TEACHING VOCABULARY THROUGH DISCOURSE: THE STEP

TO IMPROVE THE STUDENTS’ PRODUCTIVE VOCABULARY

Paper presented in
the 2nd National English Language Teachers and Lecturers
Conference,
State University of Malang, Indonesia,
March 20, 2010.

By

Nurul Choyimah
_____________________________________________________________

State College for Islamic Studies at Tulungagung, East Java

State University of Malang

 2010
TEACHING VOCABULARY THROUGH DISCOURSE: THE STEP TO
IMPROVE THE STUDENTS’ PRODUCTIVE VOCABULARY

Nurul Choyimah

State College for Islamic Studies at Tulungagung, East Java

Introduction

The paradigm in English Language Teaching (ELT) in Indonesia stressing on the

grammar and vocabulary mastery has been superseded by the one constituting
communicative competence as the priority. The implication of this is that all the elements
in language teaching are dedicated to achieving the students’ communicative competence.
Form-focused instructions are put aside and replaced with communicative instructions
enabling the learners to communicate in the target language maximally. Using naturalistic
and communicative approach, vocabulary is seen as the language component which could
be learned automatically without any explicit direction. The deletion of ‘vocabulary part
or vocabulary course’ from the curriculum at all levels of education proves that
vocabulary teaching is put aside.
In place of teaching vocabulary consciously, such as through long lists of words
and their definitions, vocabulary is presented in unplanned teachings or in impromptu
moments. That is, the discussion on the meaning of words takes place merely when
teachers and/or students find some words deserve attention. As a matter of fact, most
Indonesian students have problems with their vocabulary size. Kwelju’s study (1997)
reveals that students’ English department at 15 teachers’ colleges in some areas in
Indonesia have 4664 base words and 2800 family words. This number is not sufficient to
read a textbook because in order to read a textbook comprehensively, one needs at least
5000 words. Another vocabulary size study conducted by Kweldju et al (in Kweldju,
2004) discovers that the average vocabulary size of graduate students is 2861 words.
With such limited number of vocabulary, the learners would get a lot of difficulties in
performing in the target language both receptively and productively.

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 On the basis of this, naturalistic and communicative approach that sweeps the
conscious or deliberate vocabulary teaching under the rug needs correcting. In line with
this, Brown (2001) says that we should have a healthy respect for the place of form-
focused instruction—attention to the basic bits and pieces of a language—in an
interactive curriculum, and we also should find better techniques of teaching to teach
langauge components, including vocabulary, communicatively. It implies that vocabulary
should be taught communicatively and deliberately. The consequence of this is that
remembering new vocabulary items through long lists of words and their definition
should be replaced with a more communicative technique of teaching. Besides, requiring
the students to do some activities enabling them to make use the vocabulary items is very
important. Kweldju’s research suggests that aside the students’ awareness of the
importance of vocabulary, they admit that they feel reluctant to memorize the new
vocabulary items if there is no any instruction from the teacher (2003).
Vocabulary teaching through discourse could be an alternative because presenting
new vocabulary items in discourses might prevent the students from boredom.
Furthermore, to facilitate vocabulary internalization, the students could be assigned to
memorize and retrive the vocabulary items they have learned through some productive
activities.
This short writing tries to expose how to teach vocabulary through discourse.
There are some important notions concerning vocabulary need to be clarified before
coming to the discussion on teaching vocabulary through discourse. These include
receptive and productive vocabulary, knowing words, the process of learning vocabulary,
the principles of teaching vocabulary, and teacing vocabulary through discourse.

Receptive and Productive Vocabulary

Receptive and productive are two important terms in vocabulary. Nation (2001)
relates those terms with knowledge. Receptive knowledge carries the idea that we receive
vocabulary input when listening to the spoken text, and productive vocabulary knowledge
is the knowledge related to the usage of words for expressing meanings. Simply put,
receptive vocabulary is the vocabulary we use to absorb information in listening and/or
reading, while productive vocabulary is the one we use for speaking and/or writing.

