Today Vocabulary teaching Vocabulary assessment The Lexical Approach Teaching vocabulary in context Vocabulary assessment Vocabulary Learning Strategies (VLS)

THE LEXICAL APPROACH

Teaching multiword units as individual units (e. g Teaching multiword units as individual units (e.g. Nattinger & DeCarrico, 1992; Sinclair, 1996; Lewis, 1997) Give me a glass of wine now. (Subject) + Verb + Object + Object + Adverb #Pass me a cup of wine tomorrow. Take a walk in the countryside. Enjoy the cool breeze! #Make a walk in the countryside. Enjoy the cool wind! Lexical chunks are socially sanctioned independent units (the units can be words or phrases or sentences) Lewis advocates de-emphasizing teaching of grammar and vocabulary in favor of teaching of lexical chunks.

Lexical items (Lewis, 1997) Words (e.g. pen, ball) Polywords (e.g. so to speak, at any rate, by and large, by the way) Collocations (hitch a ride, make a wish, catch a bus, take a walk) Institutionalized utterances (mainly spoken, e.g. Long time no see! How do you do? If I were you, I’d…, Give me a break! As far as I know) Sentence frames and heads (mainly written, e.g. I think that …., not only…. but also…. , That reminds me of …).

Why is it useful to learn multilexical units? To improve fluency To recognize collocational patterns (e.g. take a walk, make a wish, have dinner) To sound more native-like / natural

Learning lexical chunks (lexical patterning) Topic: Health – Symptoms I’ve got a headache (a) backache (a) stomach-ache toothache a pain in my chest a pain in my leg a sore throat a cough a temperature (a fever) I feel sick ill unwell I’m going to be sick! faint!

When recording vocabulary, note collocation patterns… EAC for Econs and Finance students When recording vocabulary, note collocation patterns… Pattern Examples NOUN + VERB people - slip / cars – skid VERB + NOUN abandon - ship, make – a wish, catch – a bus ADJECTIVE + NOUN handsome – man, beautiful - woman CN/ ECEN 1904

The Lexical Approach Pre-session 3 Reading: Moudraia, O. (2001) Lexical approach to second language teaching. Available: http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/0102lexical.html Post-session 3 Reading: Lewis, M. (1997) Pedagogical implications of the lexical approach. In J. Coady and T. Huckin (eds.) Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 255-270. Let’s try some of the tasks near the end of this reading

LEARNING VOCABULARY IN CONTEXT

Context Co-text: words before and after the target word The real-world context that the text refers to What are the benefits of using decontextualized word lists? What information can the context gives us that cannot be given by decontextualised word lists? Learning grammatical and collocational patterns Understanding the actual meaning of the word / different senses of a word

Presenting words in context Better show students: It was so stifling in the room that I could hardly breathe. Rather than: It was stifling in the room. Better say: There’s a word in the first line that means “huge”. What word is that? “Enormous” in the first line means huge.

Provide rich contextual clues - answers Carnivorous Vehicles Huge / enormous Mean / stingy Cut Reduced / offset / compensated for Revenue / income / money; afford

Providing context rich in contextual clues Since plastic products are non-biodegradable, they are hard to be disposed of and are persistent environmental contaminants.  To explain more clearly the data collection process, I append some samples of questionnaires used in the study. It is time we stopped talking of elephants as if they were a commodity; they are not products / mechandise to be traded.

VOCABULARY ASSESSMENT

Vocabulary Assessment Tools How do you (or your school) usually assess vocabulary? What sorts of vocabulary knowledge are being tested in each of the tests? Do you see any problems with some of the tests?

Various vocabulary assessment tools (available at http://www.lextutor.ca/tests/) Vocabulary Levels Tests (VLTs) To check vocabulary size Tests of vocabulary of different levels of frequency 2000, 3000, 5000, 10000-word levels; AWL Aim at score of at least 80% Word Association Test Meaning (different senses), collocations Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) To check “quality” or “depth” of vocab knowledge Vocab Profiler Lexical richness (type/token ratio) – more different words More frequent words or more low-frequency words

Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) “retire” iii. I have seen this word before and I think it means “stop working because of old age” (3 pts) iv. I know this word. It means “stop working because of old age” (3 pts) v. I can use this word in a sentence: He spent more time with his family after retire. (4 pts) He spent more time with his family after he retired. (5 pts) He decided to retire. (? pts)

VKS Problems: Self-reported in nature Level V: ability to produce sentence with target vocab = ability to use the word appropriately?

Discussion Given what we have discussed so far about vocabulary learning and teaching, would you do anything differently next term? What would you keep doing?

To sum up… Teach and consolidate the 2000 most frequent words Provide students with a variety of vocabulary building activities Encourage students to read widely Encourage students to become independent learners, esp. for learning low-frequency words outside the classroom Train students to use vocabulary learning strategies

VOCABULARY LEARNING STRATEGIES (VLS)

Vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) Taxonomies of Vocabulary learning strategies Memory strategies, e.g. the Keyword technique, using mental images Guessing word meaning from the context Selecting, recording and revising vocabulary Research studies on VLS of Asian learners

Vocabulary Learning Strategies Important for independent learning of low-frequency words It is important to use a range of strategies The quality of strategy use counts for more than the quantity of strategies used It is important to choose strategies flexibly and appropriately according to context Strategies can be taught and weaker learners can benefit from strategy training

Taxonomy of VLS by Schmitt (1997) Taxonomy of Language Learning Strategies (LLS) by O’Malley & Chamot, 1990: cognitive, metacognitive, socio-affective Oxford’s (1990) LLS taxonomy – direct strategies: involving the target language directly and require mental processing of the language (memory, cognitive, compensation) and indirect strategies: (metacognitive, affective, social) Nation (1990) – discovery vs consolidation strategies Schmitt’s (1997) VLS taxonomy: (1) Discovery: discovering the meaning of unknown words Determination strategies (finding meaning without recourse to others) Social strategies (consulting or working with others to discover meaning) (2) Consolidation: remembering words once their meaning has been discovered Social strategies Memory strategies (mnemonics) Cognitive strategies (similar to memory, but without the use of mnemonics) Metacognitive strategies (planning, monitoring, evaluation of learning)

Find out about your use of VLS Complete the questionnaire* developed based on Schmitt’s (1997). * Adapted from Loong Y & Chan S W L, A Study of Vocabulary Learning Strategies Adopted by Dentistry Students in Hong Kong In Learning Specialized Dental Vocabulary, September 2012, Asian ESP Journal

Preparation for Session 5 - Studies of VLS by Asian learners Form a group of 4 students. Each student reads one of the readings research methodology results Next Session – in CRT6.32 (use of concordancers)