Session 1 MAAL6018 Vocabulary Teaching And Learning Course Outline Building blocks and dimensions of vocabulary knowledge

- What is a word? What is meant by knowing a word?

- Some research in teaching vocabulary (John Read)

Session 2 (CRT6.32) Session 3 Vocabulary size, frequency, word lists Computer applications

– Are some words “more important” than others?

- Websites for learning word lists, assessing vocab size and profile

Vocabulary teaching

-Indirect vs. direct vocabulary teaching -Vocabulary assessment - the lexical approach to vocabulary teaching

Session 4 Vocabulary learning

-Vocabulary learning strategies

Session 5 (CRT6.32) Session 6 Use of concordancers The mental lexicon

– How L1 and L2 speakers store and retrieve words in their brains

Assignment due Nov 3

Course website

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http://caes.hku.hk/maal6018/

 Assignment  Sessions and Readings  List of Useful readings  Dissertations in HKU Library  Resources on the Web 

Password protected / copyrighted

Warming Up

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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?

The longest word in English

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Or Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanocon iosis (45 letters; longest word in Oxford Dictionary)

 a lung disease caused by silica dust, mostly suffered by miners 

smiled

Why vocabulary learning is important and challenging

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“Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” (Wilkins, 1972:111)

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A finite number of grammar items (about 300 in English), but an infinite number of vocabulary items for a typical learner

Grouping words

Grouping words

Grammatical / Function words

because of

Lexical / Content words

famous

Multi-word lexical items Inflections

bring why cannot singer rained raining cats and dogs catch up day in and day out bringing brought

Derivatives

occasion occasional occasionally the heavily now and then brings

What is meant by “a word”?

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Matching Pair activity

Word Family

 Do you think speech and unspeakable should be included in the same word family as speak?  How about bespoke?

How much do you know about the word “agree”?

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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 Yes (dis)

How much do you know about the word “agree”?

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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)

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Aspects of word knowledge

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

 our knowledge of a particular word is often

partial

&

incremental

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Recycling of words

is important  Focusing on knowledge at different times / when meeting the word in

different dimensions different contexts

of word

Pre-session 1 reading

1. Research in teaching vocabulary

(John Read, 2004)

 Focus on the research aspects 2. The big picture

(Paul Nation, 2008)

 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.

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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-to understand 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

    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)

Preparation for the next session (in CRT6.32)

   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.

Please print off handouts for Session 2 (all available on the course website – “Course Materials”)

Go over the pre-session reading