Studies lexical material of English
Studies
lexical material of English
Contents
Chapter I. How
is Vocabulary learned?
1.1 How
important is vocabulary
1.2 How are
words selected
1.3 Conveying
the meaning
Chapter II.
How to present vocabulary
2.1 Presenting
vocabulary
2.2 How to
illustrate meaning
2.3 How to
explain meaning
Chapter III.
How to put words to work
3.1 Decision -
making tasks
3.1.1
Identifying words
3.1.2
Selecting tasks
3.1.3 Matching
task
3.1.4 Sorting
activities
3.1.5 Ranking
and sequencing
3.2 Games
Chapter IV.
Teaching word parts word chunks
4.1 Teaching
word formation and word combination
4.2 A lexical
approach
4.3 Teaching
lexical chunks
4.4 Teaching
phrasal verbs
4.5 Teaching
idioms
Conclusions
Bibliography
Chapter I. How is
Vocabulary learned?
1.1 How
important is vocabulary
Teaching
English vocabulary is an important area worthy of effort and investigation.
Recently methodologists and linguists emphasize and recommend teaching
vocabulary because of its importance in language teaching. Vocabulary is needed
for expressing meaning and in using the receptive (listening and reading) and
the productive (speaking and writing) skills. "If language structures make
up the skeleton of language, then it is vocabulary that provides the vital
organs and the flesh" (Harmer)
Vocabulary
is not a syllabus, i.e., a list of words that teachers prepare for their
learners to memorize and learn by heart. Memorizing may be good and useful as a
temporary technique for tests, but not for learning a foreign language.
Language students need to learn vocabulary of the target language in another
way. If we are really to teach students what words mean and how they are used,
we need to show them being used together in context. Words do not just exist on
their own; they live together and they depend upon each other. Therefore,
teaching vocabulary correctly is a very important element in language learning.
Correct vocabulary instruction involves vocabulary selection, word knowledge
and techniques.
1.2 How are
words selected
In
the past, teachers used to select and present vocabulary from concrete to
abstract. Words like 'door', 'window', 'desk', etc., which are concrete, used
to be taught at beginning levels. However, words like 'honesty', 'beauty' etc.,
which are abstract words, used to be taught at advanced levels because they
are not "physically represented" in the learning/teaching environment
and are very difficult to explain.
Nowadays
methodologists and linguists suggest that teachers can decide and select the
words to be taught on the basis of how frequently they are used by speakers of
the language. That is, the most commonly used words should be taught first
(Harmer).
We
can get information about which words will be most useful for learners of
English by looking at frequency counts of vocabulary. Usually a vocabulary
count is done by making a list of the words in a particular text or group of
texts and counting how often and where they occur. Some of the more recent
counts have used computers to list the words and count their frequency
(Nation).
Besides
that, teachers can decide which words are useful and should be taught to their
learners on the basis of semantics. This means, that the word is more useful if
it covers more things than if it only has one very specific meaning. For
example, the word 'book', which is taught at beginning levels, has wider usage
than the words 'notebook', 'textbook', etc. Furthermore, Nation says that
frequency and coverage are not enough to be used when teachers select and
prepare a word list for learners of English. So he suggests other criteria,
such as language needs, availability and familiarity, regularity and ease of
learning or learning burden.
Teachers
can help their learners enrich and increase their vocabulary. They can also
help the learners to build a new store of words to select from when they want
to express themselves. If any learner can handle grammar correctly, that does
not mean that he can express himself fluently unless he has a store of words to
select from. Therefore, teachers are a very important factor in selecting and
teaching English vocabulary, and they have to design vocabulary syllabi
according to their learners' needs. As a result, “teachers vocabulary work can
be directed toward useful words and can give learners practice in useful
skills".
The
selection of words which are to be taught to the students is a very important
procedure in the language learning process. However, the word selection
process doesn't mean that the students will be fluent in expressing themselves
in English upon learning that list, i.e., what students need to know regarding
vocabulary is the word meaning, the word use, the word formation and the word
grammar.
1.3 Conveying
the meaning
When
conveying the meaning to the students, teachers should teach their students
that a word may have more than one meaning when used in meaning, different
contexts. For example, the word "book" has at least twelve different
meanings when used in context. It has eight meanings as a noun, two meanings as
a verb and three different meanings when used with prepositions as phrasal
verbs. One may say "I booked my ticket three days ago"; another
"I booked him for speeding" and so on (Harmer).Teachers should make
the teaching learning vocabulary process clear and easy for their students when
conveying any meaning; otherwise the student may feel bored and become fed up
with learning vocabulary.
The
meaning of words can be communicated in many different ways. Nation suggests
that teachers can convey meaning to their students by demonstration or pictures
(using an object, using a cut out figure, using gesture, performing and action,
photographs, blackboard drawings or diagrams and pictures from books) and by
verbal explanation (analytical definition, putting the new word in a defining
context, and translating into another language). Besides that, teachers should
involve their students in discovering the words' meanings by themselves and let
them make efforts to understand words' meanings. When the students are involved
in discovering meaning, they will never forget those meanings and they will be
able to express themselves fluently.
When
a single word has various meanings, the teacher should decide which meanings
are to be taught first, i.e., the teacher must decide which meanings occur most
frequently and which meanings the learners need most. As a result, the students
will be motivated, and gradually they will build their own store of words which
will be a basis for communication at any time.
Teaching
vocabulary is not just conveying the meaning to the students and asking them to
learn those words by heart. If teachers believe that the words are worth
explaining and learning, then it is important that they should do this
efficiently. Teachers should use different techniques and activities in teaching
English vocabulary to motivate the learners, enrich their vocabulary and enable
them to speak English properly.
