Sometimes it is better to have it small.. Size Matters in Teaching Vocabulary in EFL IATEFL 2011,...
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Transcript of Sometimes it is better to have it small.. Size Matters in Teaching Vocabulary in EFL IATEFL 2011,...
Sometimes it is better to have it small..
Size Matters in Teaching Vocabulary in EFL
IATEFL 2011, April 14-19The 45 Annual Convention and Exhibition, Brighton
Burcu Tezcan-Unal, April 18Istanbul Bilgi University, Laureate Network Universities
How many words are there?Does knowing a word mean that you know
the meaning of that word?
a)13 b) 11 c) 9
Session StagesIntroductionA race for answers on Vocabulary size, text coverage
and word listsWhat’s knowing a word?Transforming vocabulary into long-term memoryCharacteristics of Effective Vocabulary TasksBİLGİ Vocabulary ProjectQuestions and comments
1. What is a ‘word family’?2. How many ‘word families’ does the large Webster’s dictionary contain? 3. How many words are there in English language when all the words (root words,
derivatives, borrowed words, scientific, technical words, etc. ) are included?4. How many ‘word families’ does a typical 5-year-old English native speaker
know? 5. How many ‘word families’ does an average adult native speaker KNOW? 6. How many ‘word families’ does an educated native speaker USE actively? 7. How many new words does a native speaker child learn a year when s/he starts
school? 8. What percentage text coverage do you get if you know 2,000 ‘word families’ ?
9. How many word families do you need to know to achieve a 97,8% text
coverage? 10. How many words would allow minimum autonomy to a second language
learner?11. How many words would allow a second language learner to read a text without
the constant need of referring to the teacher or a dictionary (text coverage of 84%)?
12. How many ‘word families’ would allow a second language learner to follow an academic program at tertiary level?
Questions
15,851 1,000
3,000
128,000
A collection of words whose stem has the same meaning, e.g. decide, decision, decisive, decisively..
Race for Answers
84%
2,000,000
The highest frequency 2,000 and 570 academic word families (used frequently across a wide range of disciplines).
4,000-5,000
10,000-12,000
18,000-20,000
Answers and notes1. What is a ‘word family’? A collection of words whose stem has the same meaning,
e.g. decide, decision, decisive, decisively..2. How many ‘word families’ does the large Webster’s
dictionary contain? 128,000 3. How many words are there in English language when all the
words (root words, derivatives, borrowed words, scientific, technical words, etc. ) are included?
2,000,000The question is actually hard to answer because English keeps getting new words – probably in excess of 500 per year are added in major dictionaries.
4. How many ‘word families’ does a typical 5-year-old English native speaker know?
4,000-5,0005. How many ‘word families’ does an average adult native
speaker know? 18,000-20,000
Answers and notes (cont.)6. How many ‘word families’ an educated
native speaker use actively?10,000-12,000 7. How many new words does a native speaker
child learn a year when s/he starts school?1,000
Answers and notes8. What percentage text coverage do you get if
you know about 2,000 ‘word families’ ?84.0%9. How many word families do you need to know
to achieve a 97,8% text coverage?15,851 NOTE: The gap is huge and the gain is not much of a difference- strategy
training is a must as very very few non-native speakers reach to this size of vocabulary
from O’Keefe, McCarthy, Carter, 2007
The Good News...11. How many words would allow minimum autonomy to
a second language learner? 2,00012. How many words would allow a second language
learner to read a text without the constant need of referring to the teacher or a dictionary (text coverage of 84%)?
3,00013. How many ‘word families’ would allow a second
language learner to follow an academic program at tertiary level?
The highest frequency 2,000 and 570 academic word families (used frequently across a wide range of disciplines. )- more useful than the third 1,000 chosen by overall frequency in modern English.
PS: These academic items have been shown to form 8.5% of a corpus of academic texts, and to be well spread across disciplines; and indeed form over 4.5% of newspaper text.
In short..All the remaining 124,000 word families in
Webster ‘s dictionary only constitute between 7.8% (conversation) and 15.7% (newspapers) of texts.
It is obviously desirable for fluent speakers to acquire a knowledge of a substantial number
of these, but they would have low priority for explicit vocabulary teaching.
Resource Nation, I.S.P. Learning Vocabulary in Another Language, Cambridge Applied
Linguistics, 2001, UK, CUP, Nation& Waring- Vocabulary size, text coverage and word lists, page 8. form
Vocabulary, Description, Acquisition and Pedagogy, edited by Schmitt N, McCarthy M. Cambridge Language Teaching Libarary, 1997, UK, CUP
What’s knowing a word? To understand it when it is spoken and /or written To recall it when you need it To use it with the correct meaning To use it in a grammatically correct way To pronounce it correctly To know which other words you can use with it To spell it correctly To use it in right situation To know if it has positive or negative associations
Taken from Learning to learn English, A course in Learner Training, Ellis G. & Sinclair B., CUP, 1989
How are Words Remembered?
The Atkinson-Shiffrin model, 1968
How did/do you transform the words you learn into long-term memory?
How/when do your students transform vocabulary into long-term memory?
How can vocabulary be transformed into long-term memory?
