Sometimes it is better to have it small..

Size Matters in Teaching Vocabulary in EFL

IATEFL 2011, April 14-19The 45 Annual Convention and Exhibition, Brighton

Burcu Tezcan-Unal, April 18Istanbul Bilgi University, Laureate Network Universities

burcu.tezcan@bilgi.edu.trwww.btezcan.edublog.org

How many words are there?Does knowing a word mean that you know

the meaning of that word?

a)13 b) 11 c) 9

Session StagesIntroductionA race for answers on Vocabulary size, text coverage

and word listsWhat’s knowing a word?Transforming vocabulary into long-term memoryCharacteristics of Effective Vocabulary TasksBİLGİ Vocabulary ProjectQuestions and comments

1. What is a ‘word family’?2. How many ‘word families’ does the large Webster’s dictionary contain? 3. How many words are there in English language when all the words (root words,

derivatives, borrowed words, scientific, technical words, etc. ) are included?4. How many ‘word families’ does a typical 5-year-old English native speaker

know? 5. How many ‘word families’ does an average adult native speaker KNOW? 6. How many ‘word families’ does an educated native speaker USE actively? 7. How many new words does a native speaker child learn a year when s/he starts

school? 8. What percentage text coverage do you get if you know 2,000 ‘word families’ ?

9. How many word families do you need to know to achieve a 97,8% text

coverage? 10. How many words would allow minimum autonomy to a second language

learner?11. How many words would allow a second language learner to read a text without

the constant need of referring to the teacher or a dictionary (text coverage of 84%)?

12. How many ‘word families’ would allow a second language learner to follow an academic program at tertiary level?

Questions

15,851 1,000

3,000

128,000

A collection of words whose stem has the same meaning, e.g. decide, decision, decisive, decisively..

Race for Answers

84%

2,000,000

The highest frequency 2,000 and 570 academic word families (used frequently across a wide range of disciplines).

4,000-5,000

10,000-12,000

 18,000-20,000

Answers and notes1. What is a ‘word family’? A collection of words whose stem has the same meaning,

e.g. decide, decision, decisive, decisively..2. How many ‘word families’ does the large Webster’s

dictionary contain? 128,000 3. How many words are there in English language when all the

words (root words, derivatives, borrowed words, scientific, technical words, etc. ) are included?

2,000,000The question is actually hard to answer because English keeps getting new words – probably in excess of 500 per year are added in major dictionaries.

4. How many ‘word families’ does a typical 5-year-old English native speaker know?

4,000-5,0005. How many ‘word families’ does an average adult native

speaker know? 18,000-20,000

Answers and notes (cont.)6. How many ‘word families’ an educated

native speaker use actively?10,000-12,000 7. How many new words does a native speaker

child learn a year when s/he starts school?1,000

Answers and notes8. What percentage text coverage do you get if

you know about 2,000 ‘word families’ ?84.0%9. How many word families do you need to know

to achieve a 97,8% text coverage?15,851 NOTE: The gap is huge and the gain is not much of a difference- strategy

training is a must as very very few non-native speakers reach to this size of vocabulary

from O’Keefe, McCarthy, Carter, 2007

The Good News...11. How many words would allow minimum autonomy to

a second language learner? 2,00012. How many words would allow a second language

learner to read a text without the constant need of referring to the teacher or a dictionary (text coverage of 84%)?

3,00013. How many ‘word families’ would allow a second

language learner to follow an academic program at tertiary level?

The highest frequency 2,000 and 570 academic word families (used frequently across a wide range of disciplines. )- more useful than the third 1,000 chosen by overall frequency in modern English.

PS: These academic items have been shown to form 8.5% of a corpus of academic texts, and to be well spread across disciplines; and indeed form over 4.5% of newspaper text.

In short..All the remaining 124,000 word families in

Webster ‘s dictionary only constitute between 7.8% (conversation) and 15.7% (newspapers) of texts.

It is obviously desirable for fluent speakers to acquire a knowledge of a substantial number

of these, but they would have low priority for explicit vocabulary teaching.

Resource Nation, I.S.P. Learning Vocabulary in Another Language, Cambridge Applied

Linguistics, 2001, UK, CUP, Nation& Waring- Vocabulary size, text coverage and word lists, page 8. form

Vocabulary, Description, Acquisition and Pedagogy, edited by Schmitt N, McCarthy M. Cambridge Language Teaching Libarary, 1997, UK, CUP

What’s knowing a word? To understand it when it is spoken and /or written To recall it when you need it To use it with the correct meaning To use it in a grammatically correct way To pronounce it correctly To know which other words you can use with it To spell it correctly To use it in right situation To know if it has positive or negative associations

Taken from Learning to learn English, A course in Learner Training, Ellis G. & Sinclair B., CUP, 1989

How are Words Remembered?

The Atkinson-Shiffrin model, 1968

How did/do you transform the words you learn into long-term memory?

How/when do your students transform vocabulary into long-term memory?

How can vocabulary be transformed into long-term memory?

