Teaching vocabulary

Lecture 5

1. The lexical system of the English language.

2. The content of teaching vocabulary.

The aims of teaching vocabulary.

3. The difficulties in teaching vocabulary.

4. Presentation of new lexical units.

5. The system of lexical exercises.

 

In modern methodology much attention is devoted to vocabulary acquisition in its close connection with speech habits formation. The most important problems of teaching vocabulary are:

1) selection of lexical units for teaching purposes;

2 ) ways of presentation of new lexical unit;

3) exercises for fixing lexical units in students’ memory and developing lexical habits.

Any word is a very complex phenomenon as each word has its meaning, form and usage.

By the form of a word we mean its sound form (pronunciation), spelling , structure and grammatical forms.

Both pronunciation and spelling of foreign words are new for students (learners) and their acquisition presents some difficulties. The meaning of new words is rather difficult to learn too, as the words of the foreign language can be polysemantic, the volume of meaning can be different , as well as their ability to combine with other words and their usage. The main characteristic features of English words are homonyms and polysemy. Many words were borrowed from other languages. In many cases the volume of meaning of foreign words does not coincide with the meaning of words in the mother tongue: For example “идти” - to go , to come. Or one and the same notion can be expressed by words of different semantic structure: “крепкий бульон”-“thick broth”.

That is why we must take into account all the specific features of the language in teaching it. The usage of words in the target language is greatly influenced by the mother tongue. This influence can be both positive and negative, and we call it “transfer of habits” and “interference”. “Interference” can be of two kinds: between the foreign and the native languages and within the foreign language. (man - men, “mans”)

It is impossible to count all the words of a language and consequently it’s impossible for learners to learn all the words.

We use a different amount of lexical units in different kinds of language activity: auding, speaking, reading and writing.

In oral communication and in auding we understand and recognize more words than we use in our speech, as auding speech of other people we cannot change it and it may contain words unknown to us.

While reading we recognize more words than while auding. At the same time the number of words used in writing is rather less than in reading or oral speech or auding.

We can represent this in the following way:

 

 
 

 


I - words used in reading

II - words used in auding

III - words used in speaking

IV - words used in writing

 

Not all the words that are recognized in reading are used in speaking and not all the words that are recognized in auding and speakig are used in writing.

This fact must be taken into account in teaching students to speak and to write and treat them in different ways.

For the purposes of teaching at school the lexical items are divided into two groups (parts):

1. Words, necessary for both oral communication and reading (active vocabulary).

2. Words, necessary for reading only (recognition in reading) – passive vocabulary.

 

The active and passive vocabulary are differentiated not only in their function, but in methodology too: in the ways of presentation and their usage in the teaching process and communication.

There is no strict distinction between active and passive vocabulary. Some words can become active if they are often used in oral speech and reading, at the same time other words if they are not often used in speaking may become passive. At school students assimilate 2300 words of passive vocabulary, 1000 active words among them.

These lexical units include notional words, numerals, form words (pronouns, auxiliary and modal verbs, prepositions, conjunctions) forms of words (plural of nouns, such as men , degrees of comparison of adjectives and adverbs), some modal words, syntactic units. Lexical units for active vocabulary are carefully selected according to special principles of selection:

1. Statistical principles

2. Methodological principles

3. Linguistic principles

According to the first principles most frequently used words are selected.

In accordance with methodological principles those words are selected which belong to certain topics.

The third group includes the principles of combinability, word building value, polysemy, stylistic principle. Those words are selected which easily combine with many words, can form other words, belong to neutral style.

The main aim of teaching vocabulary is assimilation of the meaning, form of the word and its usage in oral and written speech – that is formation of lexical habits.

Пассов Е.И. gives the following definition of the lexical habit:

“Лексический навык есть синтезированное действие по выбору лексической единицы адекватно замыслу и ее правильному сочетанию с другими , совершаемое в навыковых параметрах и обеспечивающее ситуативное использование данной лексической единицы в речи.”

