Teaching Language Components

TEACHING VOCABULARY

I. INTRODUCTION
1) What is vocabulary?
A new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word: for example, post office and
mother- in- law, which are made up of two or three words but express a single idea, so a
useful convention is to cover all such cases by talking about ‘vocabulary/lexical items’
rather than ‘words’.

2) What’s the T’s job?

Knowing: what (select words that need presenting)
how to teach (present them in a memorable way so that students can
understand and remember them)

II. WHAT TO TEACH

II.1. Identifying lexical items

1.1 Concrete & abstract vocabulary

1.2 Passive & Active vocabulary

 Active & Passive vocabulary

We do not need to spend the same amount of time and care on presenting all new
vocabulary; some vocabulary will be more important to students than others. In general,
we can distinguish two types of vocabulary:
- Words which students will need to understand and also use themselves. We call
this active vocabulary. In teaching active vocabulary, it is usually worth spending
time giving examples and asking questions, so that students can really see how the
word is used.
- Words which we want students to understand (e.g. when reading a text), but which
they will not need to use themselves. We call this passive vocabulary. To save
time, it is often best to present it quite quickly, with a simple example. If it appears
as part of a text or dialogue, we can often leave students to guess the word from the
context.

Note that students should understand far more words than they can produce - so we
should not try to treat all new words as active vocabulary.

III. HOW TO TEACH

1. Discovered by the ss: Words are rather learnt than taught.
Advanced learners study new words in conjunction with English-English
dictionary.

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2. Presented by the teacher: Words have to be presented to the ss. so that they can
learn them.

 Concrete vocab. : The meaning can be shown visually.

1. How could the meaning of these words shown?

watch window elbow

Answer: By simply pointing at them and saying 'Look - this is a watch', etc.
This is one way of showing the meaning of new words by showing a real object.

2. What kinds of words can be presented in this way?

Possible answers:
Anything that is already in the classroom: furniture, clothes, parts of the body. Also
many objects that can be brought into the classroom: other items of clothing (hats,
ties, handkerchiefs); food (oranges, rice); small objects from the home (soap, cups,
keys), etc.

A presentation of the word 'watch':

T: Look — this is a watch [pointing to his or her watch]. A watch. A
watch.
Ss: A watch.
T: (gesture) What is it?
Ss: A watch. (and so on)

3. How could the meaning of these words shown?

tree tractor cow

Answer: By showing a picture. This can be done in two ways:
- By drawing a picture on the board.
- By showing a picture prepared before the lesson (a drawing or photograph)

4. How could the meaning of these words shown?

sneeze dig stumble

Answer: By miming, using actions and facial expressions.

5. What other words could be taught using mime?

Possible answers: Most action verbs (sit, stand, open, write); some adjectives (happy,
worried, ill).

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A presentation of the word 'sneeze':

T: Look - (mime someone sneezing) Atchoo! I've just sneezed.
Sneeze. Sneeze. Can you say it?
Ss: Sneeze.
T: Again.
Ss: Sneeze.

General points about presenting vocabulary visually (using real objects, pictures, or
mime):
- For suitable vocabulary, it is a very effective method: it is direct, it is interesting,
and it makes an impression on the class.
- Of course, not all words can be presented in this way. Vocabulary should only be
presented visually if it can be done quickly, easily and clearly.

 Abstract vocabulary: The meaning can be shown by examples or situations.

Another way to show what words mean is by giving an example, using the word in a
context.
Demonstration one
Houses are buildings. This school is also a building. In big cities, there are many large
buildings' - there are hotels, and offices, and cinemas. They are all buildings of
different kinds.

Demonstration two
Some people work hard. Other people don't work hard - they are lazy. For example, I
have a brother. He is very lazy. He gets up late and then he does nothing all day. I say
to him, 'Don't be so lazy! Do some work!'
Remember:
- It is not necessary to give a complicated explanation; the meaning can be shown by
simple sentences. This can be done by making statements using the word (e.g. 'Houses
are buildings. This school is also a building.’), or by imagining an example (e.g. 'I have
a brother - He is very lazy. He gets up late, and then be does nothing all day').
- A good example should clearly show the meaning of the word to someone who does
not know it already.' So it is not enough just to say 'My brother is lazy' - it doesn't show
what 'lazy' means. We need to add, e.g. 'He gets up late, and then does nothing all day'.
- Examples are especially useful for showing the meaning of abstract words, e.g.
love, happiness, imagine, quality, impossible.

