Transcript Advanced English for Science Students

Today
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Vocabulary teaching
The Lexical Approach
 Teaching vocabulary in context
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Vocabulary assessment
Vocabulary Learning Strategies (VLS)
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THE LEXICAL APPROACH
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Teaching multiword units as individual units
(e.g. Nattinger & DeCarrico, 1992; Sinclair, 1996; Lewis, 1997)
Give me a glass of wine now.
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(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!
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Lexical chunks are socially sanctioned independent units
(the units can be words or phrases or sentences)
Lewis advocates de-emphasizing teaching of grammar and
vocabulary in favor of teaching of lexical chunks.
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!
When recording vocabulary, note
collocation patterns…
Pattern
Examples
NOUN + VERB
people - slip / cars – skid
VERB + NOUN
abandon - ship, make – a wish,
catch – a bus
ADJECTIVE + NOUN
handsome – man,
beautiful - woman
The Lexical Approach
Pre-session 3 Reading:
 Moudraia, O. (2001) Lexical approach to second
language teaching. Available:
http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/0102lexical.html
Post-session 3 Reading:
 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.
 Let’s try some of the tasks near the end of this reading
LEARNING VOCABULARY IN
CONTEXT
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Context
Co-text: words before and after the target
word
2. The real-world context that the text refers to
What are the benefits of using decontextualized
word lists?
What information can the context gives us that
cannot be given by decontextualised word lists?
Learning grammatical and collocational patterns
Understanding the actual meaning of the word /
1.
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Presenting words in context
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Better show students:
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Rather than:
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It was stifling in the room.
Better say:
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It was so stifling in the room that I could hardly breathe.
There’s a word in the first line that means “huge”. What
word is that?
Rather than:
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“Enormous” in the first line means huge.
Provide rich contextual clues answers
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Carnivorous
Vehicles
Huge / enormous
Mean / stingy
Cut
Reduced / offset / compensated for
Revenue / income / money; afford
Providing context rich in
contextual clues
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Since plastic products are non-biodegradable, they
are hard to be disposed of and are persistent
environmental contaminants.
To explain more clearly the data collection process, I
append some samples of questionnaires used in the
study.
It is time we stopped talking of elephants as if they
were a commodity; they are not products /
mechandise to be traded.
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VOCABULARY ASSESSMENT
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Vocabulary Assessment Tools
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How do you (or your school) usually assess
vocabulary?
What sorts of vocabulary knowledge are being
tested in each of the tests?
Do you see any problems with some of the
tests?
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Various vocabulary assessment tools
(available at http://www.lextutor.ca/tests/)
 Vocabulary Levels Tests (VLTs)
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To check vocabulary size
Tests of vocabulary of different levels of frequency
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Word Association Test
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Meaning (different senses), collocations
Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS)
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2000, 3000, 5000, 10000-word levels; AWL
Aim at score of at least 80%
To check “quality” or “depth” of vocab knowledge
Vocab Profiler
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Lexical richness (type/token ratio) – more different words
More frequent words or more low-frequency words
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Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS)
“retire”
iii. I have seen this word before and I think it means “stop
working because of old age” (3 pts)
iv. I know this word. It means “stop working because of old
age” (3 pts)
v. I can use this word in a sentence:
He spent more time with his family after retire. (4 pts)
He spent more time with his family after he retired. (5 pts)
He decided to retire. (? pts)
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VKS
Problems:
 Self-reported in nature
 Level V: ability to produce sentence with target
vocab = ability to use the word appropriately?
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Discussion
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Given what we have discussed so far about
vocabulary learning and teaching, would you do
anything differently next term? What would
you keep doing?
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To sum up…
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Teach and consolidate the 2000 most
frequent words
Provide students with a variety of vocabulary
building activities
Encourage students to read widely
Encourage students to become independent
learners, esp. for learning low-frequency words
outside the classroom
Train students to use vocabulary learning
strategies
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VOCABULARY LEARNING
STRATEGIES (VLS)
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Vocabulary learning strategies (VLS)
1.
2.
3.
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5.
Taxonomies of Vocabulary learning strategies
Memory strategies, e.g. the Keyword technique,
using mental images
Guessing word meaning from the context
Selecting, recording and revising vocabulary
Research studies on VLS of Asian learners
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Vocabulary Learning Strategies
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Important for independent learning of lowfrequency words
It is important to use a range of strategies
The quality of strategy use counts for more
than the quantity of strategies used
It is important to choose strategies flexibly
and appropriately according to context
Strategies can be taught and weaker learners
can benefit from strategy training
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Taxonomy of VLS by Schmitt (1997)
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Taxonomy of Language Learning Strategies (LLS) by O’Malley & Chamot, 1990:
cognitive, metacognitive, socio-affective
Oxford’s (1990) LLS taxonomy – direct strategies: involving the target language
directly and require mental processing of the language (memory, cognitive,
compensation) and indirect strategies: (metacognitive, affective, social)
Nation (1990) – discovery vs consolidation strategies
Schmitt’s (1997) VLS taxonomy:
(1) Discovery: discovering the meaning of unknown words
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Determination strategies (finding meaning without recourse to others)
Social strategies (consulting or working with others to discover meaning)
(2) Consolidation: remembering words once their meaning has been discovered
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Social strategies
Memory strategies (mnemonics)
Cognitive strategies (similar to memory, but without the use of mnemonics)
Metacognitive strategies (planning, monitoring, evaluation of learning)
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Find out about your use of VLS
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Complete the questionnaire* developed based
on Schmitt’s (1997).
* Adapted from Loong Y & Chan S W L, A Study of Vocabulary
Learning Strategies Adopted by Dentistry Students in Hong
Kong In Learning Specialized Dental Vocabulary, September
2012, Asian ESP Journal
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Preparation for Session 5 Studies of VLS by Asian learners
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Form a group of 4 students.
Each student reads one of the readings
research methodology
 results
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Next Session – in CRT6.32 (use of
concordancers)
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