HARMER, CHAPTER 14ATESL, 2009, #48A&B

Teaching Vocabulary

I. Raising Awareness

“Vocabulary instruction encourages learners to notice and focus on new vocabulary items (single words as well as formulaic sequences) and links the forms of new vocabulary to meanings, collocations, and uses.” (ATESL, 2009, p.78, #48a)

Activities to help learners focus on and notice vocabulary (ATESL, 2009, p.78-79)

Much of what we do when teaching reading and listening assists with vocabulary development.

Explicit discussion of target vocabulary prior to listening, speaking, reading or writing tasks.

Presenting new, thematically-related items prior to a unit in which the theme is explored through a variety of activities and modes. (see Hammond, p.245, example 14)

The incorporation of target vocabulary in pre-listening/reading activities to ensure multiple recalls of the items.

Lexical elaborations (glosses) and textual enhancement in both paper and electronic readings.

The use of visuals, e.g., writing vocabulary items on board, flip chart paper, etc.

Quick L1 translations.Instruction in and allowance for

appropriate and judicious dictionary use.

Using clues to determine vocabulary meaning, and confirming guesses with dictionaries, glosses or group discussion.

Presenting vocabulary in thematically-related clusters (e.g., frog, green, pond), rather than in semantically related clusters (e.g., red, yellow, blue, green) that can cause confusion.

Knowing a word involves much more than knowing a dictionary definition!

Connotations and sociolinguistic competence Obese, fat, overweight, large, chubby, round,

cuddlyBaby, little boy, big boyHas a mental disability, mentally challenged,

mentally delayed, mentally handicapped, slow, (vs inappropriate words that appear in translation dictionaries: lack of intelligence, silly, stupid, moron, dumb, freak, idiot, imbecile) (see http://www.engvid.com/disability-vocabulary/ )

Collocations:Grammatical collocations

When a lexical item commonly occurs with a particular grammatical item (e.g., worried ___, reason ___, believe ____)

Lexical collocations Common noun+verb, verb+noun/complement, or

adjective+noun combinations E.g,.

Collocations for Environment

Verbs: Protect/conserve/harm/damage/destroy/pollute/clean

up the environment (Note: we are less likely to say “hurt” the

environment)Adjectives:

natural/marine environmentPhrases:

to be good/bad for, harmful to, protection/conservation of, damage/harm to, the destruction of , pollution of, the impact/effect on

Collocations for Regret

Adverbs Deeply/greatly regret Bitterly regret Sincerely regret Very much regret (we don’t say: I very regret)

Phrase: To live to regret

Example: NOISE

NS NNSNoun + verb Diminish

IncreaseSoftenGet bigger

Verb + noun Make Cause/have

Adjective + noun

LoudSoft

Big/strongSmall/quiet

II. Retrieving and Using

“Vocabulary instruction provides multiple opportunities to retrieve new vocabulary items; provides opportunities for pushed output, in which learners are encouraged to use new vocabulary items in spoken and written communication; and includes the explicit formal teaching of vocabulary learning strategies.” (ATESL, 2009, #48b)

Maximize exposure!“Learners are provided with opportunities for maximum exposure to, engagement with, and retrievals of the target vocabulary and meanings” (ATESL 2009)

Multi-mode exposure to target vocabulary in thematic teaching listening, speaking, reading, writing

Maximizing associations by using different senses – pictures, objects, movement, fieldtrips

Vocabulary exercises (matching, cloze, collocation)

Narrow readingVocabulary quizzes, tests,

games (e.g., quizlet)

Push learners to USE!“Learners are pushed to use target vocabulary in speaking and writing tasks, facilitating long-term retention” (ATESL, 2009)

Explicit target vocabulary instruction prior to speaking and writing tasks.

Post-reading/listening vocabulary practice – questions/tasks that require use of new vocab.

Requiring the use of the target vocabulary in speaking/writing tasks (e.g., “Choose 3 of the new statements

for expressing opinions and use them during the debate” or “Choose 8 of the new words to incorporate into your paragraph”).

Teach skills and strategies“Learners are enabled to manage their own vocabulary learning through deliberate exposure to, instruction in, and sharing of vocabulary development strategies” (ATESL, 2009)

Stems/affixesEncoding/mnemonic techniquesSpaced repetitionRewarding selfMultiple and varied vocabulary

retrieval (see Harmer p.229-238)Dictionary usage (Harmer, p.239-

246)QuizletUse concordancing tools

www.lexTutor.ca http://www.lextutor.ca/id/ (to create

quizzes) http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/

Quizlet examples:Flashcards:

https://quizlet.com/119010481/flashcards

Scatter game: https://quizlet.com/119010481/scatter

Test: https://quizlet.com/119010481/test

Harmer 14: Teaching vocabulary

Examine a selection of activities in the chapter. Which of the following do they do?

1. Encourage learners to notice and focus on new vocabulary items (single words as well as formulaic sequences) and link the forms of new vocabulary to meanings, collocations, and uses.

2. Provide multiple opportunities to retrieve new vocabulary items.

3. Encourage learners to use new vocabulary items in spoken and written communication

4. Teach vocabulary learning strategies

Worth noting

A response

A question

Teaching Vocabulary Jigsaw activity The excerpts you read are from the “Roots and Connections Tool Kit”, p.30-32.

http://eslruralroutes.norquest.ca/resources.aspx

Read the excerpt you’ve been given on: Strategies for a given learning style Activities for teaching vocabulary

Consider additional strategies for the learning style.

Re-group and complete handout: Take turns sharing strategies for

vocabulary learning for the 3 different learning styles

Take turns sharing the vocabulary activities. Is it useful? Limited? Could it be tweaked to be more useful?