VOCABULARY
Mastery of vocabulary is a basic ingredient for communication. No matter how much we know about language, if words fail to come no message is conveyed. According Wilkins “Knowledge of a language demands mastery of its vocabulary as much as of its grammar”.
Types of words and vocabulary items
• Contents words: vocabulary items that refer to specific meanings:
• Single words
• Compound words
• Words with a prefix or a suffix added
• Phrasal verbs
• Collocations (phrases composed of words that occur for lexical rather than semantic reasons: fast train and not quick train) and idioms.
Active and passive vocabulary
Active: Vocabulary you can understand and recall and it is ready to use for comunication.
Passive: vocabulary that when heard or encountered cannot be used automatically, but it can be understood.
When teaching active vocabulary, a greater amount of practice must be given.
Steps in teaching vocabulary
Linguistic input is absolutely necessary for language acquisition and it’s the teacher’s role to provide his students with it in the most accessible way.
- The first step should be to help learners understand the meaning of new words.
- The second to facilitate the learning of the pronunciation.
- Third step: reading and writing words and finally to make easy for students memorize them.
-
Resources to teach meaning
1. - Linguistic resources:
- Definitions: teenager: a young boy or girl between 13 and 19 years old.
- Synonyms: clever= intelligent, large= big
- Antonyms/Opposites: old/young, bad/good.
- Hyponyms (examples of a general concept for “super ordinates”) Animal= dog, cat, lion, etc.
2. - Visual, aural, kinesthetic and tactile aids
- Realia, mime, facial expressions and gestures.
- Flashcards, wall charts, photographs or simple drawings.
When to teach words
• Words connected with a particular function. When teaching we need to know how to perform the function: “nice to meet yo”.
• Lexical sets. They can be pre-taught before dealing with the topic they are related to. But once isolated words have been presented, they should be repeated in meaningful contexts.
Memorizing words
• By doing activities and exercises and playing games.
Other things being equal, a color picture will be remembered longer than a black and white picture.
A sentence spoken by skilled actress will make more of an impression than the same sentence read in the “now-listen-carefully” drone used by some teachers.
Study techniques
There are a few techniques that can help students memorize words.
• Say the word and try to see what it means in your mind. Use your senses: its smell, its taste, what it looks like, etc.
• Write the word while you say it and visualize it.
• Copy words and keep them in a vocabulary notebook. You can copy them in alphabetical order, in lexical fields.
• While you write words, say and try to visualize them in your mind.
• Prepare cards:
Slide A – A picture of the meaning
Slide B – Spelling + pronunciation + the word in context (in a sentence) + translation (?)
• Invent key words that will remind you of them: chest – Chester = bad for your chest.
• Revise the words and check if you remember them. For this you can use:
Word cards
Lists of words with their Spanish equivalents.
Use a dictionary.
Vocabulary activities
Variety is a very important factor here, since children get enthusiastic easily but they also get tired and lose concentration fast.
One of the activities that we can do is : Listen and do something type: listen and point, listen and colour, listen and draw, listen and circle, listen ad tick/cross, listen and order, listen and follow instructions, listen and identify, listen and label, and listen and raise your hand when you hear a specific word.
Mixed types of techniques: classification, association, memorization…
Listen and say, listen and repeat, listen, point and name, listen and complete words, match words with definitions, match synonyms or opposites, find the odd one out, group words belonging to the same semantic fields, and brainstorming round a word. What we have to do are transferences from subjects using the network. Making transferences can be very productive.
Games. Grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and spelling. The English language is not a subject; English is something that is enjoyable if we introduce activities that children like. Catch the attention of the students by games. Cardboard games (bingo, noughts and crosses, happy families) memory games (Kim’s game, disappearing pictures…) guessing games (guess the person, riddles…) and miscellaneous games e.g. “Simon says” based on Asher’s total physical response method.
Mastery of vocabulary is a basic ingredient for communication. No matter how much we know about language, if words fail to come no message is conveyed. According Wilkins “Knowledge of a language demands mastery of its vocabulary as much as of its grammar”.
Types of words and vocabulary items
• Contents words: vocabulary items that refer to specific meanings:
• Single words
• Compound words
• Words with a prefix or a suffix added
• Phrasal verbs
• Collocations (phrases composed of words that occur for lexical rather than semantic reasons: fast train and not quick train) and idioms.
Active and passive vocabulary
Active: Vocabulary you can understand and recall and it is ready to use for comunication.
Passive: vocabulary that when heard or encountered cannot be used automatically, but it can be understood.
When teaching active vocabulary, a greater amount of practice must be given.
Steps in teaching vocabulary
Linguistic input is absolutely necessary for language acquisition and it’s the teacher’s role to provide his students with it in the most accessible way.
- The first step should be to help learners understand the meaning of new words.
- The second to facilitate the learning of the pronunciation.
- Third step: reading and writing words and finally to make easy for students memorize them.
-
Resources to teach meaning
1. - Linguistic resources:
- Definitions: teenager: a young boy or girl between 13 and 19 years old.
- Synonyms: clever= intelligent, large= big
- Antonyms/Opposites: old/young, bad/good.
- Hyponyms (examples of a general concept for “super ordinates”) Animal= dog, cat, lion, etc.
2. - Visual, aural, kinesthetic and tactile aids
- Realia, mime, facial expressions and gestures.
- Flashcards, wall charts, photographs or simple drawings.
When to teach words
• Words connected with a particular function. When teaching we need to know how to perform the function: “nice to meet yo”.
• Lexical sets. They can be pre-taught before dealing with the topic they are related to. But once isolated words have been presented, they should be repeated in meaningful contexts.
Memorizing words
• By doing activities and exercises and playing games.
Other things being equal, a color picture will be remembered longer than a black and white picture.
A sentence spoken by skilled actress will make more of an impression than the same sentence read in the “now-listen-carefully” drone used by some teachers.
Study techniques
There are a few techniques that can help students memorize words.
• Say the word and try to see what it means in your mind. Use your senses: its smell, its taste, what it looks like, etc.
• Write the word while you say it and visualize it.
• Copy words and keep them in a vocabulary notebook. You can copy them in alphabetical order, in lexical fields.
• While you write words, say and try to visualize them in your mind.
• Prepare cards:
Slide A – A picture of the meaning
Slide B – Spelling + pronunciation + the word in context (in a sentence) + translation (?)
• Invent key words that will remind you of them: chest – Chester = bad for your chest.
• Revise the words and check if you remember them. For this you can use:
Word cards
Lists of words with their Spanish equivalents.
Use a dictionary.
Vocabulary activities
Variety is a very important factor here, since children get enthusiastic easily but they also get tired and lose concentration fast.
One of the activities that we can do is : Listen and do something type: listen and point, listen and colour, listen and draw, listen and circle, listen ad tick/cross, listen and order, listen and follow instructions, listen and identify, listen and label, and listen and raise your hand when you hear a specific word.
Mixed types of techniques: classification, association, memorization…
Listen and say, listen and repeat, listen, point and name, listen and complete words, match words with definitions, match synonyms or opposites, find the odd one out, group words belonging to the same semantic fields, and brainstorming round a word. What we have to do are transferences from subjects using the network. Making transferences can be very productive.
Games. Grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and spelling. The English language is not a subject; English is something that is enjoyable if we introduce activities that children like. Catch the attention of the students by games. Cardboard games (bingo, noughts and crosses, happy families) memory games (Kim’s game, disappearing pictures…) guessing games (guess the person, riddles…) and miscellaneous games e.g. “Simon says” based on Asher’s total physical response method.
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