1 VOCABULARY
1 VOCABULARY
The main task of a language is to serve as a means of communication. People express their feelings, ideas and opinions to other people mainly through words and body language. Words have a central place in culture and everyday life. All the words which are used in a particular language are vocabulary. Learners who learn a foreign language have to devote time and efforts to the acquisition of many of its aspects, such as the four basic skills, grammar and vocabulary as well. We consider vocabulary even more important than grammar, and therefore the first chapter is going to talk about vocabulary and words in general.
1. VOCABULARY AS A SYSTEM
Kvetko (1999:6) regards a language “as a system of levels: phonic, grammatical and lexical. Each of the levels constitutes a system in itself. These subsystems are linked and mutually interdependent.” This signifies that vocabulary is a part of the language system, in much the same way as it is a system itself. For this purpose, Kvetko (1999:7) further explains: “vocabulary is the system of lexico-semantic interdependent items (words or fixed collocations). It is the least stable system and has a relatively unlimited number of items in it. The openness of vocabulary lies in the fact that it is constantly changing, bringing in new words from other languages, losing words, adapting others to new conditions, etc.”
In the conditions of schools and education, we need to be aware of what the term vocabulary means.
Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2003:1423) defines vocabulary as “all the words known and used by a particular person” and as “all the words which exist in a particular language or subject”.
Ur (1996:60) (in Hrehovčík, Uberman, 2003:130) describes vocabulary “as the words we teach in the foreign language. However, a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word: for example, post office and mother-in-law, which are made up of two or three words but express a single idea. There are also multi-word idioms such as call it a day, where the meaning of the phrase cannot be deduced from an analysis of the component words. A useful convention is to cover all such cases by talking about vocabulary ‘items’ rather than ’words’.”
Various sources differentiate between ‘active’ or ‘productive’ and ‘passive’ or ‘receptive’ vocabulary. Hrehovčík and Uberman (2003:140) assert:
“Active (productive) vocabulary refers to language items, which can be recalled and used appropriately by learners in speech and writing; this range includes words which students will need to understand as well as use themselves.” In addition, learners need to know the contexts in which the lexical items can occur, their possible collocations and “more details of the connotational meaning of the word” (Lewis and Hill, 1992:99, in Hrehovčík, Uberman, 2003:140).
“Passive (receptive) vocabulary, as opposed to its active counterpart, describes language items, which can only be recognised and understood in the context”. Here belong words, which teachers want students to understand (e.g. while reading a text), but which they will perhaps not need to use themselves. “If a student has passive knowledge of a certain item, its meaning will be recognised when it occurs in context” (Hrehovčík, Uberman, 2003:140).
However, encountering and understanding a word are seldom enough. When we meet people, depth and interaction are necessary if the encounter is to be meaningful and memorable. Thus the attention is to be paid not only to passive knowledge of a word, but also to its active usage and performance. To put it in another way, students have to get a chance to work with words, interact with them, practice and employ them while performing different skills.
We would like to round off these paragraphs by saying that vocabulary acquisition is central to the theory and practice of English language teaching and learning. Teachers have to recognise the need to devote time to vocabulary teaching. They should focus not only on students’ learning processes, but also on the understanding and active usage of vocabulary items by students. In fact, they should concentrate on developing both, active and passive vocabulary. If students do not use and understand the lexical system of the target language, they will not be able to communicate and interact with foreigners, even if they are good at grammar. Therefore learners have to experiment with the new language and its vocabulary, if teachers wish to make the learning experience meaningful and memorable to them.
1 WORD
The stock of vocabulary consists of countless words, or items. Language learners need to learn the lexis of the language. They need to know what words mean and how they are used. On the following pages we are going to concentrate on a word, what knowing a word means, and what else needs to be taken into consideration about a word.
The definition of a word is one of the most difficult tasks in linguistics and has been an issue of some controversy. There occur many definitions of a word, given by numbers of linguists and theorists. Štekauer (2000:137) gives these thoughts and definitions:
“Word (not a compound word) is a sequence of sounds (rarely a single sound) or its representation in writing that communicates a meaning… It cannot be divided into smaller units of independent use … Also, a word cannot accept any insertion of further material, it is a relatively stable unit which can be arranged in structures with other such units to form sentences of the language.
…In a sense, each word is a lexico-grammatical unit because it belongs to a particular word category, i.e. a class of units with a function they share. One word may function even as a sentence.”
Furthermore, Štekauer (2000:63) claims that “a ‘word’ is a semantic entity, namely, that it is a linguistic unit of a single meaning. In other words, a ‘word’ is believed to convey one complete thought.”
Kvetko (1999:35) distinguishes among the following types of words:
– “simple words, which cannot be broken down into smaller meaningful units: play, bed, house, nice;
– derived words – derivates (formed from a simple word/base by adding an affix): disadvantage, player, impossible, frighten, nicely;
– compound words – compounds: (made up of two or more words/bases): bedroom, sportsman, armchair, mother-in-law, good-tempered.”
2 KNOWING A WORD
In order to ‘know a word’ students need to be familiar with many facets of it. Namely they should acquire its written and spoken form that is how words are spelt and how they sound. They should also be aware of its meaning, collocations, word formation processes, and of how the form of a word can be changed. Moreover, students must bear in mind not only the grammatical rules while interacting with the language, but the word grammar as well. We can see that the acquisition of a word is really complex.
What does ‘knowing a word’ mean?
People uninterested in linguistics and methodology may assume that ‘to know’ a word means to know its meaning. However, we suppose that the answer to this question is more difficult. We presume this because of everything that has been written above. We understand that a word may have more than just one meaning, that we have to know its potentials in regard of word-formation processes and collocations, and so on.
At the same time, however, we see that it is impossible to know everything about every single English word. Thus we doubt a bit “the following conditions that every learner needs to fulfill in order to fully know a word (introduced by Faerch, et al. 1984:99, in Hrehovčík, Uberman, 2003:136):
– the learner must know the full meaning potential of the word, not just one specific meaning
– the learner must know what the appropriate situations are for using the word
– the learner must know in what ways the word can combine with other words (e.g. collocational restrictions)
– the learner must know the relations between the word and the other words within a lexical set (relations of hyponymy, antonymy, etc.)”
All the conditions presented above suggest a big difficulty in everyday school practice. It is unrealistic to teach students all the potential meanings of a word, or to present the whole range of collocations to them. At the elementary level these tasks are unachievable for learners, and it is not much better at the intermediate level. In our opinion, even native speakers would have problems in fulfilling the above-mentioned requirements. Thus teachers should decide which meanings, collocations, situational usages, and relations among words they would emphasise in order to pass on the information needed in that particular situation of the teaching/learning process.