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 Language users generally have greater number of receptive vocabulary than
productive one. English learners, for example, might easily understand the meaning of
assault and precarious, yet they might be unlikely to make use those words in their own
writing or speech.
Concerning receptive vocabulary, Nation (2001: 114) clarifies that in order to
listen and read a text comprehensively and have reasonable success at guessing form the
context, a learner needs at least 95% coverage of the running words in the text. In line
with this, celce-Murcia et al (2000: 76) explain that a receptive vocabulary fewer than
10,000 words will prevent readers from comprehending rudimentary written English
texts. Reading and listening get easier if a reader has sufficient vocabulary size, and at the
same time reading and listening activity could enlarge the reader’s vocabulary size.
Turning to productive vocabulary, celce-Murcia et al (2000: 76) point out that some
people estimate that productive vocabulary as few as 3.000 words and phrases will
suffice for informal conversation.

Knowing Words

Nation (2001: 40) explains that knowing words involves some aspects, and below is just
a few of them.
Spoken Forms
Two important aspects for gaining familiarity with spoken forms of language is the
pronunciation and the degrees of stress of the appropriate syllables of the word if it
contains more than one syllable. Being familiar with English pronunciation means that
being able to recognise the word when it is heard and able to produce the spoken form of
the word. Pronunciation is related to the phonological systems. The pronunciation of
vowels is concerned with, among other things, first, the classified sounds in pairs of long
and short, e.g., those of ‘beat and bit,’ ‘fool and full,’ ‘caught and cot,’ and ‘cart and
cat.’ Second, the reduction in vowel duration in case the long vowels and diphtongs
occur in syllables closed with the consonants /p/, /t/, /k/, /t∫/, /f/, //, /s/, /∫/. Thus,
/i:/ in ‘beat’ has only about half of length of /i:/ in ‘bead’ or ‘bee.’ Moving to
pronunciation of consonants, English language has some constraints, and one of which is
the final syllabic /n/. The final syllabic /n/ is to be understood following /t/, /d/, /f/, /v/, /s/,

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/z/, /∫/, and / З/ as in ‘cotton,’ ’sudden,’ ‘often,’ ‘oven,’ ‘listen,’ ‘dozen,’ ‘ocean,’
‘vision,’ etc. (Jones. 1977: xii-xix). In short, in order to learn words successfully, the
learners must understand the right pronunciation of each word, and the consequence of
this is that they have to understand the phonological systmes of English.

Written Forms
One important aspect of knowing the written form of words is spelling. In his further
explanation, Nation states that the ability to spell is very much influenced by the way of
the learners in representing the phonological structure of the language, the regularity of
the first and second language writing systems, and by the learners knowledge of the
spoken forms of the second language vocabulary (2001: 45).

Collocations
Collocotation is a group of words that belong together, either because they commonly
occur together like take a chance or because the meaning of the group is not obvious
from the meanings of the parts like in by the way (Nation, 2001: 317). In other words,
knowing or learning words involves understanding what word/s typically occur with a
certain word. For example, the word response typically occurs with the words in and to,
so we have the term in response to. Despite the similirity in function between in and on,
the meaning of in response to is not equal with on response to. Another example of a
group of words conveying meaning is green house. Grouping differently, such as black
house or red house, might be gramatical, but the meaning could be different and
awkward. Because native speakers of English use such expressions almost all the time, it
is imperative for the English learners to seriously learn them.
All in all, learning vocabulary is an attempt to know words. Knowing the
constrains in spoken and written forms of English and collocations are the few aspects
that must be seriously learned by the English learners.

The Process of Learning Vocabulary

Vocabulary learning should not focus on enlarging the learners’ vocabulary but also on
leading them how to gain the familiarity with the words, especially the high frequency

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ones and collocations. Nation (2001: 63-71) suggests the three important general process
that might make words retain longer: noticing, retrieval, and creative and generative use.

Noticing
Noticing is the first step that the learners must go through in gaining the familiarity with
new words. This is an activity whereby the learners give serious attention to the new
words. Noticing takes place in various activities, such as looking up the meaning of a
word in a dictionary, explaining the meaning of a word in a small discussion with friends,
highlighting words in the text by underlining or using italics and bold letters, and glossing
words, etc.
Retrieval
The subsequent process after noticing is retrieval. It is concerned with recalling the
storage information of words. Receptive retrieval involves perceiving the form and
meaning of a word when one is listening or reading a text. On the other hand, productive
retrieval is retrieving the storage of information for expressing meaning in the form of
spoken or written text. Reading a story for several times and serialising a long story are
the examples of activities which could retrieve the learners memory.

Creative and Generative Use

Nation explains that generative processing occurs when previously-met words are
subsequently met or used in ways that differ from the previous meeting with the word.
For example, if a student has met the word demand functioning as a noun in a sentence
‘there are new demands for innovations in language teaching,’ she/he is should create
new sentences using demand as a verb.

