Why teach general academic vocabulary?

A presentation of research

and classroom practices

Plan

09.15 – 10.00 – What does the research say?

10.00 – 10.15 – Break

10.15 – 11.00 – Practicing what I preach

Aims for the session

• Present the use of Corpus Lingistics for

research and classroom practices

• Present a discussion of the term general

academic vocabulary

• Provide some theoretical insight into the

process of learning words

• Provide classroom examples of explicit

vocabulary teaching / vocabulary assessment

using computer programs

Corpus Linguistics (CL)

• Use of large corpora to assess vocabulary use

and patterns

• “Corpus linguistics …[has] a large role to play in

identifying the linguistic constructions of most

relevance to particular learners”

(N. C. Ellis, 2012b, p. 204).

• Computer technology and internet access have

taken the study of corpus linguistics to a new

level (McCarthy, 2012).

• Help to set vocabulary learning goals (Nation, 2013)

Corpora – BNC/COCA

• The British National Corpus (BNC) and the

Corpus of Contemporary American English

(COCA), are a collection of oral and written

texts found in different authentic sources.

• COCA - 450 million words that are “equally divided

among spoken, fiction, popular magazines,

newspapers, and academic texts” (Davies, 2012).

• The BNC “is a 100 million word collection of samples

of written and spoken language … a wide cross-

section of British English, …from the late twentieth

century” (Consortium, 2007).

What is a word?

• Tokens refer to every word form found in a written or oral

text. If the same word form, i.e. economy occurs several

times within a text each form is counted as a separate

entity.

• The term types refers to a gathering of tokens so that if

one word is written several times in a text these are

counted in one group and referred to as one word type.

(Nation, 2013). If the word economy is used seven times

within one text then this will form the word type economy

(7). Likewise, if the word economies (5) appears five

times in the same text, this will be counted as one word

type group as well.

Word Families

• Word families represent “a headword, its

inflected forms, and …closely related derived

forms” (Nation, 2013, p. 11).

• Nation argues that affixes, such as, -ly, -ness,

and un- “greatly reduce the learning burden of

derived forms containing known base forms, but

he also acknowledges that not all learners will

necessarily know all of the derived forms in a

word family.

• The learning burden of derivatives can be

discussed.

Academic Word List (AWL) - Examples

Headwords sublist

acknowledge 6

acquire 2

adequate 4

adjacent 10

compensate 3

compile 10

complement 8

complex 2

economy 1

edit 6

element 2

Word Familyeconomy

economic

economical

economically

economics

economies

economist

economists

uneconomical

Source:

http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/resources/

academicwordlist

Defining general academic vocabulary

• academic vs technical

• academic vocabulary “common in different kinds of

academic texts” (Nation, 2013, p. 19).

• general vs discipline-specific (Heibert & Lubliner, 2008; Nagy & Townsend, 2012)

• in relation to each subject it applies to

(Hyland, 2011; Hyland & Tse, 2007)

Coxhead’s Academic Word List (AWL)

• She compared written academic texts used in universities, from

a wide range of subjects, and then compiled a corpus of 3.5

million words from 414 texts, covering the four subject

disciplines: arts, commerce, law and science.

• Each subject discipline was divided into seven subject areas,

such as education, accounting, and biology.

• Word families included on the list had to appear at least 100

times in the corpus, in at least 15 of the subject areas and over

10 times in each of the subject disciplines (Coxhead, 2000).

• Between 8% – 10% of any given text use for university studies

are found on the AWL. AWL use authentic English newspaper

articles is around 5% (Nation, 2013).

Discussion Questions

• How is vocabulary acquired?

• How do pupils acquire vocabulary in a

classroom situation?

• What do you suggest as a means for your

students to widen their vocabulary?

• What vocabulary goals should teachers have

for their students?

Vocabulary Acquisition

• Implicit learning

• “learning that takes place without either intentionality

or awareness” (R. Ellis, 2008, p. 7)

• Explicit learning

• learning as “a conscious process and is likely to be

intentional” (R. Ellis, 2008, p. 7)

• Productive vs receptive word knowledge

• Vocabulary acquisition through reading

• Form-meaning word knowledge

Reading Comprehension

• After extensive research, there is a general consensus

among vocabulary researchers that for unassisted

reading L2 learners should understand 98% of the

words used in a text.

• A more conservative estimate of 95% word coverage

should be seen as an absolute minimum (Laufer, 2010;

Nation, 2013; Schmitt and Grabe, 2011).

• Expressed in more practical terms this means that

learners should not be exposed to more than one

unfamiliar word per 2-5 lines of written text, if they are to

comprehend what they have read (Nation, 2013).

