Teaching Vocabulary 4 Criteria for selection

Reading assignment Reading: Liu, D. (2003). The most frequently used spoken American English idioms: a corpus analysis and its implications. TESOL Quarterly 37(4), Optional: Dongkwang, S., & Nation, P. (2007). Beyond single words: the most frequent collocations in spoken English. ELT Journal, 62(4),

Liu: main points Idioms: pure, semiliteral, literal No previous research: selection based on intuitions. So may be regional: important ones neglected, unimportant ones included. Better: corpus, but corpus itself needs to be very big / varied Searched English idiom dictionaries – 4,000 items (problematicity of double meanings e.g. go after) Chose only those that appeared more than 12 times in all three corpora Items that appeared most frequently in all four, and in dictionaries: down to 302 Band 1: over 50 p.m.; band 2: 20-49; band 3: 2-10

Liu: Results Pure idioms very rare Many are register-sensitive (e.g. ‘hang out’) Variations in form, part of speech Variants: slip of the lip/tongue; ballpark… Preferred tense e.g. leave out mostly present

Liu: comments Selection by idiom dictionaries very erratic e.g. as is / as of (the first listed, 19 occurrences, the second not – 90!) Meaning given not the most common e.g. bring up Don’t give variants

Liu: recommendations More rigorous selection Illustrations should be taken from the corpus data More accurate descriptions of meaning Additional information on distribution and use Idiom variation But note Some items might be useful even though not frequent, e.g. call it a a day in a particular context

What other reasons might there be for selecting vocabulary to be taught? Appropriate for age group Useful for classroom context Appropriate for a particular theme (textbook-based) Fun, memorable words Teachers’ intuition Demands of an exam Metalanguage (ESP language) Easy to learn XX Easy to teach generative

Insights from the research Lexical sets Tinkham, T The effects of semantic and thematic clustering in the learning of second language vocabulary. Second Language Research 13(2), Shulamit + Michal Waring, R The negative effect of learning words in semantic sets: a replication. System 25(2), Sokaina and Sara K L1 translation Laufer, B., & Girsai, N.. (2008). Form-focused instruction in second language vocabulary learning: A case for contrastive analysis and translation. Applied Linguistics, 27(4), Sara A and Tufool Incidental learning through comprehensible input / communication Laufer, B. (2005). Focus on form in second language vocabulary learning. EUROSLA Yearbook, 5, Widad and Iman (Maha) Laufer, B. (2003). Vocabulary acquisition in a second language: do learners really acquire most vocabulary by reading? Some empirical evidence. Canadian Modern Language Review, 59(4), Dominque and Janet Waring, R., & Takaki, M. (2003). At what rate do learners learn and retain new vocabulary from reading a graded reader?. Reading in a Foreign Language 15(2), Najwa, Sabreen Pigada, M., & Schmitt, N. (2006). Vocabulary acquisition from extensive reading: a case study. Reading in a Foreign Language 18(1), 1-28 Gaada, Randa, Magda