1 What’s in a Word? The Importance of Vocabulary & Some Ways to Teach It ELC688 Methods I Survey of Best Practices in TESOL Jodi Crandall & Bev Bickel University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) Adapted with permission by Teresa Hecht Valais, UMBC
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What’s in a Word? The Importance of Vocabulary
& Some Ways to Teach It
ELC688 Methods I
Survey of Best Practices in TESOL
Jodi Crandall & Bev Bickel
University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC)
Adapted with permission by Teresa Hecht Valais, UMBC
couch potato, Valley girl, hot under the collar, cold shoulder, hit the road, on track
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What Vocabulary Should We Teach?
Vocabulary Items That Are:
• Frequent (West General Service List)
• Important (Academic Word List)
• Needed for Classroom Tasks & Activities
• Regular (common patterns or features)
• Easy to learn (cognates)
Must consider level & needs/interests of learners
Must answer students’ vocabulary questions
(Nation, 2001)
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What Does It Mean to “Know” a Word?
• Different contexts of use
• Different meanings (connotations)
• Different word partners or collocations
Students’ receptive vocabulary will exceed their productive one.
(Carter, 1998)
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How Should We Teach Vocabulary?
• Focus on important words
General Service List of first 2000 Academic Word List
• Give simple, clear explanations & translations
• Provide repetition over time
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How Should We Teach Vocabulary?
• Provide both extensive & intensive instruction
reading and listening to “pick up” vocabulary AND direct instruction of key vocabulary
• Help learners develop vocabulary learning strategies
personal dictionaries; memory strategies
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How Should We Divide Our Time in Teaching Vocabulary?
Teach each of these for about the same amount (25%) of the time:
• Learning from Input (listening and reading)
Most common 2000-3000 words
These are stored as one unit
Together they account for 80-90%
• Learning from Output (speaking and writing)
Opportunity to use the words; repetition (Nation, 2001)
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How Should We Divide Our Time?
• Focused Language Learning Looking for patterns; dictionary work; etc,
The 100,000 + most infrequent words
These are rebuilt each time we use them
• ex: Ungovernable = govern + able + un
• Fluency Activities All 4 skills; use known words & grammar
Encourage lots of use
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What Are Some Activities for Teaching & Learning Vocabulary ?
For Children and Lower English Levels:
• Word walls/mobiles/blocks/bulletin boards
• Charades/Act out meaning
• Draw/point to items that match definition
• Alphabet books
• Word games
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What Are Some Activities for Teaching & Learning Vocabulary?
For Older Students
• Word Grids • Wordsplash • Personal Dictionaries & Vocabulary Notebooks • Word Analysis (Roots, Suffixes, Prefixes) • Find words with the same root • Change words from 1 part of speech to another (compose-composition) • Underline words known; circle unfamiliar ones • Word games (especially with technology) • Bingo/Concentration/Word search • Crossword puzzles
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VOCABULARY WEBSITES Vocabulary Activities
Learning vocabulary can be fun http://www.vocabulary.co.il/ 200 vocabulary exercises http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/200/vocab/index.htm
Interactive vocabulary games http://pbskids.org/arthur/games/unmatching/index.html http://esl.fis.edu/vocab/index-fp.htm Interactive puzzles http://vlc.polyu.edu.hk/XWord/xword.htm
VOCABULARY ACTIVITIES Vocabulary quizzes/activities http://www.geocities.com/pccprep/qz.htm#vocab Interactive vocabulary matching exercises http://www.eslbears.homestead.com/matching.html Vocabulary and grammar activities http://english-zone.com/index.php Vocabulary and other activities for young learners http://www.abcteach.com/sitemap.htm Vocabulary website from Ohio University http://www.ohiou.edu/esl/english/vocabulary.html