Quality
• Meaning:
What meaning does this form of the word have?
For example:
Drink (noun) vs. drink (verb)
Quality
• Associations:
What other words does this word make you think of?
For example:drink - water - thirsty
Quality
• Grammatical Patterns:
In what patterns does the word occur?
transitive vs. intransitive verbsTwo-word verbs: talk about
Prepositions: drink of N
Quality
• Collocations:
What words or type of words occur with this word?
Example:
Get a drink
Have a drink
Take a drink
Quality
• Restrictions on Use (Register differences):
Where, when, and how often would you expect to meet this word?
Is the word:
Informal (casual)
Formal
Quantity
If students know the most frequent 1,000 words of English, they should be able to understand 72% of the words on the page of a book, newspaper, or magazine
Known
Unknown
Quantity
Known
Unknown
If students know the most frequent 2,000 words of English, they should be able to understand 80% of the words on the page of a book, newspaper, or magazine
Quantity
Known
Unknown
If students know the most frequent 3,000 words of English, they should be able to understand 84% of the words on the page of a book, newspaper, or magazine
Quantity
Known
Unknown
If students know the most frequent 4,000 words of English, they should be able to understand 86% of the words on the page of a book, newspaper, or magazine
Quantity
In order to understand 95% of the words on a page of a book, newspaper, or magazine, students need to know approximately 12,500 words
In order to understand 99% of the words on a page of a book, newspaper, or magazine, students need to know approximately 44,000 words
Academic Vocabulary
If the goal is to read academic writing (textbooks, etc) and write academic papers
(essays, etc), students can save time and effort by focusing on academic vocabulary
What is Academic Vocabulary?
Academic Vocabulary is a specialized vocabulary of 570 word families that
commonly appear in all academic textbooks, regardless of content area
Academic Vocabulary Learning
In general vocabulary learning, to go from 80% understanding to 86% understanding would require students to learn 2,000 more word families
In academic vocabulary learning, to go from 80% understanding to 86% understanding would require students to learn 570 more word families
Active Learning Strategy 1
• Semantic Mapping:
Making a graphic representation of the relationship between words
Active Learning Strategy 2
• Definition Mapping:
Working with grammar, meaning,
and sample sentences
Personalized Learning Strategy 1
• Choosing words:
Identify key concepts and the words required to understand these concepts
Personalized Learning Strategy 3
• Choosing words:
Identify meaningful similarities and differences among the concepts / words
being studied
Personalizing Words (Summary)
• Students identify key concepts or important terms they need to learn within a text.
• Students construct a semantic network around each of the selected key concepts.
• Students think of examples or potential applications of the key concepts and record these examples on the definition worksheet.
• Students identify meaningful similarities and differences among the different concepts being studied.
Immersion in Words
• Opportunity 2:
Help students become aware of words and how they are used in the input they
receive
Immersion in Words
• Opportunity 3:
Help students try to use new / interesting words in their speaking and writing
Principle #4
Students should get multiple sources of information to learn words through
repeated exposures
Summary4 Principles of Vocabulary Learning
• Students should be active in developing their understanding of words and ways to learn them
• Students should personalize their word learning
• Students should be immersed in words• Students should use multiple sources of
information to learn words through repeated exposures
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