Vocabulary: How Vocabulary: How important is it important is it in language in language learning? learning? Rubena St. Louis, Universidad Simon Bolivar [email protected]How can my How can my students become students become active learners? active learners?
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How many words should a foreign language student know?
2000 most frequent word families and the Academic Word List ensures a coverage of 90% of an academic text.
Nation and Waring, 1977
What the researchers say….
Levels Conversation
%
Fiction
%
Newspapers
%
Academic text %
1000 84.3 82.3 75.6 73.5
2000 6 5.1 4.7 4.6
AWL 1.9 1.7 3.9 8.5
Other 7.8 10.9 15.7 13.3
The rich manby Franklin P. Adams, 1881-1960
The rich man has his ………………, His ………….and his town………….He smokes a hundred dollar ……………And jeers at Fate.He …………….through the livelong day.He knows not …………….her pinch.His lot seems…………, his heart seems…………, He has a cinch.Yet though my lamp …………….low and…………, Though I must ………….for livelihood—Think you that I would change with him? You ……………I……………..!
The rich manby Franklin P. Adams, 1881-1960
The rich man has his motor-car, His country and his town estate.He smokes a fify-cent cigar And jeers at Fate.He frivols through the livelong day.He knows not Poverty her pinch.His lot seems light, his heart seems gay, He has a cinch.Yet though my lamp burns low and dim, Though I must slave for livelihood—Think you that I would change with him? You bet I would!
What’s “knowing” a word?
Form
Meaning
Use
Factors involved.
Motivation
Motivation
Noticing Noticing
RepetitionRepetitionGenerative
use
Generative use
InvolvementInvolvement
How can I help them learn? What do I
have to do?
Make vocabulary a part of their lives.
• Teach vocabulary learning strategies– Find out about students’ learning strategies.– Model strategies– Help students find the best way to learn
• Teach correct use of the dictionary– Review grammar
• Incorporate vocabulary exercises in daily lesson plan.– Use a variety of different exercises every day.
Aren’t learners the same?
• Multi-media oriented– Less textual
• Multi-tasker• Extremely sociable• Collaboration and
relationships• Constant engagement
and active involvement
• Freedom of choice • Freedom of
expression• Customize,
personalize• Create and share• Strive to be
independent• Technology a need
Some characteristics of today’s learners
Today’s sources
• Newspapers• Journals• Ebooks• Television web sites• Museums and art
galleries• Educational sites• Social networks
Potential for use
Learning environment
Language learner
Learning objectives
Delivery
Tools
…Provide exposure to language• “…the outcome of
language learning depends on large measure on the amount and kind of exposure to the target language…”
Spolsky, (1989)
• “…learners are involved in a diversity of tasks with a variety of sources of language input…”
Krashen & Terrell (1983)
Provide opportunities for interaction
• Long's Interactionst theory requires students to engage in authentic communication, with negotiation of meaning and use of communicative strategies.
• Swain's Output hypothesis calls for learners to evaluate their output, reformulate hypothesis and reuse as input..
Have the potential to create authentic tasks…
Authentic tasks are those having the same types of cognitive challenges as complicated real-world tasks do.
• Egbert, Chin-chi Chao, & Hanson-Smith, (1999)
…a variety of tasks.
• Tasks which require students to process data at a deep semantic level. (Craik & Lockhart, 1972)
• Tasks which require students to focus on meaning and on form.
(Van Pattern, 2002)
• Tasks which involve students emotionally and are significant to the learner.
Words related to the target word and used in the same context.
Images associated with the word.
Audio pronunciation.
Allows you to hear the pronunciation of the word.
Let’s play!
Allows the retrieval of vocabulary in a fun way.
Encourages students to become autonomous learners by constructing their own vocabulary lists and then testing themselves.
Allows students to practice vocabulary and compete against themselves.
Some sites of interest. Teacher Tools• British National Corpus: http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/• Complete lexical tutor: http://www.lextutor.ca/• Vocabulary grabber: http://www.visualthesaurus.com/vocabgrabber/
Dictionaries• Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English: http://www.ldoceonline.com/• Dictionary.com:http://dictionary.reference.com/• The Phrase Finder:http://www.phrases.org.uk/
Learning sites• Gapfillers. Language on the go: http://www.gapfillers.co.uk/• Word learner:http://www.wordlearner.com/• Spelling city: http://www.spellingcity.com/• Wordgames: http://www.eastoftheweb.com/games/