Chapter II. How to present
vocabulary
2.1 Presenting
vocabulary
We
looked at possible sources of vocabulary input, including vocabulary books,
readers, dictionaries and corpora. A motivated and self-directed learner might
be able to acquire a large vocabulary simply by using these resources. However,
many learners sign up for language courses in the expectation that, at least
some of the time, they will be presented with language, rather than having to
go out and find it for themselves. By presentation, we mean those pre-planned
lesson stages in which learners are taught pre-selected vocabulary items. Of
course, incidental vocabulary teaching can occur at other times of the lesson,
as when a text or a discussion throws up unfamiliar vocabulary. In this
chapter, however, we will be mainly concerned with ways vocabulary can be
formally presented in the classroom. But many of the issues are relevant to the
informal teaching of vocabulary as well.
At
the very least learners need to learn both the meaning and the form of a new
word. We shall deal with each of these components in turn. But it's worth
pointing out that both these aspects of a word should be presented in close
conjunction in order to ensure a tight meaning-and-form fit. The greater the
gap between the presentation of a word's form and its meaning, the less likely
that the learner will make a mental connection between the two.
Let's
say the teacher has decided to teach a related set of words - for example,
items of clothing: shirt, trousers, jacket, socks, dress, jeans. The teacher
has a number of options available. First, there is the question of how many
words to present. This will depend on the following factors:
- the level of
the learners (whether beginners, intermediate, or advanced);
- the learners'
likely familiarity with the words (learners may have met the words before even
though they are not part of their active vocabulary);
- the difficulty
of the items - whether, for example, they express abstract meanings.
Consider
how you would present each of the following six sets of words. What do you
think would be the most appropriate means of presenting them? (E.g. visual
aids, a situation, real objects, etc.)
2.2 How to
illustrate meaning
An
alternative to translation – and an obvious choice if presenting a set of
concrete objects such as clothes items – is to somehow illustrate or
demonstrate them. This can be done either by using real objects (called realia)
or pictures or mime. The use of realia, pictures and demonstration was a
defining technique of the Direct Method. The Direct Method, in rejecting the
use of translation, developed as a reaction to such highly intellectual
approaches to language learning as Grammar-Translation. Here, for example, is
advice for teachers from a popular Direct Method course of the 1940s:
HOW
TO TEACH THE NAMES OF OBJECTS
The
usual procedure is as follows.
The
teacher first selects a number of objects, in batches of say from 10 to 20.
[...] The objects may be:
(a) those
that are usually found in the place where the lesson is given, e.g. door,
window, knife, match, book; or parts of the body or articles of clothing;
(b) those
collected specially for the purposes of the lesson, e.g. a stick, a stone, a
nail, a piece of wire, a piece of string etc;
(c) those
represented by pictures, such as those printed on picture cards or wall charts,
or by rough drawings on the blackboard.
The
teacher shows or points to each object in turn and names it. He says the name
clearly (but naturally) three or four times. [...] When the pupils have had
sufficient opportunity to hear the words and sentences (and to grasp their
meaning) they are called upon to say them. In the first instance they may
repeat them after the teacher ...
(from
Palmer H, The Teaching of Oral English, Longman)
Visual
aids take many forms: flashcards (published and home-made), wall charts,
transparencies projected on to the board or wall using the overhead projector,
and board drawings. Many teachers collect their own sets of flashcards from
magazines, calendars, etc. Especially useful are pictures of items belonging to
the following sets: food and drink, clothing, house interiors and furniture,
landscapes/exteriors, forms of transport plus a wide selection of pictures of
people, sub-divided into sets such as jobs, nationalities, sports, activities,
and appearance (tall, strong, sad, healthy, old, etc).
2.3 How to
explain meaning
Of
course, reliance on real objects, illustration, or demonstration, is limited.
It is one thing to mime a chicken, but quite another to physically represent
the meaning of a word like intuition or become or trustworthy. Also, words frequently
come up incidentally, words for which the teacher won't have visual aids or
realia at hand. An alternative way of conveying the meaning of a new word is
simply to use words – other words. This is the principle behind dictionary
definitions. Non-visual, verbal means of clarifying meaning include:
- providing an
example situation;
- giving several
example sentences;
- giving
synonyms, antonyms, or super ordinate terms;
- giving a full
definition.
All
of the above procedures can be used in conjunction, and also in combination
with visual means such as board drawings or mime. Although a verbal explanation
may take a little longer than using translation, or visuals or mime, the
advantages are that the learners are getting extra “free” listening practice, and,
by being made to work a little harder to get to the meaning of a word, they
may, be more cognitively engaged.
Chapter III. How to put
words to work
3.1 Decision -
making tasks
There
are many different kinds of tasks that teachers can set learners in order to
help move words into long-term memory. Some of these tasks will require more
brain work than others. That is to say, they will be more cognitively
demanding. Tasks in which learners make decisions about words can be divided
into the following types, roughly arranged in an order from least cognitively
demanding to most demanding:
• identifying
• selecting
• matching
• sorting
• ranking
and sequencing
The
more of these task types that can be performed on a set of words the better. In
other words, an identification task could be followed by a matching task, which
in turn could be followed by a ranking task.
3.1.1
Identifying words
Identifying
words simply means finding them where they may otherwise be “hidden”, such as
in texts.
Here,
for example, are some identification tasks relating to the text Fear of Flying.
Give the learners the text and ask them to:
• Count
the number of times plane(s) and train(s) occur in the text.
• Find
four words connected with, flying in the text.
• Find
five phrasal verbs in the text.
• Find
eight comparative adjectives in the text.
• Underline
all the words ending in -ing in the text.
Ask
them to read the text, then turn it over, and then ask:
• “Did
the following words occur in the text?”
busy
crowded fast dangerous uncomfortable dirty convenient inconvenient noisy
• “Now
check the text to see if you were right.”
Identification
is also the process learners apply in tasks in which they have to unscramble
anagrams (such as utis, snaje, eti — for suit, jeans, tie), or when they have
to search for words in a 'word soup', such as the following (also from Language
in Use):
1 What
are these clothes in English? The answers are all in the word square.