It seems valuable to teach words/vocabulary in context. The context gives learners an opportunity to see words in their environments, to see how they behave and interact together. Furthermore, the context enables learners to classify vocabulary items into sets, and learners will thus remember the topical linkages of individual words. The words’ collocations are naturally acquired through contexts, too.
1.2.1.1 PRONUNCIATION
An important part of learning a word is learning its spoken form, i.e. its pronunciation. The oral form of the word makes it distinguishable from the other utterances. Without the correct pronunciation of the word listeners would not understand what one is trying to say. Moreover, the tendency is to let learners meet the spoken form of the word firstly, and only after that they can be given the written form of the word. This is done because the spelling of the word may coax learners to pronounce the word wrongly, e.g. chair is often pronounced as /chair/.
Hrehovčík, Uberman (2003:105) define pronunciation as “the way in which a language or a particular word is sounded”. Without an appropriate utterance of the sounds, and consecutively the words, no speaker can be understood.
There are three main aspects we need to know about English pronunciation:
a) Sounds
Words are made up of individual sounds. When writing, sounds are represented by phonetic symbols (/m/, /i:/, and /f/ for example). This is because there is no one-to-one correspondence between the number of written letters and spoken sounds. Thus the ‘s’ of ‘see’ is pronounced differently from the ‘s’ of ‘shop’, but is the same as the ‘s’ of ‘smile’. ‘Though’ and ‘rough’ all have the ‘-ou-‘ spelling but it is pronounced differently in each case. Different spellings can have the same sound too: ‘fear’ and ‘beer’ both have the same vowel sound, but they are spelt differently.
Even by changing one sound the word and its meaning can be changed. If we replace the beginning sounds of the words: ‘thin’, ‘sin’, ‘tin’, ‘fin’, we get different meanings and the conversation is misunderstood. Therefore it is important to utter attentively every single sound.
While pronouncing words students need to be able to produce various sounds which occur in the English language. Whereas in writing we distinguish 5 vowel and 21 consonant letters, in the spoken form of the language the situation dramatically changes. Here we have to choose from the set of 20 various vowel sounds (including diphthongs) and 24 consonant sounds. This implies that many letters can represent more than one sound. To avoid problems in uttering the words, phonemic transcription can be used to give learners the opportunity to write down the correct pronunciation of individual words.
b) Stress
Stress is the emphasis placed on parts of words and sentences. In English language the stress is not fixed, which means it falls on different syllables in various words.
The stressed syllable is that part of a word, which has the greatest emphasis, e.g. ‘exclusive’, ‘include’, ‘medium’ etc. In longer words there are usually both the main stress and the secondary stress, e.g. communication, where ‘mu’ has the secondary stress and ‘ca’ the main stress. In addition, different varieties of English can often stress words differently. For example, British English speakers usually say ‘advertisement’ whereas the Americans say ‘advertisement’. The placing of the stress can also affect the meaning of a word. For example, ‘export’ is a noun, but ‘export’ is a verb.
Teachers use various symbols to show the stress, e.g.
‘teacher performance report enlargement
c) Pitch and intonation
Pitch describes the level at which we speak. We may use a variety of different levels: higher when we are excited or terrified, for example, but lower when we are sleepy or bored. Intonation is often described as the music of speech. It is crucial for getting our meaning across. The word ‘Yes’, for example, can be said with a falling voice, a rising voice or a combination of the two. By changing the direction of the voice we can make ‘Yes’ mean ‘I agree’ or ‘perhaps it’s true’ or ‘you can’t be serious’ or ‘wow, you are so right’ or any number of other things (Harmer, 1997:51).
3 SPELLING
The written form of a word is significant in the vocabulary acquisition, too. In our opinion, learners should be given the written form of the word only after acquiring the spoken form. Otherwise, students could utter the word wrongly on the base of its spelling.
There are many words similar in the spelling. A typical example is the pair ‘beer’ and ‘bear’, which are to be pronounced differently, but cause difficulties in distinguishing which word means what. Another quite often-occurring mistake is mixing words like ‘here’, ‘hear’, which are pronounced in the same way, and it can only be inferred from the context which meaning we are trying to convey.
We have to be really attentive and pronounce the word on the basis of its spelling, e.g. ‘bed’ – ‘bad’, ‘red’ – ‘read’, ‘food’ – ‘foot’, etc.
For many classroom learners learning the spoken and written form of a word at the same time is difficult. Many methodologists (for instance Hrehovčík, Uberman, 2003) advise to start introducing vocabulary orally, with the attention focused on the correct pronunciation and the stress. And only after the right acquisition of the spoken form of the word, students may be presented with the written form of it. If done conversely, the written form of the word may be carried out to the oral performance, and the word will be pronounced incorrectly. It is thus beneficial to practice the pronunciation of the word before its written form is introduced.
4 MEANING
Štekauer (2000:140) states that “the lexical unit, as a language sign, is a fusion of form and meaning”. In this sense, a word has its shape, i.e. the written and spoken form, and it also has its meaning, i.e. the idea it conveys.
Almost every word has a meaning, which corresponds to the object or idea it refers to. Learners of a foreign language have to be taught words, through which they express their thoughts and opinions. In fact, by means of words, we transfer their meanings to our listeners or readers.
The term meaning is rather ambiguous. There exist some phenomena, introduced by Kvetko (1999:8), which are accounted for when thinking of meaning:
– “a word can have more than one meaning: head (a part of the body, a leader, a part of the top of an object);
– different words can have the same/similar meanings: small – little;
– some pairs of words have opposite meanings: short – tall;
– the meaning of some words can be analysed into components: mare (female, horse);
– the meanings of some words are included in the meanings of others: plant (tree – birch), etc.”
In compliance with Štekauer (2000:140) “lexical meaning is a communicative value”. A word with its meaning “is a structure with a central core, a periphery, and with various values that go with the central content, with the denotation. These extra values are the connotations, such as the stylistic and the pragmatic value. To know the full meaning of a lexical unit, however, implies also knowing its external relationships. In other words, the meaning of a word is to be treated in terms of how it functions in various sentences, i.e. in communicative situations.”
Hrehovčík, Uberman (2003:132) contribute to the topic of meanings and deal with connotation. “Connotation refers to the way a vocabulary item reflects speaker’s attitude or emotions”; e.g. Jon is a single man differs from Jon is a bachelor.
