Teaching Vocabulary

1、Unit 8Teaching Vocabulary,By Xu Zhijian,龙岩学院外国语学院,精品课程-英语教学法,Aims of this unit,What are some of the assumptions about vocabulary? What does knowing a word involve? How can we present new vocabulary items? What are some effective ways to consolidate vocabulary? How do we help students develop vocabul

2、ary learning?,IUnderstanding vocabulary and vocabulary learning. Although grammar is usually integrated with the teaching of vocabulary, we still consider it necessary to introduce ways to present and consolidate vocabulary.,The teaching of vocabulary has been studied for many decades, there are sti

3、ll many uncertainties regarding: What constitutes a vocabulary item; Which vocabulary items should be taught and learned; How vocabulary can be taught and learned most effectively. (or similar questions of Task 1on P117.),Vocabulary does not just mean single words: compounds, phrases and even on occ

4、asion, whole sentences can be items of vocabulary. Most words in one language can be translated into another language, but not every single word and an equivalent. The article “the” in English, for example, has no exact equivalent in Chinese. Students can be consciously taught about ways of learning

5、 vocabulary so that they become keenly aware of every opportunity for vocabulary expansion.,Task 2,If teachers and students know the difference between active and passive vocabulary, they can treat them differently. Translation is not the best way to explain new words. English-English explanation is

6、 better than translation, but again it is not the best for vocabulary teaching. There are many other more effective ways.,An English-English dictionary can be very helpful, though beginners may find it more comfortable to use a bilingual dictionary. It is more effective when words of related meaning

7、 are taught and learned together. Studying vocabulary in language contexts are more effective. Forgetting is inevitable. But if words are frequently used, they are less easy to forget.,II. What does knowing a word involve? knowing a word means knowing: its pronunciation and stress; its spelling and

8、grammatical properties; its meaning; how and when to use it to express the intended meaning. (四会),1.What does it mean to know a word? Learning a word involves learning more than just the word itself. e.g. post office, mother-in-law There are multi-word units, such as: phrasal verbs, compound words A

9、ccording to Hedge (2000),vocabulary learning involves at least two aspects of meaning: the understanding of its denotative and connotative meaning; understanding the sense relations among words,Denotative meaning（外延/指代意义） Denotative meaning of a word or a lexical item refers to those words that we u

10、se to label things as regards real objects, such as name or a sign, etc. in the physical world. E.g. apple connotative meaning（内涵/隐涵意义） A connotative meaning of a word refers to the attitudes or emotions of a language user in choosing a word and the influence of these on the listener or readers inte

11、rpretation of the word. This words that may express a positive or negative attitude or subtle feelings towards something. E.g. running-dog, dragon, big apple.,collocations Collocations refers to words that co-occur with high frequency and have been accepted as ways for the use of words. It is believ

12、ed that teaching word collocations is a more effective way than just teaching one single word at a time. synonyms, antonyms, hyponymshaiponimi (词义之间的)下义关系 Synonyms refer to items that mean the same, or nearly the same. Antonyms refer to items that mean the opposite of a word. Hyponyms refer to words

13、 which can be grouped together under the same superordinate (高一层的) concept.,Receptive and productive vocabulary,Receptive/Passive vocabulary/: the words one is able to recognize and comprehend in reading or listening but unable to use automatically in speaking or writing. Productive/Active vocabular

14、y: the words one is not only able to recognize but also able to use in speech and writing .,Native speaker: Passive vocabulary: up to 100,000 words, Active vocabulary: between 10,000 and 20,000. Learners of intermediate to upper intermediate level Active vocabulary:3000 to 5000 words Passive vocabul

15、ary:5000 to 10,000 words For the teacher: guide and help students to add active vocabularies. At the beginning of language learning, all the words which are taught must be acquired for active use, later, for passive use.,Task 3 The implications of the English lexical system,Both denotative and conno

16、tative meaning need to be learned: Words are better understood in context. A group of related words is likely to be more memorable than a list of unrelated items, i.e. words learned with synonyms, antonyms or hyponyms; Knowledge of word formation is a useful source for developing vocabulary. Explori

17、ng sense relations among/between words kelp learning and remembering words. Teachers and learners need to be aware of the difference between receptive and productive vocabulary,III. Ways of presenting new words,1. Some suggestions for the teachers Different teachers have different ways to present ne

18、w words. Whatever methods are used, the following suggestions may help teachers: 1) Try to provide a visual or physical demonstration whenever possible. 2) Provide a verbal context to demonstrate meaning.,3) use synonyms or antonyms to explain meanings. 4) Use lexical sets pr hyponyms to show relati

19、ons of words and their meaning. 5) Translate and exemplify, especially with technical words or words with abstract meaning.,6) Use word formation rules and common affixes to build new lexical knowledge on what is already know. 7) Teach vocabulary in chunks. 8) Think about the context in real life th

20、ere the word might be sued.,9) Think about providing different context for introducing new words. 10) Prepare for possible misunderstanding or confusion that students may have. (Look at Task 5 on P125) Task 6: Choose four items and give a mini demonstration.,2. Words are best taught in groups. Langu

21、age is a system and each word has its meaning defined in relation to other words. This insight leads to an easier, more effective and sounder way of explaining. It is helpful to explain difference of meaning rather than meaning itself. An individual word in a language acquires a meaning because of t

22、he relationship between it and other words. Awareness of certain kinds of relationship makes explaining vocabulary easier for the teachers, and learning it simpler for the students. Here are some relationships.,(1)synonyms. Big-large (2)Antonyms. Hotwarmcoolcold (3)Complements. single/married. (4) C

23、onverse. parent/child, employer/employee. (5)Hyponyms. Car, van, bus ,lorry are hyponyms of vehicle.,IV. Ways of consolidating vocabulary,1. Libeling. Students are given a picture. They are to write the names of the objects indicated in the picture. 2. Spotting the differences. Students are put into

24、 pairs. Each member of the pair receives a picture which is slightly different from his partners. 3. Describing and drawing. The student having the picture must tell his partner what to draw so that the drawing ends up the same as the original picture.,4. Playing a game. Students are shown a picture

25、 or a tray with many objects on it, or a series of different flash cards or magazine pictures. They have to tell what they saw, or write everything they can remember seeing. 5. Using word thermometers. These are useful for indicating different degrees in size, speed, age, distance, emotion etc. Stud

26、ents are given a list of words in jumbles order. They have to place these words in the correct place on the thermometer.,6. Using word series. Students construct the series following the example. Cutlery: knife, fork, spoon 7. Word bingo. Students draw nine squares on a piece of paper and put nine w

27、ords connected with shopping in the squares. The first student who cross out a line of three words either horizontally, vertically or diagonally should shout out “ Bingo” and he or she will be the winner.,8.Word association. The teacher says a key word, e.g. traveling. The students have to write dow

28、n all the words they can think of connected with the traveling. 9. Odd man out. The teacher writes a set of words on the blackboard and ask students to find the “odd man out”. For example, in the set: cheese eggs oranges, bread soap and meat, the word “soap” is the “odd man out”.,10. Synonyms and an

29、tonyms. The students are given a list of words and ask students to find pairs of words, either synonyms or antonyms. 11. Using word categories. Students put the jumbled words in the middle into the box marked with different categories. 12. Using word net-work. Students fill in the blanks in a network with words that are under the same category or sub-category.,IV. Developing vocabulary building str