3.1.2
Selecting tasks
Selecting
tasks are cognitively more complex than identification tasks, since they
involve both recognising words and making choices amongst them. This may take
the form of choosing the “odd one out”, as in this task (again, based on the
lexical set of clothes).
Choose the odd
one out in each group
1
2
3
|
trousers
blouse
T-shirt etc.
|
socks
skirt
suit
|
jeans
tie
shorts
|
T-shirt
dress
trainers
|
Note
that with this kind of activity, there is no “righ” answer necessarily. What is
important is that learners are able to justify their choice, whatever their
answer. It is the cognitive work that counts – not getting the right answer.
Here is
another open-ended selection task, with a personalised element
1. Work in pairs.
Choose five words to describe yourself. Use a dictionary if necessary.
careful interesting clever
cold confident fit funny imaginative intelligent kind lazy nervous
optimistic patent pessimistic
polite quiet calm rude sad
sensitive nice serious tidy thoughtful
Think of other words
you can
use.
honest, friendly...
Discuss your choice of
words with your partner.
I think I'm usually
optimistic.
And I'm always polite!
Does he/she agree with
you?
|
2.Think of three people
you admire very much. They can be politicians, musicians, sports
personalities etc. or people you know personally. Choose the person you
admire most and think of three adjectives to describe this person.
Then choose the second
and third person you admire and think of three more adjectives for each
person to explain why.
|
from
Greenall S, Reward Pre-Intermediate, Macmillan Heinemann
3.1.3 Matching
task
A
matching task involves first recognising words and then pairing them with – for
example – a visual representation, a translation, a synonym, an antonym, a
definition, or a collocate. As an example of this last type, here is a
verb-noun matching task.
Here
is a vocabulary activity from a beginners' course (Mohamed S and Acklam R, The
Beginners' Choice, Longman), consisting of two stages. Devise at least three
further stages which would require learners to 'put the words to work' – both
receptively and productively.
Look
at the picture below and number the parts of the body.
hair
2. head ... foot ... nose ... eye ... leg ... knee ... finger ... mouth ... hand
toe ... shoulder ... face ... arm ... back ear ... stomach ...
|
3.1.4 Sorting
activities
Sorting
activities require learners to sort words into different categories. The
categories can either be given, or guessed. Here is an example of the former
(from Thornbury S, Highlight Pre-Intermediate, Heinemann).
Word
field: characteristics
Put these
adjectives into two groups – positive and negative
emotional
confident
offensive
|
friendly
ambitious
kind
|
good-humoured
rude
selfish
|
outgoing
self-centred
nice
|
Here
is an activity in which learners (at a fairly advanced level) decide the
categories themselves:
Put
these words into four groups of three words each. Then, think of a title for
each group.
goal
net piece club racket shoot board green
court
hole pitch referee check serve tee move
Now,
can you add extra words to each group?
3.1.5 Ranking and
sequencing
Ranking
and sequencing activities require learners to put the words into some kind of
order. This may involve arranging the words on a cline: for example, adverbs of
frequency {always, sometimes, never, occasionally, often, etc). Or learners may
be asked to rank items according to preference:
Imagine
you have just moved into a completely empty flat. You can afford to buy one
piece of furniture a week. Put the following items in the order in which you
would buy them:
fridge
bed desk dining table sofa
wardrobe
chair dishwasher bookcase cooker
washing
machine chest of drawers
Now,
compare your list with another student and explain your order. If you were
sharing the flat together, would you agree? If not, make a new list that you
both agree about.
Any
sequence of activities – from starting a car to buying a home – lends itself to
the same treatment. Here, for example, is a task that focuses on the language
of air travel (from Garton-Sprenger J and Greenall S, Flying Colours 2,
Heinemann):
Work
in pairs. Think about what people do when they travel by plane. Put the actions
below in the correct column.
before the flight
|
after the flight
|
check in
leave the plane
land
unfasten your seatbelt
go into the departure
lounge
go to the departure
gate
fasten your seatbelt
go through passport
control
|
Leave the plane
check in
collect your baggage
go through passport
control
listen to the safety
instructions
go through customs
board the plane
go into the arrivals
hall
|
Number the actions in
the order people do them.
|
3.2 Games
While
the tide of this chapter is “How to put words to work”, it would be wrong to
suggest that vocabulary learning has to be all work and no play. Language play,
including word games, has a long history. Children of all cultures seem to
enjoy games of the “I spy ...” or “Hangman” type, and there is a long tradition
of adult word games, a number of which have been adapted for television. Most
first-language word games transfer comfortably to the second-language
classroom.
Word
clap: Students stand or sit in a circle, and, following the teacher's lead,
maintain a four-beat rhythm, clapping their hands on their thighs three times
(one-two-three ...) and then both hands together (four!). The game should start
slowly, but the pace of the clapping can gradually increase. The idea is to
take turns, clockwise, to shout out a different word from a pre-selected
lexical set (for example, fruit and vegetables) on every fourth beat. Players
who either repeat a word already used, or break the rhythm – or say nothing –
are “out” and the game resumes without them, until only one player is left. The
teacher can change the lexical set by shouting out the name of a new set at
strategic points: Furniture! Nationalities! Jobs! etc.
Categories:
Learners work in pairs or small groups. On a piece of paper, they draw up a
number of columns, according to a model on the board, each column labelled with
the name of a lexical set: e.g. fruit, transport, clothes, animals, sports. The
teacher calls out a letter of the alphabet (e.g. B!), and to a time limit (e.g.
three minutes), students write down as many words as they can beginning with
that letter in the separate columns {banana, berry; bus; bikini, blouse; bear,
bat; baseball, basketball...). The group with the most (correct) words wins.
