ING303 Teaching Language Skills

1. ING303 Teaching Language Skills Asst. Prof. Dr. Emrah Görgülü Lecture 5: TeachıngVocabulary

2. A Joke .

3. Aims of theChapter • What is vocabulary?: A definition of thewordvocabulary in thecontext of English Language Teaching. • Whatstudentsneedtolearn: aspects of vocabularyknowledge: Aspects of lexicalitemsthatlearnersneedtolearn, associatedwiththeir form, meaninganduse in context. • How besttoteachvocabulary: somefactsandfigures: Research-basedinformationabout how vocabulary is mosteffectivelylearnedandtaught.

4. Aims of theChapter (cont’d) • Presentingnewvocabulary: selectionandpresentation:Theselectionandinitialpresentation of newlexicalitems. • Vocabularyreview: consolidatingandextendinglexicalknowledge: Laterpracticeandenrichmentactivitiestoenhancevocabularylearning. • Vocabularyassessment: Differentmethods of testingthevariousaspects of vocabularyknowledge.

5. A goodsaying A word is not fully learned through one meeting with it… even if this meeting involves substantial deliberate teaching.

6. What is vocabulary? • Vocabulary can be defined as thewordsin alanguage. Itmayincludeitemsthataremorethan a singleword. • bicycle, tree, phone; doorhandle, brother-in-law • Multi-wordexpressions: call it a day, be that as it may, getalong (with) • A usefulconvention is tocoverallsuchcases(e.g. singleword, doublewordandmultipleword) bytalkingaboutvocabularyitemsratherthanwords. • Vocabulary, orthelexicon, referstotheinformationstored in memoryconcerningthespelling, pronunciation, meaningandtheuse of words in a language.

7. What is vocabulary? (cont’d) • Thetermvocabulary is takentoincludegrammaticalitems: • Pronouns: she, they, someone, nobody • Determiners: a/an, the, that, those, any • Thesearecontrastedwithlexicalitems: • Nouns: book, car, friendship, love • Verbs: go, feel, jump • Adjectives: big, expensive, round • Adverbs: fast, often, carefully • Grammaticalitemsareclosed set whilelexicalitemsareopen set.

8. Whatstudentsneedtolearn: aspects of vocabularyknowledge • Themostimportantthingstoknowabout a lexicalitemare: pronunciationspelling book meaninguse Form: pronunciationandspelling • Thelearner has toknowwhat a wordsoundslike (itspronunciation) andwhat it lookslike (itsspelling). • Meaning of a wordmay be viewed as moreimportantthan form but meaning is uselesswithoutknowingthefrom it is attachedto.

9. Whatstudentsneedtolearn(cont’d) Meaning (denotation) • Themeaning of a languageitem is what it refersto, ordenotes, in therealworld. This is given in dictionaries as itsdefinition. • Sometimes a wordmayhave a number of meanings: mostoftenthesearemetaphoricalextensions of themeaning of theoriginalword. • footof a mountainderivingfromfoot as part of body • Sometimes a wordsuch as bear has multiplemeanings: • beartheanimal • bearmeaning ‘tolerate’ / theycomefromdifferentwordsthatdevelopedintothesame form.

10. Whatstudentsneedtolearn (cont’d) Grammar • Thegrammar of a newitemwillneedto be taughtifthis is not obviouslycoveredby general grammaticalrules. An itemmayhave an unpredictablechange of form in somecontexts: • theplural form of footandgoose; sheepandfish • thepast tense form of learnandburn • thecomparativeandsuperlative form of goodandbad • Theverbsthattake–ingformsandtheverbsthattakethetoinfinitive: admitandconsider, expectanddeserve

11. Whatstudentsneedtolearn (cont’d) Collocation • Collocationreferstothewaywordstendtoco-ocur withotherwordsorexpressions. Forexample, wenormally say: • tellthetruthbut not say thetruth • do thecookingbut not makethecooking • make a messnot do a mess • throw a ballbut toss a coin • atallmanbut a tallmountainis inappropriate • Collocationsareoften, but not always, shown in dictionariesundertheheadword of one of thecollocatingitems. (look at p. 61)

