, it can be connected

in groups which have a common element: a topic, semanticassociations, or the formal relations used to form derivations of these

words ; when words are associated this way, we call it“SEMANTIC

FIELDS” or“WORD FAMILIES”, and when the connectors are the

formal relations they formLEXICAL FIELDS.

At the same time we should look for general centres of our

studentś interests so that we could choose the most suitable

vocabulary for those settings, which could be the following ones :-Informal conversations with the classmates.

-Descriptions of objects, persons or animals.

-Interviews.

-Telephone calls.

-Childreńs stories, etc…

So,OUR MAIN TASK is to provide our pupils with a series of

resources that help them to have independence when they have tocommunicate in a Foreign Language. The use of these resources will

make their vocabulary, more or less limited, be increased in a way

that does not require a lot of effort.

2

8/18/2019 Tema 11 b

3/12

The first step consists of making our students be aware of that

in English there is the same possibility as in their Mother Tongue to

form new words by means of the following TECHNIQUES :

1.CONVERSION

2. AFFIXATION

3.COMPOUNDING

1.CONVERSION

It is a process in which an item is adapted or converted to a

new word-class without the addition of a suffix.

The most common are the following :

a)Verb to noun conversion. Ex., “to love” —> “love”

b)Adjective to noun conversion. Ex., “a daily newspaper” — >“a daily”

c)Noun to verb conversion. Ex., “bottle” —> “to bottle”

d)Adjective to verb conversion. Ex., “a brick garage” —> “the garage

is brick”.

2.AFFIXATION

In this group we include :

a.)PREFIXES, which do not generally alter the word-class of the base.

Examples :

1. Negative prefixes : “un-“ , “in-“ , “il(l)-“ ,... Ex., unfair, inhuman, illogical.

2. Prefixes of Degree/Size : “super-“, “under-“,…

Ex., superman, undercook.

3. Pejorative prefixes : “mal-“ , “pseudo-“,...

3

8/18/2019 Tema 11 b

4/12

Ex., pseudoscientific, maltreat.

4. Number prefixes : “uni-“ , “bi-“ , …

Ex., unisex, bicycle.

5. Prefixes of Time/Order : “pre-“, “post-“, “ex-“,…

Ex., pre-war, ex-president.

6. Prefixes of Attitude : “co-“, “anti-“,…

Ex., co-education, anti-war.

7. Locative prefixes : “sub-“ , “inter-“,…

Ex., subway, interplay.

8. Etc…

b.)SUFFIXES, which frequently alter the word-class of the base.

Examples :

1. Verb to noun suffixes : “-er” , “-ing”,…

Ex., driver, painting.

2. Adjective to noun suffixes : “-ness”, “-ity”,… Ex., happiness, diversity.

3.Noun to adjective suffixes : “-ist”, “-y”,…

Ex., masochist, hairy.

4. Noun to noun suffixes : “-hood” , “-ship”,…

Ex., boyhood, friendship.

5. Adjective suffixes. There are some adjective suffixes

for which it is impossible to specify a particular

meaning, that is, their semantic functions are

extremely varied. Ex., “-ive”, “-able”, “-al”, etc...,

such as in “explosive, criminal or acceptable”.

4

8/18/2019 Tema 11 b

5/12

6.Etc…

3. COMPOUNDING

A compound is a unit consisting of 2 or more bases. Ortographically, compounds are written :

b.)SOLID : in 1 word. Ex., “bedroom”, ”headache”, “hangman”,…

c.)HYPHENATED : Ex., “tax-free”, “sister-in-law”,…

d.)OPEN : Ex., “reading material”, “television screen”, “navy blue”,…

Phonologically, they have got a MAIN STRESS on the first

element and a SECONDARY STRESS on the second one.

Ex., ́bed,room .

Semantically, they can be seen to be isolated from ordinary

syntactic constructions by having a meaning which may be related to

but cannot simply be inferred from the meaning of its parts.

