Teaching Vocabulary in Module English Course for Non-English Majors Qin Xiaohui Peter Kelly China Three Gorges University

Background Problem Analyses and Findings My discussion Further research

1. Background: History: The traditional English course for non-English majors, i.e. college English course, is divided into 2 parts, i.e. intensive reading and listening. The teaching of vocabulary is exactly undertaken in the intensive reading classes. Since the main focus of the syllabus is to develop the students’ proficiency in reading comprehension, the classroom teaching stresses the teachers’ explanation of words and the text. And such design of the course has led to the low competence of the students in speaking. So the college English teaching has been criticized for being time consuming and low in proficiency for a long time.

A reform is inevitable 17,000,000 (2002) 1:130 (Zhang Yaoxue,2003): 17,000,000 (2002) 1:130 (Zhang Yaoxue,2003): the lack of English teachers the need for the English personnel required by the development of the society and economy of China A reform is inevitable

Reform: At the beginning of 2004, the Ministry of Education of China issued the new requirements for College English Course for the 180 experimental universities chosen by it.

Compared to the old syllabus which stresses proficiency in reading comprehension, the new experimental one attaches more importance to listening and speaking.

The reformed English courses: (This paper takes the reform in China Three Gorges University as an example.) module course and module teaching : 1+1+1> 3 2 Module courses: 1. Compulsory language skill course Intensive reading listening, speaking writing

2. optional course western culture, cross-culture, literature, appreciating English films, trade English ……

S---listening and speaking Compulsory course: big Class (100-120) small class (25-30) B—Reading and writing S---listening and speaking

Class Schedule The time allocation: (in a week) 1] reading: 1 hour 2] writing : 1 hour 3] listening: 1 hour 4] speaking: 1 hour 5] computer-assisted learning: 4 hours a week Cf: traditional classes: 2 hours for reading and 2 hours for listening

2.Problem: Listening, speaking and writing are strengthened, while the time for reading ( i.e. traditional intensive reading class) reduces greatly. The reason is that the study for vocabulary which takes an important position in the reading class is left for the students to learn by themselves with the aid of the computer programs. Thus, the teaching and learning of vocabulary disappears in the English classes. And this is What we are concerned about.

Requirements for College English Course: According to the new Requirements issued by the Department of Higher Education of China, the college students should master 4,500—5,000 words, among which 2,000 words are required to be learned to use actively (productive), which means that the students can use them proficiently in both speaking and writing. And the ability to recognize unfamiliar words (receptive) with the knowledge of word-building is also required.

Our concern is whether requirements for vocabulary learning and mastery can be achieved by the students themselves without the help of the teachers.

Questionnaire and results: How much do you know about what should be learned in knowing a word? How much do you know about high-frequency vocabulary and low-frequency vocabulary? In learning new words, how much do you know about how to distinguish important words from less important words and deal with them differently? Since your reading course provides a CD-ROM with detailed explanations and plenty of examples to aid your vocabulary learning, do you think classroom teaching is still necessary for learning new words? Do you think your vocabulary learning is efficient? Do you think the vocabulary teaching in the classroom is interesting?

Results: (90 2nd-year non-English majors in CTGU) Table 1 Questions A lot A little Nothing 1 13% 60% 27% 2 15% 21% 54% 3 10% 30%

Table 2 Questions Yes No 4 96% 4% 5 11% 89% 6 40% 60%

3. Findings : 1] Students have little knowledge about what should be known about a new word. 2] Most students are confused about how they can know which words are important words. 3] Most students have little knowledge about high-frequency vocabulary and low-frequency vocabulary. 4]] The computer-programmed word list learning does not help greatly. Vocabulary teaching in the classroom is necessary though it is sometimes boring. 5] Learning vocabulary is time consuming and the words are easily forgotten.

4. discussion: It is clear from these findings that teachers should change their ideas about vocabulary teaching and permeate vocabulary teaching into all types of teaching modules such as listening, speaking, reading as well as writing rather than let them go randomly with the students themselves .

How to teach vocabulary in listening, speaking, reading and writing: What is involved in knowing a word: According George(1983), knowing a word needs to distinguish whether it is for receptive [R] use or for productive [P] use: R—listening, reading; P—speaking, writing

Form: Spoken form Written form R P What does the word sound like? How is the word pronounced? What does the word look like? How is the word written and spelt? Position: Grammatical patterns Collocations In what patterns does the word occur? In what patterns must we use the word? What words or types of words can be expected before or after the word? What words or types of words must we use with this word? Function: Frequency Appropriateness How common is the word? How often should the word be used? Where should we expect to meet this word? Where can this word be used? Meaning : Concept Associations What does the word mean? What word should be used to express this meaning? What other words does this word make us think of? What other words could we use instead of this one?

