Unit 19 Teaching Vocabulary

“Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be  conveyed.” (Wilkins, 1993)

o   Vocabulary is a core component of language proficiency and provides much of the basis for how well learners speak, listen, read, and write.

o   At most basic level, knowing a word involves knowing:

§  Its form, and

§  Its meaning

Principle Of Teaching And Learning Vocabulary

o   According to Coady  (1997), there are three approaches to vocabulary instruction and learning:

§  Incidental Learning: requires that teachers provide opportunities for extensive reading and listening.

§  Explicit instruction: involves diagnosing the words learners need to know, presenting words for the first time, elaborating word knowledge, and developing fluency with known words.

§  Independent strategy development: involves practicing guessing from context and training learners to use dictionaries.

Incidental Learning

PRINCIPLE 1: PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE INCIDENTAL LEARNING OF VOCABULARY

§  Most words in both first and second languages are probably learned incidentally, through extensive reading and listening.

Explicit Instruction

PRINCIPLE 2: DIAGNOSE WHICH OF THE 3,000 MOST COMMON WORDS LEARNERS NEED TO STUDY

§  Knowing a minimum of about 3,000 words was required for effective reading at the university level.

PRINCIPLE 3: PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE INTENTIONAL LEARNING OF VOCABULARY

§  The incidental learning of vocabulary will help advanced learners increase vocabulary.

§  Explicit instruction is essential for beginning students whose lack of vocabulary limits their reading ability.

PRINCIPLE 4: PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES FOR ELABORATING WORD KNOWLEDGE

§  Elaborating involves expanding the connections between what learners already know and new information.

PRINCIPLE 5: PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES FOR DEVELOPING FLUENCY WITH KNOWN VOCABULARY

§  Fluency-building activities recycle already known words in familiar  grammatical and organizational patterns.

Independent Strategy Development

PRINCIPLE 6: EXPERIMENT WITH GUESSING FROM CONTEXT

o   The five steps procedures worth guessing from context:

1. Determine the part  of speech of the  unknown word.
2. Look at the immediate context and simplify it if necessary.
3. Look at the wider context to examine the clause with the unknown word and its relationship to the surrounding clauses and sentences.
4. Guess the meaning of the unknown word.
5. Check that the guess is correct.

PRINCIPLE 7: EXAMINE DIFFERENT TYPES OF DICTIONARIES AND TEACH STUDENTS HOW TO USE THEM

§  Bilingual dictionaries have been found to result in vocabulary learning.