From the point of view of learners, Hrehovčík and Uberman identify three main areas of connotation:
– “intrinsic connotation - certain items intrinsically have a positive or negative connotation; e.g. kiss, naive;
– speaker’s attitude – the understanding of the same item or expression used by speakers in different contexts may vary; e.g. popular: This hotel is very popular with tourists. It is a popular misconception that all women love shopping;
– socio-cultural associations – there is a whole range of associations with certain items that native speakers possess and share with the entire society; e.g. Friday the 13th, April the 1st.”
What this implies is that it is essential for words/phrases to be encountered in a context and then their connotations become clear to learners. Moreover, it may also be useful to contrast words of the language in terms of connotations.
What do learners need to know about meaning?
We adopt Hrehovčík’s (2003:131) thoughts: “When a student comes across an unknown word, he/she should try to decipher its meaning from the context it is used in – it is thus necessary for students to understand the importance of meaning in context. Furthermore, sometimes words have meanings in relation to other words – so there is a need for students to become familiar with the conceptual meaning as well as with certain sense relations.” In other words, students should ignore unknown words and comprehend the ideas of a text globally.
As to the conceptual meaning, Hrehovčík and Uberman (2003:131,132) differentiate between polysemy and homonymy. According to them:
a) “polysemy is a term referring to a single word form with several different but closely related meanings; e.g. the ‘head’ of a person, the ‘head’ of a pin, the ‘head’ of an organization, etc.;
b) homonymy describes a single word form with several different meanings which are not closely related; e.g. a ‘file’ may be used for keeping papers in, or it may be a tool for cutting or smoothing hard substances.”
The expression sense relations covers three main terms:
a) “synonymy refers to a group of words that share a general sense and so may be interchangeable in a limited number of contexts”; e.g. extend/expand/increase; rich/wealthy/well-off, etc.;
b) “antonymy is a term describing a variety of different forms of ‘oppositeness’”; e.g. husband/wife, big/small, nice/ugly, etc.;
c) “hyponymy deals with the relationship of inclusion, organises words into taxonomies or hierarchical tree-type diagrams”:
FRUIT
apple orange banana kiwi pear plum etc.
Words such as ‘apple’ or ‘plum’ are the hyponyms of ‘fruit’, while ‘fruit’ is the superordinate term; words such as ‘orange’, ‘pear’, that are on the same level in the taxonomy, are called co-hyponyms.
We firmly believe that teachers as well as students need to be aware of the fact that words occur in context. Words do not just exist on their own; they live with other words and they depend upon each other. When students learn words in context they are far more likely to remember them than if they learn them as single items. That is why reading and listening play such a part in the acquisition of vocabulary.
In order to conclude, the meaning together with the form belongs to the basic features of every word. The meaning gives the notion of the word. Through meanings speakers express whatever they wish. A word is more useful if it covers more ideas than if it only has one very specific meaning. An interesting point is the word’s connotation. Each word may influence listener’s perception individually. When we wish our language to sound more rhetorically, we should not forget such facets as conceptual meaning and sense relations. There is a number of expressions, which represent a variety of meanings, whether synonymous or antonymous. Words can further be classified into some general concepts according to their characteristics and basic features.
1.2.1.4 COLLOCATION
Even though words enter into strings which show basic grammatical relations between them, some partnerships between words are primarily semantic or occur because they simply belong together.
We are going to look at collocation, a particular feature of vocabulary use, which language speakers need to be familiar with. Hrehovčík, Uberman (2003:133) explain collocation as “the organization of lexical items according to words which go with each other; when two items co-occur, or are used together frequently, they are said to collocate; e.g. headache, stomach-ache, but not *throatache, or *legache, etc”.
Some words live happily together and other words do not. There are collocations which work, and collocations which do not. E.g. we can say ‘make the bed’ but not *’make the housework’ (we use ‘do the housework’), we can say ‘harmful/damaging effects’, but not *‘bad effects’ etc.
1.2.1.5 WORD BUILDING PROCESSES
The form and grammatical value of words can be changed so that they can be used as different parts of speech. We agree with Hrehovčík‘s (2003:133,134) assumption that “students need to be presented with and taught word formation as well as how words might be changed or reformulated to fit different grammatical contexts”.
Among the most characteristic English word building processes are affixation, compounding and conversion.
In the affixation prefixes and suffixes are added to the base item. This process allows the modification of meaning and change from one part of speech to another, e.g.: friend+ly = friendly, im+possible = impossible, etc. Students are to be taught the meanings of different affixes and suffixes, and how they go together with base forms, e.g. prefix un- when attached to an adjective makes it negative (unhappy).
By the means of compounding new words are formed from two or more separate words that can stand independently, i.e. they are of independent meanings, e.g.: adjective compounds: bad-tempered, self-centred, verb compounds: to windsurf, to sightsee, noun compounds: jam jar, bus stop.
The conversion (zero affixation) enables to use items in different parts of speech without changing their forms, e.g.: Can I have a look at your new skateboard? (noun); Tom doesn’t look his age at all (verb); certain examples of conversion involve phonological changes, e.g.: There are restrictions on foreign ‘import (noun); We im’port most of our coal from other countries (verb).
Furthermore, there are other processes which operate within the English lexicon: coining (invention of new words), blending (two words are put together to form a new one, e.g. breakfast + lunch = brunch) and clipping (shortening longer words e.g. flu from influenza).
Teachers should teach their students the word formation processes in order to let them see how a word can change its form and meaning. Learners will then become aware of individual parts of speech and learn their functions within a sentence.
12 WORD GRAMMAR
Vocabulary together with a grammatical structure is helpful in expressing the meaning which speakers want to convey. Grammatical knowledge allows speakers to create sentences, but at the same time it is the store of words which speakers select from when they wish to express meanings.
When speaking about vocabulary, it is worth mentioning the word grammar, since “the use of certain words can trigger the use of certain grammatical patterns” (Harmer, 1991:157). As an illustration, we have to consider whether the verb is regular (to walk) or not (to go), transitive (to prefer) or intransitive (to sleep), whether the noun is countable (a chair) or uncountable (furniture), the plural form is regular (a pupil) or irregular (a child), the noun is associated with a preposition (curiosity about), the adjective is followed by a preposition (different from), etc.
To sum up, learning and knowing a word is very complex competence which requires an enormous effort. Learners should have in mind the right choice of vocabulary with respect to the situation, and meaning they want to convey. They should focus on the proper pronunciation while speaking, correct spelling while writing, and also they have to consider the grammatical rules of the language and words themselves. The utterance has to make sense along with what has already been said before and with the purpose of the speech.
