1. Developing an English vocabulary curriculum for Hong Kong schools
Arthur McNeill
Hong Kong Baptist University

2. Outline of the presentation
How the project came about
Aims of the project
Design principles
Procedures for compiling the wordlists
Some problems and issues

3. PART 1 How the project came about

4. Evidence of low attainment in vocabulary size tests

6. Native/Non-native differences in vocabulary acquisition
Native English speaking students acquire about 3000 words per year at secondary school (ending up with about 20,000 word families in adulthood) .
Hong Kong secondary pupils acquire about 300 words per year.

7. Synonyms (e.g. happy, glad) Antonyms (e.g. bright, dark)
Vocabulary and the CGs
Lexical relations:
Synonyms (e.g. happy, glad)
Antonyms (e.g. bright, dark)
Homonyms (e.g. catch a bus, catch a cold)
Collocation (e.g. make a wish, watch TV)
Lexical sets (e.g. furniture – table, chair, desk, cupboard)
*please refer to CG (CDC, 2004): pp

8. Vocabulary building skills recommended in CG
Word formation
Affixation (e.g. unhappy, careless)
Compounding (e.g. foot+ball=football)
Conversion (e.g. cook a meal, a cook)
Derivation (e.g. excite, exciting, excited, excitement)

9. Quality, YES. Quantity, NO.
Curriculum guidelines stop short of identifying lexical targets.
Main concerns about inadequate vocabulary come from the tertiary sector.

10. PART 2 Aims of the project

11. The Vocabulary Curriculum Project
EMB/CUHK collaborative project to develop an English vocabulary curriculum for 12 years of compulsory education.
To set vocabulary targets for each KS.
To identify the English words to be known by students by the end of each KS

12. Proposed Vocabulary Targets
Key Stage
Stage Target
Cumulative
Target
KS1
KS2
KS3
KS4

13. Proposed Vocabulary Targets
Key Stage
Stage Target
Cumulative
Target
KS1
1000
KS2
2000
KS3
1500
3500
KS4
5000

14. Outcomes (Phase 1)
Four wordlists, each available in different formats:
Alphabetically arranged
Thematically-arranged
e-list (software which allows greater manipulation of the content)

15. Research Questions
How many English words should HK students know at different stages of their education?
Which words should they know?

16. PART 3 Design Principles

17. “Knowing a word”? Working definition
“Ability to recognize a word (in written or spoken text) and to know its meaning”
Type of
knowledge
Details
Form
Written (orthographic); spoken (phonological); most frequent morphological variations
Meaning
Only one meaning introduced at a time; additional meanings added as ‘new’ items

18. Sources of input? Teachers familiar with the respective KS
Frequency data about how vocabulary is used in English:
General English
Academic English
Topics and themes listed in CGs
Vocabulary content of the approved textbooks

19. Frequency-based lists/corpora
GSL
“General” words
BNC
AWL
“Academic” words

20. Classic list of the most frequent 2000 words.
GSL
Classic list of the most frequent 2000 words.
Very widely used and respected.
BNC
100 million word collection of written
and spoke English. A new ‘standard’.
AWL
570 words which occur frequently in
academic texts across disciplines

21. Textbook Corpus (currently stored as separate files)
KS1
Textbook A
Textbook B
Textbook C
KS2
KS3
KS4

22. Principles guiding final selections
Relevance to learners (now and later)
Usefulness
Combinability (collocations)
Word class distribution
Superordinates

23. PART 4 Procedures for compiling the wordlists

24. Design of the vocabulary selection procedure
Frequency data from GSL/BNC/AWL
Word samples by frequency
Teachers select words for own KS
Initial (incomplete) wordlist
Rejected items to be considered for next KS
Project team add remaining items
Textbook corpus
Topics from CGs
Completed wordlist

25. Teacher Input

26. Data gathering (from teachers)
70 schools at each KS
Option of on-line task or submit hard copy for KS1 and KS2
Secondary teachers invited to CU to attend a seminar and “workshop”

27. Teacher Seminar, plus …

28. Vocabulary decision-making task

34. ---------------------------
Microsoft Internet Explorer
It may take some time to submit the form, please be patient. OK

36. Data analysis Collation of the results of the teacher surveys.
Calculating a “score” for each word based on the number of times it was selected by teachers
Deciding on a cut-off point for each word score to determine whether it is representative of the teacher sample or not.

48. PART 5 Issues and Problems

49. 1. Basing a school curriculum on frequency data
Relating a corpus of naturally occurring L1 language to an L2 curriculum is less straightforward than it first appears.
Refer to handout for examples of BNC items which do not transfer readily to an English language curriculum for HK students.

51. What is the BNC?
The British National Corpus (BNC) is a 100 million word collection of samples of written and spoken language from a wide range of sources, designed to represent a wide cross-section of British English from the latter part of the 20th century, both spoken and written.

52. Would a corpus of international English be more appropriate?
In applied linguistics, there is strong support for basing achievement standards on successful L2 users rather than on native speakers.
But, there is no corpus of “international English”. Should we encourage one?

53. 2. Degree of consensus among HK teachers about target language
Analysis of the data revealed variation among teachers concerning the vocabulary items which should be included.
Should we look in more depth at the patterns of selection?

54. 3. Should “Hong Kong words” be added?
Examples:
shroff – dim sum – dai pai dong - gweilo

55. Vocabulary Curriculum Project – Phase 2
Phase 2 – Pedagogy (materials development and teacher development)

56. Seed Project The Magic of Words: Enhancing Effectiveness of Vocabulary Learning and Teaching at Primary Level
Aims of the project:
To explore ways and pedagogies to improve the quality of vocabulary L/T
To promote the development of vocabulary building skills
To encourage the application of vocabulary in speaking and writing
To enhance pupils’ and teachers’ competence and confidence in handling vocabulary

57. Seed Project Target group:
Two classes of P.4 pupils
Some ideas for making use of the wordlists in lesson planning:
Building on pupils’ previous knowledge (i.e.
words they have learnt)
Selecting words to be taught in a particular
module / unit (by making reference to the
relevant categories in the wordlists)