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 Some other common techniques to show the meaning of lexical items

• Concise definition (as in a dictionary, often super ordinate with
qualifications, for example: a cat is an animal which …)
• Detail description (of appearance, qualities)
• Examples (hyponyms)
• Illustration (pictures, objects)
• Demonstration (acting, mime)
• Context (story or sentence in which the item occurs).
• Synonyms
• Opposites/antonyms
• Translation
• Associated ideas
• Collocations
• A combination of techniques can be used to show the meaning of a word.

e.g: Presenting the word 'smile':

- first drawing a picture on the board.

T: Look - he's smiling. Now look at me. I'm smiling

(show by facial expression). Smile. We smile when we are
happy. Smile. (gesture)
Ss: Smile.
T: Good. What does it mean? (students give
translation)

Discuss the different techniques used in the demonstration, and why each one is used:
- Picture on board (interesting, students remember it).
- Facial expression (gives meaning clearly).
- Examples (show how 'smile' is used as a verb).
- Translation (to make sure everyone understands).
Each technique is very quick (a few seconds), and they all reinforce each other.

Procedure:
- select new word
- choose appro. technique to show Meaning
- say the word aloud & write it on BB
- [conduct repetition if necessary]
- show Form (key transcription + stress + word class)
- write meaning: an expl. + e.g.
- (passive item: present it quickly with an example; active items: expand it with family
words, collocation and ask a question for Ss to use it.)
- [conduct repetition of all words presented]

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E.g.:
Teaching the item weather: [pictures + e.g. + L1 + collocation + Q]

- Show 3 pictures of hot, cold & rainy weather & elicit answers from Ss.
- Say word “weather” aloud two times and ask class to repeat it.
- Write it on BB, give Form & ex.

‘weather (n)
- hot/cold/rainy weather
- The weather in Britain is varied.
- Give meaning by asking 1 st to translate whole ex. sentence into L1.
- Show a picture of the chart of weather forecast & write it on BB.

‘weather ‘forecast (n)

- Ask one Q:
Do you like cold or hot weather?
What kind of weather do you like most?
- [Conduct repetition of new words, example sentences, collocations in chorus &
individually, using back-chaining technique].

Another e.g.: [real thing + expl. + e.g.+ contrast + Q]

- point to a picture/real object of a laptop & say:: This is a kind of a small computer.
We can take it here & there easily. It’s a laptop. A laptop.
- Say ‘a laptop” aloud once/twice.
- Write it on BB: laptop
- Give key phonetic symbols, stress, word class & write an explanation on BB:

laptop (n) = a kind of a small computer

- Contrast it with a desktop: (show a picture of a desktop)

- Ask a Q: Is a laptop more or less expensive than a desktop?
- Conduct repetition of new words, example sentences, collocations in chorus &
individually, using back-chaining technique.

Some points to bear in mind:

 present the words in spoken form first, otherwise your ss will try to pronounce
the words as they are written.

 Teaching Form & Gram. of word (regular/irregular verbs; Vi/Vt, noun plurals,
etc.)
 Teaching Meaning:
Passive vocab: present them quickly, with a simple example.
Active vocab.: Showing how words are used in context. (giving examples)

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 Teaching Collocation (words can be used together/ word partnership) &

family words.
e.g.:
make a cake do exercises
listen to music be fond of

to compete  competition  competitor  competitive

 Asking a Q

IV. ASKING A QUESTION

A. The teacher has just presented the word 'market'. Now she is asking questions using the
new word. What is the purpose of this?

The purpose of questions of this kind:

- They help the teacher to be sure that students really understand the word.
- They give the students more examples of how the word is used, in a way that
involves the class.
- They give a chance to practise other language (big, small, present simple tense,
cook, etc.).
Questions using a new word should be simple and require only short answers.

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B. Another example:
The teacher has just taught the word shoplift, and given the example sentence:
The kids were caught shoplifting sweets.
Possible Qs:
T: Can people shoplift a watch or a washing machine?
T: Is shoplifting used about very big things or about very valuable things?
T: What things can people shoplift in a supermarket?

V. REVISION ACTIVITIES
As with teaching anything else, revision is essential; otherwise the new words you have
taught will easily be forgotten.
Below are some common activities that can help students review vocabulary:

1. a) Matching/ Association
Match the word in column A with the meaning in column B.
1. schedule a. opposite of “polite”
2. rude b. without words
3. non-verbal c. program of work to do

b) From the parallel lists of words given, select pairs which have a natural association.
e.g.: garden coach
students flowers
holiday uniform
resorts
grass
classrooms

c) Write down as many words as you can think of which have a natural association with: e.g.
house; sea; fruits

2. Odd man out

Which one is different from the other three?
see smell feel say
windy sunny tidy cloudy
century decade daytime fortnight
cooker repairer worker painter

3. Word dominoes: Language  English  Homework  Key

4. Word bingo: (several word cards given with words in different positions. T reads
words at random, Ss cross them out. The one who can cross out all the words calls out
“Bingo”. He is the winner.)