2. OTHER ISSUES TO BE TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION
Many students experience difficulties while learning a foreign language, and English is no exception. Besides knowing many facets about a word, there are other issues teachers and learners have to take into consideration. First, within different languages there occur words which can be similar in the form, yet do not necessarily mean the same. Second, words use to belong to certain groups according to various criteria. Last, learners may acquire a word through creating a personal relationship with it.
1.2.2.1 SIMILAR WORDS WITHIN MORE LANGAUGES
Now we look at that part of vocabulary which occurs within more languages.
According to Thornbury (2002) (in Hrehovčík, Uberman, 2003:136-137), “the least problematic instances are those words that are similar in both form and meaning to their equivalents in a learner’s mother tongue”, e.g. argument – argument, to comment - komentovať. “When the words are of a common origin, i.e. they are cognates, they are easily transferable from one language to another” (e.g. German das Haus – English house) and learning the words is then easier. “Similarly, when words are borrowed from a foreign language - loan words, and enter lexical stock of a mother tongue, it is not difficult to acquire their meaning”, e.g. international – Slovak internacionálny, routine – Slovak rutina. “Problems crop up, however, when learners come across false friends”, such as English actually and Slovak aktuálne, or sympathetic and Slovak sympatický, which look similar, yet have a distant meaning.
Teachers should teach their students to become attentive to every word. They have to know discrepancies between the words of the mother tongue and their similar ‘equivalents’ in the target language. Students should be alerted that although some words seem similar, they do not often have the same meaning.
1.2.2.2 WORD SETS
Vocabulary is a system organised in a special way, consisting of a series of interrelating subsystems. Words may belong to different groups, in respect of many possible aspects. Words can be related to other ones morphologically, semantically, and stylistically; they may be grouped according to their emotional colouring, regional variations, etc. We see that there are different types of grouping of vocabulary used for different purposes. The simplest system of arrangement seems to be the alphabetical organisation of words in dictionaries.
The vocabulary, which learners are expected to learn, is usually split up into ‘word fields’. It is supposed that the acquisition process is then easier for them.
According to Misztal (1997:7-8) there are two principal reasons for studying vocabulary in thematic sets. Firstly, students often feel that they learn vocabulary a bit accidentally. Putting the words into lexical sets makes their study more structured. Secondly, since all the words in a lexical set are related, students have an immediate clue of what a previously unknown word may mean.
On the other hand, we do not always agree about the categories which we set up: we divide the words in quite different ways according to our culture, upbringing, mother tongue, personal experiences and thoughts. The sets or categories are then far less precise. Even the conventional word set, such as fruit may seem to cause a problem. A pear is obviously a fruit, together with an apple, an orange, and a banana. For the botanist, however, such is a tomato, though few people would agree. For them, it is a vegetable, along with peas, potatoes, and cabbage.
Furthermore, as Morgan and Rinvolucri (2004:101) suggest “we often remember things because they are unusual, and do not fit into a category, and we forget things or muddle them up precisely because they do fit into a category, and lose distinctive, memorable features thereby”.
In spite of some cases, grouping words into the sets seems to be justified. Learners usually prefer learning vocabulary in topic areas; they may consider it more structured and compact. In this way vocabulary acquisition is realised systematically and intentionally.
1.2.2.3 A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH WORDS
Students may form a personal relationship with words they learn. This formation depends on an individual learner, on his/her motives, perception of the world and experiences.
Vocabulary is well learnt at the moments when a student needs it. Personal motivation has a great role in vocabulary learning. Some topics are themselves encouraging for speakers, who will then try to find ways of expressing the meaning despite their lack of knowledge. So when a student really wants to say something, he/she will say it even without knowing that exact word.
Morgan and Rinvolucri (2004:6,7) refer to the topic of the word acquisition from different points of view. They say “learning words is a relational process,” which could be described as “making friends with the words of the target language.” At the same time they ask: “If a word is simply a label, why will second language learners pick up and remember one word apparently effortlessly, while another word, met at the same time and place, will be refused a place in their mind?” They come to conclusion, that “just as a look, a movement, a chance remark, a tone of voice, or something in the setting can influence our first impressions of a person, so our perception of a word can be affected by, for example: its sound, its tune, its pitch, speed of enunciation, the other word company it keeps (collocating ability and breadth), its spelling, its shape on the page or screen, the associations the word has for the individual learner, the circumstances of meeting the word, etc.”
All these factors play a significant role in learning a word. If we take them all into account, then “meeting a word is a process of befriending, of coming to terms with a complex, self-standing reality” (2004:7). We thus form some kind of relationship with a word, and on the basis of creating the attitude we are more likely to acquire/remember the word.
Often we create the relationship with a word on a sensory basis. There are many words, which exude some sensory feeling. You can, for example provide students with the following chart (adapted from Morgan and Rinvolucri, 2004:9):
|eye |ear |bodily feeling |taste/smell |
| | | | |
and ask them to classify certain words, like socks, mother, car into these four columns. Some students may associate their mother through hearing, others know her through bodily feeling, while others imagine her perfume. Later students can compare their sensory categorisation of the words and the room is filled with laughter, as they discover that others mates’ sensory associations are different from theirs.
Creating a personal relation with a word can have a positive effect on its acquisition. The student keeps a word in a memory and calls it out associatively. Thus the whole process of learning and keeping the word in mind is facilitated.
In conclusion, we would like to emphasise that the lexical part of the language is of paramount importance. Without words, the communication and interaction among people would almost be impossible. Vocabulary is a system itself and is the part of the language system as well. Therefore teachers and students have to approach the lexis systematically, no accidentally.
When acquiring a word, we have to pay attention to many important facts about it. Firstly, we have to pronounce it correctly; otherwise we may unconsciously utter an absolutely different word, or a ‘word’ that does not exist in the target language at all, and the misunderstanding appears. Secondly, the spelling of a word is important in the written context. An exchange of letters may change the word meaning which is considered one of the most significant features. Furthermore, we have to take into account connotation, conceptual meanings, and sense relations, as well as collocation, when words occur in strings with other words. If that were not enough, the lexical items often belong to a certain group of words, together with which they create a word set. From another point of view, learners should know the word grammar and word-building processes. Students can even form a personal relationship with a word, although it does not often happen.
