1. Getting to know each other

2. MAAL6018 Vocabulary Teaching And Learning Course Outline 2012-2013
Session 1 (12/9)
Building blocks and
dimensions of vocabulary knowledge
– What is a word? What is meant by knowing a word?
Session 2 (19/9)
Vocabulary size, frequency, word lists
Computer applications
– Are some words “more important” than others?
- Websites for learning these word lists
Session 3 (26/9)
The mental lexicon
– How L1 and L2 speakers store and retrieve words in their brains
Session 4 (3/10)
Vocabulary teaching and learning (part one)
Incident vs. explicit learning / teaching
Vocabulary learning strategies
Session 5 (10/10)
Vocabulary teaching and learning (part two)
Active and passive vocabulary
Vocabulary assessment
Session 6 (17/10)
Use of concordancers
Discussion about the Assignment
Classroom: MMLC, Room B, 2/F Old Library Building
Assignment due 26/10 (Friday)

3. Course website http://caes.hku.hk/maal6018/
Assignment
Sessions and Readings
List of Useful readings
Dissertations in HKU Library
Resources on the Web
Password protected / copyright

4. Importance of Vocabulary
“Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” (Wilkins, 1972:111)
“Vocabulary is central to language and of critical importance to the typical language learner” (Zimmerman, 1997:5)

5. Warming Up
How many words do you think there are in the English language?
How many words do you know?
What is the longest word you know?
What is the most frequently used word in the English language?
What do you think is the best way to learn vocabulary?

6. Grouping words

7. Multi-word lexical items
Grouping words
Grammatical words
Lexical words
Multi-word lexical items
Inflections
Derivatives
because of
famous
raining cats and dogs
bring
occasion
why
singer
catch up
bringing
occasional
cannot
rained
day in and day out
brought
occasionally
the
heavily
now and then
brings

8. What is meant by “a word”?

9. What is meant by “knowing a word”?

10. How much do you know about the word “agree”?1
Again, agony, agonize, agonistic, age, aging, agent, agency, aglow, agile, aggressive, aggregate, aggravate
Both (intransitive: I agree; transitive: I agree with you on this issue)
No (It is agreed that…) on
Agreement
Agreeable, agreed
Pleasant, acceptable
Disagree (Ungradable)
Yes (dis)

11. How much do you know about the word “agree”?
yes
No (We did not agree to go to the cinema)
Consent, concur, assent, accede, side with
Compromise (agree unwillingly)
Consensus (of a group of people)
Yes
She goes to school / much water
Accept that we have different opinions
More (totally agree); less (totally disagree)

12. Aspects or word knowledge
Knowing how to pronounce the word.
Knowing the meaning of the word either as an L1 equivalent or as defined in L2.
Knowing how to spell the word and how its spelling differs from words that are pronounced similarly.
Knowing the grammatical word class of the word.
Knowing the grammatical patterns in which the word is typically used.
Knowing the collocational patterns in which the word typically fits and its any constraints upon the use of the word (concerned with, e.g. frequency, register, formality).
Knowing the morphology of the word and the forms and meanings of its inflections and derivatives.
Knowing the different senses of the word (polysemy) and the senses of its derivatives.
Knowing the antonyms of the word.
Knowing the synonyms of the word.
Knowing how the sense and usage of the word differs from that of near synonyms.
Knowing idioms that consist of the word.

13. Pedagogical Implications?

14. The incremental nature of vocabulary acquisition
our knowledge of a particular word is often partial
Recycling of words
Focusing on different dimensions of word knowledge at different times / when meeting the word in different contexts

15. Teaching multiword units as individual units (e. g
Teaching multiword units as individual units (e.g. Nattinger & DeCarrico, 1992; Sinclair, 1996; Lewis, 1997)
Give me a glass of wine now.
(Subject) + Verb + Object + Object + Adverb
#Pass me a cup of wine tomorrow.
Take a walk in the countryside. Enjoy the cool breeze!
#Make a walk in the countryside. Enjoy the cool wind!
It’s cold in here.
#It’s dry in here.
Lexical chunks are socially sanctioned independent units (the units can be words or phrases or sentences)
Can convey pragmatic meaning in a given community
Lewis advocates de-emphasizing teaching of grammar and vocabulary in favor of teaching of lexical chunks. Do you agree?

