Methods of learning

and teaching lexis

Lecture 2
Review

What do you have to know to know a word?

How is our word knowledge organised?
What is a malapropism?
What are real friends?

What are false friends?

What are strangers?

How are words remembered?
Memory systems

Researchers into the workings of memory usually distinguish

between the following systems: the short-term store, working
memory and long-term memory.
The short-term store

The short-term store is the brain’s capacity to hold a limited

number of items of information for periods of time up to a few
seconds.
Working memory

Focussing on words long enough to perform operations on them is

the function of working memory. It can be thought of as a kind of
work bench, where information is first placed, studied and moved
about before being filed away for later retrieval.
Articulatory loop

Articulatory loop - a process of subvocal repetition. It enables the

short-term store to be kept refreshed. Having heard a new word we
can run it as many times as we need in order to examine it
Articulatory loop

The holding capacity of the articulatory loop seems to be a

determining factor in the ability to learn languages: the longer the
loop, the better the learner. = The ability to hold a phonological
representation of a words in working memory is a good predictor
of language learning aptitude.
Long-term memory

Long-term memory can be thought of as kind of filing system

with an enormous capacity and its contents are durable over time.
The great challenges for language learners is to transform material
from ‘the quickly forgotten’ to ‘the never forgotten’.
Techniques of word learning
Repetition

One kind of repetition that is important is repetition of encounters

with a word. It has been estimated that, when reading, words stand
a good chance of being remembered if they have been met at least
seven times over spaced intervals.
The technique I swear by
Retrieval

Another kind of repetition that is crucial is what is called the

retrieval practice effect. This means that the act of retrieving a
word from memory makes it more likely that the learner will be
able to recall it again.
Spacing

It is better to distribute memory work across a period of time than

to mass it together in a single block - the principle of distributed
practice.
Learn 2-3 items, then go back and test them, then learn some
more, then backtrack and so on.
Pacing

Learners have different learning styles, and process data at

different rates, so, ideally, they should be given the opportunity to
pace their own rehearsal activities.
Use

Putting words to use is the best way of ensuring they are added to
long-term memory.
Use it or lose it.
Cognitive depth

Find as much information about the word as you can (e.g. part of
speech, derivatives, collocations etc. )
The more decisions the learner makes about a word and the more
cognitively demanding these decisions, the better the word is
remembered.
Complete the sentences with the word; rhyme the word: tango-
mango
Imaging

Visualise a mental picture to go with a new word. Easily

visualized words are more memorable than words that don’t
immediately evoke a picture.
Motivation

Simply wanting to learn new words is no guarantee that words

will be remembered. Motivated learners are likely to spend more
time on rehearsal and practice.
Attention/arousal

Contrary to popular belief, you can’t improve your vocabulary in

your sleep, simply by listening to a tape. A very high degree of
attention (called arousal) is required.
Words that trigger a stronger emotional response, for example, are
more easily recalled than ones that don’t. This may account for the
fact that many learners have a knack of remembering swear
words, even if they’ve heard them only a couple of times.
Affective depth

Just as it is important for learners to make cognitive judgements

about words, it may also be important to make affective
judgements, such as:
Do I like the sound and look of the word?
Do I like the thing that the word represents?
Does the word evoke any pleasant or unpleasant associations?
 What then are the
implications of these findings
for the teaching and learning
of vocabulary?
The implications

* Learners need tasks and strategies to help them organise their mental lexicon by building
networks of associations - the more the better.
*Teachers need to accept that the learning of new words involves a definite period of time
* Learners need to wean themselves off a reliance on direct translation from their mother tongue.
* Words need to be presented in their typical contexts, so that learners can get a feel for their
meaning, their register, their collocations and their syntactic environments.
* Learners should aim to build a basic vocabulary as quickly as possible.
* Learners need to be actively involved in the learning of words (motivation)
* Learners need multiple exposures to words and they need to retrieve words from memory
repeatedly.
* Learners need to make multiple decisions about words.
* Memory of new words can be reinforced if they are used to express personally relevant
meanings.
* Not all the vocabulary that the learners need can be 'taughť: learners will need plentiful
exposure to talk and text as well as training for self- directed learning.
Classroom sources of words
Lists

It is very economical: large numbers of words can be learned in a relatively short

time (where learning is taken to mean the ability to recall items in subsequent tests).

Having the mother tongue translation alongside not only deals with the meaning
conveniently, but allows learners to test themselves (from their first language to
English and from English to their first language) as well as test one another.
Word cards

Having each word on an individual card means the sequence can be varied, as a
precaution against what is called the ‘serial effect’. This occurs when one word on
a list triggers recall of the next word, and so on.
Some ways of exploiting word lists in class

1) The teacher reads words from the list in a random order. Learners tick the
ones they hear.
2) Learners cover the first language translation (if they have a bilingual list); the
teacher gives translations and learners tick the English equivalents.
3) Both the preceding activities can be turned into a form of Bingo!
4) From a random list of words, ask learners to make connections between
words and explain them to their classmates: the more connections the better,
no matter how far-fetched.
Example
Make a story using this word list.
Make a story using this word list.
Some ways of exploiting word lists in class

5) Students construct a story from the list. Or they take turns to make a sentence
that includes the next word in the list so as to continue the story.
6) Ask learners to make their own list from the words that come up in the lesson and
to bring their lists to class for the next lesson. At the beginning of the following
lesson, pair students to test each other on their word lists.
7) Learners can also make lists of words that have appeared in previous units of the
coursebook, and test each other by, for example, asking How do you say… in
English? Or What’s English for…? Or, they could prepare gapped sentences to be
completed by words from their lists.
Coursebooks

Factors that determine the choice of words for inclusion in the

coursebook syllabus are: usefulness, frequency, learnability and
teachability.
Usefulness

Words are useful if they can be put to immediate use.

Usefulness: core words

Core words are typically those used when defining other words.
For example, the definition of both giggle and chuckle involves
using the word laugh:
giggle (at/about somebody/something) | (+ speech) to laugh in a
silly way because you are embarrassed or nervous or you think
that something is funny
chuckle (at/about something) to laugh quietly
Usefulness: collocations

Another test of ‘core-ness’ is whether the word collocates widely.

Thus, bright collocates with sun, light, idea, smile and child,
whereas its synonym radiant has a much narrower range of
collocations.
Frequency

The relative frequency of a word is another key factor in

determining its inclusion in a syllabus.
Learnability

Choice of words to include in a syllabus, especially for beginner

students, will be determined in part by their learnability.
Teachability

Words are more easily teachable if they can be demonstrated or

illustrated - by the use of pictures or real objects, for example.