As illustrated earlier, to learn and use a word is hard. Learners have to acquire much knowledge about the word before they can say that they know it. In other words, the acquisition process of vocabulary is difficult. It is not enough to learn or memorise the vocabulary items. Students have to work with the lexis, use it actively and implement any new item into the speech or written context. Experimenting with words induces that words remain in the memory.
2. LEARNING STRATEGIES, STYLES, AND LEARNER’S INTELLIGENCE, AGE AND PROFICIENCY
People are individualities. Each learner differs from the other ones in countless ways. While learning, learners apply various learning strategies and make use of different learning styles. There is no distinction while learning a language and its lexical part – vocabulary. When teaching vocabulary, teachers should develop learners’ strategies, and support every learner, regardless of his/her learning style, in order to make the vocabulary acquisition easy and enjoyable for every single learner.
Moreover, a learner can be of various kinds of intelligence, and learners differ in their age and proficiency level, too. These are the other aspects which teachers have to take into account. We will look at the characteristics of the intelligence, age and proficiency levels, which condition the stock of vocabulary and the ways in which it is taught/learnt.
In addition, we will present techniques and activities which are aimed at the effective vocabulary acquisition in accordance with learners’ styles, intelligence, age and proficiency differences.
2.1 LEARNING STRATEGIES
We know from our own experience in learning a foreign language that there is no magic formula for a successful language acquisition. What is required for such success is a persistent use of the whole amount of strategies for learning the language and its vocabulary.
Brown (2001:208) comes with the term “‘strategic investment’ that learners can make in their own learning process”. Learning involves a certain degree of investment of learners’ time and effort. Learners should realise that they learn for themselves and therefore should face the learning process consciously and actively. Every language skill and vocabulary as well is acquired through constant observing, focusing, practising, revising, interacting, and experimenting.
This part provides us with those learning strategies that can be exploited for vocabulary learning. It also suggests several activities for the vocabulary acquisition through these individual strategies.
Oxford (1990) (in Straková, 2004:20) defines learning strategies “as steps taken by students to enhance their own learning”. Carter and Nunan (2001:166) go into details and postulate: “Learning strategies are ‘operations employed by the learner to aid the acquisitions, storage, retrieval and use of information, specific actions taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective and more transferable to new situations’.” Learners may differ in the way they are able to use learning strategies effectively. The task of the teacher is to find out which strategy suits best to individual learners and consequently adapt his/her teaching to learners’ needs.
Learning strategies can be divided according to various criteria. Rebecca Oxford (in Straková, 2004:20-25) divides them into two groups – direct and indirect strategies, which are further subdivided into more categories. We are going to look at the strategies from the point of learning vocabulary, and therefore we are not going to deal with all of them.
From the direct strategies (memory, cognitive and compensation) the most important for learning the lexis are memory and compensation strategies.
I. Memory strategies
Memory strategies (mnemonics) mean remembering effectively and involve meaning. It does not signify that learners have to memorise the words through English – Slovak equivalents. There are other possible activities such as arranging things in order (e.g. adverbs of frequency: never, sometimes, usually, often, always), making associations (e.g. bread and butter), learning the whole lexical units (e.g. be afraid of, be keen on), mastering collocations (e.g. heavy smoker, great opportunity), pairing (e.g. masculine – feminine: cock – hen, deer – doe), labelling pictures, or creating visual images of words.
Vocabulary learners can benefit from the following memory strategies:
1. Creating Mental Linkages – such as:
1. Grouping means putting words into groups on the basis of:
▪ type of word (e.g. adverbs ending in –ly: freely, adjectives ending in –able: applicable);
▪ topic (e.g. words about music: notation, voices, orchestras, instruments);
▪ practical function (e.g. terms for objects occurring in the kitchen: fridge, stove, cooker-hood);
▪ linguistic function (e.g. apology: be sorry, excuse me, regret, feel bad about; suggestions: Why don’t we go to the theatre? Let’s go to the cinema!), when students acquire the functional meaning, and not the grammatical features;
▪ similarity of meaning (e.g. cold, freezing, arctic), etc.
2. Associating/Elaborating – learning not only isolated expressions, but acquiring them together with other words they go with, such as: be interested in, be good at, there is/are, etc.
1.3 Placing New Words into a Context – students are asked to choose an appropriate word from a given box to fill in a gap in the text, e.g. word above can be placed into the sentence: There are stars …… me in the sky.
2. Applying Images such as:
2.1 Using Imagery – the visual image can be an object, a picture, or a drawing on the blackboard, e.g. when we learn fruit or vegetable, it is easy to bring the fruit (or a picture of it) into the classroom. Visuals are justified because of students’ visual intelligence.
2. Semantic Mapping – through this strategy students develop certain scheme of the lexis. They learn vocabulary in topical boxes, therefore they will know in which situation they can use a particular word, or which topic it is connected with. The strategy develops well by the means of word maps, word spiders or mind maps, e.g.
3 Employing Actions through physical response or sensation, e.g. sit down, stand up, wave goodbye, or tasting salt, candy. This strategy supports the kinaesthetic intelligence and may freely be used in the classroom, especially with young children. They can, for instance, move round the classroom, lift up some objects and give them the names, e.g. school bag, pencil, dustbin, chalk.
II. Compensation strategies
Compensation strategies enable learners to compensate for missing knowledge. It means that learners are able to create or comprehend a text despite limitations in the knowledge of a word or phrase. They either guess the meaning of a word when receiving information, or rephrase it in other words while production. There are two basic strategies:
1. Guessing Intelligently in Listening and Reading – this strategy is widely used not only by beginners, but by more advanced speakers, too, and even by the native speakers. E.g. we can guess the meaning of the phrase wet to the skin from the sentence: I became wet to the skin, when the rain suddenly came and I did not have my umbrella with me.
We also have to guess when we have not heard something well enough during the conversation, e.g. I spoke to Fiona about her yesterday evening. She said the ……… was absolutely boring and the actors were awful. We can infer that Fiona was perhaps attending a performance in the theatre, or watching a film on TV.
Guessing is important in vocabulary learning. Since we do not know all the vocabulary items of the target language, we often come across an unknown word. We still are able to comprehend the context, even we are capable of understanding the meaning of the word. And this is the way we get familiar with new words, which often become part of the passive stock of our vocabulary.
2. Overcoming Limitations in Speaking and Writing – we are able to express our ideas without complete knowledge of every single word. In that case, beginners often tend to switch to the mother tongue. However, we can use mime or gestures (for expressing feelings, hesitations, excitement, etc.), ask other people for help, or use a synonym or circumlocution, e.g. if we cannot remember the word integral, we can say something like: You know, it just cannot come to my mind. It is the mathematical operation opposite to derivation, and its symbol is ∫.