Noughts
and crosses: Draw two noughts and crosses grids on the board:
One
is blank. In the other each square is labelled with a category, or with nine
different phrasal verb particles {up, on, off, in, back, etc), or nine
different affixes {un-, non-, -less, -tion, etc). Prepare a number of questions
relating to each category. For example (if the class is monolingual): How do
you say “tamburo” in English? Or, What is the opposite of “shy”? Divide the
class into two teams: noughts and crosses. The object is to take turns choosing
a category and answering a question in this category correctly so as to earn
the right to place their team's symbol in the corresponding position in the
blank grid. The winning team is the first to create a line of three (noughts or
crosses), either vertically, horizontally, or diagonally.
Coffeepot:
This is a guessing game. One learner answers yes/no questions from the rest of
the class (or group) about a verb that she has thought of, or that the teacher
has whispered to her. In the questions the word coffeepot is used in place of
the mystery verb. So, for example, students might ask Do you coffeepot indoors
or outdoors? Is coffee potting easy or difficult? Can you coffeepot with your
hands? etc. If the verb that the student has selected is yawn the answers would
be: Both indoors and outdoors; It's easy; No, you can't, but you might use your
hands ... To make the game easier a list of, say, twenty verbs can be put on
the board and the person who is 'it' chooses one of them. This can also be
played in pairs.
Back
to board: This is another guessing game, but this time the student who is 'it'
has to guess a word by asking the rest of the class questions. The student sits
facing the class, back to the board; the teacher writes a recently studied word
or phrase or idiom on the board, out of sight of the student. The student asks
different students yes/no or either/or questions in order to guess the word.
For example: Helga, is it a verb or a noun? (A verb.) Dittmer, is it an action?
(No.) Karl-Heinz, is it something you do with your mind? (Yes.) ... etc. To
make the game easier, the words chosen can be limited in some way – e.g. all
phrasal verbs; all character adjectives, and so on.
Chapter IV. Teaching
word parts word chunks
4.1 Teaching
word formation and word combination
We
looked at some of the principles of word formation in English. We noted that
words can be formed by the addition of prefixes and suffixes – a process called
affixation. (The word affixation is itself an example of the result of adding
affixes to the root fix.) We also saw how, by compounding, two or more words
can join up to make one. Thus: black + board = blackboard. Or, new words can be
created by a process called conversion, when a word that in one context is one
part of speech (such as a noun), in another context can be enlisted to serve a
different function (such as a verb). Hence, you may have heard the relatively
recent term to board as in The teacher boarded the new words and the students
wrote them down.
Then
again words can cluster (but not join up) to form multi-word units – loosely
called chunks – that behave as if they were single words. For example,
alongside black, the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English lists: black
and white, black and blue, black sheep, in the black and to black out. (This
last is an example of a phrasal verb.) Many chunks have an idiomatic meaning –
that is to say the meaning of the chunk as a whole is not directly inferrable
from the individual words: He's the black sheep of the family; you've
introduced a red herring, etc.
The
way bits of words combine, and the way words themselves can be combined, is a
constant source of difficulty for learners. Errors of the following types are
common:
Affixation
errors
There
are uncountless ways to bring happiness to my life thanks to the internet.
After
finishing the paragraph and reading it again, I felt unsatisfy. I think that my
real and only knowledgements are in the vocabulary.
Compounding
errors
In
London I took a two floor bus and of course crossed the city in the highest
floor.
I
saw my dog died in a box's shoes.
Errors
of multi-word units
We
have also a buses network.
Sometimes
dog isn't the best man's friend.
Collocation
errors
I
don't like when I do mistakes.
Some
teachers are strict they put us a lot of homework and exams.
Phrasal
verb errors
She
used to go to school with her maid, and a maid was picking up her from school.
There
are some days that the better it's stay in bed and don't get up you.
Idiom
errors
I
have no more money. So most of time I just watch shops' window.
I
don't like to blow my own horn, but my grammar knowledge and my vocabulary are
quite good.
In
responding to these kinds of problems, there are two possible approaches.
You
can either
-
teach rules, or
-
expose learners to lots of correct examples
A
rule-based approach starts by isolating and highlighting any relevant patterns
or regularities. Take word formation, for example. In a rule-based approach,
words can be grouped and presented according to the manner of formation
(affixation, compounding, conversion, etc). Within these categories finer
distinctions can be made. So, of the words formed by affixation we can select
those formed by the addition of prefixes, and this group can be narrowed down
further to those that have a negative meaning. The way these words are formed
can then be described in general terms in the form of a rule – or 'rule of
thumb'. Here is an example of such an explicit rule statement (from Gude K and
Duckworth M, Proficiency Masterclass, OUP):
B Negative prefixes.
The prefixes mis-, dis-, ig-, and un- can all be used to give a word a rather
negative meaning. The prefix may help you to guess the meaning of the word.
mis- = 'wrongly, badly'
or 'not done' (mismanage)
dis- = 'away from, the
opposite of, lack of' (distaste)
ig- = 'not, lacking in'
(ignorant)
un- = 'not, lack of,
the opposite, reversal or removal of' (undo)
Here is some advice to
help you choose the correct prefix.
dis- can be used to
form verbs, eg dissatisfy, adjectives, eg dishonest; and nouns, eg
disability.
The prefix ig- appears
only before the letter n.
|
Here,
on the other hand, is a table which suggests – but doesn't explicitly state – a
rule about noun and verb endings:
1 Now you can
strengthen the thin green line.
Strengthen is a verb
which is formed from the adjective strong. Work in pairs and complete this
table.
|
ADJECTIVE
|
NOUN
|
VERB
|
wide
|
|
|
strong
|
|
|
deep
|
|
|
weak
|
|
|
short
|
|
|
high
|
|
|
from
Naunton J, Think First Certificate, Longman
A
similar approach is used with word collocations, wherever a general tendency
can be identified. Here, for example, is a coursebook extract that focuses on
the difference between make and do combinations:
VOCABULARY
Make or do?
