1 Enhancing Effectiveness of Vocabulary Learning and Teaching at Secondary Level November 2013 English Language Education Section Curriculum Development Institute Education Bureau

Objectives of today’s programme 2 Objectives of today’s programme To introduce the theoretical underpinnings of vocabulary learning and teaching To explore effective strategies for developing vocabulary building skills To provide suggestions on designing quality vocabulary learning materials and activities

How do students learn vocabulary in English lessons? 3 How do students learn vocabulary in English lessons? You are going to observe a short, live lesson about how a class of S3 students learn English vocabulary. Lesson focus: students learn the names of various types of food to help students complete a vocabulary exercise – labeling the photos of food types Note down how the students learn English vocabulary in the lesson. After viewing, work in groups of 4 and discuss if the teaching is effective in addressing the difficulties encountered by students when learning English vocabulary.

Evaluation on the lesson 4 Evaluation on the lesson Learning mainly focusses on meaning (direct Chinese translation) and the pronunciation of the target vocabulary. Should students learn mainly meaning and pronunciation of the vocabulary? Reading aloud and learning the Chinese meaning of the vocabulary may not help students retain the vocabulary learnt and retrieve for use later. How can students retain and retrieve the vocabulary learnt for use? Does learning all vocabulary items from the textbook help students strengthen their vocabulary power? How can students strengthen their vocabulary power?

1. Vocabulary building skills 5 1. Vocabulary building skills

How can students strengthen their vocabulary power? Acquire various dimensions of vocabulary knowledge Learn and use a variety of vocabulary building skills

Dimensions of vocabulary knowledge 7 Dimensions of vocabulary knowledge Spelling Meaning Pronunciation Hyponymy Lexical field Style & Register Homonymy Connotation Word combination Word formation Word families Synonymy & Antonymy 7

Meaning of words Literal meanings (Denotative meanings) 8 Meaning of words Literal meanings (Denotative meanings) Implicit meanings (Connotative meanings) e.g. “blue” “heart”

Lexical field, Hyponymy 9 Lexical field, Hyponymy Semantic relations e.g. Food: vegetables, meat, fruits, drinks, dessert … Vegetables: lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, tomato… Meat: pork, beef, lamb … Fruits: banana, orange, apple, durian, grape … Hyponyms (lexical members, sub-categories)

Word formation Affixation (e.g. disapprove, wonderful …) 10 Word formation Affixation (e.g. disapprove, wonderful …) Blending (e.g. infotainment, email …) Clipping (e.g. ad, blog …) Giving a new meaning to an existing word (e.g. mouse, traffic …) Conversion (e.g. google, text …)

Word combination The patterns the words appear in 11 Word combination The patterns the words appear in e.g. multi-word units (formulaic expressions, idioms): a piece of cake, give me a hand, get cold feet … The ways words are used e.g. word collocations: play badminton, go fishing, make my lunch, take up a post …

field families units Lexical Style and Size register of Synonyms and 12 Size of Vocabulary Lexical field Synonyms and antonyms Style and register Word families Collocation Multi- word units connotation Hyponyms Homonyms

13 The Mental Lexicon With proper use of vocabulary building skills, students can organise the words they learnt and build associative networks in their minds effectively.

Vocabulary Building Skills 14 14 Vocabulary Building Skills Surveys reveal that good learners use a variety of skills to successfully learn new vocabulary or deal with unknown words in a text. They have more skills at their command and also use them more widely and more consistently. (Brown & Perry 1991, Cohen & Aphek 1981, Lawson & Hogben 1996, Sanaoui 1995) Implication: Teachers should make students aware of a variety of vocabulary building skills.

Some effective vocabulary building skills 15 Some effective vocabulary building skills Create associations by Making use of lexical relations Attending to word collocation (multi-word units) Learn word formation (e.g. affixation, blending, clipping …) Use graphic organisers What can teachers do? Create multiple exposure to words taught / learnt.

Creating Associations 16 Creating Associations Two Strands Topic Strand (associative networks) Collocation Strand (associative networks) focus on size (breadth) focus on word combinations (depth) paradigmatic approach syntagmatic approach expand the size of the vocabulary bank understand the usage of the vocabulary and apply the words learnt appropriately

Paradigmatic approach 17 Paradigmatic approach Develops associative networks Associations are based on semantic categories Deliberate organisation of words into hierarchies Associates with receptive vocabulary 17 17

Paradigmatic approach (cont.) 18 Paradigmatic approach (cont.) Hyper-ordinates flat bedroom bathroom kitchen stove sink cupboard tap strainer Sub-ordinates

Syntagmatic approach Develops associative networks 19 Syntagmatic approach Develops associative networks Associations are based on collocations (word combinations) Focuses on: multi-word units (e.g. ‘See you later.’, ‘Have a good trip!’, ‘keep abreast of’ …) collocations (e.g. ‘go shopping’, ‘have a shower’, ‘play football’ …) Associates with productive vocabulary 19 19

