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Some thoughts on teaching vocabulary

Jo Gakonga

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Jo Gakonga

What factors affect vocabulary development?

Age

Personality

Motivation

Language aptitude

Prior knowledge

These are fairly fixed…..

…but other factors…

..are within our control..

The context

The task

Learner strategies

These, we can change…

A bit of theory….

How many times must we meet a word…

…to remember it?

Paul Nation – 5 – 16 exposures necessaryPaul Meara – 1 uptake for 100 exposures

It also depends on the conspicuousness of it in the text and number of contextual clues

Note that L2 learners just don’t get the exposure that L1 do – so they do need explicit teaching.

What about dictionary use? What kind?

Research shows that repeating aloud helps retention – ear assists eye

Mnemonics and word associations – any problems?

What other strategies do you encourage?

Teaching Vocabulary

Words taught in lexical sets may ‘stick’ better

Rods here

Make sure they record it properly

What do they need to know?

Recycling is vital!

Vocabulary box

Vocabulary box activities

• Stick up words on walls •Group/ categorise the words •Make a sentence with two/ three/ all?•Word search•Pictionary.•Discussions/ role play using the vocab.

Recycling outside class