To overcome the limitations in speaking is easier than in writing. During a conversation we interact with our listeners and certain speech fillers are allowed. It is not so easy in the written style. We usually have to write precisely, so we often use synonyms and antonyms to cover the limitations. The practice of both skills gives us the opportunity to work with the language, and to realise that we are able to express ourselves even if a particular word cannot come to our mind.
The indirect strategies (metacognitive, affective and social) are important for the whole teaching/learning process. Although they are not specially needed for the vocabulary acquisition, without them the class atmosphere and learners’ mental processes would not be suitable for effective learning. They serve as a supportive background for the use of direct strategies. We are only going to mention the social strategies, since they find their application while teaching/learning the lexis.
III. Social Strategies function on the base of interaction with other people. This is done through communication and a language. Our language has to be cultivated continually and then the communication will serve not only for exchanging information, but also for learning something new.
In the classroom, social strategies can be developed mainly through teamwork, either pair- or group-work. Through cooperation with others, students will learn how to behave, how to express their thoughts and feelings, how to ask for something and how to response. These social skills can easily be trained also through a role-play, acting drama, or participating in dialogues and discussions.
In conclusion, we would like to present Straková‘s (2004:20) suggestion: “strategies are especially important for language learning because they are tools for active, self-directed involvement, which is essential for developing communicative competence. Appropriate language learning strategies result in improved proficiency and greater self-confidence”. Therefore we should not forget the different kinds of strategies; they will certainly find their application while vocabulary teaching/learning.
With learning strategies learners become more autonomous. Students may control their own learning processes, which by the means of learning strategies become easier, faster and more transferable. They may increase students’ perception that they are able to complete a task successfully. In addition, good language learners are supposed to be creative, and they use strategies to help them in comprehension, and thinking in the language.
2.2 LEARNING STYLES
Every learner has his/her own way of learning. These approaches towards learning are called learning styles.
If a teacher discovers students’ individual learning styles, it may result in a higher interest and motivation in the learning process and increase students’ responsibility for their own learning. These changes would result in learning that is more effective (Straková, 2004:18).
Carter and Nunan (2001:167) give the following description: “Learning styles are the broad approaches that each learner brings to language learning or to solving any problem. Examples of learning styles include visual vs. auditory vs. kinaesthetic, global vs. analytic, concrete-sequential vs. intuitive-random, and ambiguity-tolerant vs. ambiguity-intolerant.” We look at the first two fundamental kinds of learning styles. Knowledge of learning styles makes it easier for students to acquire information, because they are aware of which way, or strategy fits them most while learning.
There are two basic types of students reacting differently in the language classroom, either focusing on details or on the main idea:
Analytical students concentrate on details. For example, these students often have to know the meaning of every single word, otherwise they will not continue in reading or speaking. Therefore they often face difficulties during the interaction with a language. They are not willing to abstract, or deduce the meanings. They do not like to guess or paraphrase; they like to be accurate in speech, they prefer principles and rules. That is why such students are very good at grammar. Analytical learners often tend to memorise the words, and learn whole lists of vocabulary by heart.
In contrast, global students are interested in the main idea only. They do not need to know every single word; they will understand the text globally. Such students are communicative, and do not feel embarrassed to replace a certain word or describe it in other words. They have well developed compensation strategies. They are bored while analysing some structures; they prefer speaking activities, where they may show their creativity. Their passive vocabulary is large; they probably do not feel the need to learn more words. The teacher as an initiator has to make them aware that vocabulary learning is meaningful.
Another point worth mentioning is a sensory preference, according to which we distinguish three main groups of learning styles: visual, auditive and kinaesthetic:
Visual students have to ‘see’, and they will associate the information with the visual support. Teachers have to implement as many visuals as possible during vocabulary teaching to allow learners to connect the image with the word. Such students have a visual intelligence, thus all the activities for developing this kind of intelligence are applicable to support the needs of these students.
Auditive/auditory students have the ability to remember the spoken word, rather than the written one. It is sufficient for them to hear the information. Therefore teachers should control their voice, use proper intonation, pitch, stress, and make the sounds interesting. They use tapes, CDs, various records and sounds to transfer the meanings of words. Such learners will enjoy music, and songs, which can be part of many activities for vocabulary development.
Kinaesthetic students have to move and manipulate with objects; they have to have a direct contact with the material. We can motivate them through allowing them the physical movement, such as walking to the blackboard, manipulating with cards, operating in labs, playing games or role-plays, performing drama, simply said all activities which are aimed to support bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence.
Since these styles overlap with certain kinds of intelligence, we will look at them in greater detail later, when discussing the intelligence (see pages 31-35).
To sum up, it is obvious that learners are not limited to only one of those styles mentioned above. Their preference may depend on various factors, e.g. on their present mood, on the learned subject, on the particular moment. However, knowledge of learning styles helps learners choose strategies which comfortably fit with their learning styles, although using and learning others is evidently useful. Here occurs the importance of the teachers’ roles. Teachers should be familiar with students’ styles and then make use of them. They should support these styles and develop them. It is advisable to use different activities through the lesson to give the opportunity for each kind of students to participate actively. There should occur the whole range of activities to make the lesson interesting and motivating for students.
2.3 INTELLIGENCE
From the point of psychologists, e.g. Ruisel (2000), we have to distinguish between two terms: intelligence and intellect. The former is understood as an operational ability of an individual to orientate in new, atypical and non-standard situations. The latter describes the total of knowledge, abilities, skills and routines, which an individual acquires during his/her life. Talent is part of one’s intelligence.
Research studies (Lightbown, 1993:37, in Straková, 2004:13) found out that “some learners can have an exceptional aptitude for learning a certain subject or skill”. Students may have a talent for mathematics, history, sport or languages. These predispositions should be developed and exploited during the learning processes. Numbers of strategies may be used to do so.
Traditionally, the intelligence quotient has been used to determine the intelligence. However, the intelligence quotient usually shows only a range of verbal/linguistic, and logical/mathematical abilities. Straková (2004:13) introduces Dr. Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligence, in which he argues that “people possess a number of distinct intelligences that manifest themselves in different skills and abilities. He claimed that the traditional notion of intelligence, based on I.Q. testing, was too limited and he therefore presented his theory of eight different intelligences to account for a broader range of human potential in children and adults.”
