TEACHING

VOCABULAR
Y

MODULE IX
WHAT IS VOCABULARY?

 Vocabulary is all the words we have or teach the students to create new language.

 English vocabulary is complex, with three main aspects related to form, meaning and
use, as well as layers connected to the root of individual words.

 Teaching vocabulary involves lexical phrases and knowledge of English vocabulary

and how to learning it.

 So vocabulary can be defined as the words of a language, including single items and
phrases or chunks of several words which covey a particular meaning, the way
individual words do.
WHAT IS VOCABULARY?

FOR
M

MEANIN
G

USE
WORDS A COMPLEX PHENOMENON

A word is a more complex phenomenon than at first it might appear.

 words have different functions, some carrying mainly grammatical

meaning, while others bear a greater informational load

 the same word can have a variety of forms

 words can be added to, or combined, to form new words

 words can group together to form units that behave as if they were

single words
WORDS A COMPLEX PHENOMENON

 many words commonly co-occur with other words

 words may look and/or sound the same but have quite different meanings

 one word may have a variety of overlapping meanings

 different words may share similar meanings, or may have opposite

meanings

 words can have the same or similar meanings but be used in different

situations or for different effects

IDENTIFYING WORDS

 Vocabulary is not only “a body of single words”.

 According to the LEXICAL APPROACH developed by Michael Lewis,

which is a way of analyzing and teaching language based on the idea that
it is made up of lexical units rather than grammatical structures.

 The units are words, chunks formed by collocations, and fixed phrases.
IDENTIFYING WORDS
 Vocabulary consists of:

 Single words: book, pen…

 Compound words (words combined to form new words): record player,

time saver….

 Multi-word units or lexical chunks which are more or less fixed: by the

way, upside down, out of the blue, bits and pieces.

 Collocations or word partnerships which are less fixed: break a record,

set a record, world record, formal education, formal letter…

IDENTIFYING WORDS

Word classes Word families

These are words which paly different it comprises the base word plus

roles in a text. inflexions and its most common

derivates.
nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives,
adverb, prepositions, conjunction Play – re-play

and determiner play-er

play-ful
IDENTIFYING WORDS

Content words
Function words
Words which carry a high
Words which contribute to the
information load
grammatical structure of a sentence.
nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverb.
Pronouns , prepositions,
conjunctions, determiners
IDENTIFYING WORDS

Synonyms Antonyms
These are words that share the same Antonyms are words opposite in meaning to
meaning: other words. For example:

old, ancient, elderly, aged, antique, etc. Old - - - new and young

However, synonymous words are not However,

always used in the same way:
the opposite of an old man is a young man,
an old / ancient city but the opposite of an old city is a new one

but not an *elderly car. not a *young city”

IDENTIFYING WORDS

Polysemes
Homonyms
These are words that have multiple but
These are words that share the related meanings. Examples:
same form but have unrelated
meanings: The house is at the foot of the

I like looking … / It looked like.. mountains.

One of his shoes felt too tight for his

Go to the fair. / It’s a fair price.
foot.
IDENTIFYING WORDS

Homophones
Homographs
Words that have the ´same sound´
Words that have the ´same writing´ but
but different spelling.
different pronunciation.
tail - - - - tale
live - - - live
meet - - - - meat
read - - - read (past simple)
IDENTIFYING WORDS

Hyponyms and superordinate terms

A superordinate term acts as an ‘umbrella’ term that includes within it other words with
related meanings.

The words that are related in meaning with the superordinate terms are called hyponyms.
IDENTIFYING WORDS

Lexical field
Words that have the same thematic relationship.

Christmas-themed- snow, icicles and fireplace

HOW IS VOCABULARY LEARNED?

 Knowing a word involves knowing its form and its meaning.

 The mind seems to words neither randomly nor in the form of a list, but
in a highly organized and interconnected fashion called the mental
lexicon.

 the brain is better disposed to begin search via the meaning based lexicon
than the form based one.
HOW IS VOCABULARY LEARNED?

 Acquire knowledge requires not only labelling but categorizing.

 The second language learner simply maps the word directly onto the
mother tongue equivalent.

 It may be the case that , for a good many second language learners, most
of the words in their L2 lexicon are simply acquaintances.
HOW ARE WORDS REMEMBERED?

 Short term store (STS) : store only few seconds.

 Working memory: cognitive tasks such as reasoning, learning, and

understanding depend on working memory

 Long term memory: as a kind of filling system.

 Some strategies to develop memory are repetition, retrieval, spacing,

pacing, use, cognitive depth, personal organizing, imaging, mnemonics,
motivation, attention.
HOW ARE WORDS REMEMBERED?

Repetition
Retrieval
Repeated rehearsal of the organized
material while it is still in working Retrieving a word from memory

memory. makes it more likely that the learner

will be able to recall it again later. For
When reading, words stand a good
example: using the new word in
chance of being remembered if they
written sentences, 'oil the path' for
have been met at least seven times
future recall.
over spaced intervals.
HOW ARE WORDS REMEMBERED?

Spacing Pacing
It is better to distribute memory work Learners have different learning
across a period of time than to mass styles, and process data at different
it together in a single block. rates, so ideally, they should be given

The aim is to test each item at the the opportunity to pace their own

longest interval at which it can rehearsal activities.

reliably be recalled.
THE IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING VOCABULARY

 to provide students with a tool that will allow them to become independent
readers.

 to pronounce and understand new words they encounter ass they read.

 to qualify them to communicate with their teacher in English.

 in reading, writing, and discussion lessons teachers are required to introduce

new vocabulary items.

 Therefore, they have to have the sufficient skills to present those new words.