12. Whatstudentsneedtolearn (cont’d) Connotation • Theconnotations of a wordaretheemotionalorpositive-negativeassociationsthat it implies. • Moist / dump: (slightlywet) havethesamebasicmeaning • Moist has favorableconnotations: a moistchocolatecake • Dumphas unfavorableconnotations: a dumpcake • slender / skinny – energeticchildren / wildchildren

13. Whatstudentsneedtolearn (cont’d) Appropriateness • Toknow how touse an item, studentsneedtoknowaboutitsappropriateness in a certaincontext. • My unclecriedallnightwhen his dogranaway. • My uncleweptallnight……. • chewandmunch ‘toeatsomething’ • Theboy chewed his foodbeforeswallowing / crushfoodwithteeth • The buy munched his food / eatfoodaudibly (do theTask on page 62)

14. MeaningRelationships • Synonyms: Twoormoreitemsthathavesimilarmeanings • smart, brightandcleverarethesynonyms of __________ • Antonyms: Twoormoreitemsthathaveoppositemeanings • rich is an antonym of poor; risky is an antonym of __________ • Hyponyms: Itemsthatserve as a specificexample of a concept • dog, lionandmousearethehyponyms of animal • rose, poppyandcarnationarethehyponyms of __________ • Superordinates: General concpetsthat ‘cover’ specificitems • Animal is thesuperordinate of dog, lionandmouse

15. Word Formation • Words can be brokendownintomorphemes: • Thewordunkindly is composed of theprefixun-, therootkindandthesuffix -ly. (disappointment, unlockable) • Youmaywanttoteachthecommonprefixesandsuffixes: • con- / co- : ‘together, with’, connect, correspond, cooperate • inter-: ‘between’, interval, international, interstate • -let: ‘diminutive’, booklet, pamphlet, piglet, eaglet • Anotherwayvocabularyitemsarebuilt is bycombiningtwoorthreewordstomakeoneitem: • bookcase, follow-up, swimmingpool, four-wheeldrive

16. How besttoteachvocabulary: somefactsandfigures How many of itswords do youneedtoknow in ordertounderstand a text? • Theclaimwasthatifyouunderstand 80-85% of thewords of a text, thenyou can probablyguessthe rest andunderstandthetext as a whole. • This is nowknownto be an underestimate. It is nowbelievedthat in ordertounderstand a text, youneedto be abletounderstandbetween 95% and 98% of itswords (Schmitt, 2008). • Ifthere is morethanonewordeverytwolinesthatyou do not understand, youmayhavetroubleunderstandingthetext. (Task. 64)

17. How besttoteachvocabulary: somefactsandfigures (cont’d) • Knowingabout 98% of an unsimplifiedtextmeansknowing a hugenumber of wordfamilies: 5,000 and 8,000. • Word families: groups of wordswhichhave a commonroot: nation, nationalize, national, international • Thenumber of singlewordsto be learned is evenlarger. Itwillstill be largerifweincludeidiomaticexpressions. • Thechallengethatfacestheteacher is how tohelpstudentsachievesuch a hugevocabulary. • Thelearners of English learnthreeorfourhours of English, meaningtheyneedtolearnabout 20-30 wordfamilieseveryweek.

18. How besttoteachvocabulary: somefactsandfigures (cont’d) • It is not enoughforlearnersjusttoread, hearandunderstand a newitemonce. Weneed at least 6, as many as 16 re-encounterswith an item in ordertolearn it (Zahar et al., 2001). Incidentalanddeliberateteachingandlearning • A largevocabulary is learnedincidentallyonlythroughlistening, readingandconversation in L1. Inthecontext of a formalschoolcourse, this is inefficient: veryslowandunreliable. • Weneedtoincludesomedeliberate, focussedvocabulary-teachingprocedures

