11. LEXICAL AND SEMANTIC FIELDS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

NECESSARY LEXICON
FOR SOCIALISATION, INFORMATION AND EXPRESSING ATTITUDES. TYPOLOGY OF
ACTIVITIES CONNECTED TO TEACHING AND LEARNING VOCABULARY IN THE FOREIGN
LANGUAGE CLASSROOM.

1. INTRODUCTION
2. LEXICAL AND SEMANTIC FIELDS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
2.1. Lexical fields
2.2. Semantic fields
3. NECESSARY LEXICON FOR SOCIALISATION, INFORMATION AND EXPRESSING
ATTITUDES
3.1. Lexicon for socialization
3.2. Lexicon for information
3.3. Lexicon for expressing attitudes
4. TYPOLOGY OF ACTIVITIES CONNECTED TO TEACHING AND LEARNING VOCABULARY
IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM
4.1. Criteria for selecting vocabulary
4.2. Stages and activities connected to teaching and learning vocabulary in the foreign language
classroom

4.3. Vocabulary teaching in the curriculum.

5. Conclusion

6. Bibliography

6.1. Legal References

6.2. General References

6.3. Webliography

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1. INTRODUCTION

It goes without saying that, in the last decades, the field of foreign language teaching has
experienced drastic changes triggered by the implementation of the communicative approach,
which focus on fluency and communication. What is more, the major goal stated by the Spanish
educational policies is the so-called communicative competence. In line with this, the learning of
vocabulary contributes to a greater extent to accomplish this goal. However, unfortunately, the
teaching of vocabulary has been neglected by many teachers to the detriment of the teaching of
grammar, which has been the main concern of the majority of teachers.
As a result, this paper concentrates on vocabulary and falls intro three different parts. The first one
is a thorough study of the lexical and semantic fields in the English language. The second part
reviews the vocabulary required for socialization, information, and the expression of attitudes, that
is, vocabulary used to express common communicative functions. Finally, the third section aims to
provide a wide range of activities in order to teach and learn vocabulary in the English classroom.
This unit has been foregrounded on some of the most relevant figures, both in the field of primary
language teaching and linguistics, namely Greenbaum and Quirk’s A Comprehensive Grammar of
the English Language, 2010 and Brewster and Ellis’s The Primary English Teachers’ Guide 2002,
who have thrown light on the issue at stake. Moreover, we shall consider, the Spanish curriculum
Act 209/2020, as it pays special attention to this topic by providing clear guidelines so as to what
and how to teach vocabulary.

2. LEXICAL AND SEMANTIC FIELDS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

When teaching vocabulary, teachers should bear in mind that vocabulary must be of interest to
pupils, and it is only achieved when the items are familiar to them. Moreover, vocabulary must have
a function in the learning of the foreign language, this is, vocabulary they can use. Together with it,
it must be presented within linguistic context which allow communication between the children,
such as: informal conversations with classroom mates, phone calls, stories, pen friends, description
of objects, interviews…
Similarly, a major objective is to teach students the essential strategies to be independent in their
learning. Hence, teachers should make students aware of the fact that a number of linguistic
devices and relationships apply when dealing with vocabulary.
In order to remember vocabulary better, this can be connected by means of formal devices or
semantic associations. Thus, when the link is through formal devices, the vocabulary is related
through lexical fields (photography, photographer….) and when the words are related by means of
semantic associations, they are related through semantic fields (sports, fruits…).

2.1. Lexical fields

In English, unlike Spanish, we can change the category of a word by applying a number of
mechanisms. This device is obviously very useful for our students.
The word in English may be simple, formed by one constituent only, or it may be complex,
containing more than one constituent. The elements of a complex word may be free forms:
elements which are independent in different contexts (blackbird), or they may be bound forms:
prefixes and suffixes that never appear independently (fourth). Thus, a word becomes complex by
transforming the base of a word.
According to Greenbaum and Quirk (2010), the chief processes of English word-formation by which
the base may be modified are: affixation, which consists in adding a prefix or a suffix to the base,
with or without changing the word class (author → co-author); conversion, which deals with