1 Read the
following sentences carefully.
Last night I
tried to do my homework. However, I kept making mistakes because the man
upstairs was doing his exercises and making a noise.
Make usually
means to create, bring into existence, or produce a result.
Do
usually means to perform an action. However, there are exceptions to this
'rule', as you will see in Exercise 3.
from
Bell J and Gower R, Intermediate Matters, Longman
One
problem with a rule-based approach is that the scope of the rule is not always
clear. How many, and which, adjectives can be turned into verbs by the addition
of -en, for example? Sweet and fresh — yes, but wet and dry? There is the added
problem of the lack of one-to-one match between forms and categories. For example,
in- and un- both express negation (uncertain, inactive), but in- can also be
used with the meaning of in, or within (as in inclusive). And when do we use
in-, as opposed to un- or non- or dis-, to convey negation? How, for example,
does the learner know whether to use unsatisfied, dissatisfied, insatisfied or
nonsatisfied ?
Other
pattern-highlighting techniques involve the use of texts and include the
following:
-
learners are given a text and asked to search for and underline
all compound nouns, negative prefixes, multi-word units, etc.
-
learners find words in a text that are derivations. For example,
'Find three words in the text that are derived from sense ...'
-
learners classify these derivations according to which part of
speech they are
-
learners categorise underlined words in a text according to a
common affix, or according to the word formation principle they exemplify
(compounding, conversion, etc.)
The
more of these kinds of operations the learner does the better, since (as we saw
in the last chapter) the more decisions the learner makes about a word the
greater the depth of processing.
A
great advantage of working from texts is that the words that are to be focused
on are already in context, hence their meanings may be clearer than if presented
as isolated words in a list. Also, and perhaps more importantly, the shared
context will bring words together that are commonly associated. In the
following text, for example, there are a number of words associated with time,
crime and the law.
An
approach to focusing on these features might be:
• Ask
students to read the text and to answer comprehension questions to gauge level
of understanding. For example:
1
The maximum time you can be detained without charge is:
a
24 hours b 36 hours c 60 hours
2
You can be detained for 36 hours only if:
a.
a a serious arrestable offence has been committed,
b.
b a magistrate gives permission,
c.
c further questioning is necessary.
• Ask
learners (working together and using dictionaries) to underline all words
relating to legal processes, and to categorise these according to a) people, b)
processes.
• Ask
them to use dictionaries to make verbs for these nouns: limit, detention,
charge, offence, questioning, suspect, and to make nouns of these verbs:
arrest, detain, commit, extend, secure, preserve. Which of the verb forms can
take -able to form an adjective?
• Ask
them to circle all time expressions with numbers and note the prepositions used
in each case.
• Ask
learners to identify the verbs that fill these slots: ______a person
without
charge; _________an offence; __________a suspect in custody;
_______a
suspect before a magistrate; ___________a time limit.
• Ask
learners to rewrite the passage in 'plain English', e.g. as if they were
explaining it to a friend. Alternatively, ask them to translate it into their
own language.
• Learners
then use the rewritten (or translated) passage as a basis for reconstructing
the original text. They then compare the reconstruction with the original.
• A
follow-up activity might be to ask learners to research and summarise this
aspect of the legal system in their own country (respecting, of course, their
cultural sensitivities).
Note
that this text, although short, is difficult and the tasks would be achievable
only by quite advanced learners. Nevertheless, the same tasks could be adapted
to much easier texts, and used at lower levels.
To
summarise, then: the teaching of the grammar of word formation and word
combination can be approached from two directions: early instruction in the
rules, or the learning of a quantity of vocabulary items from which these rules
are slowly distilled. We have looked at the case for a midway position that
recognises the need for early exposure but at the same time accepts that
consciousness-raising through focused attention can speed up the process of
'getting a feel for it'. Plentiful exposure plus consciousness- raising is a
key principle underlying what has come to be known as a lexical approach.
4.2 A lexical
approach
A
lexical approach to language teaching foregrounds vocabulary learning, both in
the form of individual, high frequency words, and in the form of word
combinations (or chunks). The impetus for a lexical approach to language
teaching derives from the following principles:
• a
syllabus should be organised around meanings
• the
most frequent words encode the most frequent meanings and
• words
typically co-occur with other words
• these
co-occurrences (or chunks) are an aid to fluency
A
syllabus organised around meanings rather than forms (such as grammar
structures) is called a semantic syllabus. A number of theorists have suggested
that a syllabus of meanings – especially those meanings that learners are likely
to need to express – would be more useful than a syllabus of structures. For
example, most learners will at some time need to express such categories of
meaning (or notions) as possession or frequency or regret or manner. Simply
teaching learners a variety of structures, such as the present simple or the
second conditional, is no guarantee that their communicative needs will be met.
The present simple, for example, supports a wide range of meanings (present
habit, future itinerary, past narrative, etc), some of which may be less useful
than others. Wouldn't it be better to start with the more useful meanings
themselves, rather than the structure?
A
semantic syllabus – i.e. one based around meanings – is likely to have a strong
lexical focus. The following sentences, for example, all involve the present
simple, but they express different notions. These notional meanings are
signalled by certain key words (underlined):
Does
this towel belong to you? (possession)
How
often do you go to London? (frequency)
I
wish I'd done French, (regret)
Exercise
is the best way of losing weight, (manner)
Words
like belong, often, wish and way carry the lion's share of the meaning in these
sentences: the grammar is largely padding. A lexical approach argues that
meaning is encoded primarily in words. This view motivated two coursebook
writers, Dave and Jane Willis, to propose that a lexical syllabus might be the
best way of organising a course. The Willises believed that a syllabus based
around the most frequent words in the language would cover the most frequent
meanings in the language. Accordingly, they based their beginners' course
around the 700 most frequent words in English. They used corpus data (i.e.
computer banks of naturally occurring text – see page 68) to find out how these
words 'behaved' – that is, the kinds of words and structures that were
associated with these high frequency words.