19. Presentingnewvocabulary: selectionandpresentation Selectionandsources of newvocabulary • Usefulness of thevocabularyitems is themostimportantcriterion. Onehelpfulmeasure of theusefulness is frequencyi.e. how often a word, orexpression, is used in conversationorwriting. • Therearevocabularylistsbased on frequencyavaliabletoteachers online: • www.oxfordadvancedlearnersdictionary.com/oxford3000/ • http://vocabularypreview.englishprofile.org/staticfiles/about.html • http://intra.collegebourget.qc.ca/spip/IMG/doc/AWL_complete_list-2.doc

20. Presentingnewvocabulary: selectionandpresentation (cont’d) Selectionandsources of newvocabulary • Frequency is not theonlycriterion. Youmightwanttoteachnewwordsbecausetheyareimportantforstudents’ cultureorpresentsituation. • Sometimesyouteachwordsbecausetheyareeasytolearn (short, easilypronounceableandsimilarto a word in L1). • Orsimplybecausetheyarefunandinterestingitems in themselves. • Whenyouhave a longlist of newvocabularyitems in a text, we do needtodistinguishbetweenwhichitemsareimportanttoteachandreviewsothatourstudentsrememberand can usethem.

21. Presentingnewvocabulary: selectionandpresentation (cont’d) • It is importanttoprovideactivitieswhosefocus is simplyvocabularyexpansion. • Wemighthave a spot in thelesson, perhaps at thebeginning, called ‘word of theday’ or ‘expression of theday’ whereweteach a newitem. • Wemighthavestudentsthemselves ‘showandtell’: findoutaboutnewitemsandteachthe rest of theclass. A usefulwebsiteforintroducingnewvocabulary: • http://busyteacher.org/4197-5-best-ways-to-introduce-new-vocabulary.html

22. Presentingnewvocabulary • Onceweselecttheitemstoteach, wethenhavetogetstudentstoperceivetheir form andunderstandtheirmeaning(s). • Wewantto do this as interestingly as possiblesothatstudents pay attentionandtaketheitemsintotheshort-termmemory. Somekeypracticalprinciplesare; • Includebothwrittenandspoken form, bothreceptiveandproductive: New itemshaveto be writtenup on the board, andsaid as theyarebeingwritten. • Somestudentsfind it easiertolearnnewitemsbyseeingthem, othersbyhearing. Providingbothspokenandwrittenformswillmakethetargetitemmorememorable.

23. Presentingnewvocabulary (cont’d) • Ensureunderstanding of meanings: Make sure yourstudentslearntheintendedmeaning, not thewrongmeaning. At thebeginnerlevel, themeanings of newwordsaremoreconcrete. You can use: • Pictures (flashcards, posters, googleimages!)

24. Presentingnewvocabulary (cont’d) • Ensureunderstanding of meanings (cont’d) • Realia (actualobjectsor toy objects)

25. Presentingnewvocabulary (cont’d) • Ensureunderstanding of meanings (cont’d) • Gesturesand Mime (Works greatwithkidswholiketomovetheir body) • Youcan get students physically engaged in the lesson.It gets them out of their seats and shakes things up. • Yousay “The elephant was very…” with outstretched arms and your students should say ______. • If you use the same gesture when you say “Please stand up.” students will become accustomed to it and stand up when you use that gesture even if you occasionally leave out the oral instruction.

26. Presentingnewvocabulary (cont’d) • Ensureunderstanding of meanings (cont’d): • At intermediatelevel, youcouldusetranslation, definitionanddescription, givingexamples, hintsandsampleuses of theitem. • Friend: arkadaş, a personwhoknowsandlikesanother, Ahmet is myfriend. • Themosteffective in mostcases is translation (ifyouhave a monolingualclassandarefluent in yourstudents’ L1).

27. Presentingnewvocabulary (cont’d) • Optimize impact: Usemnemonicdevices, use ‘keywords’: students link thetargetwordwith an imageinvolving a similarword in theirownlanguage. • Supposeyouareteachingthewordshelfto a group of Germanspeakers: tellthemtoimagine a catsleeping (schläft) on a shelf. • Thenext time theycomeacrosstheword, orneedtouse it, theimage of a catasleep on a shelfwillhelpthemremember it. • How do youteachthewordlovetoTurkishkids? How aboutfork?

