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Assumptions about vocabulary and vocabulary learning

What does knowing a word involve? Ways of presenting vocabulary Ways of consolidating vocabulary? Developing vocabualry learning strategies

Agree or disagree?A vocabulary item can be more than one word.Languages consist of “words” with equivalents

from one lanuage to another?Vocabulary cannot be taught. It must be learned

by the individuals. Both teachers and students need to know that

there is a difference between active and passive vocabulary.

The best eay to explain vocabulary is to translate.English-english explanations are the best way for

vocabulary teaching.

1. Your understanding of vocabulary and vocabulary learning

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An English-English dictionary is an important aid for studuents.

Words can be taught and learned most effectively in groups which are related to each other in meaning.

Words must be learned in language context. If we don’t use the words we learned, we will soon

forget them.

Knowing a word means:a) knowing its pronunciation and stress; b) knowing its spelling and grammatical properties; c) knowing its meaning;d) knowing how and when to use it to express the

intended meaning.

2. What does knowing a word involve?

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2.1 Words and their forms pronounciation and stress word formation

3 forms of word building:affixation: Free morpheme and bound morphemecompoundingconversion

Lexical item (lexical chunk)words and polywordscollocations / word partnershipsinstitutionalized utterancessentence frames and heads

2.2 Words and their meanings Denotative meaning (conceptual meaning/ cognitive meaning):

the meaning given in the dictionary and forms the core of word meaning

the extensional( 具体的， 事实的） meaning of a word and is same for all speakers of a given language

constant and stable

Connotative meaning: the intentional meaning or emotional association

suggested by the conceptual meaning. the attitudes or emotions of a language user in choosing a word and th

e influence of these on the listener or reader's interpretation of the word (Hedge:2000)

derives from a mix of cultural, political, social, and historical sources

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Morphemes which are independent of other morphemes are free. Free morphemes have complete meanings in themselves and can be used as free grammatical units in sentences.

自由语素是能独立运用的语素，它有完整的意义，在句中充当一个自由的语法单位。

E.g., man, wind, open, tour

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Free morphemes are all roots /free roots, which are capable of being used as words or as word-building elements to form new words.

自由语素都是词根 , 也叫自由词根 , 能用作词或作为构成新词的构词要素。

Bound morphemes consist of either roots (bound roots) or affixes.

粘着语素包括词根（粘着词根）和词缀。 E.g., bound root: -dict-, -ced- affix: -ion, -ist, -ic

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Morphemes which cannot occur as separate words are bound. They are bound to other morphemes to form words or to perform a particular grammatical function.

粘着语素不能独立成词，只能依附于其他语素上以构成词或担当一定的语法功能。

A multitude of words made up of merely bound morphemes, eg: ante-ced-ent.

-ced- 是词根，‘接近’， ante- 是前缀，‘在…前’， -ent 是后缀，‘人，物’，

2.3 Words and their use

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2.4 Receptive and productive vocabulary Receptive/passive vocabulary 　－ words that

one is able to recognize and comprehend in reading or listening but unable to use those automatically in speaking or writing.

Productive/active vocabulary - words that one is not only able to recognize but also able to use in speech and writing are considered one’s productive/active vocabulary.

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At beginner level, most new words learned by students usually have immediate practical use, hence they quickly become the productive vocabulary. However, as students learn more and more words, they will find that some words they are able to use for speaking and writing and some are only recognizable when encountered in reading. Also, there are some words that after being encountered more and more times gradually enters from one’s receptive to one’s productive .

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Implications on voc. teaching (key to task 3):both denotative and connotative meaning need to

be learned;words are better understood in context;a group of related words is likely to be more

memorable than a list of unrelated items, i.e. words learned with synonyms, antonyms or hyponyms;

knowledge of word formation is a useful source for developing voc.

exploring sense relations among/between words help with learning and remembering words.

Teachers and learners need to be aware of the difference between receptive and productive voc. .

Try to provide a visual or physical demonstration whenever possible, using pictures, photos, video clips, mime or gestures to show meaning.

Provide a verbal context to demonstrate meaning, then ask students to tell the meaning first before it is offered by the teacher.

Use synomyms or antonyms to explain meanings. Use lexical sets or hyponyms to show relations so

words and their meanings, e.g. cook: fry, boil, bake, grill, etc.

Translate and exempligy, esp. with technical words or words with abstract meaning.

3. Ways of presenting vocabulary

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Use word formation rules and common affixes to build new lexical knowledge on what is already known.

Teach vocabulary in chunks. (pre-fab) Think about the context in real life where the word

might be used. Relate newly learned language to SS’ real life to promote high motivation.

Think about providing different context for introducing new words.

Prepare for possible misunderstanding or confusion that Ss may have.

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Labeling Use word series Word bingo Word association Find synonyms and antonyms Categories Using word net-work

Label each picture with a word from the list underneath.

a mobile phone a webcam an MP3 player

a USB flash drive a laptop

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Review regularly Guess meaning from context Organizing vocabulary effectively Use dictionary Create vocabulary notebook Manage strategy use