Compounds may be :

1.-Reduplicative , which are compounds with 2 or more elements

that are identical or only slightly different, such as

“knock-knock”, “tick-tock”,…

2.-Clipping , which implies the substraction of 1 or more syllables

from a word, which is also available in its full form,

such as “phone” (telephone), “exam” (examination),

“ad” (advertisement), …

3.-Blend , in which, at least, 1 of the elements is fragmentary when

compared to its corresponding word for, such as “Interpol”

(International Police), Eurovision (European Television), …

5

8/18/2019 Tema 11 b

6/12

4.- Acronyms , which are words formed from the initial letters of

words that make up a descriptive or a proper name,

such as “FBI” (Federal Bureau of Investigation), UFO

(Unidentified Flying Object), …

Up till now we have made reference to word-formation, which is

going to be useful for our students in order to establish relationships

between new words and the previous known ones.

*At Primary School we know the vocabulary presented to ourstudents must be related totheir necessities and world around them

such as the family, animals, toys, etc…and we also know we must

provide them with theLinguistic and Non-linguistic strategies to

favour theINTERACTION WITH THE OTHERS through, for example :

-simple greetings : “Good morning. How are you?”,…

-social English : “Have a nice weekend”,…

-asking for permission : “Can I go to the toilet, please?”,…

-communicative strategies : “Sorry, I dońt understand”,…

So, it is a very important point for us to bear in mind that we

have to help children relate the new vocabulary and expressions they

are learning in the foreign language to their lives, it is, they mustrealize that if they are learning, for instance, the members of the

family, it is going to be useful for them to get information about their

classmateś families and vice versa too; we mean that new words are

learnt, not only to do the activities in the book or to pass a test, but

tofavour their SOCIALIZATION, to know their classmates better, and

to exchangeINFORMATION about their feelings, needs, interests,

6

8/18/2019 Tema 11 b

7/12

lives, etc… So it is very important theGROUP WORK in the English

class.

But, as well as theseFEATURES, when teaching new

vocabulary, we have alsoto take into account :

a.The studentś needs. It is very useful to study in depth which are

the most common fields that the children would like to deal with in

class. These fields will depend very much on the studentś age,

social background, interests and hobbies, etc…

b.The frequence of the item, because it is not very useful to keep on

teaching new words which are NOT frequently used.

c.The time we have at our disposal to teach new vocabulary.

d.The studentś conditions to learn new words, such as phonological

problems, difficulties for memorizing, etc…

e.The lack of materials such as dictionaries, TV, flashcards,…

f.And the Receptive and Productive Vocabulary. The first kind

comprises the words students recognize but which are not mostly

used; the second type are the words which are mostly used by

them. For example, the Receptive vocabulary is “pullover and

sweater” and the Productive one could be only “jumper”.

We know that just telling the students the expressions and

mechanisms of the Foreign Language does NOT make them learn. Whenever we do an activity for pupils to learn certain vocabulary we

must try, in the first place, that this vocabulary is presented in REAL

SITUATIONAL or LINGUISTIC SETTING that let them guess the

meaning; on the other hand, new words and expressions must be

always presented in an ORAL WAY to avoid pupils getting wrong

7

8/18/2019 Tema 11 b

8/12

conclusions about their pronunciation when they see the written

form.

After this, students must try to use the new items productively,

that is, to insert the words in a context they think suitable to use it.

This is the best way to make them understand all the differentmeanings that the new words have, since they always relate the

meaning of these items in the Foreign Language with the possible

meanings that these words may have in their Mother Tongue.

The classroom is where the most of the studentś interactions

take place, and we know thesecommunicative exchanges are not

always spontaneous, it is, they are started, guided and controlled by

the teacher, andthe main reason could be that pupils do not receivefrom the very beginning of the Teaching and Learning process the

necessary linguistic and non-linguistic strategies or resources to do

that on their own.

*There are many different methods to teach vocabulary. They

depend… :-on the one hand, on the linguistic level that the students already

have.

-and, on the other hand, on the type of items we want to teach them.

But, in broad outlines, some of the TECHNIQUES or

ACTIVITIES we can present to children in order to help them develop

their autonomous learning of lexicon little by little could be the

following ones :

1.In order to INTRODUCE new vocabulary :

A.Using objects, because as much of the vocabulary at this

educative stage consists of concrete nouns, so introducing a new

8

8/18/2019 Tema 11 b

9/12

word by showing the real object often helps them memorize it

better.