The Principles of Vocabulary Teaching

Nation (2001: 384-394) suggests that the principles of vocabulary teaching covers content
choice, format and presentation, and evaluation. Content choice is very much concerned
with the vocabulary that should be learned by the learners and how the new words are

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presented. Presenting vocabulary in normal use is much better than grouping of
synonyms, opposites, and free associates. High frequency words and some words deserve
attention are the focus in determining the choice of words.
Format and presentation are dealt with the selection of the teaching and learning
techniques, and their arrangement in the lesson plan. Vocabulary teaching generally
covers the following strands:
Learning through meaning-focused input and output
This is the technique of learning focusing on how learners could learn receptive and
productive vocabulary. In it, learners are given large chance to enlarge their vocabulary
and trained to make use the learned words in their productive works. The requirement of
this learning is that 95% of the total words are familiar for the students, and the remaining
ones—5%--are the items to be learned by the learners. Reading graded readers,
reading/listening to stories, communicative activities, writing, etc. are good activities to
implement this type of learning.
Language-focused Learning
Different from meaning-focused learning, this is the type of learning focuses on the
meaning of words in isolation. Thus, understanding the meaning of each word is the
priority of this learning. Direct vocabulary teaching, such as identifying the synonim and
antonim of each word, is an activity focusing on the language item. In addition to this,
intensive reading is a good activity enabling the learners to learn word by word.
Fluency Development
Fluency development is the type of learning focusing on the message with little or no
attention to unfamiliar language. As such, rather than concentrating on the meaning of
each word, this type of learning focuses more on the understanding of the content of the
text. In order to catch the messsage comprehensively, the learners should be familiar with
99% of the total words used in the text. Reading easy graded readers and ten-minute
writing are activities encouraging the learners to make use their vocabulary both
receptively and productively.
The last principle of vocabulary teaching is evaluation. It is intended to determine
whether the vocabulary teaching is good or not.

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Teaching Vocabulary through Discourse

As touched on in the earlier part, as communicative competence is the priority of English

teaching in Indonesia, the teaching of language component such as vocabulary shifts from
the contrived teaching through word lists and their meanings to the incidental one. That
is, seriously learning new words takes place only when there are words deserve attention.
On the other hand, students often find difficulties to generate sentences by using their
receptive vocabulary. The large amount of receptive vocabulary turns out that it does not
correlate with the frequency of the occurence of the words. Regardless of the priority in
communicative language teching, they are, therefore, in need of guidance in learning
vocabulary. Teaching vocabulary through discourse could be one of the alternatives.
Generally, discourse is defined as linguistic unit larger than sentence. This
definition seems to be deficient given that in reality many pieces of discourse consist of a
single utterance/ phrase like in ‘stop’ or ‘don’t disturb us.’ Alternatively, one piece of
disourse might consist of hundreds of thousands of words as in a very long novel or very
thick textbooks. In addition to the definition, discourse is sometimes also understood as
language in use (Brown and Yule, 1989). This definition sounds very general, and it
refers to language used in communication.
In line with this, Celce-Murcia et al (2000:4) view that discourse is an instance of
spoken or written language that has describable internal relationship of form and meaning
(e.g., words, structures, cohesion) that relate coherently to an external communicative
function or purpose and a given audience. The above concept of discourse implies that
discourse is a coherent spoken or written language functioning to communicate
something to the audience or interlocutor. Relying on this conncept, it could be
underlined that letters, verbal texts in advertisement, verbal texts in comic strips, and
short stories are the examples of discourse.
On the basis of the concept of discourse, teaching vobaulary through discourse
means that the vocabulary items that should be learned by the students could be displayed
inside discourses like in short story, comic strips, advertisements, etc. Vocabulary
teaching through discourse could be integrated with the teaching of language skils:
listening, writing, and speaking. Such teaching materials could be directly taken from the
available books, stories, and advertisement, or alternatively, the teacher could create by

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themselves. In order to attract the learners’ attention, the items deserve attention should
be written in bold or italics letters.

Advantages of Teaching Vocabulary through Discourse

Vocabulary teaching through discourse has several advantages, among which are:
1. Discourse materials, such as stories, comic strips, letters, etc. expose learners with
high frequency words. The repeated use of new words and collocations makes it
easier for learners to learn vocabulary.
2. Discourse materials seem more attractive than word list, so they encourage
learners to learn.

