1. Teaching Vocabulary and Ways to Retain It
Khmelnytskyi National University
February 21, 2012
Carol A. Haddaway,
Sr. English Language Fellow, Ukraine

2. “Vocabulary forms the biggest part of the meaning of any language, and vocabulary is the biggest problem for most learners” (McCarthy as cited in Fan. 2003, p. 222).
“In communication, vocabulary is often more important then grammar” (Davies, 2000, p.59).
Learning new words and how to use them is not a simple matter and can be quite challenging but working with words can and should be enjoyable and fun for learners (Davies, 2000).

3. Outline What is Vocabulary A balanced vocabulary program
How to teach vocabulary
Some teaching techniques
Vocabulary development strategies
Academic words

4. What is Vocabulary?
Words/items (mother-in-law, post office, ice cream)
Word families (base words and their derived forms) child, children, childhood, childish; teach, teacher, teaching, taught
Phrasal verbs
take away, put on, figure out, look up, pick up
Collocation
digital photograph, hot summer
Idioms
call it a day, hot under the collar, cold shoulder, hit the road running, piece of cake
Can you think of 5 or 6 further examples of vocabulary items, in any language you know, that consist of more than one word?

5. Layers of Word Knowledge
What does it mean to “Know” a word ?
Layers of Word Knowledge
Examples
Meaning
Denotation
Connotation
Degree (“strength” of a word)
Dictionary e.g. dog - domestic animal
‘dog’ – to British or Arabic people
The conflict annihilated /destroyed/damaged. the city.
Collocation
Fixed phrases (“word partners”)
forth and back; tall, handsome, and dark
Grammar, Spelling (look)
Pronunciation (sound)
Verbs
Nouns
Adj. or verbs with prepositions
Think, thought
Mouse, mice, information, advice
Responsible for, remind someone of
Word Parts
Prefixes/suffixes – sub, un, able
Substandard, ungrateful
Appropriate Forms
Formal/informal
Direct/euphemistic
Weep or cry, variant/variety, dinner
I heard that your uncle died/passed away

6. What Vocabulary Should We Teach?
What's in a Word? The Importance of Vocabulary and Some Ways to Teach It
What Vocabulary Should We Teach?
Vocabulary Items that are:
Frequent (West General Service List – first head words of English)
Important (Academic Word List – 570 word families)
Needed for Classroom Tasks & Activities
Regular (common patterns or features)
Easy to learn (cognates)
Must consider level & needs/interests of learners
Must answer students’ vocabulary questions
(Richards, Nation, Genesee)
Crandall & Bickel, UMBC

7. How Should We Divide Our Time in Teaching Vocabulary?
Teach each of these for about the same amount (25%) of time:
(Nunan, Online course on Teaching Vocabulary

8. Learning from Input (L, R)
The content has a message that students want to focus on.
listening to a story, having a conversation, following instructions, extensive reading, watching TV
The man and the mango tree

9. Learning from Output (S, W)
Opportunity to use the words
Repetition
Attention to vocabulary, accuracy, and appropriateness.
Focus on communicating messages
Say/shout the word first- Playing Cards

10. Playing Cards - Output Forum Vol 48/4 2010, p. 28
Turn the card over and the first player to say/shout the corresponding word collects that card
Playing Cards - Output Forum Vol 48/4 2010, p. 28

11. Language-Focused (Deliberate) Learning
Looking for patterns, dictionary work
Vocabulary strategies
Word cards
Intensive reading
Focus on vocabulary and aspects of grammar and discourse features, while learner get to practice language-learning strategies.

12. Fluency (speed + skill)
All 4 skills
Use known words & grammar
Encourage lots of use
Time pressure to perform faster
Focus on communicating a message as they'd have to in real life,
Tell Dice game
4/3/2

13. Vocabulary Dice Game – fluency
Sit in groups of 4
Role the dice. The highest number starts
Take turns asking each other questions. e.g. you roll 6, the person to your left says, “tell me 6 things about yourself” Then person who asked the question rolls the dice and continues like this.
Vocabulary Dice Game – fluency

14. Vocab Dice Game - examples
English words
1 thing about yourself
2 things about your family
3 things about your best friend
4 things about your hobbies
5 things you wish you had
6 of your favorite movies
4 things about money, food, restaurants, things you like to do
Adjectives that describe you
Your favorite website
Reasons why you like Facebook
How you plan to make money
Favorite childhood memories
What are you good at 

15. How Should We Teach Vocabulary?
What's in a Word? The Importance of Vocabulary and Some Ways to Teach It
How Should We Teach Vocabulary?
Focus on important words
General Service List, Academic Word List
Give simple, clear explanations & translation as needed
Use concept-checking questions to check meaning
Provide repetition over time
Crandall & Bickel, UMBC

16. Teaching Problem (1)
Teacher: The new word is important. The stress is on the second syllable. OK, repeat – important
Silence
Learner: What means?
Teacher: OK – just repeat – important
appraisal
(Thaine, 2010)

17. Teaching Problem (2)
Teacher: OK, our 12th new word for today: who knows what we call someone whose job it is to take care of a building?

18. Teaching Problem (3)
Teacher: So here on the board is the new word I’ve written up – wallet. So what does it mean?
leverage
The player's popularity has given him a great deal of leverage with the owners of the team.

19. Teaching Problem (4)
Teacher: Right, the word is jump. For example: He likes to jump.
Foliage
The foliage was think and I couldn’t see the sun.