For
example, an extremely common word in English is way. According to COBUILD
corpus data, it is in fact the third most common noun in English (after time
and people). An analysis of corpus data shows that way is used to express a
variety of meanings:
1
method or means
2
manner, style, behaviour
3
what happens, what is the case
4
degree, extent, respect
5
location, movement, direction, space
|
It's a useful way of
raising revenue. The cheapest way is to hire a van.
He smiles in a superior
way. Play soccer Jack Charlton's way.
That's the way it goes.
We were so pleased with
the way
things were going.
She's very kind and
sweet in lots of
ways.
In no way am I a
politically effective person.
A man asked me the way
to St Paul's. Get out of the way.
|
(after
Willis D, The Lexical Syllabus, Collins)
Using
corpus data, they then studied what kinds of grammatical structures way was
typically found with – i.e. its syntactic environment. For example, the first
use of way in the table above (meaning 'method or means') is commonly found in
association with this pattern:
way
+ of + -ing a useful way of raising revenue the different ways of cooking fish
The
next step was to devise teaching materials that illustrated these meanings and
patterns, bearing in mind that the starting point was not the pattern itself,
but the meaning (method, means), and its frequency, as evidenced in the high
frequency of the word way.
4.3 Teaching
lexical chunks
So
far we have been talking about lexical chunks as if they were a single al
chunks undifferentiated category. But there are different types of chunks and
different degrees of 'chunkiness'. Of the different types, the following are
the most important for teaching purposes:
-
collocations – such as widely travelled; rich and famous; make do
with; set the table
-
phrasal verbs – such as get up; log on; run out of; go on about
-
idioms, catchphrases and sayings – such as hell for leather; get
cold feet; as old as the hills; mind your own business; takes one to know one
-
sentence frames – such as would you mind if... ?; the thing is
...; I'd... if I were you; what really gets me is ...
-
social formulae – such as see you later; have a nice day; yours
sincerely
-
discourse markers – such as frankly speaking; on the other hand; I
take your point; once upon a time; to cut a long story short...
Within
these categories further distinctions can be made in terms of fixedness and
idiomaticity. Fixed chunks are those that don't allow any variation: you can
say over the moon (to mean ecstatic) but not under the moon (to mean not
ecstatic). Nor over the full moon, over the sun, etc. Many chunks are
semi-fixed, in that they allow some degree of variation. Nice to see you is
semi-fixed in that it allows lovely, good, wonderful, etc. in the nice slot,
and meet, talk to, hear from, etc. in the see slot.
Some
chunks are transparent in that the meaning of the whole is clear from their
parts, as in the case of as old as the hills and to knock down. Others are much
more idiomatic: to spill the beans and to knock off (meaning to steal). Neither
fixedness nor idiomaticity are absolute values, however. Rather there is a
cline from very fixed to very free, and from very idiomatic to very
transparent. Phrasal verbs are a case in point. Some phrasal verbs are
syntactically flexible: I'll bring up the paper or I'll bring the paper up.
Others are not: I can't tell the twins apart but not I can't tell apart the
twins. Moreover, the combination bring up has a range of meanings, some literal
(I'll bring up the paper), some semi-idiomatic (Don't bring that subject up
again) and some very idiomatic (They brought their children up to speak
Italian).
The
ability to deploy a wide range of lexical chunks both accurately and
appropriately is probably what most distinguishes advanced learners from
intermediate ones. How is this capacity developed? Probably not by learning
rules – as we saw with word formation, the rules (if there are any) are
difficult to learn and apply. A lexical approach is based on the belief that
lexical competence comes simply from:
-
frequent exposure, and
-
consciousness-raising
To
which we could perhaps add a third factor:
-
memorising
Classroom
language provides plentiful opportunities for exposure to lexical chunks. Many
learners are familiar with expressions like I don't understand and I don't know
long before they have been presented with the 'rules' of present simple
negation. By increasing the stock of classroom phrases, teachers can exploit
the capacity of chunks to provide the raw material for the later acquisition of
grammar. Many teachers cover their classroom walls with useful phrases and
insist on their use whenever an appropriate opportunity arises. A sampling of
phrases I have noticed on classroom walls includes:
What
does X mean?
How
do you say X?
What's
the (past/plural/opposite, etc.) of X?
Can
you say that again?
Can
you write it up?
How
do you spell it?
I'm
not sure.
I've
forgotten.
I
left it at home.
I
haven't finished yet.
It's
(your/my/his) turn.
You
go first.
Here
you are.
Pass
me the ...
Let's
have a break.
etc.
The
repetitive nature of classroom activity ensures plentiful exposure to these
chunks. This is vital, because occasional and random exposure is insufficient.
Many learners simply aren't aware if a combination is one that occurs
frequently (and is therefore a chunk) or if it is a one-off. Nevertheless,
there is more chance of encountering instances of chunking in authentic text
than in text that has been 'doctored' for teaching purposes.
This
is yet another argument for using authentic texts in the classroom, despite the
difficulties often associated with them.
Here,
for example, is an extract from a fairly well-known authentic text:
Yo,
I'll tell you what I want what I really really want,
So
tell me what you want what you really really want
I'll
tell you what I want what I really really want,
So
tell me what you want what you really really want
I
wanna I wanna I wanna I wanna I wanna really really really wanna
zigazig
ha
If
you want my future, forget my past,
If
you wanna get with me, better make it fast
Now
don't go wasting my precious time
Get
your act together we could be just fine ...
If
you wannabe my lover, you gotta get with my friends
Make
it last forever, Friendship never ends
If
you wannabe my lover, you have got to give,
Taking
is too easy but that's the way it is.