Repetition (What is important is the number of encounters with the word )
Retrieval: (Using the new word in written sentences)
Spacing: (Distributed practice)
Use: (Use it or lose it )
Cognitive Depth: (The more decisions the learner makes about a word the better the word is remembered-negotiating meaning)
Personal Organizing: (keeping notebooks, word cards, etc)
Imaging: (Studies show that easily visualized words are more memorable than words that don’t evoke a picture)
Identifying & Recognizing SelectingMatchingCategorizingRanking and SequencingPersonalization/Production
Vocabulary Task Types
Cognitive depth (i.e. getting the Ss brain working!)
Affective depth (i.e. making it personal in some way, getting the Ss to relate the language to their own life).
Contextualizing (even just at sentence level, also helps Ss understand it and store it).
Using synonyms, antonyms and hyponymsAwareness of Affixation Including the Grammar of words (Colligation)
Helping with the Phonetics and the Spelling
Awareness of CollocationsConsidering Different Learning Styles
Characteristics of Effective Vocabulary Tasks
Activity
Read the sentence and guess the meaning of the words in bold.
1.Quebec has excellent restaurants, so visitors can eat well.
a) dangerousb) too expensivec) very good
TypeIdentifying & Recognizing SelectingMatchingCategorizing
Ranking and SequencingPersonalization/Production
CharacteristicsCognitive depth
Affective depth Contextualizing Using synonyms, antonyms and hyponyms
Awareness of Affixation
Including the Grammar of words
Helping with the Phonetics/ the Spelling
Awareness of collocations
xx x
x
x
x
ActivityWORD SEARCH
Find the hidden colours in the following Word Search puzzle and circle them. S R E D F I H G R E E N L L I X N E O R B E U L B S R D B L A C K F T
x
x
Characteristics
Cognitive depth
Affective depth
Contextualizing
Using synonyms, antonyms and hyponyms
Awareness of Affixation
Including the Grammar of words
Helping with the Phonetics/ the Spelling
Awareness of collocations
TypeIdentifying & Recognizing
SelectingMatchingCategorizing
Ranking and SequencingPersonalization/Production
Vocabulary Task Analysis II
Activity
Below is Richard’s list of favorite hobbies.
Rank the following free time activities in an order (from your most favorite to the least).
•Hiking•Swimming•Fishing•Dancing•Going to the cinema
Type
Identifying & Recognizing
Selecting
Matching
Categorizing
Ranking and Sequencing
Personalization/Production
Characteristics
Cognitive depth
Affective depth
Contextualizing
Using synonyms, antonyms and hyponyms
Awareness of Affixation
Including the Grammar of words
Helping with the Phonetics/ the Spelling
Awareness of collocations
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Activity
Choose 5 characteristics of an ideal partner for you from the list below and write why they are important for you .
GenerousCompassionateHonestSuccessfulConfidentConsiderateRomanticHelpfulEducated
TypeIdentifying & Recognizing SelectingMatchingCategorizing
Ranking and SequencingPersonalization
Vocabulary Task Analysis III
x
x
x
x
CharacteristicsCognitive depth
Affective depth Contextualizing Using synonyms, antonyms and hyponyms
Awareness of Affixation
Including the Grammar of wordsHelping with the Phonetics/ the Spelling
Awareness of collocations
xxx
BİLGİ Vocabulary ProjectMain Aim: • To introduce and recycle 2000 words and 587
academic words in prep and in the first year program (to reach 80%+text coverage)
Sub-aims:to create a common understanding of word
frequency both for prioritizing teaching and learning vocabulary.
to create a target vocab focus for the course books in the program and for each week for teaching and assessment purposes
BİLGİ Vocabulary ProjectStages1.Scanning the word lists of Touchstone Books, CUP 1-
4 in terms of the most frequent 2000 words from GSL2.Scanning the word lists of Strategic Reading and
Academic Encounters for 587 AWL3.Giving training on Vocab frequency to the teachers4.Selecting the words to organise recycling
activities/games/ puzzles (to be used as part of the weekend worksheets, in the CALL centres, as online activities, in BWC, etc.)
5.Incorporating the target vocab materials into the programme.
6.Check effectiveness of this awareness
What type of activities are necessary?Step 1 Recognition/Identification/ Introduction to the
itemsStep 2 Negotiation of meaningStep 3 Production /Personalization
Some Activity Worksheet Samples are in another document
Coker B, Teaching Vocabulary, 9 Eylül UniversityLaufer B & Hulstijn J- Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition in a
Second Language: the Construct of Task-Induced Involvement, Applied Linguistics 22/1:1-26 Oxford University Press
McCharty M., O’Keeffe A., Walsh S. Vocabulary Martix Understanding, Learning, Teaching, 2010, UK, Heinle Cengage Learning
Nation, I.S.P. Learning Vocabulary in Another Language , Cambridge Applied Linguistics, 2001, UK, CUP
Nation, P. & M. McCarthy (eds) 1997 Vocabulary, Description, Acquisition and Pedagogy, Cambridge Language Teaching Libarary, UK, CUP
Nation& Waring- Vocabulary size, text coverage and word lists, page 8. form Vocabulary, Description, Acquisition and Pedagogy, edited by Schmitt N, McCarthy M. Cambridge Language Teaching Library, 1997, UK, CUP
O’Keefe A., McCarthy M. & Carter R. From Corpus to Classroom, 2007, UK, Cambridge University Press
Resource
For the handouts and any further information