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assigning the base to a different word-class without changing its form (drive as a verb and drive as
a noun); and compounding, which involves adding one base to another (tea + pot → teapot).
Apart from these major word-formation devices, English calls upon a number of minor devices as
means of forming new words. Some of them could be: reduplication, which is a compound in
which both elements are either identical or almost identical (goody-goody); clipping, which denotes
the subtraction of one or more syllables from a word (phone for telephone); blending (brunch is
derived from breakfast + lunch); acronym, which is a word formed by the initial letters of words (TV
for television); backformation, which has to do with the reinterpretation of the word (the verbe “to
burgle” apparently comes from the noun burglar. –ar is not a suffix, but it has been interpreted as
such); abbreviation, which is a shorter way to write a word (etc., e.g.) and borrowings, which are
words adopted from a different language (kimono, curriculum…).

2.2. Semantic fields

Here, the issue of sense relationships will be dealt with, and it can be analyzed under two main
headings: syntagmatic relationships and paradigmatic relationships.

As for syntagmatic relationships (horizontal), they refer to the tendency of lexemes to work together
or collocate in predictable ways. This is when two or more lexical items can co-occur together (right
wing, do homework…). Regarding paradigmatic relationships (vertical), they refer to the way in
which lexemes can replace each other. These are several types of paradigmatic relationships:
synonymy, which is the relationship of “sameness” of meaning (die and pass away); antonymy,
which is the relationship of oppositeness of meaning (big/small); hyponymy, which is the
relationship of inclusion in that the meaning of the general term (superordinate) is included in the
meaning of the specific term (season and winter); and incompatibility, which refers to groups of
lexemes that are mutually exclusive members of the same superordinate category (red and blue
within the category of colours).

We can also mention two other notions, that of homonymy and polysemy. Homonymy is the
relationships between words that have the same form (same spelling and/or same pronunciation),
but have unrelated meanings. When they are identical phonologically, we call them homophones
(see / sea); when they are identical orthographically but different phonologically and semantically,
we call them homographs (bow: /bau/ /b u/). On the contrary, polysemy is when a word has
several different but closely related meanings (a “branch” refers to (a) a tree, (b) a family, (c) a
railway line).

3. NECESSARY LEXICON FOR SOCIALIZATION, INFORMATION AND EXPRESSING

ATTITUDES
Primary school teachers should provide their students with a wide range of resources, both
linguistic and non-linguistic, in order to establish and foster communicative exchanges. Thus, the
so-called functional vocabulary helps students to start or end a conversation. On top of this, the
vocabulary studied must be linked to their needs as well as to the world around them.
Likewise, pupils should be made aware of the value of the newly learnt vocabulary in order to
exchange information about their feelings, needs and interests, fostering, thus, socialization.

According to the CEFR (2020), among the functions of language, six categories are distinguished:

1. Communication and searching for information based on facts.

2. Expressing emotional attitudes.
3. Expressing moral attitudes.

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 4. Expressing intellectual attitudes.
5. Tell someone to do something (persuade).
6. Socialize.

3.1. Lexicon for socialization

Children need to understand the rules of conversations, how to start a conversation, how to end it,
the process of turn-taking, etc. They also need to interpret conversations. All in all, children need to
understand how to establish and maintain a conversation.
Accordingly, teachers should teach their students useful vocabulary to start and end a
conversation, such as greetings or farewells (good morning, hello, by, good by…); to complement
(what a marvelous meal…) and congratulate (well done!); to offer (would you lile…?) and thank
(thanks a lot…); to apologize (sorry about…) and regret (I regret that...); to speak on the phone
(can I speak to Jim, please?) and, to express good wishes (good luck) and seasonal greetings
(cheer!).

3.2. Lexicon for information

Concerning information exchange, probably it is the most important reason for using language.
Questions and statements are the structures typically used to convey or ask for information. But
they do not normally need the use of specific vocabulary, with the exception of interrogative
pronouns. Where we need to teach our students specific vocabulary, is when we consider people’s
reactions to information. That is, we must teach our students vocabulary with respect to opinion.
Some examples of this are: asking for an opinion (what do you think about…?) or giving an
opinion (I think that…); expressing agreement (I agree, I couldn’t agree more…) and
disagreement (I can’t agree with you…); clarification (I mean…), etc.

