Teaching the “Right” Vocabulary for Academic Success

Helen HuntleySenior English Language FellowHanoi University, Vietnamhelenshuntley@yahoo.comhttp://helenshuntley.com

Bernice ClarkEducation SpecialistU.S. Embassy, Hanoiclark_b_h@yahoo.com

An exploration of …

… how many words students need to know

… which words are most important to learn

… how to access and use relevant software

What vocabulary should students learn?

20 most common English words:

the be of and

a to in he

have it that for

they I with as

not on she at

Source: http://jbauman.com/gsl.html

Which words to teach? Why?

people disgusting stimuli

always pattern muscle

innate studies evidence

loose forehead smile

faces expressions analogous frustration responses tone

TYPES OF VOCABULARY

Type of Vocabulary

No. of Words

Frequency

Text Coverage

Origins Implications for Learning

High-frequency words

2,000 Occur frequently in all kinds of texts

About 87% of the words in a text

About half are from Latin, French, or Greek

Spend a lot of time on these words. Make sure they are learned well.

Academic Vocabulary

570 word families

Occur frequently in most kinds of academic texts

About 8% of  words in academic texts

About two-thirds are from Latin, French, or Greek

Essential words for an academic environment. Make sure they are learned well.

Technical vocabulary

About 1,000-2,000 for each subject

Occur, sometimes frequently, in academic texts

About 3% of the words in a specialized text

About two-thirds are from Latin, French, or Greek

Learn the specialized words in your own academic field

Low-frequency words

About 123,000

Do not occur frequently

About 2% of the words in any text

About two-thirds are from Latin, French, or Greek

Learn strategies to figure out the meanings of these words

Chart adapted from Nation, I.S.P. (1990). Teaching and learning vocabulary. Boston, M.A.: Heinle & Heinle

Strategies for learning vocabulary…

Guess the meaning from context – incidental learning/acquisition

Use monolingual dictionaries – to develop circumvention to increase production

Note-taking – vocabulary cards or notebooks– any method is beneficial if used regularly

Rote rehearsal – memorization – How many words at a time?– How many times before remembered?– Aloud or silent?

Word origins > parts The longest word in the English language

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

pneumon = lungs silico = silicon

ultra = extremely volcano = eruption

micro = small coni = dust

scopic = see osis = condition

The longest non-word in the English language

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

super = above cali =beautyfragilistic = delicate expeali = to atone docious = educable

"Atoning for educatability through delicate beauty."

Coverage by text typeNation, P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge, University Press

Levels Conversation Academic Text

1st 1,000 words 84.3% 73.5%

2nd 1,000 words 6% 4.6%

Academic 1.9% 8.5%

Other 7.8% 13.3%

General Service List

Published in 1953 by M. West Consists of 2,000 words selected to be of the

greatest "general service" to learners of English.

Each of the 2,000 words is a headword representing a word family

Frequency numbers are provided

The Academic Word List Created by Averil Coxhead, Victoria University of

Wellington Items selected from The Academic Corpus 570 word families Four faculty sections: Arts, Commerce, Law,

Science (with 28 subsections) Selection of items based on range, frequency,

and uniformity of frequency Exclusions:

First 2000 words Narrow range words Proper nouns Latin forms

Key coverage thresholds Below 80 percent coverage, reading comprehension

is almost impossible Hu & Nation, 2001

At 95 percent coverage, it becomes possible to read without the help of dictionaries Laufer, 1989

A vocabulary of at least 3,000 word families is necessary to read an academic text with 95% comprehension Nation, 1990

Knowledge of 4000-5000 words necessary to understand an undergraduate economics textbook Katarsyah, Nation & Kennedy, 1994

The first 1000 high frequency words.75% coverage

If _____ planting rates are _____with planting _____ _____ in each _____ and the forests _____ at the earliest opportunity, the _____ wood supplies could further increase to about 36 million _____ meters _____ in the _____ 2001-2015. The additional _____ wood supply should greatly _____ _____ _____ , even if much is used for _____ production.

15 of 58 words are missing

The first 2000 high frequency words. 85% Coverage

If _____ planting rates are maintained with planting targets satisfied in each _____ and the forests milled at the earliest opportunity, the _____ wood supplies could further increase to about 36 million _____ meters _____ in the period 2001-2015. The additional _____ wood supply should greatly exceed _____ _____ , even if much is used for ______ production.

