PANPACIFIC UNIVERSITY NORTH PHILIPPINES

Institute of Graduate School

URDANETA CITY, PANGASINAN

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EDITHA I. BALLESTEROS Professor: DR. EDMUND CENIZA
MEd-English MELT 106- Methodology of Language Teaching 2
January 27, 2018
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MODULE 6
TECHNIQUES IN TEACHING VOCABULARY

TASK 1. What do you understand by knowing a word? When you say you know a word in
English what do you mean? What can you do?

English language when compared to our own language Filipino, is totally different in form.
Filipino language can be easily adopted by the foreigners for it is easy to understand.
Filipino words can be spelled as you pronounce while English words cannot. This is one of
the characteristics of English language that makes it unique. A learner needs to memorize
every single phoneme that constituted the word in order for him to recognize its meaning,
usage and form.
Word knowledge is multifaceted thus learning or familiarization of English words is not
just simply memorizing the spelling and correct pronunciation but also knowing its
meaning, usage and form. Learners should be able to use words correctly to construct
grammatically correct sentences. Therefore every learner should get himself or herself
familiar with the word formations to use different words appropriately.
Words such as (suite; sweet), (bow; bow), (live; live) are pronounce almost the same thus a
learner must also familiar with the correct enunciation of words for him to recognize the
words’ meaning and correct usage.
Knowing a word is the key for an individual to express himself because without words,
discourse or communication will not exist. Hence, knowing a word is not just meant to
memorize but rather to understand and use it in communication.
TASK 2. Think of five other pairs of words like thin/slim in which denotative meaning are
the same but connotative are different. Does the same apply in their Filipino equivalents?

Connotation and Denotation are two principal methods of describing the meanings of
words. Connotation refers to the wide array of positive and negative associations that
most words naturally carry with them, whereas denotation is the precise, literal definition
of a word that might be found in a dictionary. The connotation of some words—or the
attitudes we associate with them—can easily be seen when we examine pairs of words that
are essentially similar in meaning, but different in the favorable or unfavorable attitudes
they evoke in most people. Listed below are ten pairs of words that evoke negative or
positive feelings.

 Childlike, Youthful, Childish, Young

 Disabled, Crippled, Handicapped, Retarded
 Young, Immature, Juvenile, Youthful
 Inquisitive, Interested, Curious, Convivial
 Confident, Secure, Proud, Egotistical
 Talkative, Conversational, Chatty, Nosy

 Childish and childlike implies that someone is immature, but youthful infers that
someone is lively and energetic.
 Crippled, handicapped, and retarded have negative connotations and are no longer
used because they are considered offensive
 Immature and juvenile suggest that someone is childish.
 Inquisitive can mean that someone asks too many questions.
 Proud and egotistical mean that someone thinks very highly of themselves.
 Talkative and chatty can mean that someone talks too much; and nosy that
someone asks too many questions.
The same rule also applies in Filipino language such as words like:
 Magaling, Marunong, Matalino
 Unano, Maliit, Mababa

Word maliit or mababa could be used to describe a person or a thing whereas; unano is an
offensive word to describe a small person which should be avoided. One should be aware of
the right or correct usage of each word as well as the existing situation so not to hurt or
offend other people.
TASK 3. If vocabulary lists are not to be haphazard, think of three different ways in which
new words can be grouped for learning purposes.

Vocabulary knowledge has been found to have a strong effect on reading comprehension.
The components of vocabulary knowledge include breadth (the number of words a learner
knows) and depth (the amount of knowledge a learner has about a specific word). Breadth
of vocabulary knowledge is important to English language learners, as they frequently
know far fewer English words than native speakers and find themselves at a disadvantage,
particularly in academic contexts (Folse, 2004; Qian, 1999).

There are many ways to teach vocabulary, some of these techniques is using objects Using
this technique includes the use of realia, visual aids, and demonstration. They can function
to help learners in remembering vocabulary better, because our memory for objects and
pictures is very reliable and visual techniques can act as cues for remembering words. This
is based on Dale’s cone of experience.

We can also integrate vocabulary learning in games. Example is the “Word

Transformations”; older struggling students can also use this game. Using a set of
individual letters (magnetic, paper, or letter tiles), have small groups of students
experiment with the letters to make lists of words that can be made into other words by
either adding or subtracting one letter. Some examples would be trip to rip; blend to lend;
and light to flight. See which group of students can find the longest list of words. A more
advanced game would be to add two letters to the root word to create a different word.
Letters can be added as either initial sounds, final sounds, or as a combination of both
initial and final sounds.

