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1
Enhancing the Effectiveness of English Vocabulary Learning and
Teaching at Primary Level
27 August 2007
Arthur McNeill & Tony Lai
Department of Education Studies
Hong Kong Baptist University
English Language Education Section, CDI
2
Growing global concern about inadequate vocabulary of L2 learners
“… there is mounting evidence that many learners, particularly in EFL contexts, are not developing their lexicons to levels that would permit them to communicate, read, or write adequately in English, despite years of formal study.” (Atay and Kurt 2006: 256)
3
L2 vocabulary learning at primary school is still largely un-researched “… it seems likely that limited L2 vocabulary
would affect elementary school EFL learners in carrying out the basic skills in English. Given the importance of vocabulary to oral and written language comprehension, it is astounding that there have been few experimental studies on English vocabulary learning among elementary school children.”
(Atay and Kurt 2006: 256)
4
Recent evidence of inadequate vocabulary of HK university entrants
Most 2004 entrants to CUHK knew between 2000 and 3000 English words only
International research suggests that students need at least 5000 words to cope with university study in English
Growing interest in students’ vocabulary in Hong Kong
5
Vocabulary projects conducted by EDBProjects Participants Expected Outcomes
Vocabulary Study
Focus Group wordlists for KS1, KS2, KS3 & KS4
Seed Project on the effective L/T of vocabulary
Seed school & Network schools
effective pedagogies to make good use of
the wordlists and promote the development of vocabulary building skills
6
Sources of input for the EDB wordlists
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 recommended
textbooks
Vocabulary Study
7
Vocabulary Study
General Service List (GSL) - West, 1953 Academic Wordlist (AWL) - Coxhead,
2000 British National Corpus (BNC)
References of the frequency-based wordlists
8
GSL
BNC
AWL
Classic list of the most frequent 2000 words.Very widely used and respected.
100 million word collection of written and spoken English. A new ‘standard’.
570 words which occur frequently inacademic texts across disciplines
Frequency-based lists/corpora
9
Frequency-based lists/corpora
GSL
BNC
AWL
“ General” words
“ Academic” words
10
Principles guiding final selections
Relevance to learners (now and later) Usefulness Combinability (collocations) Word class distribution Superordinates
11
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
12
Vocabulary targets
Key Stage Stage TargetCumulative
Target
KS1
KS2
KS3
KS4
1000 1000
1000 2000
1500 3500
1500 5000
13
Wordlists
In alphabetical order
By category
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
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Does L2 vocabulary teaching need to change?
23
Possible pedagogical problems
Over-reliance on reading as a source of vocabulary acquisition
Over-reliance on learner training and indirect learning (i.e. assuming that students will learn vocabulary by themselves provided they learn effective strategies)
24
How much vocabulary do L2 students learn from reading?
Finally some empirical evidence of the low extent of vocabulary gains from L2 reading
Claims about number of encounters required to learn a new word vary between 6 and 20
ESL learners in Canada learn 70 new words a year from reading, i.e. 2000 words in 29 years. (Zahar, Cobb & Spada 2001)
25
Extensive reading revisited
Disappointing gains from reading of novels (Horst 2000)
Subjects able to select only one correct definition in 12 of the new words in text
Far more vocabulary is learned if the same text is read several times (Horst & Meara 1999)
26
Learning new words from context revisited
Encouraging learners to infer the meaning of new words from context may be useful for their academic development.
However, inferring the meaning of new words from context does not lead to vocabulary acquisition. For words to remain in the memory, learners should confirm the guesses by referring to a dictionary or asking their teacher (Mondria & Wit de-Boer 1991).
27
Insights from genre: we need to select texts carefully
Expository texts provide greater repetition of key lexis than narrative texts.
Success reported with primary learners who read more expository texts (Gardner 2004).
28
Key priorities in vocabulary teaching
1. Providing multiple exposures to target words
2. Cognitive ‘elaboration’ of the form-meaning relationship
Activities which require students to focus on vocabulary appear to promote retention (e.g. “reading plus”, pre-task and post-task vocabulary focus).
29
Some teaching implications
Enhance L2 vocabulary acquisition through instructional intervention
• More direct teaching of vocabulary• More vocabulary-focused activities
30
Vocabulary now:Cinderella has arrived at the ball
Landmarks of the 1990s: Lexical Syllabus (Willis) Lexical Approach (Lewis) Some excellent books for teachers about
vocabulary teaching (e.g. Nation, Schmitt & McCarthy)
Vocabulary software (concordancing; frequency profiling)
Corpus linguistics Enormous expansion in L2 vocabulary research
31
What has changed since vocabulary became “centre stage”?