Vocabulary teaching In listening: Turn reading vocabulary into listening vocabulary Nation( 2003. 51-87) : ---1,800words; a. choose simple and interesting material in which the vocabulary level is well below the students’ reading level. b. prediction and dictation exercises build a useful bridge between writing and listening (Brown & Bernard, 1975) c. Design activities involving more intelligences to stimulate more active learning. ( Gardner, 1983,1993,2000; Armstrong, 1999; Campbell,1999, 2000)

Increase vocabulary in listening class: --the distance between 1,800 and 5,000 words of the syllabus. The vocabulary cannot satisfy the need for college English listening. 1] The ability for the teacher to control and simplify the learning material. According to Krashen’s(1981)input theory of language learning, a foreign lg. is learned by understanding messages that the learner does not feel worried or threatened by, and that contain some unknown lg. items which are understandable from the context.

2] Employ the learning method of Discovery (J. S 2] Employ the learning method of Discovery (J.S. Bruner, 1990) to encourage the students to find new words by themselves. ---before listening to a passage, write down the following sentences on the blackboard (Nation,2003.90): a. What was the word before/ after…? b. Could you please say that/play the recording again? c. How do you spell it? d. What does …mean?

Vocabulary teaching in speaking: West(1960) developed a minimum adequate speech vocabulary of 1,200 head words that would be sufficient for learners of English to say most of the things they would need to say. This seems a very small number of words, but evidence from the few frequency counts of spoken English indicates that in spoken English a small number of words accounts for a very large proportion of spoken language.

a. Use Grids (from Channell,1981) : Schonell et. al (1956) found in an investigation that the 1,000 most frequent words covered 94% of daily life English. And the first 2,000 words covered almost 99% of the material. So, in developing learners’ spoken English vocabulary it is best to give learners practice in being able to say a lot using a small number of words. To most of our students who have a vocabulary of 1,800, they can only read and recognize the words, i.e. their vocabulary are receptive rather than productive. So, in the speaking class, besides teaching new words, the teacher should also create practicing situations for the students to turn the receptive words into productive words. Activity: a. Use Grids (from Channell,1981) :

Being surprised: + + Affect with wonder Because unexpected Because difficult to believe So as to cause confusion surprise + astonish amaze astound So as to leave one helpless to act or think +

Activity b: Clusters: based on Brown(1980) Fahrenheit (adj.) conduct (v.) melt (v.) swell (v.) Chill (adj.) Calorie (n.) Heat (n.) hot (adj.) The sun thermo (n.) frozen temperature (n.) centigrade (n.)

Vocabulary teaching in Reading Class: (autonomous learning) Learning lists of words: According to Nation(2003.126-129), the great attractions of learning lists of words is that large numbers of words can be learned in a very short time. Tips: 2. Instructing students to enlarge vocabulary from extensive reading: 3. Introducing strategies to deal with the words in intensive reading materials ( authentic materials)

Vocabulary teaching in writing class: Raimes (1985) attaches importance to an adequate vocabulary for learners to generate, develop, and express ideas in their writing. As Nation (2003, p.147-148) puts it: “As with speaking, lack of vocabulary may be the result of a large enough receptive vocabulary but a very limited productive vocabulary, or it may be the result of a limited productive and receptive vocabulary. Learning to use a word productively in writing involves considerable learning that is not needed in listening, reading, or speaking. This learning includes spelling, the use of words in sentences, and the organization and signaling of written text.” The vocabulary for writing almost requires the learners to master all the knowledge concerning a word described by George (1983).

Practice for collocation: Using words to complete a sentence: Spelling training: Using dictionary ( both English-English and Chinese-English)

Conclusion and Further research: As the Module English Course for non-English majors has just begun to be experimented with in China, there is no experience about dealing with vocabulary according to the course design and arrangement. In this discussion about teaching vocabulary we have tried to probe into ways to solve the difficulties and problems the students are confronted with in their vocabulary learning in this new context. It is hoped that the importance of teaching vocabulary in the classroom will one day be reflected in the class and course arrangement.

As for the influence of vocabulary classroom teaching on the learning of the learners, we do not discuss it here for it requires further investigation.