Speaking and writing ( productive types of speaking activities) require the following lexical habits: ability to combine words, ability to choose form words and combine them with notional words, ability to choose the necessary word among the synonyms, antonyms, ability to use words in situations.

Reading and listening comprehension (reception) require the following lexical habits: ability to correlate the visual (spelling) form of the word, the sound form with its meaning; ability not to pay attention to inner speech, ability to differentiate the words that are similar in their sound form, differentiate antonyms, synonyms, homonyms, the use word-building elements and power of guessing.

The formation of lexical habits goes through three stages:

1. presentation of new lexical units

2. formation of lexical habits

3. perfection of lexical habits

It is not easy to learn the words of a foreign language, as each word has its own form , meaning and usage, and each of these aspects has its own difficulties.

In fact, some words are difficult because of their form (daughter, busy, bury, woman, women) and easy in their usage. Other words are easy in their form but difficult in usage (enter, get , happy)

Consequently all words can be classified according to the difficulties students have in learning them. In methodology there have been many attempts to classify the words according to the difficulties they present.

One of the classifications is: (Rogova)

1. lexical units with concrete meaning

2. lexical units with abstract meaning

3. form words

The easiest words for assimilation are words with concrete meaning (book, street, sky, etc.), actions (to walk, to dance, to read), meaning qualities (long, big, small)

It is more difficult to learn words with abstract meaning (world, home, believe, promise, honest). But the most difficult for learning are form words (articles, prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs, etc.). While getting ready to work with the lexical units the teacher must take into account all these difficulties.

(Psychological peculiarities of teaching vocabulary)

Presentation of new words.

There are different ways of presenting new vocabulary. As a word has its form, meaning and usage, to introduce a new word means to acquaint the learners with its form (phonetic, spelling, structure and grammatical form) and to explain its meaning and usage.

Students can learn the phonetic form (pronunciation) of the word and its spelling with the help of the following techniques:

1. by conscious imitation

2. by analogy

3. through transcription

4. with the help of reading rules

All the ways of presenting new words are combined into two large groups:

1. Direct

2. Translation

The mother tongue is excluded in the direct method of introduction, the foreign word is associated with the thing or notion it means without the use of the native word. The direct way is used in teaching words with concrete meaning: denoting objects, their qualities, gestures, movements, actions that can be demonstrated to students.

a book, a picture, a bag, small, blue, stand up, etc. There are different techniques of presentation of new words within the direct method; they can be divided into two large groups:

1. verbal;

2. visual.

Visual techniques include demonstration of visual aids (pictures, photos, gestures, actions, etc.)

For example:

1. Nouns can be introduced by demonstrating objects, pictures, photos. The word is pronounced many times in isolation and in sentences.

2. Verbs can be introduced by demonstrating actions, movements, pictures on the blackboard, video clips.

3. Adjectives are introduced by demonstrating various objects or pictures having different qualities: colour, size, form, pattern, etc.

4. Numerals- demonstration of pictures, with different numbers of objects in them or demonstration of objects: a clock, calendar, table, time-table, etc.

5. Adverbs can be introduced with the help of a clock - early, late, often, a map- far, near, position, in the classroom, pictures, video clips.

6. Pronouns (personal and possessive) can be introduced with the help of the learners themselves, pictures, positions of objects in the classroom.

7. Prepositions can be introduced with the help of pictures, showing objects in different positions, pictures on the magnetic or flannel-board.

Verbal techniques include usage of synonyms, antonyms, definitions, context, word-building elements, etc.

e.g. a cellar- is a room under a house.

The second way of presentation is translation.