16. Lexical items (Lewis, 1997) Words (e.g. pen, ball)
Polywords (e.g. so to speak, at any rate, by and large, by the way)
Collocations (hitch a ride, make a wish, catch a bus, take a walk)
Institutionalized utterances (mainly spoken, e.g. Long time no see! How do you do? If I were you, I’d…, Give me a break! As far as I know)
Sentence frames and heads (mainly written, e.g. I think that …., not only…. but also…. , That reminds me of …).

17. Why is it useful to learn multilexical units?
To improve fluency
To recognize collocational patterns
(e.g. take a walk, make a wish, have dinner)
To sound more native-like / natural

18. Learning lexical chunks (lexical patterning)
Topic: Health – Symptoms
I’ve got a headache
(a) backache
(a) stomach-ache
toothache
a pain in my chest
a pain in my leg
a sore throat
a cough
a temperature (a fever)
I feel sick
ill
unwell
I’m going to be sick!
faint!

19. Pre-session 1 reading
1. History of vocabulary in language learning (Norbert Schmitt)
Theories on language  historical overview of language teaching methodologies 
their views on vocabulary teaching
2. Research in teaching vocabulary (John Read)
Focus on the research aspects
3. The big picture (Paul Nation)
Different types of vocabulary (e.g. high-frequency / low-frequency / academic / technical )
A balanced approach to teaching vocabulary (4 parts in a curriculum)

20. Some research into vocabulary teaching and learning
Referring to pp of:
Read, J. (2004). Research in teaching vocabulary. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 24,
What are some of the ways of conducting research into vocabulary teaching or learning? 
What conclusions can you draw from these studies reported by Read (2004) about the criteria for effective vocabulary acquisition?

21. Some research into vocabulary teaching and learning
Dictionary use:
look at how students use dictionaries
whether they use dictionaries appropriately / whether they need training
whether dictionary use leads to better performance / proficiency
what kind of dictionaries they prefer to use

22. Some research into vocabulary teaching and learning
Vocabulary in the classroom:
Look at how students select, record and revise vocabulary in their independent study / whether training improves use of vocab learning strategies
Audio- or video- record classes and transcribe these clips. Study how the teacher teaches vocabulary, e.g. whether target words are repeated or recycled / whether vocabulary is taught in lexically rich context, i.e. target words repeated and embedded in easy-to-understand context

23. Some research into vocabulary teaching and learning
Computer applications:
Use a computer programme to make sure that target words are repeated in different sentences and texts, and see whether students have better retention of these words
Provide (glosses / pictorial clues / videos / L1 translations) via hyperlinks built into an online text, and measure students’ understanding and retention of these words

24. Criteria for effective vocabulary acquisition
Students often use strategies inappropriately / need vocab strategy training
Better to repeat target words in texts / in the classroom
Better to present target words in lexically rich context (comprehensible input for students to guess meaning of the unknown words)
Deeper processing of the target words leads to better retention (e.g. mental imaging / studying sample sentences are better than only looking at L1 translations)

25. Post-session 1 reading (Lexical Approach)
Lewis, M. (1997) Pedagogical implications of the lexical approach. In J. Coady and T. Huckin (eds.) Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp
Moudraia, O. (2001) Lexical approach to second language teaching. Available:

26. Preparation for the next session (in MMLC, Room B)
Please bring along a few pieces of your own writing of no less than 300 words each, and a few other texts of different genres, e.g. journalistic, academic, technical, literary, etc. (soft copies saved on a USB or your account). We are going to do some analysis of word choice in different kinds of writing.