3.3. Lexicon for expressing attitudes

As for attitudinal expressions different functions can be distinguished, and we, as teachers, have to
provide students with the necessary vocabulary to show feelings, wishes or intentions, such as for
instance, likes and dislikes (I like, I love, I hate, I detest…); hope (I hope…); surprise (what a
surprise!); volition (I will do it for you…), etc.

4. TYPOLOGY OF ACTIVITIES CONNECTED TO TEACHING AND LEARNING VOCABULARY

IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM
When teaching vocabulary, we need to bear in mind that children are still building up their L1
vocabulary, acquiring and organizing concepts. This makes the learning of vocabulary in a FL a
complex matter. Children are faced with three different but related vocabulary learning tasks which
Aitchison (1987) calls labelling, packaging, and network-building. In the labelling task, children
assign names to objects; in the packaging task, students groups items under common labels. In
this way Cameron (2001) points out that children learn basic level meanings (chair) before more
general terms (superordinate). Finally, in the network-building task, children must work out how
words relate to one another.

In the early stages of learning, less importance should be paid to aspects of form. By contrast,
more attention is given to how a word is pronounced, its meaning and its use. However, this
importance will also depend on whether or not the word is required for active or receptive use and
its usefulness for a future use.

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 4.1. Criteria for selecting vocabulary
The study of vocabulary in the foreign language class is not at random. On the contrary, a number
of criteria are taken into account. Ur (2012) mentions four useful criteria: frequency, usefulness,
simplicity and authenticity and fun.

In terms of frequency, implies how common a word is. Regarding usefulness, it refers to the
useful vocabulary items covering a wide field of daily experience. As for simplicity, it refers to a
selection of words which does not contain an excess of too many relatively rare words.
Authenticity of expression and fun value, which means that the vocabulary selected must be
essential for communication as well as children-centered words. Finally, the last criterion is related
to appropriateness for the learners of that level.

4.2. Stages and activities connected to teaching and learning vocabulary

Following Harmer (2007), vocabulary could be taught using the PPP approach, that is, the
presentation, practice, and production stages.

Regarding the presentation stage, the teacher elicits students’ previous knowledge (Ausubel),
sparks their interest and presents the meaning and form of the new vocabulary through imitation
and repetition by using drawings, pictures, flashcards, actions, videos and the like.

Within this stage, the main aim is for the students to (1) understand and learn the meaning of
new words. Thus, vocabulary should be presented in a familiar context, by using visual support to
help the students to convey meaning and memorize new vocabulary. As words are often
remembered in groups which have something in common, it is helpful to introduce them in lexical
sets, rhyming sets, list of synonyms, antonyms, etc. in order to establish associations.
As for the question of how many items it is possible to introduce, it is probably wise not to
introduce too many new words at the same time. On top of this, depending on the age of the
children, some may lie to see the written form of the word in order to aid retention. However,
teachers should not present the written form until the students have practiced its pronunciation first.
Some techniques to introduce vocabulary and convey meaning are by demonstration (real
objects, drawings, pictures, flashcards, actions, mime, gestures, tasting, feeling, smelling, using
technology, etc.). Other techniques are verbal, such as explaining, defining the context, eliciting,
describing, using opposites, translation, etc.
Moreover, also within this stage, another step is (2) attending to form. This can involve,
depending on the age and level of our pupils, all of some of the following activities: listening and
repeating, observing the written form, noticing grammatical information, copying and organizing…
As for the practice stage, this is a phase where students are guided and they do controlled
activities, like drills, multiple choice, gap-fill activities, etc. Thus, this satge refers to (3) vocabulary
practicing, memorizing and checking activities. This involves children in activities requiring
them to do things with the words. Some instances of these activities can be: classifying words into
categories, matching (words and pictures, words and definitions, opposites…), memory games
(“What’s missing? or Kim’s game), picture dictation, sequencing, labeling, crosswords, giving
instructions…
In the last stage, that is, the production or consolidation stage, the students will use the vocabulary
in a much freer and creative way. They will use the newly learnt language structure to produce oral
or written texts. Here it is extremely important to (4) consolidate and recycling words in different
contexts. Moreover, there are some techniques that teachers can propose, which allow pupils to

