Teaching Vocabulary Effectively

s_belaassal@yahoo.com

November 29th, 2016The Provincial Inspectorate, Agadir

• Concept Defining• The Importance of Vocabulary• Key Principles• What is Involved in Knowing a Word• How to Introduce Word Aspects• Criteria for a Good Vocabulary Activity • Summary of Learning

Learning Intentions

Concept Defining

• Vocabulary ….“refers to all the words in a language, the entire vocabulary of a language” (Barcroft, Sunderman, & Schmitt, 2011, p. 571).

• Vocabulary can be defined as the words of a language, including single items and phrases or chunks of several words which covey a particular meaning, the way individual words do. (Alali & Schmitt, 2012) (Lewis, 1993).

The Importance of Vocabulary

“. . . while without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” (Wilkins 1972, pp. 111–112)

“lexis is the core or heart of language” (Lewis 1993, p. 89).

“learners carry around dictionaries and not grammar books” ,Schmitt (2010)

KEY PRINCIPLES

Key Principles

• Introduce New Vocabulary in Context

• Focus on the Most Useful Vocabulary First

• Teach learners strategies for vocabulary acquisition so that they can

continually add to their repertoire

• Pay Attention to Repetition and Spacing

• … (David Nunan, 2015)

What Is Involved In Knowing A Word?•Meaning• Form•Use

The Learning Burden

The purpose of working out the learning burden is to find what aspects will be difficult when learning a particular word and thus where the teacher can give useful help.

Explicit Vocabulary Teaching

Incidental Vocabulary Learning

« The main problem with vocabulary teaching is that only a few words can be dealt with at any one time. » (Teaching Vocabulary, Paul Nation)

Meaning

using an L1 translation, using a known L2 synonym or a simple definition in the L2,showing an object or picture,giving quick demonstration, drawing a simple picture or diagram, breaking the word into parts and giving the meaning of the parts and

the whole word (the word part strategy), giving several example sentences with the word in context to show the

meaning,commenting on the underlying meaning of the word and other referents.

Formshowing how the spelling of the word is like the spelling of known

words, giving the stress pattern of the word and its pronunciation, showing the prefix, stem and suffix that make up the word,getting the learners to repeat the pronunciation of the word, writing the word on the board, pointing out any spelling irregularity in the word.

Use

quickly showing the grammatical pattern the word fits into (countable/uncountable, transitive/intransitive, etc),

giving a few similar collocates, mentioning any restrictions on the use of the word (formal,

colloquial, impolite, only used in the United States, only used with children, old fashioned, technical, infrequent),

giving a well known opposite, or a well known word describing the group or lexical set it fits into.

Meaning Form Useusing an L1 translation, using a known L2 synonym or a simple definition in the L2,showing an object or picture,giving quick demonstration, drawing a simple picture or diagram, breaking the word into parts and giving the meaning of the parts and the whole word (the word part strategy), giving several example sentences with the word in context to show the meaning,commenting on the underlying meaning of the word and other referents

showing how the spelling of the word is like the spelling of known words, giving the stress pattern of the word and its pronunciation, showing the prefix, stem and suffix that make up the word,getting the learners to repeat the pronunciation of the word, writing the word on the board, pointing out any spelling irregularity in the word.

quickly showing the grammatical pattern the word fits into (countable/uncountable, transitive/intransitive, etc), giving a few similar collocates, mentioning any restrictions on the use of the word (formal, colloquial, impolite, only used in the United States, only used with children, old fashioned, technical, infrequent), giving a well known opposite, or a well known word describing the group or lexical set it fits into.

CRITERIA FOR A GOOD VOCABULARY ACTIVITY

A good vocabulary exercise• focuses on useful words, preferably high frequency words that have

already been met before.• focuses on a useful aspect of learning burden. It has a useful

learning goal.• gets learners to meet or use the word in ways that establish new

mental connections for the word. • involves the learners in actively searching for and evaluating the

target words in the exercise.• does not bring related unknown or partly known words together. It

avoids interference.• …

Thank you