Repetition (What is important is the number of encounters with the word )

Retrieval: (Using the new word in written sentences)

Spacing: (Distributed practice)

Use: (Use it or lose it )

Cognitive Depth: (The more decisions the learner makes about a word the better the word is remembered-negotiating meaning)

Personal Organizing: (keeping notebooks, word cards, etc)

Imaging: (Studies show that easily visualized words are more memorable than words that don’t evoke a picture)

Identifying & Recognizing SelectingMatchingCategorizingRanking and SequencingPersonalization/Production

Vocabulary Task Types

Cognitive depth (i.e. getting the Ss brain working!)

Affective depth (i.e. making it personal in some way, getting the Ss to relate the language to their own life).

Contextualizing (even just at sentence level, also helps Ss understand it and store it).

Using synonyms, antonyms and hyponymsAwareness of Affixation Including the Grammar of words (Colligation)

Helping with the Phonetics and the Spelling

Awareness of CollocationsConsidering Different Learning Styles

Characteristics of Effective Vocabulary Tasks

Activity

Read the sentence and guess the meaning of the words in bold.

1.Quebec has excellent restaurants, so visitors can eat well.

a) dangerousb) too expensivec) very good

TypeIdentifying & Recognizing SelectingMatchingCategorizing

Ranking and SequencingPersonalization/Production

CharacteristicsCognitive depth

Affective depth Contextualizing Using synonyms, antonyms and hyponyms

Awareness of Affixation

Including the Grammar of words

Helping with the Phonetics/ the Spelling

Awareness of collocations

xx x

x

x

x

ActivityWORD SEARCH

Find the hidden colours in the following Word Search puzzle and circle them. S R E D F I H G R E E N L L I X N E O R B E U L B S R D B L A C K F T

x

x

Characteristics

Cognitive depth

Affective depth

Contextualizing

Using synonyms, antonyms and hyponyms

Awareness of Affixation

Including the Grammar of words

Helping with the Phonetics/ the Spelling

Awareness of collocations

TypeIdentifying & Recognizing

SelectingMatchingCategorizing

Ranking and SequencingPersonalization/Production

Vocabulary Task Analysis II

Activity

Below is Richard’s list of favorite hobbies.

Rank the following free time activities in an order (from your most favorite to the least).

•Hiking•Swimming•Fishing•Dancing•Going to the cinema

Type

Identifying & Recognizing

Selecting

Matching

Categorizing

Ranking and Sequencing

Personalization/Production

Characteristics

Cognitive depth

Affective depth

Contextualizing

Using synonyms, antonyms and hyponyms

Awareness of Affixation

Including the Grammar of words

Helping with the Phonetics/ the Spelling

Awareness of collocations

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

Activity

Choose 5 characteristics of an ideal partner for you from the list below and write why they are important for you .

GenerousCompassionateHonestSuccessfulConfidentConsiderateRomanticHelpfulEducated

TypeIdentifying & Recognizing SelectingMatchingCategorizing

Ranking and SequencingPersonalization

Vocabulary Task Analysis III

x

x

x

x

CharacteristicsCognitive depth

Affective depth Contextualizing Using synonyms, antonyms and hyponyms

Awareness of Affixation

Including the Grammar of wordsHelping with the Phonetics/ the Spelling

Awareness of collocations

xxx

BİLGİ Vocabulary ProjectMain Aim: • To introduce and recycle 2000 words and 587

academic words in prep and in the first year program (to reach 80%+text coverage)

Sub-aims:to create a common understanding of word

frequency both for prioritizing teaching and learning vocabulary.

to create a target vocab focus for the course books in the program and for each week for teaching and assessment purposes

BİLGİ Vocabulary ProjectStages1.Scanning the word lists of Touchstone Books, CUP 1-

4 in terms of the most frequent 2000 words from GSL2.Scanning the word lists of Strategic Reading and

Academic Encounters for 587 AWL3.Giving training on Vocab frequency to the teachers4.Selecting the words to organise recycling

activities/games/ puzzles (to be used as part of the weekend worksheets, in the CALL centres, as online activities, in BWC, etc.)

5.Incorporating the target vocab materials into the programme.

6.Check effectiveness of this awareness

What type of activities are necessary?Step 1 Recognition/Identification/ Introduction to the

itemsStep 2 Negotiation of meaningStep 3 Production /Personalization

Some Activity Worksheet Samples are in another document

Coker B, Teaching Vocabulary, 9 Eylül UniversityLaufer B & Hulstijn J- Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition in a

Second Language: the Construct of Task-Induced Involvement, Applied Linguistics 22/1:1-26 Oxford University Press

McCharty M., O’Keeffe A., Walsh S. Vocabulary Martix Understanding, Learning, Teaching, 2010, UK, Heinle Cengage Learning

Nation, I.S.P. Learning Vocabulary in Another Language , Cambridge Applied Linguistics, 2001, UK, CUP

Nation, P. & M. McCarthy (eds) 1997 Vocabulary, Description, Acquisition and Pedagogy, Cambridge Language Teaching Libarary, UK, CUP

Nation& Waring- Vocabulary size, text coverage and word lists, page 8. form Vocabulary, Description, Acquisition and Pedagogy, edited by Schmitt N, McCarthy M. Cambridge Language Teaching Library, 1997, UK, CUP

O’Keefe A., McCarthy M. & Carter R. From Corpus to Classroom, 2007, UK, Cambridge University Press

Resource

For the handouts and any further information

burcu.tezcan@bilgi.edu.tr