Vocabulary teaching: Some current issues

1. Workshop for KMUTT MA (Applied Linguistics) Vocabulary teaching: Some current issues July 2018 Arthur McNeill Graduate School of Human Studies Assumption University

2. Growing global concern about inadequate vocabulary of L2 learners • “… there is mounting evidence that many learners, particularly in EFL contexts, are not developing their lexicons to levels that would permit them to communicate, read, or write adequately in English, despite years of formal study.” (Atay and Kurt 2006: 256)

3. L2 vocabulary learning at primary school is still largely un-researched “… it seems likely that limited L2 vocabulary would affect elementary school EFL learners in carrying out the basic skills in English. Given the importance of vocabulary to oral and written language comprehension, it is astounding that have been few experimental studies on English vocabulary learning among elementary school children.” (Atay and Kurt 2006: 256)

4. Growing interest in students’ vocabulary in Hong Kong Vocabulary Study • Evidence of inadequate vocabulary of HK university entrants. • Most CUHK freshmen knew between 2000 and 3000 English words only. • International research suggests that students need at least 5000 words to cope with university study in English.

7. Does L2 vocabulary teaching need to change?

8. Possible Pedagogical Problems • Over-reliance on reading as a source of vocabulary acquisition • Over-reliance on learner training and indirect learning (i.e. assuming that students will learn vocabulary by themselves provided they learn effective strategies)

9. How much vocabulary do L2 students learn from reading? • Finally some empirical evidence of the low extent of vocabulary gains from L2 reading. • Claims about number of encounters required to learn a new word vary between 6 and 20. • ESL learners in Canada learn 70 new words a year from reading, i.e. 2000 words in 29 years. (Zahar, Cobb & Spada 2001)

10. Extensive reading revisited • Disappointing gains from reading of novels (Horst 2000) • Subjects able to select only one correct definition in 12 of the new words in text. • Far more vocabulary is learned if the same text is read several times (Horst & Meara 1999)

11. Learning new words from context revisited • Encouraging learners to infer the meaning of new words from context may be useful for their academic development. • However, inferring the meaning of new words from context does not lead to vocabulary acquisition. For words to remain in the memory, learners should confirm the guesses by referring to a dictionary or asking their teacher (Mondria & Wit de-Boer 1991).

12. Insights from genre:We need to selects texts carefully • Expository texts provide greater repetition of key lexis than narrative texts. • Success reported with primary learners who read more expository texts (Gardner 2004).

13. Key Priorities in Vocabulary Teaching • Providing multiple exposures to target words • Cognitive ‘elaboration’ of the form-meaning relationship Activities which require students to focus on vocabulary appear to promote retention (e.g. “reading plus”, pre-task and post-task vocabulary focus).

14. Some Teaching Implications • Enhance L2 vocabulary acquisition through instructional intervention • More direct teaching of vocabulary • More vocabulary-focused activities (PLUS, OF COURSE, A DEFINED VOCABULARY CURRICULUM)

15. Vocabulary now:Cinderella has arrived at the ball Landmarks of the past two decades: • Lexical Syllabus (Willis) • Lexical Approach (Lewis) • Some excellent books for teachers about vocabulary teaching (e.g. Nation, Schmitt & McCarthy) • Vocabulary software (concordancing; frequency profiling) • Corpus linguistics • Enormous expansion in L2 vocabulary research

16. What has changed since vocabulary became “centre stage”? Language teaching now attaches importance to: • Collocation: “blond+girl”; “torrential+rain”; “rising+prices” • Multi-word units/formulaic language: “see you later”; “have a nice day” • Word-building: compounding; affixation • Lexical relations such as antonyms: “high/low”; “ancient/modern”

17. But has the new interest in vocabulary taught students more words than before? • NO • Awareness of lexis has definitely increased. Lexicalisation has been a particular interest (e.g. examining the lexical value of common words). • The quality of vocabulary use has improved. • However, learners’ vocabulary size remains a cause for concern.

18. Learners know more about words.But do they know more words?

22. Native/Non-native differences in vocabulary acquisition • Native English speaking students acquire about 3000 words per year at secondary school (ending up with about 17,000 word families in adulthood). • Hong Kong secondary pupils acquire about 300 words per year.