28. Presentingnewvocabulary (cont’d) • Whathelpsstudentsrememberindividualitems? • How doesthememorywork? • Experiment: memorizingcontrastinglists of vocabulary: allwiththreeletters, but of varyingdifficultyandmeaning-value. • Look at thewords in List A andList B on p. 67. Whichlist of vocabulary do youthink is learnedeasily? Why? (do thetask on p. 67) • List B producesnear-perfectscores; List A noticeablyless. Therearetwo main reasonsforthis. • Theuniform (fairlylow) level of difficulty of theitems in List B in contrasttothemoreadvancedandvariedlevel of List A. • Thefactthatthewords in List B aregroupedaccordingtomeaningorsoundassociationwhereasthere is nosuchgrouping in List A.

29. PracticalTips • Getstudentstousevocabularynotebooks • Studentsshouldwritedownthenewvocabularytheyhavelearned. Thebestwayto do it is tohave a vocabulary notebook, which can be usedforlaterreview. • They can alsolisttheitems in a file on theircomputer/laptop, cellphone. • Theyshouldnotedownthemeaning of eachitem beside it / crossout • Do not insist on studentswritingdetailedentriesforeachitem • It is suggestedthatstudentsaddtoeachiteman English definition as well as an L1 one, a sentencecontextualizing it, maybe a drawing, PoS. • However, experienceshowsthatstudentsrarelykeepthisupover time andfind it moretediousthanhelpful.

30. PracticalTips (cont’d) • Encouragestudentstothinkuptheirown ‘keyword’ devicesforrememberingwords • Studentsaremorelikelytorememberkeywordsthattheyhavedevisedthemselves. • Do not teachmorethan ten newitems at a time at intermediateclasses • andevenfewerforyoungerclasses. There is a limit to how manyitems can be taken on board in onelesson. • Teachnewitemsearly in thelesson • Studentsarefasterandbetter at learningnewmaterial at thebeginning of lessonsthantheyarelater.

31. Vocabularyreview: consolidatingandextendinglexicalknowledge • A learnerneedsto re-encounter a newitemseveraltimes in ordertoremember it permanently. • Verycommonitemslikego, put, person, anddayarelikelyto be met again in thetextsorinterpersonalcommunication. • Whenyou start teachingevenslightlylesscommonvocabularylikecookorbusiness, youneedtocreateopportunitiestoreview. • Youneedtouseeffectivelearningtaskswhosefocus is multiple, meaningfulencounterswiththetargetitems. • ‘Expandingrehearsal’ (Baddeley, 1997) • It is a usefultechinquethat is usedwhenstudentsstillremembertheitem but need a slightefforttorecall it. Do review at regularintervals!

32. Vocabularyreview (cont’d) • Reviewing, not testing: It is importanttoensurethatreviewtasksare not justtests. • Tasksthatreviewvocabularyaimtoconsolidateanddeepenstudents’ basicknowledge. Theiraim is toteach. • Testsaimtofindoutwhatstudentsknow; theymay not result in muchlearning. • Theaim of vocabularylearningactivity is thatstudentsshouldengagesuccessfullyandmeaningfullywithtargetitems. • There is plenty of roomforpeer-teachingandcollaboration but there is NO particularneedforassessmentorgiving of grades.

33. Types of ReviewTasks Single-item • Review of singlewordsorexpressionsdoes not haveto be done throughencounteringthem in fullsentences. • Remindingstudents of themeaningor form of individualitems is alsoveryusefuland a lot quickerthanworking on fullcontexts. • Goingthroughthetargetitemsandremindingstudents of whattheymean. • Givingstudents a fewminutessothattheylookthroughtheirvocabularynotebooksduringlesson time. • Writinguptheitems on the board andaskingstudentstoidentifythosethey do not remembersothatyou can re-teachthem.

