Transcript Advanced English for Science Students

Getting to know each other
MAAL6018 Vocabulary Teaching And Learning
Course Outline 2012-2013
Session 1 (12/9)
Building blocks and
dimensions of vocabulary knowledge
– What is a word? What is meant by knowing a word?
Session 2 (19/9)
Vocabulary size, frequency, word lists
Computer applications
– Are some words “more important” than others?
- Websites for learning these word lists
Session 3 (26/9)
The mental lexicon
– How L1 and L2 speakers store and retrieve words in their brains
Session 4 (3/10)
Vocabulary teaching and learning (part one)
-Incident vs. explicit learning / teaching
-Vocabulary learning strategies
Session 5 (10/10)
Vocabulary teaching and learning (part two)
-Active and passive vocabulary
-Vocabulary assessment
Session 6 (17/10)
Use of concordancers
Discussion about the Assignment
Classroom: MMLC, Room B, 2/F Old Library Building
Assignment due 26/10 (Friday)
Course website
 http://caes.hku.hk/maal6018/
 Assignment
 Sessions
and Readings
 List of Useful readings
 Dissertations in HKU Library
 Resources on the Web
 Password
protected / copyright
Importance of Vocabulary

“Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without
vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” (Wilkins, 1972:111)

“Vocabulary is central to language and of critical
importance to the typical language learner” (Zimmerman,
1997:5)
Warming Up
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
How many words do you think there are in the
English language?
How many words do you know?
What is the longest word you know?
What is the most frequently used word in the
English language?
What do you think is the best way to learn
vocabulary?
Grouping words
Grouping words
Grammatical
words
Lexical
words
Multi-word lexical Inflections
items
Derivatives
because of
famous
raining cats and
dogs
bring
occasion
why
singer
catch up
bringing
occasional
cannot
rained
day in and day out
brought
occasionally
the
heavily
now and then
brings
What is meant by “a word”?
What is meant by “knowing a word”?
How much do you know about the word “agree”?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
1
Again, agony, agonize, agonistic, age, aging, agent, agency,
aglow, agile, aggressive, aggregate, aggravate
Both (intransitive: I agree; transitive: I agree with you on this
issue)
No (It is agreed that…)
on
Agreement
Agreeable, agreed
Pleasant, acceptable
Disagree (Ungradable)
Yes (dis)
How much do you know about the word “agree”?
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
No
yes
No (We did not agree to go to the cinema)
Consent, concur, assent, accede, side with
Compromise (agree unwillingly)
Consensus (of a group of people)
Yes
She goes to school / much water
Accept that we have different opinions
More (totally agree); less (totally disagree)
Aspects or word knowledge
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
Knowing how to pronounce the word.
Knowing the meaning of the word either as an L1 equivalent or as
defined in L2.
Knowing how to spell the word and how its spelling differs from words
that are pronounced similarly.
Knowing the grammatical word class of the word.
Knowing the grammatical patterns in which the word is typically used.
Knowing the collocational patterns in which the word typically fits and
its any constraints upon the use of the word (concerned with, e.g.
frequency, register, formality).
Knowing the morphology of the word and the forms and meanings of its
inflections and derivatives.
Knowing the different senses of the word (polysemy) and the senses of
its derivatives.
Knowing the antonyms of the word.
Knowing the synonyms of the word.
Knowing how the sense and usage of the word differs from that of near
synonyms.
Knowing idioms that consist of the word.
Pedagogical Implications?
The incremental nature of
vocabulary acquisition
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our knowledge of a particular word is often
partial
Recycling of words
Focusing on different dimensions of word
knowledge at different times / when meeting
the word in different contexts
Teaching multiword units as individual units
(e.g. Nattinger & DeCarrico, 1992; Sinclair, 1996; Lewis, 1997)
Give me a glass of wine now.