20. Teaching Problem (5)
‘Sissors’. Does everyone understand the meaning of this word?
(Silence)
Teacher: Do you understand? Anya?
Learner: Yes.
peripheral

21. Some Teaching Techniques

22. Identifying words we know
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Identifying words we know

23. Lexical Sets A cluster or group of related words
Words can be related in several ways
By topic: furniture, clothes, family relationships
In pairs – opposites: hot/cold, old/new
In pairs – synonyms: slip/slide, booklet/brochure
By superordinate: FRUIT
Hyponym of FRUIT: orange, apple, banana, kiwi
Word families: paint, painter, painting

24. Things that are cold

25. Things that are boring

26. Example: hot/cold old/new
Opposites
Example:
hot/cold
old/new

27. Word families KNOW: knowledge, knowing, known, knowledgeable ACCURATE
FRIEND
POLITE
HAPPY

28. Adjectives
beautiful

29. Phrasal verbs
get up

30. piece of cake brainstorm
Idioms
piece of cake
brainstorm

31. Why are lexical sets important?
We probably don’t store words in our brain in alphabetical order like a dictionary does.
Memory: We apparently store words in or brain in groups of related words (or lexical sets)
If a new word can be “hooked’ to words which are already stored, it might be easier to remember it

32. Word Associations Cough Grass Red Salt Puppy coffee Blue Pepper Tea
Kitten
Sneeze
Green
Connect the matching words

33. Collocations – words that co-occur with high frequency
Grammatical
Reason for
Account for
Rely on
By accident
In retrospect
Lexical
Spend money
Inflict a wound
Dense fog
Deeply absorbed
Dead fatigued?
Thematically related
Grammatical collocation are those in which a noun, verb, or adjective co-occurs with a grammatical item (preposition).
Lexical collocation do not contain grammatical words. Consist of full lexical items i.e. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs.

34. Vocabulary Development Strategies

35. Extensive ((joyful) reading
Read constantly! The more you see new words used in context, the more you will be able to recognize, spell and use them.
Is one way to become familiar with low- frequency words

36. Using Context
To guess words in context, one must know 95% of the words in the text, i.e. 19 out of 20 words.
Knowing 98% (one unknown word in 50) is considered an “independent reading level”
Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
(Laufer, 1989; Nation & Waring, 1997)
We can’t assume that context will always be helpful. In order for readers to be able to guess words in context:
One must know 95% of the words in the text3; that is, 19 out of 20 words. Even this percentage of knowledge can cause difficulty; in fact, 98% (one unknown word in 50) is considered an “independent reading level.”
Research shows that incorrect guesses are more frequent than correct ones, and that the most common way people deal with unfamiliar words in reading is by ignoring them.
We must be aware of both the limitations of context and also the characteristics of helpful context clues.
Tip-offs from the Text – p ? 36

37. Prefixes and Root words
Many academic words have Latin or Greek roots so if you understand the prefix and root meaning, you can often guess the word meaning.
For example:
Sub = under
Marine = water
Submarine = a boat that can dive under the ocean
Word Building

38. Selective Dictionary Use
Do I need the word? Can I understand the text without it? Is it a word I may find valuable later?
Does the context help?
Do the word parts help?
Does it help to pronounce it? Does it sound like a word that I know?

39. Academic Vocabulary
Academic vocabulary must be taught simply because it does not occur in daily interactions and conversational exchanges
Academic Word List (most frequent university academic words across several disciplines) t/

40. Practice with Academic Words
Accurate
Attach
Analyze
Conclude
Reluctant
Define
Display
Economy
Emphasis
Estimate
Injure
Predict
Rational
Relax
Relevant
Find your match
Can you think of informal equivalents for any of these?
Academic words will sometimes look familiar to ss. . .the trick is for you to learn to USE them. . . (multiple meanings, many forms, etc.)
See WK pp for more practice. Instead of the post card being about a vacation (p. 111), have it be about (? A recent exam; a day of school; and have it be an .

41. Effective Strategies REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW
SPACED REPETITION
Review words learned 2 weeks ago, 1 week ago, 2 days ago, yesterday
REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW
FLASHCARDS FLASHCARDS FLASHCARDS

42. Convincing students to be independent learners, responsible for their own vocabulary learning represents the single most effective teaching strategy.
(Hinkle, Tesol 2009)

43. VOCABULARY WEBSITES Vocabulary Activities
Learning vocabulary can be fun
200 vocabulary exercises
Interactive vocabulary games
Interactive puzzles
Dictionary.com

44. VOCABULARY ACTIVITIES
Vocabulary quizzes/activities Interactive vocabulary matching exercises Vocabulary and grammar activities Vocabulary and other activities for young learners Vocabulary website from Ohio University

45. Word Lists & Frequency Lists
General Service Word List (most frequent words)
Academic Word List (most frequent university academic words across several disciplines)
(Coxhead’s Academic Word List)

46. Refererences
Crandall, J. & Bickel, B. What’s in a Word? The Importance of Vocabulary & Some Ways to Teach It presentation (UMBC)
Davies, P. & Pearse, E. (2006). Success in English Teaching. Oxford.
Decarrico, J.S. (2001) Vocabulary Learning and Teaching. In Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language, 3rd ed., edited by M. Celce- Murcia. Heinle.
Hinkle, E. Teaching Academic Vocabulary and Helping Students Retain It. TESOL 2009, Denver, CO.
Nation, P. (2005). Teaching Vocabulary. Asian ELT Journal
Nunan, D. (2003). Practical English Language Teaching. McGraw Hill.
Thaine, C. (2010). Teacher Training Essentials. Cambridge
Zimmerman, C. (2009). Word Knowledge. Oxford.
Zimmerman, C. (2011). Academic Vocabulary and School Success presented at the 2011 TESOL Academy.