5. Listing: Cutlery, Vehicles, Furniture, Buildings (Ss list as many words as poss.
within a very short time.)

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6. Classification/ grouping:
Put the words under the right headings:
family fruits jobs office facilities
son-in-law, pear, receptionist, peach, cook, grandparents, keyboard, clips, cousin,
architect, grapes, highlighter, corrector, kiwi, niece, mouse, …

7. Crosswords

8. Games: word network, word square, slap the BB, rub and remember, remember and
add, jumbled words, etc.

VI. POINTS TO BEAR IN MIND WHEN TEACHING VOCABULARY

1. A vocabulary item can be more than one word.
Two speakers of English meeting for the first time will both say: How do you do.
How do you do is a complete phrase with a single meaning – linguists would call it a
lexical item. The meaning of this group of words can not be deduced from the
meaning of the individual words from the phrase – how, for example, at first suggests
that the phrase will be a question but since both speakers use the same phrase, it is
quite clear that neither is a question, each is a greeting. Such groups of words are
common and, rather than keeping a list of ‘words’ in a ‘vocabulary book’, students
need to be encouraged to keep list of words and phrases (i.e. lexical items) with, in
some cases, direct equivalents in their own language but in other cases simply a
description of how the phrase is used – in the case above a definition such as ‘a
greeting used by both speakers when meeting for the first time in fairly formal
circumstances‘.
Such phrases are of great importance in both the written and spoken language and
students should be encouraged to see them as whole items. Further examples are
phrases such as
Cheer up! if you like
put up with, I’m afraid not.
Look out for (some one)
Some phrases may be seen as part of the structure of the language, and phrases which
can be learned as single units. An example of such a phrase would be: as soon as
possible.
In many cases students can be helped to achieve greater fluency by learning certain
phrases as complete items at a relatively early stage in their learning program, while
perhaps, only seeing or understanding their structure at a later stage.
The important thing is to develop in the students an understanding that languages do
not consist of ‘words’ with equivalents from one language to the other.

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2. Do not discuss the structure of the lexical items.

Some years ago teaching was almost entirely based on structural progression.
Students learn do you want … ? relatively early in their course, because it was an
example of a question made in the present simple, which comes early in most
structural courses. It was only relatively late in their course that they learn would you
like….? because this was ‘a conditional’ which, in turn, came relatively late in
structurally oriented courses.
One of positive results of the notional functional approach to language teaching has
been to point out that students frequently need certain language items for practical
communication relatively early in their course even if these items may seem
structurally quite complex. It is now quite common for phrases such as would you like
to appear in Book 1 under a functional heading. There is no difficulty about this
providing teachers explain the phrase by explaining its function - ‘We use this when
we want to offer somebody something - would you like a cup of tea? or when we want
to invite them to do something – would you like to go to the cinema this evening?’
Such explanation is sufficient, and teachers must resist the temptation to draw
attention to the structural features of the phrase which is being taught as a lexical
item at that stage of the course.
3. There is a difference between active and passive vocabulary.
Well- educated native speakers ‘know’ many thousands of words in the sense that
when they hear or read them they cause no difficulty in understanding. At the same
time the people probably use only about 2,000 words in normal daily conversations.
Somewhat surprisingly, native speakers command of as small a vocabulary as 2,000
words means that you can function quite happily within an English speaking
community - providing the command is comprehensive, and the 2,000 items are the
right 2,000!
‘Learning’ more and more vocabulary items does not necessarily increase a person’s
fluency. By definition, the extra items are less and less useful. Despite this obvious
fact, teachers, and even more students, feel that increasing their vocabulary will
increase their fluency – either in speech or in writing. This is very far from the truth.
Knowing a vocabulary item is not a simple process – it means much more than simply
memorizing the word. From the receptive (passive) point of view, it means
recognizing its meaning when it occurs in context – a relatively simple process. For
students to add the word to their active vocabularies they need to know the contexts in
which it can occur, the possible and impossible collocations of the word (words it can,
or can not co – occur with) as well as more details of the connotational meaning of the
word. In a very simple sense, little and small ‘mean the same thing’ – most students
of English have no difficulty understanding the sentence: which would you like – the
big one or the small / little one? Even such ‘simple’ words, however, present
difficulties for active use – it is possible to say what a pretty little dress, but not what
a pretty small dress
The message for the teacher is that in dealing with ‘new words’, it is helpful to guide
students towards those words which will help them to add to their active vocabularies,