9 of 58 words are missing

The first 2000 words + words from the AWL95% coverage

If current planting rates are maintained with planting targets satisfied in each region and the forests milled at the earliest opportunity, the available wood supplies could further increase to about 36 million _____ meters annually in the period 2001-2015. The additional available wood supply should greatly exceed domestic requirements, even if much is used for energy production.

1 of 58 words is missing

Vocabulary analysis of an academic text from

Huntley, H. (2006). Essential Academic Vocabulary. Thomson/Heinle.

Evidence for innate facial expressions comes from studies showing that for the most fundamental emotions, people in all cultures show intrinsically similar facial responses to analogous emotional stimuli. The pattern of facial movements we call a smile, for example, is universally related to positive emotions. Sadness is almost always accompanied by loose muscle tone and a “long” face. Likewise, in almost all cultures, people distort their faces in an almost identical way when shown something they find disgusting, and a lined forehead frequently conveys the notion of frustration. Movements of the eyebrows also denote anger and conflict in almost all cultures.

First 1,000 words (1-1,000)

for expressions comes from studies showing that for the most people in all show to The of movements we call a smile for example is related to is almost always by and a long face in almost all people their faces in an almost way when shown something they find and a lined the of Movements of the also and in almost all 63 words

Second 1,000 words (1001-2000)

pattern Sadness loose disgusting frequently anger  6 words

AWL words (academic)

analogous evidence fundamental cultures intrinsically similar responses positive accompanied Likewise cultures distort identical notion denote conflict cultures16 words

Technical words (Med)

emotions emotional stimuli emotions muscle tone 6 words

Off-List (low-frequency) words

innate facial facial facial universally forehead conveys frustration eyebrows9 words

Text analysisEvidence for innate facial expressions comes from studies showing that

for the most fundamental emotions people in all cultures show

intrinsically similar facial responses to analagous emotional stimuli The

pattern of facial movements we call a smile for example is universally

related to positive emotions Sadness is almost always accompanied by

loose muscle tone and a long face Likewise in almost all cultures people

distort their faces in an almost identical way when shown something

they find disgusting and a lined forehead frequently conveys the notion

of frustration Movements of the eyebrows also denote anger and conflict

in almost all cultures

Text analysis

First 1,000 words 62.38% Second 1,000 words 5.94% AWL (academic) words 16.83% Technical words (medical): 5.94% Off-list (low frequency): 8.91%

What about collocations?

“Collocations are those combinations of words which occur naturally with greater than random frequency.”

Lewis, M. (1997) Implementing the lexical approach. Language Teaching Publications, 25.

Academic text collocations

The cooperative __________ approach has become popular among __________ professors for helping students reach __________ academic standards and building __________ relationships in the classroom. After many years of theoretical and practical __________on this issue, there is __________ evidence that cooperative methods can have __________ benefits for student learning through increased learning, __________ understanding of the concepts being taught, and __________ retention of the material. __________ addition, interpretation of available __________ suggests that cooperative learning encourages __________ relationships among team __________ of different racial and economic __________.

Academic text collocationsfrom Huntley, H. (2006). Essential Academic Vocabulary. Thomson/Heinle

The cooperative learning approach has become popular among college professors for helping students reach high academic standards and building positive relationships in the classroom. After many years of theoretical and practical research on this issue, there is strong evidence that cooperative methods can have major benefits for student learning through increased learning, better understanding of the concepts being taught, and improved retention of the material. In addition, interpretation of available data suggests that cooperative learning encourages positive relationships among team members of different racial and economic backgrounds.

WebCorp concordancerhttp://news.bio-medicine.org/tag-3/conveys/

is a two-way bridge that conveys new ideas and discoveries between goals. "When a fitness expert conveys goals to an exerciser, his part of ongoing primary care, conveys important information about the five-year tuberculosis in foreign born individuals conveys appreciable public health

benefit to often only one of them conveys a drug's beneficial effects, while located in the nose and conveys messages to the higher cortical parents presence during the transport conveys comfort to the child and the channels through which he conveys the power and elegance of issues. "First," he said, " it conveys the fact that many individuals on the screen. The program conveys some emotions better than others,

Any vocabulary questions?

Thank you!