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build their own personalized vocabulary systems. These are: creating vocabulary books, collages,
word networks/trees/webs, word boxes, banks, envelopes or mobiles, etc. Moreover, students
should be encouraged to use dictionaries and, if possible, make a class dictionary.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that learners need to develop (5) strategies for vocabulary
learning. This will help them become more actively involved in their vocabulary learning and more
independent. These strategies are organized under three main types: metacognitive, cognitive and
socioaffective strategies. Thus, children are encouraged to guess or infer meaning from context,
transferring from their L1 making predictions, etc.
Last but not least, it is worth noting that the technique of storytelling provides an extremely useful
resource for teaching and learning vocabulary and developing contextual inference.

4.3. Vocabulary teaching in the curriculum.

The CEFR (2020) analyses communicative language competences under 3 headings: linguistic,
sociolinguistic and, pragmatic. It is under the linguistic level where we find vocabulary. In particular,
at A1-A2 level, the user should be using basic or sufficient vocabulary to deal with everyday
situations.

RD 157/2020, and more specifically, Act 209/2020, underscore in its Specific Objective (f) the
importance of develop in students the necessary capacities to ‘acquire basic communicative
competence in at least one foreign language, enabling students to express and understand simple
messages and to deal with everyday situations’. This ties up with the type of vocabulary we need to
develop with personal, social, and even educational contexts. It has to include the Sustainable
Development Goals and 21st Century Challenges. On this note, the communication block 1 (basic
knowledge) renders explicit topics like personal identification, interpersonal relationships, places,
free-time activities, jobs, technology.

The curriculum guidelines emphasize an eclectic approach, rooted in the communicative

approach, prioritizing oral skills, considering students’ needs and interests, using learning
situations and integrated tasks, and providing opportunities for expressing ideas through
dialogues, oral presentations, and dramatization.

5. CONCLUSION

Throughout the development of this topic, the importance of teaching vocabulary in the foreign
language classroom, as well as the best way to do that have been assessed. Without vocabulary,
neither grammatical structures nor functions can be used. As a matter of fact, grammar has its role
to play. If the vocabulary is correct, then grammatical mistakes do not always distort the meaning.

In this sense, we can state that primary English teachers should develop a repertoire of activities
providing balance between control and creativity and repetition and real use of the language.
Moreover, these activities must be not only useful, but entertaining, in order to keep our students
motivated and so as to the students successfully accomplish the different tasks and develop
communicative competence.

This leads us to the final goal stated by Act 209/2020, which pays special emphasis on the idea
that the development of communicative competence in a foreign language enables students to
establish contacts and communicate with people from different countries and cultures, thus
improving both their personal and working situation and providing them with a global vision of
reality. In short, it has educational, social and personal benefits.

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 6. BIBLIOGRAPHY
6.1. Legal References
- Organic Law of Education 3/2020, 29th December, which amends the Organic Law 2/2006, 3rd
May. Official State Gazette, 340, 30th December 2020.
- Royal Decree 157/2020, 1st March, which establishes the minimum learnings in Primary
Education. Official State Gazette, 52, 2nd March 2022.
- Act 209/2020, 17th November, which establishes the curricula for Primary Education. Official
Gazette of the Region of Murcia, 267, 18th November 2022.
- Council of Europe (2020). Common European Framework of Reference – Companion Volume.

6.2. General References

- Harmer, J The Practice of English Language Teaching. London: Longman, 2007.
- Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., Quirk, R., Svartvik, J. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English
Language. London: Longman Group Limited, 2010.
- Ur, P. A Course in English Language Teaching. CUP, 2012
- Aitchison, J. ‘Words in the Mind: An Introduction to the Mental Lexicon’. Oxford: Blackwell, 1987.
- Cameron, L. ‘Teaching Languages to Young Learners’, CUP, 2001.
- Brewster, J., Ellis, G. ‘The Primary English Teacher’s Guide’. London: Penguin, 2002.

6.3. Webliography
- ‘Learning English’, UCL https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org

- ‘Legislation BOE’, UCL https://www.boe.es/eli/es/lo/2020/12/29/3

- ‘Act 209/2020’, UCL https://www.borm.es/eli/es-mc/d/2022/11/17/209/dof/spa/html