Vocabulary

Vocabulary (p. 109-142)
1. What do we know about the lexical system of English?
• Denotation refers to the literal meaning of a word, the "dictionary definition." For example, if you look up the word snake in a dictionary, you will discover that one of its denotative meanings is "any of numerous scaly, legless, sometimes venomous reptiles, having a long, tapering, cylindrical body and found in most tropical and temperate regions."


Denotation: Physical


• Connotation, on the other hand, refers to the associations that are connected to a certain word or the emotional suggestions related to that word. The connotative meanings of a word exist together with the denotative meanings. The connotations for the word snake could include evil or danger.


Connotation: Association


The second aspect of meaning involves the sense relations that exist among words. These relations can be found in two dimensions which linguists have often referred to as "axes". Horizontal axis represents syntagmatic relations, The vertical axis represents paradigmatic relations.


• Syntagmatic relations, are relations between words as they occur in sequence. It is words that fit together - words that can be predicted. A sequential relationship.
• A ripe banana
• A savage dog
• A long road


Syntagmatic: Word used in a sentence in a right context (collocations): injured/damaged, ripe/mature


• Paradigmatic relations, is when words exist in a complex relationships with other words in a network of meaning.
• Synonymy = in a given context, one linguistic item can be exchanged for another without changing the meaning of the sentence or utterance. For ex : he answered the question courteously. Politely would be the synonym here.


• Antonyms = opposite : male - female and so forth


• Hyponymy = is a relationship where one word includes others within a hierarchy . For ex. Flower, carnation and rose.


2. How do second language learners acquire vocabulary?
Vocabulary knowledge can be seen as a scale running from recognition of a word at one end to automatic production at the other.


• Active learning = vocabulary used in speech or writing
• Passive learning = vocabulary that is recognized when encountered, but not easily produces in speech or writing.
• Strategies:
• Cognitive
• Making associations
• Learning words in groups
• Exploring range of meaning
• Using keywords


• Metacognitive
• Making word cards
• Categorizing words into lists
• Internal dialogue


3. What factors affect vocabulary acquisition?
Some factors are to do with input - the way in which vocabulary presents itself to learners
• Teacher presentation
• Reading words in texts
• Learning words during peer exchange
• Self-access work


Other factors are to do with storing, organizing and building vocabulary in the mental lexicon and being able to retrieve or recall it when needed.


Features of input
Frequency
• High level of significance in ELT because of the use of word-frequency counting as a procedure informing syllabus and materials design.
• The words most frequent in the English language is the words most useful to learners.
• A textbook for beginners will therefore mostly be formulated with the first 500-800 most frequently used/occurring words in English.
• The list is revised and adjusted frequently, for instance when the computer became an everyday item.
• Frequency has also influenced ELT, as it is more normal to repeat words in texts now.
• Studies have shown, that if a word is used more than seven times in a text, the reader will remember it much better, than the words only used once or twice.
• If learners are exposed to a wide range of words, they will need to encounter more words through reading and listening.


Pronunciation
• In the initial stages of language learning, the teacher will insist on a lot of pronunciation practice, to help the learners acquire the correct stress pattern of syllables.
• Later on, this is often discontinued, as learners often  pick up vocabulary in their own way and at their own rate.
• If the purpose for learning English is to listen and understand, then learning word stress is important.
• If learners process speech by recognizing syllable patterns and stress, these are stored in the mental lexicon and will contribute to quick comprehension.
• A learner who wishes to be intelligible in English need to be able to stress words correctly.


Contextualization
1. If the words are presented as isolated elements, there is no point of support, no "cognitive hold" for them in the learners' memory, so despite sometimes considerable learning effort, the are quickly forgotten again


2. If the words are presented in thematically or especially in alphabetically ordered word lists, pupils will often suffer from interference. This not only hampers learning, but can be decidedly harmful, since unlearning is far more difficult than learning.


3. Isolated words do not present a linguistic reality, as the meaning of a word is in most cases partly defined by the context.


4. Isolated words or words in isolated sentences do not present a psychological reality, because they do not carry a message. For this reason they cannot evoke emotions or involvement in the learner, a factor which plays an often underestimated, but yet important part in long-term acquisition.