Reading Comprehension

Native American communities and individuals have been

working their way into economic … for quite some time now.

While some of this has been due to the … of government

programs set up to … native businesspeople, most of it has

been an … of native … and …. Native Americans are in

charge of some of the largest resource development

companies, some of the largest restaurant chains, some of the

largest casinos, and some very popular …. and financing

companies all over the country. While these natives represent a

wide … of economic interests, one thing they share is the way

their … has influenced the way they handle their business

operations.

Reading Comprehension

Native American communities and individuals have been

working their way into economic prosperity for quite some

time now. While some of this has been due to the impacts of

government programs set up to assist native businesspeople,

most of it has been an outgrowth of native ingenuity and

innovation. Native Americans are in charge of some of the

largest resource development companies, some of the

largest restaurant chains, some of the largest casinos, and some

very popular capital investment firms and financing

companies all over the country. While these natives represent a

wide range of economic interests, one thing they share is the

way their heritage has influenced the way they handle their

business operations.

Zipf’s Law

Zipf’s Law

• “the most frequent word [in a text occurs]

approximately twice as often as the second

most frequent word, which occurs twice as often

as the fourth most frequent word, etc.” (N. C. Ellis, 2015, p. 262).

• Implications

• the implicit acquisition of less frequent English

vocabulary words through unassisted reading

requires a lot of reading

• “it is not unusual to find lots of words occurring once

in course books written for learners of English” (Nation, 2013, p. 33).

Can we expect our pupils to learn AWL words implicitly?

• Some researchers question this

• Krashen – Input Hypothesis / Cobb (2007)

• Cobb (2007) - in-text frequency of word families with

BNC frequency levels at the first 3000 levels.

• He compiled a 517,000 token corpus of fiction, press

writing and academic writing taken from the Brown

corpus

• Findings: only half of the 3,000 level words were

repeated six or more times (Cobb, 2007).

• Nation (2013)

Analysis of AWL vocabulary in textbook texts

• A majority of the Academic Word List (AWL) word families were

used only once, even across three and four topic-related texts

(Skjelde, 2015).

• These findings support previous research (Cobb, 2007; Matsuoka

and Hirsh, 2010).

Narrow reading of 3-4 texts

related to Global English and

Indigenous Peoples.

Textbooks: Targets (2015),

Access to English (2013), Stunt

(2009)

Narrow Reading

• Reading several topic related texts

(Kang, 2015)

• Can lessen the lexical load

• Can provide possibilities for students to meet

vocabulary in different contexts (increase frequency

of exposure)

• Newpaper articles –

• may provide higher levels of AWL in context

Why explicit teaching of general academic vocabulary?

Four main reasons:

• AWL vocabulary is

• common to a wide range of academic texts, and

not so common to non-academic texts

• accounts for a substantial number of words in

academic texts

• generally not known as well as technical

vocabulary

• the kind of specialized vocabulary that an English

teacher can usefully help learners with (Nation,

2013, pp. 291-293).

Nation’s Four Strands – Course development

• Learning a L2 from comprehensible meaning-

focused input

• main focus of attention is on the information in what

students are listening to or reading.

• Learning a L2 from meaning-focused output

• Main focus of attention is on the information they are

trying to convey

Nation’s Four Strands – Course development

• Language-focused learning

• Usefully focused deliberate teaching and learning of

language items

• Debated part of L2 learning

• Fluency development

• Learners do not work with new language items, but

become more and more fluent in using items they

know already

• If fluency is not a part of a L2 course, learning done

in the other three strands will not be available for

normal use

(Nation, 2013, p. 2-3)

Expected Reading Comprehesion – Textbook texts

Flash Cards and Glossary Tests

Theory and Research

• The Involvement Load Hypothesis

(Laufer in Nation, 2013, pp 98-99)

• Technique Feature Analysis - see handout

(Nation, 2013, pp 98-101)

• Noticing and decontextualization

(Nation, 2013, p. 103)

Flash Cards and Glossary Tests

• Vocabulary profile of texts (pre-reading)

• Methods for learning words explicitly

• Flash cards/quizlet

• Self designed glossary testing

• Individual Golssary Tests

• See handout

Lexical Profiling

• Cobb’s Vocab Compleat

• Provide students with a simplified list of vocabulary at

the 3000 level and above

• Ask them to chose 10 words to learn before

they read the text.