What
d'ya think about that? Now you know how I feel.
Say
you can handle my love, are you for real?
I
won't be hasty, I'll give you a try
If
you really bug me then I'll say goodbye
(from
Wannabe by the Spice Girls)
Like
many pop songs, the lyrics of this song are rich in lexical chunks, including
sentence frames (I'll tell you what I...; what I really [really] want [is ...];
If you wanna ... better ...; If you really, then I'll ...), collocations
(wasting my precious time; last forever; taking it... easy; give you a try),
and catchphrases (better make it fast; get your act together; that's the way it
is; are you for real?).
How
could you use the above song text? Essentially, the approach need not be very
different from the approach to the legal English text on page 110. That is:
-
check understanding of text (for example, by eliciting a
paraphrase or translation of the text)
-
using transcript, set tasks focusing on features of words in
combination
Examples
of such tasks might be:
• Underline
all contractions. Decontract them (i.e. wanna = want to)
• Find
examples of these sentence patterns in the song:
...
tell... what...
If
you ... imperative ...
If
you ... you have got to ...
If
you ... then I'll...
• Write
some more examples, using these patterns, that would fit the theme of the song.
• Use
examples from the song to show the difference between tell and say.
Here
are some more ideas for teaching collocation:
Learners
sort words on cards into their collocational pairs (e.g. warm + welcome, slim +
chance, golden + opportunity, lucky + break, mixed + reception, etc). Use the
same cards to play pelmanism. Or they sort them into binomial pairs (pairs of
words that follow a fixed sequence and often have idiomatic meaning such as hot
and cold, to and fro, out and about, sick and tired). Or into groups, according
to whether they collocate with particular 'headwords': e.g. trip (business,
day, round, return, boat), holiday (summer, family, public, one month, working)
and weekend (long, every, last, next, holiday). Follow up by asking learners to
write sentences using these combinations.
Read
out a list of words: learners in groups think of as many collocations or
related expressions as they can. The group with the most collocations wins a
point. Good words for this include parts of the body (face, head, back, foot,
hand), colours (red, green, blue, black, etc.) and opposites, such as
weak/strong, narrow/wide, safe/dangerous, old/young, etc.
Fill
in a collocational grid, using dictionaries, to show common collocations. For
example, here's a very simple (and completed) one for wide and broad.
wide
|
broad
|
|
•
|
|
door
|
•
|
•
|
street
|
•
|
•
|
river
|
|
•
|
smile
|
|
•
|
shoulders
|
|
•
|
nose
|
•
|
|
gaP
|
|
•
|
accent
|
•
|
|
world
|
•
|
•
|
range
|
•
|
|
variety
|
•
|
|
apart
|
•
|
|
awake
|
Ask
learners to prepare 'collocation maps' of high frequency words and their
collocates. Words like have, take, give, make and get lend themselves to this
kind of treatment. They are often used in combination with nouns to form an
expression which has a meaning of its own, as in have a look, take a break,
give advice, make an appointment, so that the verb itself has little or no independent
meaning. For this reason, they are called delexical verbs. Here, for example,
is a collocation map for have, which shows its range of collocations organised
into meaning categories:
Learners
can either create their own maps using dictionaries or add to an existing map,
as this task (also from Cutting Edge Intermediate) suggests:
Because
of the two-part nature of collocations, any matching activities lend themselves
to work on them. Similarly, odd one out tasks are useful. For example:
Finally,
as a general approach to the teaching of lexical phrases and collocation, the
following advice is sound:
-
Become more aware of phrases and collocations yourself.
-
Make your students aware of phrases and collocations.
-
Keep an eye on usefulness and be aware of overloading students.
-
Feed in phrases on a 'little but often' basis.
-
Introduce phrases in context, but drill them as short chunks.
-
Point out patterns in phrases.
-
Be ready to answer students' questions briefly.
-
Keep written records of phrases as phrases.
-
Reinforce and recycle the phrases as much as you can.
(from
Cutting Edge Intermediate Teachers' Book, Longman)
4.4 Teaching
phrasal verbs
Phrasal
verbs are another instance of the fuzziness at the boundary between words and
grammar. They are particularly problematic for learners both because of their
lexical meanings (which are often idiomatic) and their grammatical form. Here
is how phrasal verbs are often grouped, according to their grammar:
2
There are four types of phrasal verb.
Type
1: intransitive e.g. come to (recover consciousness) These don't take an
object.
Type
2: transitive inseparable e.g. look into (investigate) These must take an
object which always comes after the verb.
Type
3: transitive separable e.g. put off (postpone) The object can either come
between the verb and the particle or after the verb. If we use a pronoun then
it must go between.
Type
4: three-part, e.g. put up with (endure) These are always transitive
inseparable.
from
Naunton J, Think Ahead to First Certificate, Longman
Traditional
approaches to the teaching of phrasal verbs have tended to focus on these
rules. Hence, when phrasal verbs are presented they are categorised according
to whether they are Type 1, Type 2, etc. They are also often grouped according
to their lexical verb (that is, the word that carries the major share of the
meaning): get up, get back, get off, get over, etc, and exercises are designed
to test the learner's knowledge of the difference. For example:
Use
phrasal verbs with get to complete these sentences:
1
1 I can't ________ how much Julia has changed: it's
amazing!
2
Excuse me, I want to ________ at the next stop.
3
The concert was cancelled so I'm going to see if I can ___________
my money ___________.