23. What challenges does L2 vocabulary present to teachers? AREAS OF FOCUS DEPTH BREADTH

24. Productive VocabularyWhat are the main vocabulary issues in students’ writing?

25. Text written by a primary school pupil in a HK exam • I have a rubber, an old, small rubber. Although it is so small that I can not use it anymore, I still keep it carefully in my drawer as it is so important for me. • That is a long, long time that I have my rubber. Four years ago, when I was still an eight-years-old child, my parents bought me a rubber as my birthday present. I put it into my pencil-box and brought it to school everyday. • We had an interesting game in the past. We used our rubber to play with in the game. We pushed our rubber one by one and tried not to be pushed out at the desk by another rubber. We pushed and pulled our rubbers, soon our rubbers became older and smaller one day than one day.

26. Vocabulary Profile (VP) provides the following breakdown (RANGE, 2002)

29. I have a rubber, an old, small rubber. Although it is so small that I can not use it anymore, I still keep it carefully in my drawer as it is so important for me. • That is a long, long time that I have my rubber. Four years ago, when I was still an eight-years-old child, my parents bought me a rubber as my birthday present. I put it into my pencil-box and brought it to school everyday. • We had an interesting game in the past. We used our rubber to play with in the game. We pushed our rubber one by one and tried not to be pushed out at the desk by another rubber. We pushed and pulled our rubbers, soon our rubbers became older and smaller one day than one day.

30. Lexical characteristics of L2 student writing • Repetition of key words rather than lexical substitution • Under-use of super-ordination • Need for lexical enrichment (in particular, adjectives and adverbs)

31. What vocabulary skills are involved in developing lexical richness? • Avoiding repetition of words (e.g. by lexical and pronominal substitution) • Knowing and using synonyms • Ability to give definitions • Knowing the name of the immediate superordinate • Knowing the name of the member of the group (e.g. “item”, “piece”, “article”, etc.) • Use of metaphor (e.g. using known words in a metaphorical sense)

32. “General” superordinates can also help • EXAMPLES: Stuff Problem Issue Thing Material Business Behaviour Phenomenon Trend Pattern

33. Lexical expansion of a first draft “My hobby is swimming. Every Saturday I go to the swimming pool near my home. I swim for one hour. At the end, I feel good. Then I go to McDonalds with my friend.”

34. Lexical feedback on a first draft “My [adjective] hobby is swimming. Every Saturday I go to the [adjective] swimming pool [precise location] near my home. I swim [how exactly do you swim?] for one hour. At the end, I feel good [a better adjective?]. Then I go [better verb of movement] to McDonalds with my friend.”

35. 2. Pre-requisites for vocabulary building Two Strands: Topic Strand Collocation Strand focus on size focus on word combinations paradigmatic approach syntagmatic approach

36. Paradigmatic approach (topic strand) • Deliberate organization of words into hierarchies • Develops associative networks • Encourages efficient vocabulary learning • Paradigms are fixed (but ‘open’) • Other associations are more personal (e.g. acoustic, visual, ‘linkword’)

37. Assumptions about paradigmatic arrangement • Allows for efficient vocabulary growth because the system is ‘open’ and allows for additions • Associated with receptive vocabulary knowledge in particular • Retrieval of words operates through the ‘cohort’ principle

38. FLAT LIVING ROOM BEDROOMS KITCHEN BATHROOM fridge cooker saucepan frying pan Example One:

39. Vehicles car train bicycle handlebar wheel saddle tyre spoke Example Two:

40. ? horse cow tiger Teaching the names of the superordinates

41. animals horse cow tiger Teaching the names of the superordinates

42. ? football tennis basketball What is the missing word?

43. ? desk chair cupboard What is the missing word?

44. Paradigmatic Association Syntagmatic Association

45. Paradigmatic Association Syntagmatic Association

46. Receptive Paradigmatic Association Syntagmatic Association

47. Receptive Paradigmatic Association Syntagmatic Association Productive

48. Syntagmatic approach (collocation strand) • E.g. Topic: transport Car – drive – fast – wet – road Brakes – skid – collide - accident • Develops associative networks • Word combinations are the key to productive use of English • Focus on multi-word units (e.g. ‘See you later.’, ‘Have a good trip!’) • Collocations (e.g. ‘go shopping’, ‘have a shower’, ‘play football’)

49. Assumptions about syntagmatic arrangement • Associated with productive vocabulary because it is based on the words which tend to occur together in sentences • The associations are based on collocations rather than semantic categories

50. From receptive to productiveProviding opportunities to combine words