by Language Learning Support Section, EDB

1. A step-by-step introduction to vocabulary teaching at primary level by Language Learning Support Section, EDB

2. Programme Rundown • Reasons for promoting vocabulary teaching • Vocabulary building skills to be taught • Games for teaching vocabulary • School-based exemplars for teaching vocabulary • Assessing vocabulary learning • Building up vocabulary learning environment

3. I. Why do we promote the teaching of vocabulary? 1. Students have limited vocabulary 2. Repetition of words in usage 3. Strong emphasis on READING in the 2004 Curriculum Guide

4. “Learners need to acquire good vocabulary so that they can understand messages from others and combine words to form phrases, combine phrases to form sentences and combine sentences to form continuous texts.” (English Language Curriculum Guide P1-6 2004 p.164)

5. II. What vocabulary building skills do we teach? • Sight words • Phonics • Word formation • Word association • Dictionary skills (picture dictionary, thesaurus…)

6. Word formation (i) Affixation - adding prefix and suffix to base word e.g. unfriendly, careful, __less, __ly, dis__ (ii) Compounding - formation of words with two or more separate words e.g. football, blackboard (iii) Blending - mix two words together e.g. motor + hotel = motel (a place to stay when travelling by car) smoke + fog = smog (air pollution in a city)

7. (iv) Conversion - change a noun and make it a verb or an adjective e.g. - My father is using a hammer. The hammering noise is driving me crazy. (v) Derivation - the process whereby new words are formed from existing words or bases by affixation e.g. migrate, migration, immigration, migrants…

8. Word association (i) Synonyms – two words that can be interchanged in a context e.g. big, huge (ii) Antonyms - two words that express opposing concepts e.g. cheap, expensive (iii) Homonyms - words which have the same form but have completely unrelated meaning and have to be learned as different words e.g. go to a bank, sit on the river bank

9. (iv) Collocation - relationship between two words or groups of words that often go together and form a common expression e.g. take (eat) medicine, spend (pay) time, do (work) your homework, go (do) fishing (v) Lexical sets - words that belong to a particular group (word families) • Semantic groupExample: cat, dog, elephant, snakebelong to the semantic group Animals. • Syntactical groupExample: pretty, long, unusual, frighteningbelong to the syntactical group Adjectives. • Functional groupExample: Hello, Hi, Good morning, Hello therebelong to the functional group Greetings.

10. “Vocabulary is best introduced in context such as through language games and tasks. Tasks address learners’ needs and interests, and provide authentic contexts for vocabulary use.” (English Language Curriculum Guide P1-6 2004 p.164)

11. III. What games can we use to teach vocabulary? Managing words through games - 9 Fun vocabulary games!

12. Pig I spy Switch-a-roo snake Activity sheet Memory game Tic-tac-toe Spot the mistakes Card game Pelmanism GAMES! summary

13. What are sight words? • words that are immediately recognizable as whole words and do not require word analysis for recognition. • the most frequently used words • Dolch word lists (compiled by E. W. Dolch in 1940s) • 220 ‘service words’ • 95 common nouns

14. Why is it important to learn sight words? • They comprise approximately 50-70% of any given general, non-technical text. • Many of the sight words do not follow the phonetic rules (e.g. “said” vs “maid”, “paid”) • Many of the words share the same letters or look similar (e.g. of, for and from on/no; was/saw)

15. Why is it important to learn sight words? • “For instructional purposes, we would like our students to recognize sight words in less than a second. Why? Because this enhances their chance of getting to the end a sentence in time to remember how it began.” - Frank B. May in Reading as Communication

16. Pig • Number of players: 6 • Goal: Collect the most word cards • Directions: • Read aloud up to 4 words. Keep the card if you read the word correctly. • Stop if you read a word incorrectly. • Stop and keep the cards that you have got. • Stop and return the cards that you get in this turn to the pile. • Play until 4 PIG and 4 STOP cards remain.

17. Tic-tac-toe Prefixes & Suffixes

18. prefixes These are ___________. Write the words here: Team A △ Team B ○ _________ ___________ _________ ___________ _________ ___________ _________ ___________ _________ ___________

19. Write the words here: Team A △ Team B ○ _________ ___________ _________ ___________ _________ ___________ _________ ___________ _________ ___________ suffixes These are ___________ . childhood information slowly allowance troublesome comfortable happiness hopeful Interviewer

20. Tic-tac-toe • Phonics: provides onset consonants to form words • Sight words: students must read all words on the line in order to win the game, no escape! • Could be play in pairs or with the whole class by dividing students into 2 teams

21. Derivation • the formation of a new word from another word (base) • typically occurs by the addition of an affix • the derived word is often of a different word class from the original. • e.g. create: creative, creation, creativity, creator

22. A mini-activity • Work in groups of 6. • Brainstorm words that are derived from the base word. • Fill in the blanks with words derived from the base word.