34. Types of ReviewTasks (cont’d) Items in context • Askingstudentstoengagewith (understandandproduce) itemswithin a sentencetakeslonger. However, it providesforreviewanddeeperlearningof aspects of theword (grammar, collocationetc.). Someexamples • Composesentences: Studentscomposesentencesthatcontextualizeitems. • Compose a story: Ingroups, studentsmakeupstoriesthatcontextualize as many as possibleitemsfromthoserecentlytaught. • Findcollocations: Studentsaregivensinglewordsandfindcollocat.

35. PracticalTips • Getstudentstoreview on theirown: Explaintostudentstheimportance of vocabularyreviewandurgethemtousevocabularynotebookstoremindthemselves of thevocabularyitems at home.

36. Practicaltips(cont’d) • Usewordcards: Word cardsareslips of stiffpaperwiththetargetitem on onesideandthe L1 translation on theother.

37. Practicaltips (cont’d) • Listnewitems on mobile phones: Tellstudentstonotethenewitemseither on their mobile phoneoranyotherelectronicequipment. • Displaynewvocabulary (semi)-permanently: New vocabulary can be displayed on theclassroomwallor on the board. • Recall at theend of thelesson: Useyourlessonsummary time toremindstudents of thenewitemstheyhavelearned. • Gobacktoearlieritems: Remembertooccasionallyreviewitemsyoutaught a monthortwoago.

38. VocabularyAssessment • Weneedtocheck how much of thevocabularywehavetaught has beenmasteredbystudents. • It is usefulto do an assessment of how muchvocabularystudentsknowoverall. • This is done byway of a variety of vocabularytests.

39. VocabularyAssessment (cont’d) Tests of targetvocabulary • Mostvocabularyteststargetspecificsets of items, but how andwhatthey test oftenvaries. Foranyparticular test youneedtoask: • Doesthis test onlycheckunderstanding (receptiveknowledge) of thetargetitemsordoes it findoutifstudents can actually say orwritethemwhenneeded (productiveknowledge). • Does it test spokenorwrittenknowledge of theitem, orboth? • Does it requirestudentstocontextualizetheitemorjustunderstandorproduce in isolation? • Does it provideforobjectiveassessment (such as multiple-choice) ordoes it needsomemeasure of subjectivejudgment (open sent. writing)?

40. Commonvocabulary test formats • Multiple-choice: Students mark therightoption of severalpossibilities. • Gapfills: Studentsfill in a singlegap in a sentencewiththerightword. • Focusedcloze: A full, coherenttext is suppliedwiththetargetitemsmissing; studentsfill in theappropriateitems. • One-to-onematching: Studentsmatchappropriateitemsfromparallellists: thiscould be matching a wordtoitsdefinition, ormatchingopposites. • Dictation: Studentswritedownitemsfromtheteacher’sdictation. A variation of this is translation-dictation. Q. How does it work?

41. Commonvocabulary test formats (cont’d) • Sentencecompletion: Studentsaregiventhebeginning of sentencesthatincludethetargetitem, andcompletethemtodemnstrateunderstanding. • Say ifyouknow it:Studentssimplystatewhethertheyknowthegivenitemor not. Ifthey say they do, theyuse it in a sentence. • Translate: Studentstranslatetheitem, isolatedor in a sentencecontext, toorfrom L1. • Read aloud: Studentsreadaloudtheitems, showingthey can pronouncethemproperly • What is in thepicture?: Studentstellorallywhatitemsthey can see in thepicture.

42. Commonvocabulary test formats (cont’d) • Do thetask on page 73. • How manywords do youknow?

43. VocabularyTeaching • Supposeyouareabouttoteach a set of newvocabularyitemstoelementarystudents in thelesson. Here is thevocabularylist: Vocabulary boy doorgirlpicturewall clockfloorpersonroomwindow • Prepare a lesson plan thatshows how youwouldintroducethesenewwordstoyourstudents.