Another ways are the use of affixes (prefix and suffix), blending, clippings, and the most
commonly use approach to younger learners, the rhyming words. Rhyming and adding
rhythm to words is used to make the learners memorize words that rhyme together through
the use of music. Young or emergent learners mostly used this way.
 Word exercises can also be done such as Anagram and Palindrome: An "anagram" is any
word or phrase whose letters, when they are scrambled, create a different word or phrase.
 Dormitory Dirty Room
 Astronomer Moon Starer
 Animosity is no amity
A palindrome is a word, phrase or sentence that reads the same backwards and forwards,
so it differs from an anagram because the anagram requires the shuffling of the letters.
 gulp = plug
 read=dear
 dessert=stressed

Those techniques will give the students the opportunity to become independent and will allow
them to activate their previous knowledge in working with words by themselves.

TASK 4. Think of other words or phrases which might be called classroom vocabulary?

Classroom vocabulary refers to the words associated to school, instructions or most likely
educational terms.
 Cloze test/ pre, post and formative assessment
 Explain/describe/distinguish
 Draw, sketch, label
 Schemata/prior knowledge
 Research, paraphrase, summarize, outline

TASK 5. How much new vocabulary do you think is appropriate for a one hour lesson in a
Filipino secondary school? Is this more, less or the same as the textbook expects? Does
this apply to all vocabulary, or are some items more difficult to learn than others? If
so, which and why?

The required number of vocabulary appropriate to secondary school students vary

depending on the level of intelligence of the learners and background knowledge. If they
 are too advanced for their level they could have more than the textbook required them to
have but we cannot expect all the learners to have this capability of absorbing all the
vocabulary or words. Remember that human brain has its limitation. It cannot carry heavy
load information. It only selects the word to process in mind and store in the long term
memory. The least important are forgotten.

Active vocabulary are easier to learn with for it is use in daily conversation both in oral or
written; so most likely those words frequently use will be part of the usual language unlike
the passive vocabulary which are meant to recognize for reading purposes only. It has been
said that words that are not use are forgotten. Passive vocabulary is difficult to learn with
for learners are not extending time to learn and use it daily.

TASK 6. Can you think of any words in Filipino which are genuinely similar to English ones
and thus easy to learn, and any others which are false friends?
 Pribelihiyo-privilege
 Oportunidad-opportunity
 Tsansa-chance
 Traysikel-tricycle

False friends are the following:

 Mamon-mammon (bread in the Philippines)-(wealth or money)
 Halo-halo (stir)-(crown or auricle)
 Hari-hurry (king)-(rush, panic)
 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Scrivener suggests that vocabulary is more powerful than grammar. Do you think this is
true? Do you think vocabulary is more useful than grammar?

We use spoken and written words every single day to communicate ideas, thoughts, and
emotions to those around us. Sometimes we communicate successfully, and sometimes
we’re not quite so successful. A good communication depends on the construction of
sentences or the grammar. Through correct grammar we can assert ourselves clearly to
others thus wide vocabulary can make our writings and speeches more interesting and
meaningful.

I personally believe that vocabulary is more useful than grammar. A good vocabulary can
help us say what we mean. A rich vocabulary is both a great asset and a great joy. When
you have an extensive vocabulary, you can provide precise, vivid descriptions; you can
speak more fluently and with more confidence; you can understand more of what you read;
and you can read more sophisticated texts. A good vocabulary can enrich your personal
life, help you achieve academic success, and give you an edge over others in the
workplace. You can truly gain the proverbial verbal advantage.

Most of the time, learners are hesitant to assert or express what’s on their mind not
because they do not know how to arrange the ideas but rather because they do not know
what exact words they should use to convey their ideas exactly how they want them to be.

Indeed both vocabulary and grammar are indispensable things to consider in

communication and both should not be compromised for the achievement of a man’s full
potential.
2. Harmer claims that in order to know a word properly we must know its meaning, use,
formation and grammar. In your opinion, which of these four is the most important
and which is the least important?