Translation can be of two types:

1. translation proper- giving an equivalent in the native language: to jump- прыгать

2. translation- interpretation, besides giving an equivalent, the teacher explains the meaning of the word and its usage: to enter (a house, an university, to register)

All the ways of presentation of new words have both their advantages and drawbacks. Translation saves time and provides for accurate understanding of the meaning of the words. But the choice of the way of presentation depends on many factors: visual ways are used at early stages of teaching, verbal ways are used at intermediate and senior stages, while translation can be used at all the stages of teaching, but mostly in senior forms. The factors to be taken into consideration while choosing the method of introduction of new words are the following:

1) psychological

2) pedagogical

3) linguistic

The psychological factors are:

1) The students’ age;

2) The students’ mental abilities;

The pedagogical factors are:

1) The stages of teaching;

2) The number of students in the group;

3) The time allotted to this activity;

The linguistic factors are:

1) The type of the word: abstract, concrete, form word.

2) The meaning of the word (compared to the word of the native language)

The teacher’s preparation:

1) The teacher decides how many words to introduce at a time.

2) The teacher analyzes the new words as to the difficulties (forms, meaning, usage) and groups them accordingly.

3) The teacher chooses the ways of introduction.

4) The teacher prepares explanation of each word and chooses all the necessary visual aids.

5) The teacher chooses exercises for consolidation and determines their sequence.

 

The system of exercises for teaching vocabulary.

The aim of teaching vocabulary is to teach students not only to know words but to use them in communication. What is necessary to be able to use words in communication?

1) To recollect the word ( to transfer it from your long – term memory into short term memory)

2) To be able to combine this word with the following words or with the preceding one;

3) To check whether your choice is correct in this situation

 

Thus we can divide the lexical habit into the following sub-habits:

1) the sub-habit of choosing the word in memory

2) the sub-habit of combining the word with other words in different situations.

Accordingly all the lexical exercises are divided into two groups:

1) exercises for teaching students to choose words in memory

2) exercises for teaching students to use words.

 

Examples of exercises

I. Exercises in differention

1) Find the words in the text that belong to this topic

2) Group the words according to some criteria

3) Point out the objects the teacher names

4) Choose the pictures and place them in the order you read about them in the text

5) Arrange the words in the alphabetical order

6) Find antonyms of these words in the text

7) Underline the new words in the text

8) Find the word you hear in the text.

9) Give nouns that can be used with the verb.

10) Write out the words from the text with such and such prefixes, suffixes etc.

 

 

Exercises in pronunciation.

1. Read the list of words.

2. Read the list of words and repeat them from memory.

3. Look at the Russian words and give their English equivalents.

4. Repeat the words after the speaker.

5. Choose the words you are going to use in your own sentences.

6. Read the affirmative sentence and ask a question.

7. Read the sentence filling in the gaps.

8. Learn the sentence with new words by heart.

9. Look through the text and read the sentence containing new words.

10. Read the words filling in the gaps with letters etc.

 

Substitution exercises.

1. Fill in the gaps with necessary words.

2. Choose the right words and fill in the gaps.

3. Give the age of the people in the picture

4. Make up a dialogue using the given phases.

5. Insert the missing preposition etc.

 

Transformation exercises.

1. Paraphrase the sentence using new words.

2. Change Direct Speech with Reported Speech.

3. Use one word instead of this description.

4. Use synonyms (antonyms) instead these words in the sentence etc.

 

Exercises for teaching students to use the words.

1. Listen to the dialogue, and then make up your own dialogue by analogy.

2. Listen to the beginning of the dialogue and complete it using the new words.

3. Change the monologue with a dialogue using the phrases you learned.

4. Make up a plan of the text you heard.

5. Complete the story.

6. Make up a dialogue using the key words.

7. Use each word in a context, situation etc.

8. Answer the question while reading the text.

9. Make up a monologue (dialogue) on the topic etc.

 

To fix the new words in students’ mind and to teach them to use the words the teacher has to solve three problems:

1. the member of exercises

2. the types of exercises

3. the order of exercises

To solve these problems the teacher must take in account the following factors:

1) the aim of learning the word. If the word belongs to the active vocabulary it is necessary to use all kinds of exercises;

2) the character (nature) of the word. If the word is difficult for learning the teacher should use more exercises.