Syntagmatic approach (cont.) Topic: Jobs E.g. Chefs cook meals in restaurants. PEOPLE ACTIONS OBJECTS PLACE chef cook meals restaurant teacher singer pilot

Hands-on Activity 1 Procedures: Read the leaflets about popular routes for heritage tours in HK Locate information about one of the heritage sites Identify and categorise/organise adjectives describing the heritage sites Write a short description about a famous heritage site

Hands-on Activity 1 Learning objectives: Learn adjectives to describe places and buildings Use the paradigmatic approach to organise adjectives under hyper-ordinates Use the syntagmatic approach to organise adjectives to describe places and buildings Present information using a wider variety of vocabulary appropriately

How can students improve their writing through learning vocabulary? What vocabulary building skills do the students use to finish the task? How can students improve their writing through learning vocabulary?

Teaching Procedures of the Task ODSACROM (Worksheet 2) identify adjectives describing places and buildings and put them under appropriate categories use the ‘ODSACROM’ table to give details about objects Sample description (Worksheet 3) identify the repeated words and guide them to replace them with synonyms or more specific words expand the ideas and enrich the vocabulary through thinking of the different characteristics of the building Paradigmatic approach (making use of lexical relations) – synonyms, hyponyms Syntagmatic approach (making use of word collocation) lexical substitution (paradigmatic approach) lexical expansion (syntagmatic approach)

2. Vocabulary learning and reading 25 2. Vocabulary learning and reading

Why do some students read better? 26 Why do some students read better? Students’ reading abilities depend on: Vocabulary Knowledge Their depth and breath of word knowledge (Mezynski, 1983) Background Knowledge Their understanding of the topic or concept. (Anderson & Freebody, 1981) Metalinguistic Skills Their ability to reflect on and manipulate language (Nagy & Scott, 2000)

Reading and Vocabulary 27 Cycle of Vocabulary Building and Reading Vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension are correlated. (Hiebert and Kamil 2005, p.41) Reading and Vocabulary Vocabulary Volume of Reading Reading Comprehen-sion William Ngay, 2005, p.41

Cycle of Reading and Vocabulary 28 Cycle of Reading and Vocabulary Students should be supported at each point in the reading and vocabulary cycle. Teaching individual words More exposure to the language Introducing word knowledge Vocabulary More time to read Higher Motivation Matching kids with texts Volume of Reading Reading Comprehen-sion Reading strategies Building background knowledge Metalinguistic skills William Ngay, 2005, p.41

How can teachers improve students’ vocabulary and reading? Focus on target vocabulary Improve students vocabulary and background knowledge, as well as metalinguistic skills through learning activities

1. Focus on Target Vocabulary 30 1. Focus on Target Vocabulary To improve their vocabulary, students should be given the opportunities to: Target the key vocabulary that matches their language needs Study the target vocabulary in greater depth

Pedagogies for learning target vocabulary Provide multiple exposures to target words in reading texts and design vocabulary-focused activities and create opportunities for vocabulary use Promote cognitive ‘elaboration’ of the form-meaning relationship through instructional intervention Guide students in the development of vocabulary building skills

Guessing words from context 32 Guessing words from context The use of vocabulary building skills in guessing and inferring words and phrases in context Linguistic clues (e.g. ‘Many parents are concerned about the inappropriate materials they children can access on the Internet.’) Contextual clues (e.g. ‘Some people may abuse the Internet by spreading rumours of false information’.) Knowledge of word formation (e.g. prefixes, suffixes and compound words) Knowledge of lexical relations (e.g. collocation, sense relations such as synonym, antonym and hyponym)

Guessing words from context 33 Guessing words from context The use of contextual clues is a good reading strategy, but not very conducive to vocabulary growth: Comprehensible input alone is not sufficient for students to master the vocabulary. (Swain, 1993) Students are less likely to notice and learn the words if the words are not essential to understanding the passage. (Laufer, 1997)

Using a dictionary With effective and judicious use of a dictionary, students can: confirm their guesses about a word learn new vocabulary deepen their vocabulary knowledge Students should learn to use a dictionary to: find out the less frequent, unusual or rare meaning and special usage of words in a text learn to use the words appropriately, e.g. using the correct part of speech CDC-HKEAA English Language Curriculum and Assessment Guide (S4-6)

2. Meaningful learning activities Students should be given the opportunities to engage in meaningful learning activities to enrich their: Vocabulary Knowledge Background Knowledge Metalinguistic Skills

Pedagogies to improve students’: Vocabulary knowledge provide both definitional and contextual information about a word introduce important vocabulary words and provide ways for students to solidify their understanding of the words by seeing them and using them multiple times (Hiebert and Kamil, 2005) Background knowledge teach vocabulary in conjunction with concepts and content to enrich students’ knowledge of the topic connect the target vocabulary items with students’ prior knowledge and experiences (Beck et all, 2002) Metalinguistic Skills cover vocabulary building and reading skills to enhance students’ ability to comprehend texts

How can students learn vocabulary to improve their reading? How can students recognise and remember the words more easily? How can students learn vocabulary to improve their reading?

