CHAPTER 10 – VOCABULARY: STUDENTS IN CHARGE Presenter: 1

For Snow: After basic words from lists in textbooks, most words came from reading them in books, stories, news, etc. Students need to learn vocabulary as they encounter them.  SO teach them how to do it. And to do it on their own. How did you learn most of your vocabulary? 2

Vocabulary Acquisition: The Goal  Producing words  speaking or writing.  Aspects of words: 1. Basic meaning 2. Other meanings 3. Parts of speech 4. Usage 5. Connotation 6. Collocation 7. Level of formality 8. Frequency of appearance  Comprehending words  reading or listening.  It’s easier to comprehend than to produce.  words  daily conversation.  ,000 words  most average texts.  45,000-60,000 words  educated native speaker. Productive CommandReceptive Command NOTE (and CAUTION): Many English courses don’t separate production and reception of vocabulary. Learning a word using that word. It is more difficult and to produce words. 3

Personal Example  You should think of 4 or 5 personal examples or experiences and add them anywhere you want. It can be about one point or a couple points together.  Don’t make an example for each point AND don’t worry to find one example that matches every point. 4

Learning and Teaching Vocabulary  Beginning Level  Most words come from textbooks.  Most words are high frequency words.  Students need productive and receptive skills.  Try to introduce and practice as much as possible in class.  Quizzes and tests – test productive and receptive ability. Remember: It’s important that students learn vocabulary on their own. SO, this chapter focuses more on how students learn vocabulary more than how to teach it. 5

Learning and Teaching Vocabulary  Intermediate Level  NOTE: At intermediate level for EFL, students become better readers than speaking and writing (because reading is receptive and receptive is ‘easier’)  Teach students the difference between productive and receptive ability  Students start to separate words they need to produce (productive) and words they only need to understand (receptive).  Motivate students to learn more and more words everyday. (ex. daily quizzes, games, activities using target vocabulary)  Quizzes and tests – separate productive and receptive quizzes.  Advanced Level – concerns vocabulary learning when students can almost understand native English. Read more on p  Usually not high school level. 6

Personal Example 7

1. The Discovery Phase 2. The Memorization Phase 3. The Familiarization Phase Strategies for Learning Vocabulary: 8

1. The Discovery Phase A. Dictionaries  Many advantages: they show definitions, double meanings, connotations, usages (example sentences), etc.  Students are self-sufficient to find the words by themselves.  Take time to teach students how to use dictionaries. Questions while checking the dictionary: Does this word have a local language equivalent or not? How is this work used? Does the work have a strong connotation? Is this work markedly formal or informal? How is it spelled? How is it pronounced? ** Caution: Some bilingual dictionaries, especially electronic dictionaries only give one or two translations for words and no example sentences. This makes students think every word is directly translatable (has 1 perfect matching word). 9

1. The Discovery Phase (cont.) B. Guessing Words from Context  BE CAREFUL: Students can only GUESS the meaning of a word if all other words around it are clear (95-98%).  Easy texts.  Problem: most students don’t read EASY texts. They read textbooks and prepare for tests.  Recommendation: Teach word roots, prefixes (ex. bi~, re~, un~), and suffixes (ex. ~ed, ~er, ~ation). C. Texts with Glossaries  Glossaries – are vocabulary lists with translations or explanations.  Many advantages: faster than dictionaries, more accurate than guessing, words in context.  Suggestion: Students can/should make their own glossary. When they see words they don’t know, they can make their own glossaries. D. Vocabulary Lists  If you have textbooks that give lists to students. It’s good if you help students with definitions to save time (students can work together to define lists in the textbooks, if needed). 10

2. The Memorization Phase A. Concentration  Stay alert (everyone knows the feeling that your eyes are reading, but your brain is not).  Mental and physical activity together enhances memory.  Response or action (ex. Making a sentence with the word without looking, or self quiz) B. Repetition  The more you see a word, the more likely you are to remember it. (ex. Remember the name game from Ch 5)  Research says  it’s better to encounter (study/find) these words in natural context  reading, listening, or writing (not just repeating them). C. Meaningful Manipulation  Using words in a meaningful way helps you remember (eg. in a conversation).  Therefore, communication with new words helps you remember them. Two aspects of memory: long term and short term. Short term memory can hold some information (about 7 items) for a short time. The goal is to store (=keep) words in long-term memory. 11

3. The Familiarization Phase  This stage is for fluency skills for advanced learners.  Generally, at this stage, students know definitions well already  pay more attention to usage, connotation, collocation, level of formality, & level of frequency.  Laura’s example: buscar = seek/look for/search & procurar = seek/look for/search  “Se vocês querem conversar mais, me *busca depois.”  It’s not a grammatical rule, it’s usage/collocation  Teachers can explain some of these things if it comes up in class, but:  Warning: Not too much or you will spend all your time explaining. Let them read, listen, study, practice.  Students mostly learn these these things with extensive reading. 12

Personal Example 13

Evaluation  Vocabulary is essential to language, SO  every test of every skill includes vocabulary.  However, it’s good just to test vocabulary alone, because it has good backwash.  Good score = know vocabulary.  Bad scores = students don’t know vocabulary.  80% of what you learned, is lost within 24 hours, if not reviewed (Gairns & Redman, 1986, 90).  NO CRAMMING (=only study the night before exams); it’s not a good way to learn. 14

Evaluation (Cont.) 1. English word – definition 2. Local country equivalent – target word 3. Fill in the blank 4. Sentence with target word – response 5. Matching 6. Writing sentences 15 For good BACKWASH the best evaluation is in listening, reading, writing, and speaking activities, not just translation. If you have to give exams or tests, THEN...

Personal Example 16

Practice Listening Activity OR Discussion Questions Note to presenters:  You have a choice to make discussion questions. AND/OR  You can demonstrate a listening activity in the class. YOU ARE THE TEACHER and the class will be your students. Don’t explain what you would do. You have to teach like a real class.  NOTE: It should be a short and simple activity, do not prepare elaborate materials. It’s just a closing to your presentation.