LING 322

DEVELOPMENT OF VOCABULARY AS LANGUAGE RESOURCE VOCABULARY AND CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE PRINCIPLES FOR TEACHING ACTIVITIES FOR VOCABULARY LEARNING STRATEGIES TO DEVELOP AUTONOMY AS VOCABULARY LEARNER

Word as unit Vocabulary size What it means to know a word Developing meanings Categorisation and word learning Cultural content

Learning more about those words, phrases and chunks, finding words inside the words Acquisition of meaning takes a longer time than the acquisition of the spoken form Vocabulary learning is cyclical – meeting new words and initial learning, meeting those words again, extending knowledge of what the words mean and how they are used

Gap between vocabulary size in first and foreign language is very large A realistic target for children learning a foreign language is around 500 words/year, given good learning conditions Not all words are useful in foreign language learning Vocabulary teaching can focus to help learners build up a knowledge of words

TYPE OF KNOWLEDGE WHAT IS INVOLVEDEXAMPLE RECEPTIVETo understand it when it is spoken/written MEMORYTo recall it when needed CONCEPTUALTo use with correct meaningNot to confuse “effect” and “affect” SPOKEN FORM : PHONOLOGICAL To hear the word and pronounce it, on its own, and in phrases and sentences GRAMMATICAL KNOWLEDGE To use in grammatically accurate way, to know grammatical connections “well” and “good” She sang very well. She sang very good.

TYPE OF KNOWLEDGE WHAT IS INVOLVEDEXAMPLE COLLOCATIONALTo know which other words can be used A beautiful view. Vs A good looking view. ORTHOGRAPHICTo spell correctly“PIZZA” not “BIZZA” PRAGMATIC KNOWLEDGE To use in the right situation“would you like a drink” “what can I get you?” CONNOTATIONALTo know its positive and negative associations “slim” has positive connotations “skinny” is negative METALINGUISTICTo know explicitly about the word

Increase in word knowledge does not happen automatically Conceptual knowledge grows as children experience more of the world Maturational factors also affect conceptual knowledge ‘syntagmatic-paradigmatic shift’ (types of association children make between words and ideas) between 5-10 yrs of age

Word hierarchy – general/superordinate at the top, specific/subordinate at the bottom Eg : SuperordinateFURNITUREANIMAL Basic levelCHAIRDOG SubordinateROCKING CHAIRSPANIEL

Schemas are built throughout childhood within first language culture May lead to problems as different cultures organise words differently

FUNCTION AND CONTENT WORDS – how they are used to construct sentences. Content words carry lexical meaning, function words carry grammatical meaning Eg : The little house in the street was built when my mother was a child.  Content and function words need different teaching approaches.  Content words – taught in planned and explicit ways  Function words – incidentally, through continued use

SENSE RELATIONS  Antonymy  Synonymy  Hyponymy  Meronymy

THE DYNAMIC NATURE OF VOCABULARY  Have source for encountering new words  Getting a clear image  Learning the meaning of new words  Making strong memory connection between forms and meanings of words  Using the words

LEARNING THE MEANING OF NEW WORDS (pg 85)  By demonstration or pictures  By verbal explanation – require pre-existing knowledge

ATTENDING TO FORM  How it is pronounced and written  For young learners, spoken form is a priority. Written form can be introduce soon after or later as reading and writing skills are developed  Need to hear the new word in isolation as well as in discourse context

MAKING STRONG MEMORY CONNECTIONS Thematic organization of vocabulary Organization of whole to parts Organization from general to specific hierarchies Organization through words and antonyms Organization in ‘ad-hoc’ categories

EXTENDING BEYOND THE TEXTBOOK Vocabulary in course books are predictable Start with the topic in the textbook BUT do not stop at the given words Learner’s choice Incidental learning through stories

Strong learners : pick up information from linguistic context, topic, illustrations Weak learners : focus in just on or the other source of information, often guessed the meaning of words without enough info in getting them right, did not embed new words, less flexible as learners LEARNERS SHOULD BE ENCOURAGED TO : Guess meanings by using all information available Notice grammatical information from the way they are used Notice links to similar words in their L1 Remember where a word has been encountered before

Model how to use strategies Teach the sub-skills to use the strategies Classroom tasks can include structured opportunities for using those strategies Independent strategies can be rehearsed in classrooms Help young learners to reflect on the learning process through evaluating their achievements

VOCABULARY IS A SOURCE FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING EARLY FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING CAN BUILD A SOLID CORE OF WORDS FOR FURTHER LEARNING EARLY VOCABULARY LEARNING MAY NOT BE EFFECTIVE IF WORDS ARE NOT CONSOLIDATED AND USED REGULARLY DO NOT ASSUME THAT CHILDREN HAVE LEARNT WHAT IS TAUGHT PROGRESSION IN CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT IMPACTS VOCABULARY LEARNING KNOWLEDGE ABOUT PARTICULAR WORDS CAN BE SEEN AS A PROGRESSION FROM PARTIAL KNOWLEDGE TO FULLER KNOWLEDGE WITH TASKS AND LESSONS, VOCABULARY LEARNING MOVES FROM RECEPTIVE AND INITIAL UNDERSTANDING TO BEING ABLE TO USE IT APPROPRIATELY

LINKING OF WORDS AND MEANING IN CONNECTED NETWORKS CAN BE EXPLOITED FOR MEANING AND MEMORISING RECYCLING PREVIOUSLY MET WORDS IN VARIED CONTEXTS AND ACTIVITIES IS ESSENTIAL TO KEEP LEARNT WORDS ACTIVE VOCABULARY IS FUNDAMENTAL IN USING THE FL IN DISCOURSE