Words Words Words! Helping ELL Students Develop Vocabulary.

Words Words Words!

Helping ELL Students Develop Vocabulary

Two important elements of vocabulary learning

Quality:

How well do students know each word?

Quality

Goal:

To improve how much students know about each word

Quality

• Spoken Form:

What does the word sound like?

How is it pronounced?

Quality

• Written Form:

What does the word look like?

How is it written?

Quality

• Meaning:

What meaning does this form of the word have?

For example:

Drink (noun) vs. drink (verb)

Quality

• Concepts:

What things can the concept refer to?

For Example:

Drinking fountain

Quality

• Associations:

What other words does this word make you think of?

For example:drink - water - thirsty

Quality

• Grammatical Patterns:

In what patterns does the word occur?

transitive vs. intransitive verbsTwo-word verbs: talk about

Prepositions: drink of N

Quality

• Collocations:

What words or type of words occur with this word?

Example:

Get a drink

Have a drink

Take a drink

Quality

• Restrictions on Use (Register differences):

Where, when, and how often would you expect to meet this word?

Is the word:

Informal (casual)

Formal

Quantity

Goal:

To increase the number of words

that students know

Quantity

Educated adult native speakers of English know approximately 20,000

word families

Quantity

High School graduate ELL students know approximately 2,000 - 3,000

word families

Quantity

If students know the most frequent 1,000 words of English, they should be able to understand 72% of the words on the page of a book, newspaper, or magazine

Known

Unknown

Quantity

Known

Unknown

If students know the most frequent 2,000 words of English, they should be able to understand 80% of the words on the page of a book, newspaper, or magazine

Quantity

Known

Unknown

If students know the most frequent 3,000 words of English, they should be able to understand 84% of the words on the page of a book, newspaper, or magazine

Quantity

Known

Unknown

If students know the most frequent 4,000 words of English, they should be able to understand 86% of the words on the page of a book, newspaper, or magazine

Quantity

In order to understand 95% of the words on a page of a book, newspaper, or magazine, students need to know approximately 12,500 words

In order to understand 99% of the words on a page of a book, newspaper, or magazine, students need to know approximately 44,000 words

Academic Vocabulary

Academic Vocabulary

If the goal is to read academic writing (textbooks, etc) and write academic papers

(essays, etc), students can save time and effort by focusing on academic vocabulary

What is Academic Vocabulary?

Academic Vocabulary is a specialized vocabulary of 570 word families that

commonly appear in all academic textbooks, regardless of content area

Academic Vocabulary Learning

In general vocabulary learning, to go from 80% understanding to 86% understanding would require students to learn 2,000 more word families

In academic vocabulary learning, to go from 80% understanding to 86% understanding would require students to learn 570 more word families

Do you think studying academic vocabulary will be helpful for

ELL students?

Keeping 4 principles in mind will help students develop their

vocabulary as much as possible.

Principle #1

Help students be active in developing understanding of

words and ways to learn them

Active Learning Strategy 1

• Semantic Mapping:

Making a graphic representation of the relationship between words

Active Learning Strategy 2

• Definition Mapping:

Working with grammar, meaning,

and sample sentences

Active Learning Strategy 3

• Grouping:

Recognizing the relatedness of a word

to other words

Grouping

Words thatDescribe Large

Scale

massive

huge enormous

immense

extensive

vast

Principle #2

Help students personalize their

word learning

Personalized Learning Strategy 1

• Choosing words:

Identify key concepts and the words required to understand these concepts

Personalized Learning Strategy 2

• Choosing words:

Identify important terms students

need to learn

Personalized Learning Strategy 3

• Choosing words:

Identify meaningful similarities and differences among the concepts / words

being studied

Personalizing Words (Summary)

• Students identify key concepts or important terms they need to learn within a text.

• Students construct a semantic network around each of the selected key concepts.

• Students think of examples or potential applications of the key concepts and record these examples on the definition worksheet.

• Students identify meaningful similarities and differences among the different concepts being studied.

Principle #3

Students should be immersed in words

Immersion in Words

• Opportunity 1:

Put students in a word-

and language-rich environment

Immersion in Words

• Opportunity 2:

Help students become aware of words and how they are used in the input they

receive

Immersion in Words

• Opportunity 3:

Help students try to use new / interesting words in their speaking and writing

Principle #4

Students should get multiple sources of information to learn words through

repeated exposures

Repeated Exposure

• Opportunity 1:

Watch videos or TV programs that are related to the content

Repeated Exposure

• Opportunity 2:

Read books, stories, and other material

related to the content

Repeated Exposure

• Opportunity 3:

Discuss content ideas with friends, family, and classmates

Summary4 Principles of Vocabulary Learning

• Students should be active in developing their understanding of words and ways to learn them

• Students should personalize their word learning

• Students should be immersed in words• Students should use multiple sources of

information to learn words through repeated exposures

Keeping these 4 principles in mind will help students develop

their vocabulary as much as possible.