The Implementation of Vocabulary Teaching through Discourse

Vocabulary teaching discussed in this writing is based on the principle of meaning-based

input and output in the sense that the understanding of the receptive vocabulary and the
production of productive vocabulary is the priority. The sequences of learning are
noticing, retrieval, and creative & generative use. The following are three examples of
activities in vocabulary teaching through discourse.

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Example 1. Vocabulary concerning destuctions, bombs, smoke, and fire.
Noticing and Retrieval
The following is a short text containing words, prases, and collocations frequently used in
talking about destuctions, bombs, smoke, and fire.
Instructions:
1. Read this dramatic text on destruction, bombs, smoke, and fire.
2. Pay much attention to the words witten in bold letters.
3. Discuss the meaning of the words in bold letters with your friends. You may open
your dictionary if necessary.

The first bomb went off at 2.36. The explosion wrecked three stores just off the
main square, destroying several vehicles and rocking even the tallest building in the city.
The pedestrian precinct caught fire at once, bursting into flames, as if someone had set
fire to it with a giant torch, and sending clouds of smoke sooting up into the sky. We
could hear, rather than see, a number of other houses crumbling.
The fire began to spread. Smoke was soon pouring out of buildings in the next
block, hovering over the skyscrapers and then drifting away towards the sea. We saw
one huge office block collapse at the base and then quite simply fall apart.
The smoke was just beginning to clear and the flames die down when the second
bomb exploded. Immediately the air thickened again as clouds of even blacker smoke
billowed out of a hotel nearby.
When the smoke finally disappeared, half of the city had vanished. Hours later the
fire was still smouldering and tiny wisps of smoke were rising from the ashes. The city
lay in ruins. Then Robert Redford and Jane Fonda appeared, and you knew that
everything was going to be all right.
(Adapted from Wellman, 1989: 127)

Creative and Generative Use

Instructions:
1. As a new reporter in a newspaper, write a report on a bomb explosion
happened in a market last night. Make use the words in bold in the above text.

2. As an eye witness of a plane crash, describe the plot of the accident. Mention
some memorable events.

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Example 2. Vocabulary Concerning Everyday Activities.

Noticing and Retrieval

Instructions:
1. Read the following letter carefully.

2. Pay much attention to the words, phrases, and collocations written in bold letters.

3. Dsicuss the meaning of the words, phrases, and collocations in bold with your
friends, and you may use your dictionary when necessary.

Dear Cinderalla
Your jobs for tonight:
sweep the chimney scrub the floors,
beat the carpets, hoover the stairs,
dust the furniture, polish the silver,
make the beds, change the sheets,
tidy the house, dig the garden,
clean out the fireplace, empty the
rubbish,
wash our underwear, mend the socks,
darn the shirts, iron the laundry,
cook the supper, do the washing-up,
dry the dishes, put them away.
Don’t wait up for us. We might be late
home.
The Ugly Sisters

(Adapted from Wellman, 1989: 74)

Creative and Generative Use
Instruction:
Using some words and phrases in the above letter, write a diary talking about the
activities you are going to do before you leave for your vacation.

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Example 3: Vocabulary Concerning Character and Personality
Noticing

Instructions:
1. Read the following text containing the characters of Aries and Cancer people.

2. Complete the adjectives on the right side. Use the given clue for each adjective.

ARIES (March 21—20 April)

You won’t find him in the corner at the party. O—tg—i—g
That’s her doing the can-can on the table. Ex-- -- -- v—rt
She has no problems. C-- --ef--ee
He never frowns. L—it—h—art--d
She tells no lies. T—u—hf--l
He has few secrets. O-- --n
He will tell you if he doesn’t like your make-up. C—n—id
She will tell you that she doesn’t like your after-shave. F-- -- --k

CANCER (June 21—July 20)

She seems to enjoy finding fault with others. C—it-- -- --l
She can only ever see one side of things. Na-- -- --w—m-- --d
He always likes the fat taken off his bacon. F—s—y
He is like a donkey. S—u—b—n
She is like a mule. O—s—in—t—
He loves money, loves having things. M—t—r—a—i—t
—c
She never lets her husband out of her sight. P—ss—ss— --e

References
Celce-Murcia, Marianne and Elite Olshtain. 2000. Discourse and Context in Language
Teaching. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
Wellman, Guy. 1989. Wordbuilder. Heinemann Educational Books Ltd. Oxford.

