Assignment : Report about Vocabulary

1.Introduction :
There is no doubt that vocabulary is one of the most important aspects in language , it is considered
among the building blocks of language proficiency , and since it can be found in every skill and aspect
of the language and plays an important role , it’s a vital skill that is needed in reading,speaking,writing
and listening. Without having a sufficient amount of vocabulary , learners cannot express their ideas
fluently and understand others. However , teaching vocabulary skill is not easy as it seems, due to its
complex nature and different branches , it represents some key issues for teachers to demonstrate it
for their students effectively. Based on vocabulary chapters from Jack C. Richards and Jim Scrivener’s
books ,we intend to discuss the essential concepts, theories, and strategies followed to guarantee an
effective vocabulary instruction. In this report , we’ll have an overview about both chapters as well as
evaluating them.
2.Summary :
Both chapters discuss how important vocabulary is , whether inside or outside the classroom , it's
important and needs to be dealt with in its own right, not just an add on to other lessons ,but at the
same time it plays a role in all of the four skills , every lesson is a vocabulary lesson where you learn
new words and phrases,although vocabulary do not only consist of one word ,but they can be found in
multiple words and chunks that have one meaning only ,they can't be taught for every word, that what
makes it really important to teach and challenging at the same time and this creates issues for
teaching vocabulary , because it can be considered a basis of English language , the more a student
equipped vocabulary items the easier it gets for him/her throughout the whole english learning journey.
It is easier to learn words if they are presented in connected groups, but it’s not simply learning new
words but also about learning how to use them in contexts with its branches ; word
relations,collocations,multi-words expression etc… mastering these items and knowing how to use
them in vocabulary targets like core,academic and technical vocabulary is a good sign of mastering
the skill. But when it comes to building up vocabulary there are two methods : direct and indirect , but
at the same time it’s effective even more if it were integrated in other skills, so the goal here is being
met : establishing new words into the long-term memory and are ready for use, and there are
techniques to help achieve that , such as noticing , spaced repetition , generative use , and I think
learner’s involvement is the most useful one because it helps students activate their knowledge in an
active way. Every time we talk about “Vocabulary” we must mention the role of learning strategies in
teaching and instructing since words are items that are easy to recognize and focus on. There are two
strategies ,one is for discovering the meaning of words ,and the other is for remembering words
already been encountered . Although I think the meaning can be conveyed by the lexis alone , a good
knowledge of grammar is not a powerful tool.
There are principles for which they help us in vocabulary instruction , the most important one is
planning , because setting targets,determining my students’ level,reviewing and how to include
vocabulary into lesson skills can help us achieve productive sessions , and I believe every teacher
must follow these procedures when planning for vocabulary. There are several methods that I think
they might guaranteeing a good vocabulary instruction , like having a short teacher led focus on the
meaning, focusing on the form and use, focusing on high frequency and high utility words,teach words
in meaningful groups,guess words from the context, it’s useful when we have connected items in some
way , but I reckon most teachers use the mother tongue as a resource and deal with vocabulary
systematically , personally I prefer encouraging active learning where students learn vocabulary by
their own and use it in communicative contexts , in addition to using the resources of technology and
visual aids , by doing so , students would find it easier to follow and memorize new words, translation
is not useful, because afterwards , new words will be forgotten and can’t be used for further contexts
outside classrooms.We can assess vocabulary using two approaches : language use and sets of
activities to measure students’ understanding and lexical knowledge like cloze ,multiple
choice,matching and completion.
Despite their differences, I think both Jack C.Richards and Jim Scrivener agree about the importance
of vocabulary as a skill and they both agreed that systematic instruction and encouraging active
learning are the most effective ways to teach it and the most common ones.
3.Evaluation :
In my opinion , these chapters have covered essential information about vocabulary, such as its
complex nature due to its many types like collocations and multiple chunks,how to teach it inside the
classroom,and how to assess it,in addition to activities that can help us to perform, everything was
understandable and I could learn some new things that would help me excel in teaching vocabulary
since they provide detailed explanations of how vocabulary is acquired and taught ,showing us how
the complex nature of vocabulary can challenge teachers into delivering a well-understood lesson ,
and also its importance within other language skills and aspects.
While reading,it appeared to me that these chapters are well organized in a manner that is clear and
understandable,which I could relate to since I had a previous teaching experience, not to mention the
clarity of the language,which gave me the ability to grasp it thoroughly and understand the concept.In
terms of practicality,both chapters address common challenges faced by teachers in teaching
vocabulary, giving us novice teachers new information on how to deal with vocabulary inside the
classroom , providing us with concrete activities that might solve the issues that might face us while
teaching it,and Jim Scrivener took upon himself going further and specify the activities that would
definitely be of use in class afterwards.
The thing I liked the most from Jack C.Richards’ chapter is including real examples provided by
teachers and how they project on their experiences in the chapter to give us novice teachers more
pieces of advice and insights about teaching vocabulary and how to deal with instructions and
difficulties. However, I think it lacked adding cultural and social aspects,there was no mention of
culture and society in terms of vocabulary teaching, especially when teaching vocabulary we ask
students about their prior knowledge based on their backgrounds.I can also add that in the Jim
Scrivener chapter I got confused sometimes in identifying lexis’ relation to grammar,but overall,both
chapters were effective in terms of practicality and relevance to real teaching contexts.I think they
were very practical regarding classroom activities ,in addition to providing effective ways of having
productive vocabulary sessions and solutions to overcome its issues.
4.Conclusion :
Overall,vocabulary is highly important for everyone to acquire and for teachers to follow instructions
and focus on developing for students and to develop techniques to teach. Although teaching
vocabulary can be challenging due to its complexity and its varied nature,I can say the ongoing
researches about language teaching can provide us with new methods and approaches to deal with
teaching aspects that may seem hard to deal with , but we still have the main goal which is instructing
our students to understand language and use it effectively and successfully outside the classroom
context on a wide broad.