Download CHAPTER 4 : LEARNING WORDS

LING 322
 DEVELOPMENT OF VOCABULARY AS LANGUAGE
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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 INVOLVED
RECEPTIVE
To understand it when it is
spoken/written
MEMORY
To recall it when needed
CONCEPTUAL
To use with correct meaning
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
EXAMPLE
Not to confuse “effect”
and “affect”
“well” and “good”
She sang very well.
She sang very good.
TYPE OF
KNOWLEDGE
WHAT IS INVOLVED
EXAMPLE
COLLOCATIONAL
To know which other words
can be used
A beautiful view. Vs
A good looking view.
ORTHOGRAPHIC
To spell correctly
“PIZZA” not “BIZZA”
PRAGMATIC
KNOWLEDGE
To use in the right situation
“would you like a drink”
“what can I get you?”
CONNOTATIONAL
To know its positive and
negative associations
“slim” has positive
connotations
“skinny” is negative
METALINGUISTIC
To 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 :
Superordinate
FURNITURE
ANIMAL
Basic level
CHAIR
DOG
Subordinate
ROCKING CHAIR
SPANIEL
 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
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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