Typical
exercise types used in the teaching of phrasal verbs include:
-
sentence gap-fills (as the example above)
-
re-phrasing: e.g. changing the verb in the sentence (e.g. depart)
to a phrasal verb that has a similar meaning (e.g. set off)
-
matching: e.g. matching the phrasal verb with its synonym
More
recently, exercise types have focused on the meanings of the particles – a
particle being the adverb or preposition component of the phrasal verb (in,
back, off, around, etc). A focus on particles aims to sensitise learners to the
shared meanings of a group such as carry on, drive on, hang on, go on and come
on. Here, for example, is an exercise sequence that deals with the particle
down:
4.5 Teaching
idioms
We've
seen that many phrasal verbs are idiomatic – in that their meanings are not
easily unpacked from their component parts. Knowing the meaning of put and up
allows us to interpret the sentence I put up a shelf in the kitchen. But this
knowledge is not much help in unpacking either I put Luke up for the weekend or
I put up with Luke for the weekend. Both these last examples are idiomatic.
Idiomaticity exists at both the single word and multi-word level. Individual
words can be used figuratively, as in This plan doesn't grab me; The kitchen is
a pigsty; I can't unpack the meaning of this idiom. More typically, idioms are
formed from collocations, and vary from being both very fixed and very
idiomatic (smell a rat; the coast is clear) to being both less fixed and less
idiomatic (explode a myth/theory, etc; run a business/theatre, etc).
Idioms
present problems in both understanding and in production. They are difficult to
understand because they are not easily unpacked, and they are difficult to
produce because they often allow no variation. Few errors sound more comical
than an even slightly muddled idiom (e.g. I don't want to blow my own horn,
instead of I don't want to blow my own trumpet). Moreover, many idioms have a
very narrow register range, being used only in certain contexts and for certain
effects. They therefore need to be approached with a great deal of caution, and
most teaching guides recommend teaching them for recognition only.
Traditional
teaching approaches tend to group idioms together according to some category,
and present them in sets. But, as with phrasal verbs, teaching a set of idioms
that are notionally related – such as idioms associated with parts of the body
(down at heel, put your feet up, foot the bill, toe the line, etc.) – would
seem to be a sure recipe for confusion. It's not difficult to imagine what
could go wrong: put your heels up, toe the bill, etc. More typically, idioms
are grouped by theme. For example, the expressions under the weather, off
colour, run down and out of sorts are all synonymous with ill. But again, if
these are being taught for production, the potential for confusion is high.
As
with phrasal verbs, a more effective and less perilous approach might be simply
to teach them as they arise, and in their contexts of use. That is, to treat
them as individual lexical items in their own right, without making a song and
dance about them. Since idioms tend to cluster together, certain text types are
often very rich in them. In this extract (from Sugar) idioms (including
idiomatic phrasal verbs) are underlined.
Eastenders
Martin
gets a big wake-up call this month when Mark is taken seriously ill. How will
he cope knowing his big bro's days could be numbered and will Nicky stick by
him through thick and thin?
Home
and Away
Tom
offers to pay for Justine's courses in the city with the money 1 earned from
acting in the commercial. What a sweetie, eh? However, Justine isn't that
impressed, and feels that Tom's cramping her style. Ho can she let him down
gently?
Coronation
Street
The
Mike, Mark and Linda triangle's still going strong, and sparks are beginning to
fly between Linda and Mark's new girlie, Claire. Eeek! Things aren't too good
over at the Platt's either.
Emmerdale
Mark
is annoyed when neither of his parents make it to the parent evening ... how
embarrassing! Richie lends Sarah a shoulder to cry on after yet another bust-up
with Jack. Will those two ever get on?
To
use a text like this in class, learners could be set the task of working 01 the
underlined idioms from either their form or their context. For example, going
strong is easily unpacked from its components. Sparks are beginning to fly is
less obvious, but its negative connotation can be deduced from what follows
(Eeek! Things aren't too good...). Showing learners how to work on idiomatic
meaning from these kinds of clues can not only contribute t passive vocabulary
knowledge but can improve reading skills as well.
Conclusions
There
is more to words than simply 'words'. In this chapter we have seen:
-
how parts of words combine in systematic ways to form whole words
-
how whole words combine in systematic ways to form chunks
But,
the fact that these combinations are systematic does not mean that the teaching
of word formation or of word combination should necessarily be rule-based. The
systems may be too complicated or too irregular to be of much use to learners,
either for receptive or productive purposes.
Instead,
an approach that combines frequent and contextualised exposure with
consciousness-raising may work best. This is recommended for the teaching of:
-
composite words
-
collocations
-
phrasal verbs
-
idioms
Conclusions
In
this term paper we have looked the implications of findings for the teaching of
vocabulary:
-
Learners need tasks and strategies to help them organize their
mental lexicon by building networks of associations – the more the better;
-
Teachers need to accept that the learning of new words involves a
period of “initial fuzziness”;
-
Learners need to wean themselves off a reliance on direct
translation from their mother tongue;
-
Words need to be presented in their typical contexts so that
learners can get a feel for their meaning, their register, their collocations
and their syntactic environment;
-
Teaching should direct attention to the sound of new words,
particularly the way they are stressed.
In
this work we have looked the ways the teacher can make the presentation of
vocabulary maximally effective, both in terms of word form and word meaning.
Some of the conclusions reached include the following:
-
establishing the meaning of a new word first and when presenting
its form is a standard approach;
-
translation is an economical way of presenting meaning but may not
be the most memorable;
-
illustrating meaning is effective but is limited to certain kinds
of words;
-
explaining meaning verbally is time-consuming but can be effective
if explanations are kept clear and simple;
-
the spoken form can be highlighted through the giving of clear
models, the use of phonemic script, and repetition;
-
the written form should not be withheld too long;
-
learners should be actively involved in the presentation.
Bibliography
1. A.S.Hornby.
Oxford Student's dictionary of current English. Oxford. oxford University
press, 1984. – 770 p.
2. Методика
викладання іноземних мов в середніх навчальних закладах. Підручник для
студентів вищих закладів освіти. – К. Лен світ, 2002. – 328 с.
3. Scott
Thornbury. How to teach vocabulary. – Longman. 2002. – 185 p.
|