The relationship between input and storage
Depth of processing
• Learners are more likely to remember words, if they have worked on its meaning actively - input becomes intake if there is a depth of processing.
• Keyword learning - where the students are given a text and have to find some keywords.
• Keyword learning is not as good as a task, where the students is given vocabulary items, the definitions, two example of the words used in sentences and a question where they had to answer with the word. The second task is proved to be more useful, the learners remember the words better.


Building word networks
• Native speakers easily finds synonyms, antonyms and so on, because their mental lexicon is organized. We organize words by meaning.
• Word networks - like fruits: apple, pear, plum, peach and so on. Semantic links.


Cultural factors in the building of meaning
• As learners develop their vocabulary, they acquire not only new words, but new meanings associated with them, and the words they already know.
• This is learned gradually, as the learner meets the word in different contexts.
• When the learner becomes aware of such nuances he/she can begin to interpret meaning correctly and to choose vocabulary appropriately.
• For instance: the word "dog" - the words associated with it will not be the same for people relating to them as family pets, and those who come from a culture, where dogs are not domestic animals.
• Another cultural factor could be phenomenon of prototypes.
• For instance the word "tree" will not be the same for everybody - for some it will be an oak tree and thus that is a prototype and other trees are non-prototypes.
• Some knowledge is basic and universal - for instance a dog has four legs, and a tree has leaves.


4. How can we develop a variety of techniques for teaching meaning?
There is a lack of classroom studies to support the producing of learning materials, and which strategies are effective for which aspects of vocabulary learning.


In the absent of such information we must turn to current methodology and materials and decide how best to exploit the ideas available e with our own learners.


Developing a variety of techniques for the teaching of meaning
Learners will encounter new words in the classroom in many different ways
• Learning materials
• Teacher's language
• Language of other learners


The teacher will frequently need to explain new words, and here is an example of how he/she could do so: the word is exhausted


• A physical demonstration, using mime and gesture, may be the most effective as it will create a visual memory for the word


• A verbal explanation, involving a number of contexts, for example, a long journey, a hard day's work, or a strenuous physical task, will lead the learners towards meaning


• A synonym, for example, "very tired", has the advantage of making learners aware of paradigmatic relations in the language and that a range of words exists from which a choice can be made.


Other techniques could be:
• Translation
• Pointing to objects
• Using visual aids (pictures, drawings etc)
• Antonyms
• Asking learners to check a dictionary


Some require more from the learner, than others.
It is also possible to draw on learners' personal preferences and experiences as in the word-network.
A feedback session after individual work can be used to collate the examples and check them for accurate comprehension. 


5. Can we encourage effective strategies for vocabulary learning?
• The book suggests that this can be done through for example notebook keeping. The teacher can suggest how to keep the notebook, but the students can also use different memoire-techniques – whatever works for them individually. Also, word-card is a suggestion.


• The teacher should ensure the notebook and the word cards to be used repeatedly so that the students review the words.


The teacher should encourage for self testing.


6. How can we expose learners to vocabulary?
• Teachers can expose learners to vocabulary through reading and training lexical inferring.


• Problem-solving can be a tool to maintain unfamiliar words – working with words in order to understand and categorize them is a cognitive strategy to store the words in the mental lexicon.


• If a given textbook lacks thorough approaches (strategies) it becomes the task of the teacher to help students develop inferring strategies, drawing attention to the guidance available and applying it through careful and repeated work.


• Pair work – the students share their insights and build a collective picture of what they have been looking for: for example cognate words; morphological clues such as prefixes denoting size; or a negative; the function of the phrase or clause in which the word occurs; and the learner’s prior knowledge of the world.


• If inferencing is easy because the text is rich in contextual clues or there is a cognate word, retention is less likely. The more active the learner needs to be the more likely the word will be remembered.


7. What criteria can we use for evaluating the vocabulary component of a course book?
• Evaluate the books aim
• Check the books claim
• Evaluate the lexicon and methology in relation to the needs of the learners
• Is there any importance or interest to the class?
• Is there any particular problems or dangers for the class if the book is produced for an international marked?
• Does the book cover important activities? Word formation, synonymy?
• Are students encouraged and given guidance in strategies for learning. Notebooks, reviewing, testing themselves?


8. What activity types can we develop for the teaching of vocabulary?
• Word puzzles
• Dictionaries when doing pairwork in class
• Topic-based crosswords
• Visuals - magazine pictures, photographs (to talk about)