23. Pelmanism Synonyms & Antonyms

25. Let's try the game! Match the synonyms • Put the cards face-downon the table. • Take turns to turn over two cards at a time. If they match, keep them. If not, put them back face-down in their original place. • The game finishes when all the cards are taken. • The player who has most cards is the winner.

26. Collocation Collocation is the relationship between two words or groups of words that often go together and form a common expression, e.g. take (eat) medicine, spend (pay) time, do (work) your homework, go (do) fishing

27. Spot the mistakes (Collocation) Get into groups of 3. Each group is given Activity Sheet 1. There are 4 mistakes in the diary. Read the underlining parts. Pay attention to the verbs. Circle the mistakes. Write the correct ones on the lines.

28. Activity Sheet 1: Spot the mistakes (Collocation) Tom wrote a diary about his bad day yesterday. However, he is not good at writing. He made 4 mistakes. Read the underlining parts. Pay attention to the verbs. Circle the mistakes and write the correct ones on the lines below. 14/10/2007 Rainy  Yesterday was a bad day! My friends and I went to Sai Kung. There was a traffic jam. We paid a lot of time on travelling. We did fishing, but we forgot to bring the fishing rod! So my friends played the kite with me, but I fell on the ground. My friends took me to the hospital. I also made a cold after the trip. How unlucky I was!  _________  _________  _________  _________

29. Memory game (Lexical set) Each table forms a group. Listen to the theme carefully. Each group has to make up a sentence using a word associated with the theme. The second group repeats the sentence and makes up another one.

30. Memory game (Example) Theme: Meat 1st group: I like eating chicken. 2nd group: I like eating chicken and beef. 3rd group: I like eating chicken, beef and fish. 4th group: …

31. Animals I go to the zoo. I can see …

32. Clothes I go to the clothes shop. I can buy …

33. Classroom objects: I spy with my little eye and see things with two syllables: Rubber, ruler, pencil, cupboard, bookshelf, basin, towel, teacher, pupils, bottle… I spy with my little eye and see things with one syllable: Pen, chair, desk, chalk, bag, boy, girl, door, fan…

34. Animal names I spy with my little eye in the zoo and see things with ____ syllable(s) Food items I spy with my little eye in the market and see things with ____ syllable(s)

35. Passive vocabulary Words that are recognised and understood in listening and reading Active Vocabulary Words used in speech and writing • Passive vocabulary will become active with: • the development • of ss’ language • competence • (ii) opportunity given • to students to put • the vocabulary • learned into use

36. “ Teachers need to make plans for vocabulary learning and teaching at different stages of learning so that new vocabulary items are introduced in a meaningful context and learnt items are revisited and practised in new contexts.” (English Language Curriculum Guide P1-6 2004 p.165)

37. IV. What school-based exemplars have we designed for vocabulary teaching? Vocabulary? Infusing vocabulary teaching in the day-to-day teaching ~ KS 1 and KS 2 exemplars

38. (i)Intentional teaching of vocabulary School-based exemplar (1) Theme: Gifts Level: P3 Skills covered: (i) Lexical set (ii) Dictionary skill Application: Writing a letter Assessment: Students’ writing

44. Categorization Dictionary Skills Vocabulary building skills tackled

45. School-based exemplar (2) Theme: School Level: P2 Skills covered: (i) Lexical set (ii) Collocation Application: writing a school pamphlet Assessment: ‘Spot the mistakes’ worksheet

46. Background

47. Suggested teaching steps: Discuss the reader with the students. Explain the writing task: write a school pamphlet. Divide the students into groups of 3. Distribute Activity Sheet 1-4.

48. Step 1: word association Work in groups of 3. Distribute Activity Sheet 1. Identify and circle words related to the theme ‘School’.

49. Step 1: word association bathroom sing the songs feed the animals paint the pictures School music room wash the dishes cook the food read the books playground classroom kitchen washroom

50. Step 2: word categorization Work in groups of 3. Distribute Activity Sheet 2. Categorize the words listed on Activity Sheet 1 into: (a) things to do at school, (b) rooms at school.