We may infer from everyday practice that our schools tend to focus on linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligence mainly. It seems reasonable that we should also pay enough attention to learners who show other kinds of intelligence. Gardner (in Straková, 2004:14-17) identifies eight types of intelligence and all of them can be supported when teaching/learning vocabulary:
Students with linguistic (verbal) intelligence have the gift of speech. They are communicative, and prefer speaking. They have the auditory memory, know how to work with words and speech.
Vocabulary learners can develop this intelligence through working with words, communication, verbal presentations, conversations, and discussions about various topics. They may choose a theme and create own story, poem, song, or they may implement new words into jokes, puns, and limericks. The intelligence is well developed through word definitions, synonyms or antonyms. A nice game which is based on the principles of the Czech Television programme ‘KUFOR’ benefits from verbal skills. A student is given a card, where a word is written (or a picture of an object is drawn) and he/she should transfer the meaning of that notion through its definition to other students who then decipher what the word is. This is a good way for vocabulary practice or revision.
For learners with spatial/visual intelligence eyes and visual supports are extremely important. Teachers should provide learners with visuals, such as flash cards, pictures, graphs, paintings or drawings, photographs, etc. and are expected to use blackboards, charts, objects or models, utilise various films or sculptures. The classroom should be decorated with the visual supports, where useful information may be presented.
Learners of this intelligence prefer the visual learning style. With these learners, various activities which apply visuals can be used. For instance, matching a word or phrase with a relevant picture, labelling pictures, word mazes and other mapping activities have their place here. Students can create own charts and boards to make use of the entire classroom in order to decorate it and at the same time to utilise the free space in an educational way.
Bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence mostly finds its application with young children, since they often need a lot of movement during the lessons. We may use the activity, where the body language has its role, e.g. for interpreting a meaning or an idea. Students can be divided into pairs; one person has to use the body, mime and gestures to transfer the word meaning to another participant. Learners may join a role-play, or act a drama, and play a character from a book. Furthermore, mime and pantomime may be used to show various feelings, moods, actions and adjectives as well. Learners, especially young children, who require physical activity, can name the objects which are found inside the classroom or school. We can even organise a trip or walk outside the school, e.g. to observe the traffic in the town, its rules and types of the vehicles, and at the same time to learn how to call these notions in the foreign language, i.e. to acquire the lexis, e.g. crossroad, van, truck, wheel, traffic lights, single ticket, etc. The kinaesthetic intelligence is also used when students are to categorise or classify words into columns on the base of some criteria, what is more, they may put their results on the blackboard, e.g. find the pairs of words and prepositions, such as: stare at, worry about, note down, switch off, etc.
Musical (rhythmic) intelligence is mostly supported through music. In the classrooms we can use tape or CD recorders to listen to and sing along, or we can compose our own song. A good choice of a song enables to develop students’ range of vocabulary. To achieve this students may be asked to write down or remember a certain type of vocabulary, e.g. adjectives, verbs, or lexis connected with a topic. A less difficult activity is to provide students with the text of a song with gaps, and students are to listen for a particular word. Songs and music help learners remember certain words, structures, collocations, or phrasal verbs, such as walk on by, prepositional phrases such as smile at me, etc. They also positively influence students’ pronunciation. Auditive learners benefit from music very much. Furthermore, music creates a positive atmosphere among people, so it can be used as a background for a lesson as well.
Logical-mathematical intelligence seems to be restricted to Mathematics only, but it may also be applied, although with limitations, during teaching/learning foreign languages, particularly vocabulary. An example is creating and solving puzzles and riddles, arranging paragraphs in order (with the attention paid to linking words and key words of each paragraph), or putting words into a sentence on the logical base. This also includes the ability to predict what will follow in a text.
Learners can develop this intelligence through analysing words, e.g. from the point of view of the word formation, their origin or common theme, succinctly through discovery techniques. Next good activity is a crossword puzzle, when students try to guess a word by the means of its definition, and at the end they find a solution. For the practice of vocabulary the activity ‘word maths’ serves, when a word is rewritten by means of mathematical symbols, e.g. 30 divided by 3 + tattoo – too + ive = tentative.
Naturalist intelligence can be exploited at the language lessons, too, however it fully depends on the topic. Nature can be brought into the classroom by means of videos, objects, animals, or plants. Students learn characteristics of natural objects, learn how to call their shapes, colours, smells, touches, perhaps tastes and in this way they acquire a lot of vocabulary. Students may use adjectives and certain verbs for the description, such as look like, appear, etc.
Interpersonal intelligence is developed at language lessons through applying social strategies, such as teamwork, peer learning, working on projects in a group, discussing and solving problems, conversations, or explaining own feelings and opinions to others. Communication among learners is necessary together with acceptation and positive regard. Students learn how to react in various situations, how to respond and participate. They learn which language to use, which phrases are forbidden in certain environments, e.g. it is considered offensive to refer to a black person as to a Negro, etc.
An activity for getting familiar with schoolmates is to fix a sheet of paper on one’s back, and then write down his/her characteristics. The one will know his/her qualities and at the same time the one will find out what people think about his/her personality. This activity may serve as a revision of adjectives, too.
The last intrapersonal intelligence has a lot to do with learning styles. Students have to search for their effective way of learning and after finding it, they should benefit from it. They can get to know themselves through individual studies or projects, while concentrating on their motivation, intentions, goals, and objectives.
Learners can achieve this intelligence through developing their independence. They can freely express their own opinions, ideas and preferences. Almost all activities which are applicable to other kinds of intelligence may find their place here, too, with the distinction that here the individual works on his/her own.
The individual kinds of intelligence may be exploited even at the same time. As an illustration, in a lesson, where a documentary film about wild animals is presented, at least four kinds of intelligence are simultaneously supported. Firstly, it is the visual one, when students watch a film, and connect the spoken information with the picture. The spoken part gives an opportunity for the linguistic and auditive intelligence, when students hear the information, and later may even discuss and retell it. Furthermore, naturalist intelligence is developed as well, since students watch animals, their typical living environments and behaviour.
Another example is a mapping activity. Learners may be asked to divide a set of words into columns according to certain criteria. This is used for the visual intelligence and for the logical as well. And when it is done in a group, students learn how to express and defend their opinions and ideas, and thus develop interpersonal relationships and cooperation.
We see that the activities for developing individual intelligences overlap. This is a very important feature which cannot be forgotten. If we use an activity that is beneficial for one intelligence only, students who do not make benefits from this particular intelligence soon become bored and unwilling to cooperate. As a result we can say that the activity is ‘better’, when it supports more kinds of intelligence.