Language teaching now attaches importance to: Collocation:
“blond+girl”; “torrential+rain”; “rising+prices” Multi-word units/formulaic language:
“see you later”; “have a nice day” Word-building: compounding; affixation Lexical relations such as antonyms:
“high/low”; “ancient/modern”
32
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)
33
Vocabulary building skills recommended in CG
Word association 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. 168-171
34
What challenges does L2 vocabulary present to teachers?
AREAS OF FOCUS
BREADTH DEPTH
35
1. Productive vocabulary
What are the main vocabulary issues in HK students’ writing?
36
Text written by a primary school pupil in a HK exam I have a rubber, an old, small rubber. Although it is so
small that I can not use it anymore, I still keep it carefully in my drawer as it is so important for me.
That is a long, long time that I have my rubber. Four years ago, when I was still an eight-years-old child, my parents bought me a rubber as my birthday present. I put it into my pencil-box and brought it to school everyday.
We had an interesting game in the past. We used our rubber to play with in the game. We pushed our rubber one by one and tried not to be pushed out at the desk by another rubber. We pushed and pulled our rubbers, soon our rubbers became older and smaller one day than one day.
37
Vocabulary Profile (VP) provides the following breakdown (RANGE, 2002)
Word List Tokens Types Families
1: 1st 1000
2: 2nd 1000
3: AWL
4: not in the above
Total
38
39
40
I have a rubber, an old, small rubber. Although it is so small that I can not use it anymore, I still keep it carefully in my drawer as it is so important for me.
That is a long, long time that I have my rubber. Four years ago, when I was still an eight-years-old child, my parents bought me a rubber as my birthday present. I put it into my pencil-box and brought it to school everyday.
We had an interesting game in the past. We used our rubber to play with in the game. We pushed our rubber one by one and tried not to be pushed out at the desk by another rubber. We pushed and pulled our rubbers, soon our rubbers became older and smaller one day than one day.
41
Lexical characteristics of L2 student writing
Repetition of key words rather than lexical substitution
Under-use of super-ordination Need for lexical enrichment (in particular,
adjectives and adverbs)
42
What vocabulary skills are involved in developing lexical richness? Avoiding repetition of words
(e.g. by lexical and pronominal substitution) Knowing and using synonyms Ability to give definitions Knowing the name of the immediate
superordinate Knowing the name of the member of the group
(e.g. “item”, “piece”, “article”, etc.) Use of metaphor (e.g. using known words in a
metaphorical sense)
43
“General” superordinates can also help
EXAMPLES:
Stuff
Problem
Issue
Thing
Material
Business
Behaviour
Phenomenon
Trend
Pattern
44
Lexical expansion of a first draft
“My hobby is swimming. Every Saturday I go to the swimming pool in Ma On Shan. I swim for one hour. At the end, I feel good. Then I go to McDonald’s with my friend.”
45
Lexical feedback on a first draft
“My [adjective] hobby is swimming. Every Saturday I go to the [adjective] swimming pool in [precise location] Ma On Shan. I swim [how exactly do you swim?] for one hour. At the end, I feel good [a better adjective?]. Then I go [better verb of movement] to McDonald’s with my friend.”
46
2. Pre-requisites for vocabulary building
Two Strands:
TopicStrand
CollocationStrand
focus on sizefocus on
word combinations
paradigmaticapproach
syntagmaticapproach
47
Paradigmatic approach (topic strand)
Deliberate organization of words into hierarchies
Develops associative networks Encourages efficient vocabulary learning Paradigms are fixed (but ‘open’) Other associations are more personal
(e.g. acoustic, visual, ‘linkword’)
48
Assumptions about paradigmatic arrangement
Allows for efficient vocabulary growth because the system is ‘open’ and allows for additions
Associated with receptive vocabulary knowledge in particular
Retrieval of words operates through the ‘cohort’ principle
49
FLAT
LIVING ROOM BEDROOMS KITCHEN BATHROOM
fridge cooker
saucepan
frying pan
Example One:
50
Vehicles
car train bicycle
handlebar wheel saddle
tyre
spoke
Example Two:
51
Teaching the names of the superordinates
?
horse cow tiger
52
Teaching the names of the superordinates
animals
horse cow tiger
53
What is the missing word?
?
football tennis basketball
54
?
desk chair cupboard
What is the missing word?