The meaning, use, formation and grammar are all essential in learning words. When
conveying the meaning to the students, teachers should teach their students that a word
may have more than one meaning when used in different contexts. For example, the
word “book” has at least twelve different meanings when used in context. It has eight
meanings as a noun, two meanings as a verb and three different meanings when used
with prepositions as phrasal verbs. One may say “I booked my ticket three days ago”;
another “I booked him for speeding” and so on (Harmer ١٥٦).The example given
justifies the fact that the meaning, use form and grammar of words are inseparable.
These four should all go together to power up one’s knowledge of vocabulary.

Although it has been said that the meaning, use, formation and grammar are
inseparable, still base on my observation the most important thing to be remembered
when vocabulary is concern is the meaning. Learners should know the multiple
meaning of the words so to use it properly in a sentence or conversation. Your
knowledge of the different meanings of word can give you cue where and how to use
it. The remaining three have the same importance. Without the knowledge of the
correct use and formation you might not be able to construct grammatically correct
sentences.

3. How important do you think knowledge of IPA symbols is to secondary school children?
How important do you think it is to you as language teacher?

Speech is the most important means or medium of human communication. The significance of
speech is self-evident in that it is hard to imagine life without speech. Unfortunately, the
moments when we become aware of speech often relate to problems and disorders in speech
communication: we may experience voice problems and, occasionally, difficulties even in the
production of certain speech sounds and also hearing problems may have an effect on our
ability to understand speech.

Phonetics is the science where all aspects of speech are considered and investigated: how
speech is produced using our speech organs, what are the properties of speech sounds in the air
as they travel from the speaker's mouth to the ear of the listener, and, finally, how we perceive
speech and recognize its structural elements as certain linguistic symbols or signs.

With all the problems or struggles encountered by the students in terms of speech, teachers
should do something. For the non -native English teachers like us, IPA symbols are necessary
to learn with for these serves as our guide in teaching accurate and Standard English. English
words are not pronounced according to their spelling. One must aware of the symbol for him or
her to enunciate words properly and that is through the help of the IPA symbols.

The alphabet which we use to write English has 26 letters but (British) English has 44 sounds.
Inevitably, English spelling is not a reliable guide to pronunciation because

 Some letters have more than one sound

 Sometimes letters are not pronounced at all
 The same sound may be represented by different letters
 Sometimes syllables indicated by the spelling are not pronounced at all

Thus, phonological awareness for teachers is very important because teaching English
language is not just merely teaching the learners spelling and meaning of words but also with
the correct enunciation. It will be a big question for the teacher’s credibility when he or she
will not be able to pronounce properly the English words or if he or she cannot utilize IPA as a
tool for developing good English. For a teacher to deepen students’ knowledge of the language
he or she must do it first to himself or herself.
4. Teenagers are exposed, through television and other media, to great deal of slang and pop
culture vocabulary. Do you think, as a language teacher, that this should be encouraged
or discouraged?

One of the characteristics of language is that language isn’t static, and a language such as
English is a collection and reinvention of the words of many other languages such as Latin
and Greek, as well as the romance languages of Europe. As civilizations grow, change, and
expand, so do the words in the language.

Change Is Constant. In fact Millenial, or the so called learners of today’s generation used
to read words backward such as idol into lodi. Gay language, and new terminologies such
as “TGF”, “LOL” became the language of new generation. Although many people say we
have to adopt and embrace the changes in our society I cannot help but to worry. As a
language teacher we should discourage the learners in using slang or pop culture language
to avoid the deterioration of English. Most of the young learners cannot spell simple
English words correctly, not even construct single grammatically correct English and
cannot assert themselves in English orally. What is very alarming is that even professionals
cannot express themselves fluently in English. These are the reasons why we have to
discourage from using slang and other form of informal language. Language is used as a
medium of instruction and communication and it should serves the way it should supposed
to be used and not for other purposes.

5. In order to make sure that our students acquire the core vocabulary they need for their
studies we should give them regular list of new words to learn. Do you agree or
disagree with this statement?

Students’ knowledge increases as their vocabulary expands. This is the common notion of many
which I believe is true. Giving the learners regular lists of new words can help learners elevate
knowledge not abruptly but gradually. As learners hear and use word regularly it will already
become their vocabulary and that it will be stored in their long term memory ready for activation
whenever needed. The more new words they may encounter the more things they will know and
discover which might bring them to success.