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and to distinguish those for students from the much larger number of passive items.
At the beginning of most conventional language courses, all the words which are
taught are intended to be acquired for active use; later, at intermediate and advanced
levels, most of the words students meet will only be needed for passive use. This
change in the nature of the vocabulary they are learning is rarely made clear to
students.
In more modern courses, particularly those which emphasize listening skills based on
authentic material even early in courses, a distinction between active and passive
language must be made at a much earlier stage. It is an important part of the listening
process that students learn to understand items which they do not need to add to their
active vocabulary.
3. Explain difference of meaning, not meaning.
Understanding or explaining ‘what something means’ is more complicated than
teachers or students sometimes recognize. There is a temptation, for example, for
teachers to ‘explain’ a word by a direct translation. It is exceptionally rare for a word
in one language to have a direct equivalent in another. Much translation –based
teaching ignores this, and encourages the idea of simple equivalents.
Language is a system and each word has its meaning defined in relation to other
words. This insight leads to an easier, more effective and theoretically sounder way of
explaining. It is always more helpful to explain difference of meaning rather than
meaning itself. If the reader is in any doubt then try to explain the meaning of bush. It
is easy if done visually and contrastively.

tree bush
The principle is that contrastive explanation is easier, more efficient, and most
importantly of all, reflects the real nature of language.

4. Words are often best taught in groups.

An individual word in a language frequently acquires a meaning because of the
relationship between it and other words. Awareness of certain kinds of relationship
makes explaining vocabulary easier for the teacher, and learning it simpler for the
students. Here are some important relationships:

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a. synonyms
Though words may have similar denotative meaning (they represent the same
concept) their connotational meanings often differ. Sometimes, however, it is possible
for the teacher simply to say ‘enormous’ means the same as ‘very large’.
b. antonyms: these are often thought of as ‘opposites’ such as hot/ cold. It is
important for teachers to remember that not hot, does not always mean cold;
sometimes it is a question of degree. In these cases students usually start by learning
the extremes and later learn the intermediate words: hot – warm- cool – cold.
c. complements: Here two words exist and one automatically excludes the other
– single/ married. In this case, it is possible to explain by saying ‘single’ means ‘not
married’.
This idea maybe extended to groups of incomplete words – each is defined by being
‘not the others’: morning/ afternoon / evening / night. Obviously it is best to teach
such words in groups, as the meaning of one depends directly on the meaning of the
others.
d. converses: Each of the pair of words implies the other: parent/ child,
employer/ employee. Again, such words are best explained together.
e. hyponyms: car, van, bus, lorry are hyponyms of vehicle. Often, such words
are difficult to handle without translating. It is not much help to be told a carnation is
a kind of flower. If you want to know the meaning of the word, you want to know
what kind of flower. In such cases translation is often necessary.
These theoretical ideas may often be usefully extended by the idea of an Area of
Vocabulary. If, for example, students are to do some work on traffic, does it make
sense to pre – teach the vocabulary and lexis associated with the topic? Because many
words are defined by their relationship to other words, it is easier to teach vocabulary
in ‘area’ than through lists of isolated items.
5. Vary the way you explain.
a. Demonstrate: There is something ridiculous about providing a translation or
explanation of words such as stagger, chuckle. If the teacher does give a verbal
explanation, it should at least be accompanied by a physical demonstration. The
demonstration both helps to make the meaning clearer, and helps to fix the word in
the students’ minds. If every word is ‘explained’ in the same way – either by
translation or verbal explanation, they merge into a sea of language in which it is
difficult to distinguish individual items. Demonstration highlights a particular word
and helps associate it in the students’ mind with both visual and aural memories.
b. Use the real thing: Teachers become so pre- occupied with teaching that
sometimes they explain, or even draw on the blackboard things which are
immediately available in the room. Sometimes the explanation is no more
complicated than pointing!
c. Draw or sketch: Teachers do not need to be artists to make simple sketches
which illustrate meaning.