Hands-on Activity 2 Procedures: Complete the comics with the vocabulary items Learn how the words are coined Read the passage and answer the comprehension questions

Hands-on Activity 2 Learning objectives: Learn coined words on information technology Understand word formation Understand and analyse a reading text with better vocabulary and background knowledge

Connecting Vocabulary Learning to Reading Learning activities Purpose Focus on target vocabulary Students: Complete the comics with target vocabulary Learn how new words in the area of information technology are coined Read the passage and answer the comprehension questions Learn more about the topic Develop vocabulary building skills Apply vocabulary and background knowledge as well as metalinguistic skills Repeated exposure to vocabulary

Vocabulary Learning and Reading Teachers are always puzzled: Why do students fail to recognise words that have already been ‘taught’? Students REMEMBER better if they: have sufficient encounters with the target vocabulary learn vocabulary in conjunction with (i) concepts and content (ii) learning strategies 41 41

3. The use of vocabulary lists 42 3. The use of vocabulary lists

Discussion: Do you / your students use vocabulary lists? Why or why not?

Problems of using the vocabulary lists Students have a weak sense of the correct usage of vocabulary. Vocabulary learning may become the rote learning of definitions of decontextualised lists of English words. Writing may become a matter of word-for-word translation from Chinese into English with little attention to the collocational patterns of English. Implication: Learning vocabulary in context Using more effective vocabulary organisers

Learning vocabulary in context Learning vocabulary in context, students can: Guess the meanings of new words Learn how the words are used Remember the new words better

Learning Vocabulary in Context Passive vocabulary Active vocabulary Learning Tasks Reading Listening Speaking Writing Functions as input as output Skills involved Understanding meaning of words in context Recalling words and using them appropriately in context

Some examples and links of graphic organisers for recording vocabulary 47 Using vocabulary organisers Some examples and links of graphic organisers for recording vocabulary Vocabulary Word Cluster Word Detective Adjective Organiser Synonyms & Antonyms http://www.educationoasis.com/curriculum/GO/vocab_dev.htm http://wvde.state.wv.us/strategybank/VocabularyGraphicOrganizers.html http://freeology.com/graphicorgs/vocabulary-organizer/

Using vocabulary organisers Students can use vocabulary organisers to: study how words are related understand the usage of the words better apply vocabulary building skills retrieve the words for use more easily

Applying the vocabulary in learning activities Opportunities should be provided for students to: Organise the words for intentional learning Apply the words in meaningful learning activities

Meaningful Learning Tasks / Activities 50 Meaningful Learning Tasks / Activities Students can learn and apply target vocabulary purposefully and meaningfully. Purpose of communication The need to learn what they do not know The motivation to learn

How can students better understand and apply the words with vocabulary organisers?

Hands-on Activity 3 Procedures: Read the restaurant review Identify useful adjectives from the review Organise the adjectives Design a slogan

Hands-on Activity 3 Learning objectives: Understand the word combination ‘adjective + noun’ Retain the target vocabulary by using rhyme and alliteration Present information with enhanced understanding of word combination and usage

How can we plan the learning of adjectives? Learn the adjectives in a context (e.g. introduce the adjectives to describe food and environment of a restaurant using a restaurant review) Understanding the vocabulary in a context Introduce adjectives Introduce lexical relations to help students categorise the words Design a purposeful and meaningful task to allow students to apply / use the words learnt Analysing and applying the vocabulary with the help of organisers

What is the difference between the two organisers? Staff, Price, Environment, Food – to facilitate word combination Alphabetical order Rhyme – to facilitate word association

Vocabulary presented in a way that can facilitate its application Organising the words Teachers are always puzzled: How can vocabulary items be better organised? Vocabulary items can be organised to facilitate their application. REMEMBER: The arrangement of vocabulary items in a orgnaiser may help students use the words. Vocabulary presented in a way that can facilitate its application 56 56

Suggested Wordlists for the English Language curriculum Available in the Resource Package on ‘Enhancing English Vocabulary Learning and Teaching at Secondary Level’ Four stages: KS1, KS2, KS3, SS Two categories: alphabetical and thematic Aiming to help teachers locate relevant vocabulary

Suggested Wordlists for the English Language curriculum Students should develop their vocabulary knowledge and skills through meaningful tasks and activities Mechanical memorisation is not encouraged. The actual words that learners encounter, acquire and use vary according to the context. It is, therefore, not advisable to prescribe a vocabulary list out of context. (CDC English Language Curriculum Guide, 2004)

Suggested Wordlists in alphabetical order Select the required key stage of words and click ‘Show Wordlist’.

Suggested Wordlists in alphabetical order Click the letters to select words. Words with different meanings are shown on the right column.

Suggested Wordlists in alphabetical order Select the required category/ categories, key stage(s) and click ‘Show wordlist’.

Suggested Wordlists in alphabetical order Words are shown by category.