• Provide time in class to learn the words and

make a glossary test

Individual Glossary Test

• Pick 10 words to learn from one text

• Use quizlet.com or paper flash cards to help learn the words

• Glossary test next class (Pass at 95% correct)

• Read the text (again or for the first time)

Vocabulary Assessment

New Vocabulary Levels Test (NVLT) –

http://www.lextutor.ca/tests/levels/recognition/nvl

t/test.pdf

Vocabulary Size Test (VST) – vocabualrysize.com

PHRASAL VOCABULARY SIZE TEST

http://www.lextutor.ca/tests/levels/recognition/phra

sal/

References

Cobb, T. (2007). Computing the Vocabulary Demands of L2 Reading. Language Learning & Technology, 11(3), 38-63.

Retrieved from http://llt.msu.cdu/vol11num3/cobb/

Cobb, T. (2010). Learning about language and learners from computer programs. Reading in a Foreign Language,

22(1), 181-200. Retrieved from http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/rfl

Cobb, T. (). Web Vocabprofile. Retrieved from http://www.lextutor.ca/vp/

Cobb, T. (n.d.-a). The original idea behind this website Why & how to use frequency lists to learn words. Retrieved

from http://www.lextutor.ca/research/rationale.htm

Cobb, T. (n.d.-b). Web VP Classic v.4 Retrieved from http://www.lextutor.ca/vp/eng/

Coxhead, A. (2000). A New Academic Word List. TESOL Quarterly, 34(2), 213-238.

Ellis, N. C. (2012a). Formulaic Language and Second Language Acquisition: Zipf and the Phrasal Teddy Bear. Annual

Review of Applied Linguistics, 32, 17-44.

Ellis, N. C. (2012b). Frequency-based Accounts of Second Language Aacquisition. In S. M. Gass & A. Mackey (Eds.),

The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition (pp. 193-210). New York, NY: Routledge.

Ellis, N. C. (2015). Frequency Effects. In P. Robinson (Ed.), The Routledge Encyclopedia of Second Language

Acquisition (pp. vi-xxiv, 1-755). New York: Routledge.

Heibert, E. H., & Lubliner, S. (2008). The Nature, Learning, and Instruction of General Academic Vocabulary. In A. E.

Farstrup & S. J. Samuels (Eds.), What Research Has To Say about Vocabulary Instruction (pp. 106-129). Newark,

DE: International Reading Association.

Kang, E. Y. E. (2015). Promoting L2 Vocabulary Learning through Narrow Reading. RELC journal, 46(2), 165-179.

Larsen-Freeman, Diane (2001) Grammar. In Carter, R. & Nunan, D. (eds.) Teaching English to Speakers of Other

Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (s 34-41).

Laufer, B. (2010). Lexical threshold revisited: Lexical text coverage, learners' vocabulary size and reading

comprehension. Reading in a Foreign Language, 22(1), 15-30.

References

Nation, I. S. P. (2006). How Large a Vocabulary Is Needed For Reading and Listening? The Canadian Modern

Language Review, 63(1), 59-82.

Nation, I. S. P. (2012). The BNC/COCA word families lists. Retrieved from

http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/about/staff/publications/paul-nation/Information-on-the-BNC_COCA-word-family-

lists.pdf:

Nation, I. S. P. (2013). Learning Vocabulary in Another Language (second ed.). Cambridge: University Printing House.

Nation, I. S. P., & Beglar, D. (2007). A vocabulary size test. The Language Teacher, 31(7), 9-13. Retrieved from

http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/about/staff/publications/paul-nation/Vocabulary-Size-Test-information-and-

specifications.pdf

Nagy, W., & Townsend, D. (2012). Words as Tools: Learning Academic Vocabulary as Language Acquisition. Reading

Research Quarterly, 47(1), 91-108.

Schmitt, D., & Schmitt, N. (2012). Plenary Speech A reassessment of frequency and vocabulary size in L2 vocabulary

teaching. Cambridge Journal, 1-20. Retrieved from http://journals.cambridge.org

Schmitt, N., Cobb, T., Horst, M., & Schmitt, D. (2015). How much vocabulary is needed to use English? Replication of

vanZeeland & Schmitt (2012), Nation (2006) and Cobb (2007). Language Teaching, 1-15. Retrieved from

http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0261444815000075

Schmitt, N., Jiang, X., & Grabe, W. (2011). The Percentage of Words Known in a Text and Reading Comprehension.

The Modern Language Journal, 95(1), 26-43. doi:10.2307/41262309

Skjelde, K. (2015). Academic Vocabulary: Unleashed potential? A corpus study of English course materials for

advanced Norwegian learners of English (Master’s thesis) University of Bergen, Bergen. Available online at

https://bora.uib.no/bitstream/handle/1956/10981/141257421.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y