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d. Use the blackboard to show scales or grade: Words like cool, orange
(color), or probably may be explained by presenting them with groups of related
words.
hot - warm- cool – cold
red- orange – yellow
certainly - definitely
probably - possibly
e. Antonyms: There are two problems for using a synonym to explain a new
word – firstly there are very few exact synonyms within the language and, as
mentioned above, it is easy to give the wrong impression by, for example, equating
little and small. Secondly, in most cases it is extremely difficult to find a synonym
which is simple enough to help the student – there is little point in simply providing
another new word to explain the one the student does not understand.
It is usually much easier to offer explanation of the kind Rude means not polite.
It is worth mentioning that the explanation given here are not exact definition of the
word – the level of the explanation must be suitable to the students’ level of English
at the time so that dictionary – like accuracy can often be counter – productive.
f. Synonyms: It is still helpful if teachers remember to say it is similar in
meaning to …, rather than it means the same as …, the former phrase helps to build in
the student’s mind the idea that language consists of choice, that words do not mean
the same as each other, the second undermines this important attitude.
g. The dictionary: too often teachers forget that it is the students who are
learning and, in general, the more the students are involved in the process the more
successful that is likely to be. Texts should not contain very large number of new
words so there should not be a great number of new words at any one time. One
technique for explaining which teachers too frequently overlook is asking the class
whether anybody knows the word – individual students do learn things outside the
classroom – and if not, asking one or more students to look the word up in a
dictionary (at lower levels a bi- lingual dictionary; at higher levels a mono –lingual
dictionary) In this way the process of ‘ learning a new word’ also provide practice in
important learning skills – dictionary using – and, for those using a good mono –
lingual dictionary – ensures that they do have other examples for words used in
context, a note on its stress, etc.
h. Verbal explanations: some language items are best explained by being used
in a variety of contexts, with the teacher commenting on the use. It is important with
such explanations to use more than one context to avoid any incidental features of that
particular context.
This kind of explanation is particularly useful in dealing with the lexical items
common within functional teaching. Most ‘functional phrases’ are best explained by
two or three examples and a description of the function performed. It is not usually
necessary to add further explanation.

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i. Translation: although some teachers over- use this technique, it is equally true
that others under –use it. To some it is seen as boring and traditional. For some words,
however, the only sensible way to explain is by translation. – this is often the case
with certain types of technical words – measles – and for words which are ‘a kind
of…’ e.g. oak.
6. Allocate specific class time to vocabulary learning.
In the hustle and bustle of our interactive classroom, sometimes we get so caught up
in lively group work and meaningful communication that we don’t pause to devote
some attention to words. After all, words are the basic building blocks of language; in
fact, survival level communication can take place quite intelligibly when people
simply string words together – without any grammatical rules applying at all. So if we
are interested in being communicative, words are among the first orders of business.
7. Help students learn vocabulary in context.
The best internalization of vocabulary comes from encounters (comprehension or
production) with words within the context of surrounding discourse. Rather than
isolating words and / or focusing on dictionary definitions, attend to vocabulary
within a communicative framework in which items appear. Students will then
associate new words with a meaningful context to which they apply.
7. Play down the role of bilingual dictionaries.
A corollary to the above is to help students to resist the temptation to overuse their
bilingual dictionaries. In recent years, with the common availability of electronic
pocket dictionaries, students are even more easily tempted to punch in a word they
don’t know and get an instant response. Unfortunately, such practices rarely help
students to internalize the word for later recall and use.
8. Engaged in ‘unplanned’ vocabulary teaching.
In all likelihood, most of the attention given to vocabulary learning will be unplanned:
those moments when a student asks about a word or a word has appeared that the
teacher feels deserves some attention. These impromptu moments are very important.
Sometimes, they are simply brief little pointers; for example, the word ‘clumsy’ once
appeared in a paragraph students were reading and the teacher volunteered:
T: Okay, ‘clumsy’. Does any one know what that means? [writes the word on the
board]
Ss [silence]
T: No one? Okay, well, take a look at the sentence it’s in ‘His clumsy efforts to
imitate a dancer were almost amusing.’ Now, was Bernard a good dancer?
[Mona raises her hand] Okay, Mona?
S1: Well, no. He was a very bad dancer, as we see in the next sentence.
T: Excellent! So, what do you think ‘clumsy ‘might mean?
S2: Not graceful.
T. Good, what else? Anyone?
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S3: Uncoordinated?
T: Great! Okay, so ‘clumsy’ means awkward, ungraceful, uncoordinated [writes
synonyms on the board] Is that clear now?
Ss: [most students nod in agreement]
Sometimes, such impromptu moment may be extended: the teacher gives several
examples, and/or encourages students to use the word in other sentences. Make sure
that such unplanned teaching, however, does not detract from the central focus of
activity by going on and on, ad nauseam.

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