B.Using flashcards or transparencies with the picture and the

written form of the new item.

C.Drawings, that is, objects can be drawn on the blackboard or in

their notebooks.

D.Mime, gestures,…may be used for certain descriptive adjectives,

prepositions of place, action verbs, etc…

E.Songs are another way of introducing new vocabulary. There is agreat variety of them we may use in class with this purpose :

-Songs that deal with certain topics: the colours, the family, etc…

-Songs to move their bodies.

-Songs to work rhythm, stress and intonation.

-Songs to repeat a certain structure.

-Etc…

F.Synonyms and Antonyms, what let pupils associate the new word with a concept they already know.

G.Guessing the meaning from context. This meaning can be

obtained by means of the relation with the pictures, the

orthographic or pronunciation similarities with their mother

tongue.

H.Names of categories can also be taught verbally if the studentsknow some names of items that belong within a particular

category. Ex., “Tennis/Football/Baseball/Basketball/… is a sport”

I.Etc…

9

8/18/2019 Tema 11 b

10/12

J. Translation, if none of those techniques works. The use or the

avoidance of the Mother Tongue is a matter that must be decided

by each individual teacher according to his/her grouṕs

characteristics: some students at the elementary levels feel more

comfortable when they mentally relate the new words with anative equivalent, but other students like to discover the meaning

of the new items that have been explained without the resource of

the Native Language and they feel very proud of their discovery.

In any case,it must be minimized in the classroom.

2.Once we have presented the vocabulary, the following step is to

give the students the opportunityto PRACTISE it in suitable realcontexts within the classroom. Some of the techniques we may use

are the following :

A.Games, such as :

-“Kim ś game” .

-“Dominoes” or “Bingo”.

-Memory games, such as: .“Chinese Whisper” (the Spanish “Juego del Teléfono”).

.“I went to the market” (in which a child starts saying, “I went to

the market and I bought potatoes”, then the next student addsa word and says, “I went to the market and I bought potatoes

and tomatoes”, and so on).

- Etc…

B.Matching words to pictures.

C.Making handicrafts, slides, puppets, etc… related to the new

vocabulary worked out in the class.

D.Colour coding is another technique which help students to

associate the new concepts that they are learning to what they

already know, so it is easier for them to remember new words. For

instance, we may associate the “yellow” colour with nouns, the

10

8/18/2019 Tema 11 b

11/12

“red” colour with verbs, and so on using coloured discs, or

coloured symbols, etc...

E.Labelling pictures with the right word.

F.Picture dictation, in which the teacher gives instructions focusing

on specific vocabulary. Ex., “Draw a red table/pencil/cat…”.

G.Ordering a text, in which we have a text and we cut it into stripes;

then we hand them out to pupils for making the text up.

H.Etc…

3.Many children learn new words relatively quickly, but they alsoforget them quickly. Once vocabulary has been introduced and

practised, some techniques may be usedto CONSOLIDATE and

REVISE it, such as :

A.Picture dictionaries/Vocabulary books created by the own student.

We can organize these alphabetically or by topics. It is useful to

use a ring-folder so they can add new pages when necessary.

Pupils collect or draw pictures to illustrate the meaning of a word

and write the name below.

B.Collages or Posters, in which students collect pictures or photos

around a topic, then they stick them on to a large sheet of

cardpaper and write their names. These posters or collages are anelement to remember the vocabulary that has been learnt and, at

the same time, they can be used to decorate the classroom walls.

C.Word families/sets with pictures coloured and labelled. They are

kept into envelopes which can be labelled too, for example,

11

8/18/2019 Tema 11 b

12/12

“Clothes” , “Fruit”, etc… and may be used, from time to time, as

games to revise it.

D.Games, such as “Pictionary”, etc…

*We couldconclude that, starting from our clasś characteristics,

we will select which vocabulary and which of the previous techniques

explained are the most suitable and useful.

The use of varied resources and materials will encourage children

and will make the English lessons be more effective and pleasant, which is very important if we want to create a suitable atmosphere in

the class and to develop our studentś motivation.

12

tema 11 b

Documents