Brown, D. (2011). What aspects of vocabulary knowledge do textbooks give attention to? Language Teaching Research, 15(1),

Nine aspects Form: spoken form, written form, word parts Meaning: form/meaning link, concept and referents, associations and synonyms Use: grammatical function (‘in what patterns’, collocation, constraints on use (frequency, register,) doesn’t mention connotations (grammatical variations?)

Previous research Shows that that only form and basic meaning mentioned. Occasionally connotation As Singleton (1999) puts it, ‘much of what has passed for vocabulary teaching … addresses only the tip of the lexical iceberg’ (p. 272). Overstatement

Need for conscious teaching? Some people think that form and collocation best learnt incidentally: writer disagrees, thinks that all aspects best taught and learnt deliberately. Not all aspects equally important; but tbs should give attention to all. depends very much on the item.

Research Vocabulary activities in nine textbooks: defined what he’s looking for. Activity/aspect definitions make no distinction between productive and receptive aspects. Only three aspects received consistent focus: spoken form, form and meaning, and grammatical functions surprising that little on written form Predominantly what he defines as form and meaning (more than half)– more and more as the level goes up,

Other aspect 29% grammatical function But hasn’t defined what he means by a ‘word’: a lot of these are focusing on grammatical items, e.g. spoken form 11-14% collocation 8%: more at intermediate associations 7% Concept and referents 6% written: 3% Word parts 2% constraints on use: 0.4%, all dealing with formality, other aspects completely missing, e.g. connotation, Br/Am, frequency

Differences between textbooks Elementary: focus on spoken form, grammar, form/meaning. No word parts.

Implications Need to devote attention to other aspects of the new word ‘Vocabulary researchers have clearly established the fundamental importance of the most frequent items of vocabulary and the importance of knowing these items very well. Knowing them very well means two things: knowing the different aspects of vocabulary knowledge, and having this knowledge so securely held in the memory that the language user can deploy it with automaticity. Reaching this stage undoubtedly requires a large number of encounters with a word. Yet researchers have repeatedly found that textbooks generally provide only a limited number of encounters with the vast majority of the items they include (Nation, 1990; Fujimori, 2005). Aspect of review’ Suggests that first encounters should focus on form and meaning; later ones on other aspects.

Problem The main problem is that there is no well- established bank of activities for each aspect from which teachers can draw. The activities found in the text -books in this study (see Appendix 1) may provide a starting point, and Nation (2001) also includes a short inventory of activities, but there is a need for a wider and more innovative range of activities that will inspire teachers.

Materials writers need to give vocabulary learning a central place in textbooks while, in Schmitt’s (2008) words, ‘think[ing] about vocabulary learning in longitudinal terms, where target lexical items are recycled over time in a principled way’ (p. 343). Yes but: a.Some aspects more important than others. b.Different words need different emphases.

What DOES need changing / not changing, in your opinion?