HOW TO TEACH VOCABULARY

ENGLISH METHODOLOGY 1 II SEM 2010 Mg. Roxanna Correa P.

To think about
How do we select new vocabulary to teach for active production? What to consider when presenting a lexical item? How do you elicit vocabulary?

There are four stages in new vocabulary acquisition: The learner notices the new word (with help) The learner learns to recognize it (with help) The learner recognizes it on his/her own The learner can both recognize and produce it.

Comprehension-based approach/Computer based language corpora.

Argument. Early developoment of an extensive vocabulary can enable learners to outperform their competence. Thus, if one has an extensive vocabulary it is possible to obtain mwaning from spoken and written texts, eventhough you dont know the gramatical structure in which texts are encoded

The importance of vocabulary

2000 words is recognised as the absolute minimum a language learner needs the survival level Knowing 2000 words means that about 80% of a text will be understood (or 1 in 5 words will be unknown) Knowing 10,000 words means that 93% of a text will be understood this is the ideal target for a language learner

What does it mean to know a word ?

To understand it when it is written or spoken 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 (and cannot) use with it To spell it correctly To use it in the right situation To know if it has positive or negative connotations
Adapted from Ellis G and Sinclair B (1989) Learning to Learn English CUP

To recall it when you need it

All these words begin with in- : to breathe in in _ _ _ _ without life in _ _ _ _ _ _ _ synonym for wrong in _ _ _ _ _ _ _ the opposite of superior in _ _ _ _ _ _ the opposite of guilty in _ _ _ _ _ _ a beetle is one of these in _ _ _ _ a measurement (British) in _ _