55
ParadigmaticAssociation
SyntagmaticAssociation
56
ParadigmaticAssociation
SyntagmaticAssociation
57
ParadigmaticAssociation
SyntagmaticAssociation
Receptive
58
ParadigmaticAssociation
SyntagmaticAssociation
Receptive
Productive
59
Syntagmatic approach (collocation strand)
E.g. Topic: transport
Car – drive – fast – wet – road
Brakes – skid – collide - accident Develops associative networks Word combinations are the key to productive use
of English Focus on multi-word units
(e.g. ‘See you later.’, ‘Have a good trip!’) Collocations
(e.g. ‘go shopping’, ‘have a shower’, ‘play football’)
60
Assumptions about syntagmatic arrangement
Associated with productive vocabulary because it is based on the words which tend to occur together in sentences
The associations are based on collocations rather than semantic categories
61
PEOPLE ACTIONS OBJECTS PLACE
From receptive to productiveProviding opportunities to combine words
62
PEOPLE ACTIONS OBJECTS PLACE
Chef cook meals restaurant
Teacher
Singer
Pilot
From receptive to productiveProviding opportunities to combine words
63
Helping learners to create useful word associations
ACTIVITY:
FINDING/CREATING PATTERNS IN A LEXICAL SET
64
KS2 Wordlist: Caring about our community and environment Beggar Energy Pollution Smoke
Care Environment Protect Spit
Community Flag Recycle Steal
Crime Fund raising Reduce Volunteer
Donate Government Save Vote
Electricity Plastic Serve Waste
65
KS2 Wordlist: Caring about our community and environment Possible associations - Collocations
(e.g. verb + noun) Recycle waste Reduce crime Protect (the) environment Serve (the) community
66
KS2 Wordlist: Caring about our community and environment Possible associations - Compounding
(e.g. noun + noun) Community care Energy waste Pollution crime Government volunteer
67
KS2 Wordlist: Caring about our community and environmentFinding semantic categories
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KS2 Wordlist: Caring about our community and environmentFinding semantic categories
PROBLEM SOLUTION
69
KS2 Wordlist: Caring about our community and environmentFinding semantic categories
PROBLEM
Pollution (smoke, spit, waste,..)
SOLUTION
70
KS2 Wordlist: Caring about our community and environmentFinding semantic categories
PROBLEM
Pollution (smoke, spit, waste,..)
SOLUTION
Save energy
Reduce waste
71
KS2 Wordlist: Caring about our community and environmentOther categories? People? Organisations? Nouns? Abstract nouns? Concrete nouns? Verbs? Words which can be both nouns and verbs?
THE MAIN PURPOSE OF THIS ACTIVITY IS TO DEVELOP LEARNERS’ ASSOCIATIONS BY ENGAGING WITH THE WORDS
72
3. From Form to Meaning
Starting with a focus on word form
Activity: reading a postcard
73
Find the words which end in “-ing”Dear Chris,This summer our family holiday is really interesting. We’re spending a week in a mountain hotel in Japan. The hotel activities include walking, mountain climbing and canoeing. The view is amazing. We can see wild birds flying around and hear the river flowing past. In the evening, we eat in the hotel dining room, then watch TV. The programmes are a bit boring, mostly singing contests and game shows. The trip is tiring but great fun. I’m looking forward to showing you the photos.Andy
74
Find the words which end in “-ing”Dear Chris,This summer our family holiday is really interesting. We’re spending a week in a mountain hotel in Japan. The hotel activities include walking, mountain climbing and canoeing. The view is amazing. We can see wild birds flying around and hear the river flowing past. In the evening, we eat in the hotel dining room, then watch TV. The programmes are a bit boring, mostly singing contests and game shows. The trip is tiring but great fun. I’m looking forward to showing you the photos.Andy
75
Put each “-ing” form into a category
Verb in the continuous
aspect
Adjective Verb used as a noun (gerund)
After “see”,
“hear”, etc.
76
Put each “-ing” form into a category
Verb in the continuous
aspect
Adjective Verb used as a noun (gerund)
After “see”,
“hear”, etc.
Spending
Looking
Interesting
Amazing
Boring
Tiring
Walking
Climbing
Canoeing
Showing
Flying
Flowing
77
Put each “-ing” form into a category
Verb in the continuous
aspect
Adjective Verb used as a noun (gerund)
After “see”,
“hear”, etc.
Spending
Looking
Interesting
Amazing
Boring
Tiring
(Dining
Singing)
Walking
Climbing
Canoeing
Showing
(Dining
Singing)
Flying
Flowing
78
Using mini-activities or games in vocabulary learning and teaching
79
Key priorities in vocabulary teaching
1. Providing multiple exposures to target words
2. Cognitive ‘elaboration’ of the form-meaning relationship
80
Some teaching implicationsGENERAL APPROACH Enhance L2 vocabulary acquisition through instructional
intervention
IN PRACTICAL TERMS WE NEED MORE: Direct teaching of vocabulary Development of learners’ own word associations Vocabulary-focused activities Process-writing with lexical feedback Conscious reflection about words Systematic re-cycling of target vocabulary (multiple
exposures)