(Adapted from Wellman, 1989:39-40)

Creative and Generative Use
Instruction:
Discuss or write down the personal characteristics (good and bad) that you would expect
to find in nurse and teacher.
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Example 4: Vocabulary Concerning Sounds People Make
Noticing and Retrieval
Instructions:
1. In the following short text, you will meet some noises humans frequently make.
Read the passage carefully.

2. Pay attention to the words and phrases written in bold letters, and look up their
meanings in your disctionary.

It started on Monday. I really wasn’t well at all. I

was sniffing all day. On Tuesday I hardly stopped
blowing my nose and sneezing. By Wednesday I had
a pretty bad cough. I treid gargling with salt water,
but it didn’t seem to do much good. If I had to go
upstairs, I would reach the top stair panting like a
thirsty dog, and I would still be wheezing five or ten
minutes later. By Friday I would lost my voice almost
completely. I was croaking like a frog all day at the
office.

(Adapted from Wellman, 1989: 66)

Creative and Generative Use
Instruction:
Using the words and phrases written in bold letters, act out a conversation with a doctor.
Tell him what happens with your health.

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Example 5. Vocabulary Concerning our feeling for other people—from adhoring,
tolerating, and hating them.
Noticing and Retrieval
Instructions:
1. Read the following texts, and pay attention to the words and phrases written in
bold.

2. Discuss the meaning of the words and phrases.

Zoe and Pat are very close.

They seem to enjoy each
other’s company and get on
very well together. I
suppose they have a lot in
common, same taste in
clothes, etc. Penny, who has
a love-hate relatioship with
Pat, is getting jealous,
though.

Oswald is very badly treated.

Everyone looks down on him; even wise Tim and Lenny can’t
old Orville regards him with contempt. stand each other. They
The poor chap, he has developed quite loathe each other,
an inferiority complex, just because he hate and sight of
can’t fly. each other. Lenny
seems to envy Tim his
stripes and Tim is
envious of Lenny’s
spots.

(Adapted from Wellman, 1989: 66)

Creative and Generative Use

Instruction:
Write a letter to your friend, describing how a close friend and you have fallen out.
Explain what went wrong and why.

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Closing Remarks

Vocabulary is the building block of a language. Without sufficient vocabulary, one could
not communicate efficiently and effectively. It indicates that foreign language learners,
such as Indonesian EFL learners are demanded to keep enlarging their vocabulary,
otherwise they could not communicate in the target language fluently. Given the
important position of vocabulary in language in one side, and the communicative
teaching on the other side, there must be an effort to bridge between the two. Discourse,
in which learners could study new words from the context, is one of the alternatives to
lead the learners to study new words deliberately and communicatively. Something worth
noting is that vocabulary should be taught together with language productive skills:
speaking and writing, otherwise the leraned words will not retain longer. What is
presented in this paper is just a few examples of techniques in teaching vocabulary
through discourse. Some modifications are quite possible for the improvement of the
vocabulary teaching.

References

Brown, H. Douglas. 2001. Teaching by Principles An Interactive Approach to

Language Pedagogy. Addison Wesley Longman Inc. New York.
Brown, Gillian. and George Yule. 1989. Discourse Analysis. Cambridge. Cambridge
University Press.
Celce-Murcia, Marianne. and Olite Olshtain. 2000. Discourse and Context in Language
Teaching A guide for Language Teachers. Cambridge University Press.
Cambridge.
Jones, Daniel. 1977. English pronouncing Dictionary. J.M.Dent & Sons Ltd. London.
Kweldju, Siusana. 2004. Lexically-Based Language Teaching: An Innovative Step for
ELT in Indonesia. In Cahyono, BY. and Utami Widiati. The Tapestray of
English Language Teaching and Learning in Indonesia. Malang State
University Press. Malang.
Kweldju, Siusana. 2004. The Neuropsychological Basis of Lexically-based Language
Teaching. In TEFLIN Journal Volume 15 Number 1 February p 74-89.
Kweldju, Siusana. 1997. English Department Students’ Vocabulary size and the
development of a model of extensive reading with individualized vocab
learning. SEAMEO-Regional Language Center. Singapore.
Nation, I.S.P. 2001. Learning Vocabulary in Another Language.
Wellman, Guy. 1989. Wordbuilder. Heinemann Educational Books Ltd. Oxford.

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