(Subject) + Verb + Object + Object + Adverb
#Pass me a cup of wine tomorrow.
Take a walk in the countryside. Enjoy the cool breeze!
#Make a walk in the countryside. Enjoy the cool wind!
It’s cold in here.
#It’s dry in here.
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Lexical chunks are socially sanctioned independent units (the
units can be words or phrases or sentences)
Can convey pragmatic meaning in a given community
Lewis advocates de-emphasizing teaching of grammar and
vocabulary in favor of teaching of lexical chunks. Do you agree?
Lexical items (Lewis, 1997)
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
Words (e.g. pen, ball)
Polywords (e.g. so to speak, at any rate, by and large, by
the way)
Collocations (hitch a ride, make a wish, catch a bus, take
a walk)
Institutionalized utterances (mainly spoken, e.g.
Long time no see! How do you do? If I were you, I’d…, Give
me a break! As far as I know)
Sentence frames and heads (mainly written, e.g. I
think that …., not only…. but also…. , That reminds me
of …).
Why is it useful
to learn multilexical units?
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To improve fluency
To recognize collocational patterns
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(e.g. take a walk, make a wish, have dinner)
To sound more native-like / natural
Learning lexical chunks
(lexical patterning)
Topic: Health – Symptoms
I’ve got
a headache
(a) backache
(a) stomach-ache
toothache
a pain in my chest
a pain in my leg
a sore throat
a cough
a temperature (a fever)
I feel
sick
ill
unwell
I’m going to be sick!
faint!
Pre-session 1 reading
1. History of vocabulary in language learning (Norbert
Schmitt)

Theories on language  historical overview of
language teaching methodologies 
their views on vocabulary teaching
2. Research in teaching vocabulary (John Read)

Focus on the research aspects
3. The big picture (Paul Nation)

Different types of vocabulary (e.g. high-frequency /
low-frequency / academic / technical )

A balanced approach to teaching vocabulary (4 parts
in a curriculum)
Some research into vocabulary
teaching and learning
Referring to pp. 151-155 of:
Read, J. (2004). Research in teaching vocabulary.
Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 24, 146-161.
1.
2.
What are some of the ways of conducting
research into vocabulary teaching or learning?
What conclusions can you draw from these
studies reported by Read (2004) about the
criteria for effective vocabulary acquisition?
Some research into vocabulary
teaching and learning
Dictionary use:
 look at how students use dictionaries
 whether they use dictionaries appropriately /
whether they need training
 whether dictionary use leads to better
performance / proficiency
 what kind of dictionaries they prefer to use
Some research into vocabulary
teaching and learning
Vocabulary in the classroom:


Look at how students select, record and revise
vocabulary in their independent study / whether
training improves use of vocab learning strategies
Audio- or video- record classes and transcribe these
clips. Study how the teacher teaches vocabulary, e.g.
whether target words are repeated or recycled /
whether vocabulary is taught in lexically rich context,
i.e. target words repeated and embedded in easy-tounderstand context
Some research into vocabulary
teaching and learning
Computer applications:
 Use a computer programme to make sure that
target words are repeated in different sentences
and texts, and see whether students have better
retention of these words
 Provide (glosses / pictorial clues / videos / L1
translations) via hyperlinks built into an online
text, and measure students’ understanding and
retention of these words
Criteria for effective vocabulary
acquisition
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Students often use strategies inappropriately / need
vocab strategy training
Better to repeat target words in texts / in the classroom
Better to present target words in lexically rich context
(comprehensible input for students to guess meaning of
the unknown words)
Deeper processing of the target words leads to better
retention (e.g. mental imaging / studying sample
sentences are better than only looking at L1
translations)
Post-session 1 reading
(Lexical Approach)
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Lewis, M. (1997) Pedagogical implications of the lexical
approach. In J. Coady and T. Huckin (eds.) Second
Language Vocabulary Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, pp. 255-270.
Moudraia, O. (2001) Lexical approach to second
language teaching. Available:
http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/0102lexical.html.
Preparation for the next session
(in MMLC, Room B)

Please bring along a few pieces of your own
writing of no less than 300 words each, and a
few other texts of different genres, e.g.
journalistic, academic, technical, literary, etc.
(soft copies saved on a USB or your email
account). We are going to do some analysis of
word choice in different kinds of writing.