We conclude this part with emphasising that students are of different talents and interests. We should be aware of their individualities and take them into account during the teaching process. Lesson plans should contain tasks and activities to take advantage of all kinds of intelligence and thus facilitate the acquisition process to students. When bearing this in mind our work will be meaningful and will bring good results. Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Theory presents a chance for teachers to adapt their teaching techniques to individual learners’ differences in order to suit their needs.
2.4 TEACHING VOCABULARY ACROSS AGE AND PROFICIENCY LEVELS
Learners differ not only in their learning styles, intelligence and in strategies which fit them best, but also in other entities. Firstly we are going to deal with a student’s age and secondly with a student’s language proficiency. The age and proficiency level influence the teaching/learning process. Each of them has its specifications which have to be considered when choosing a technique for the vocabulary acquisition.
3 TEACHING VOCABULARY ACROSS AGE LEVELS
The language learner’s age has been a subject of discussion. Many theories and ideas occur in this area of study, although they usually have something in common. They try to reveal when the foreign language learning should begin. Some of them, like Straková (2004:12), say the sooner, the better, others argue that the best time to start learning a foreign language is after the complete acquisition of the mother tongue, which is at around the 10th year of life. This suggests that the age is of extreme significance in vocabulary learning and therefore we are going to look at some specifications of teaching children, teenagers and adults. Brown writes eloquently about this theme (2001:86-94).
2.4.1.1 TEACHING CHILDREN
Children are often successful in acquiring foreign languages in spite of the fact they do not pay conscious attention to the process. “… children exercise a good deal of both cognitive and affective effort in order to internalize both native and second languages” writes Brown (2001:87). Their attention to language forms is spontaneous and does therefore depend on the class atmosphere and on the activities which teacher prepares for them.
Since children are playful, they will enjoy various games and will not realise they are learning vocabulary. While playing, pupils feel free, are open to new situations, experience new realities. A game has a motivating influence and makes the lesson more interesting. As for vocabulary, the concrete lexis has to be taught. Very important is the children’s world, i.e. they will prefer learning words of various toys, e.g. doll, pram, car, drum, etc. Children want to have a contact with the object the name of which they are trying to learn; they need to connect the verbal expression with the image. With little children their visual and kinaesthetic intelligences find an application. A possibility is to involve children in a physical activity, e.g. to walk round the classroom and name the objects; or to go to the window, look out of it and point to anything they can see. We may implement some miming activities to show some actions, such as read, write, build, pull, etc. Furthermore, the use of visuals, real objects, models and other elements is a great opportunity to increase the children’s range of vocabulary. A nice game, where the visual aids are used, is a ‘memory game’, when children are trying to find pairs of pictures (under which the words may be written). Another possibility is to provide cards with mixed letters and pictures, and children are to find out the ‘hidden’ word. Children are often keen on music and songs, and there are many songs which can be used with children, e.g. Head and shoulders, Hokey Pokey, etc. Besides singing, they can dance, too.
2.4.1.2 TEACHING TEENAGERS
When teaching teenagers it is necessary to realise that they are in the age of confusion, so typical of puberty. Teenagers are somewhere between childhood and adulthood, and therefore it is very difficult to teach them. Their logical thinking increases, however, the attention is diverted from learning into more important problems and thoughts about personal life. As these students are of a higher mental intellect, in contrast to young children, they are able to understand abstract notions, acquire unimaginative ideas and terms. If they already master some language, they may learn new lexical items through discovery techniques, and furthermore they will comprehend words’ definitions. As we have already mentioned, learners are interested in special fields, and teachers can benefit from it. The vocabulary of teenagers concerns the topics which students attract, e.g. relationships among people, life, love, the world, and the future. Teaching/learning such a stock of vocabulary can be done not only through linguistic activities, but also through techniques which develop the inter- and intra-personal intelligence, and the naturalist one as well, since students sympathise with nature and the world around. Learners often use verbal skills through interacting in discussions, argumentations, interviews and debates. They will express their opinions, and show their points of view.
2.4.1.3 TEACHING ADULTS
Adults have developed cognitive abilities, such as analysing, summarising, generalising, deduction and induction. They are able to derive, and they know how to handle abstract rules or concepts. The adults’ will to learn is strong; they concentrate and have longer attention spans. What we have to bear in mind is that they are mature. Teachers shall show respect for their thoughts and opinions.
Adults are capable of abstract thinking. Almost all the techniques that can be used with younger students may be used with adults, too. However, a distinction is to be made in order to suit the adults’ needs. It means that teachers have to adapt the activities and the range of vocabulary as well, to adults. The adult learners will be interested in the words from everyday life, and from the areas they work in, e.g. business expressions, office phrases, etc. They will find useful the phrases or expressions from the areas of jobs, formal conversations and language used in the news. They do not need to have a grasp of school language (unless they are teachers); what they need is to learn how to communicate with business partners, neighbours or colleagues. Therefore the range of vocabulary has to be adapted; the adult learners will not find useful, what children will.
To summarise, we may point out that children naturally acquire a language, whereas the older learners depend on learning strategies and styles, and on instruction from the teacher. We as the teachers have to take into account the age differences among learners and choose a suitable technique or activity for them. While we can play with little children, with older learners and adults we would rather use some linguistic techniques. The choice of the vocabulary stock and of the techniques used to teach it depends on each individual group of students. While we would teach children to name the objects of the classroom, or to name their toys, teenagers would probably prefer some vocabulary of leisure time, hobbies and sports, and adults would find useful the lexis of jobs, home, marriage, or life.
1 TEACHING VOCABULARY ACROSS PROFICIENCY LEVELS
Proficiency is another fact teachers have to be aware of. Basically we distinguish three proficiency levels: beginning, intermediate and advanced. However, a certain sense of relativity is useful to take into consideration when using these terms, because the boundaries are not clear. Linguists and teachers as well differentiate among the expressions and the distinctions are not always obvious enough.
2.4.2.1 TEACHING BEGINNING LEVELS
Learners at the beginning level have very little or no previous knowledge of a foreign language. The effectiveness of the learning process mostly lies on the teacher’s shoulders, on the techniques used and materials provided. The teacher’s talk is crucial; it has to be simple, slow, articulated and fluent. During the learners’ speech it is advisable to be very sensitive and gentle in the terms of correctness. It may be very discouraging for learners to be always corrected. We have to lower down the fear of making mistakes. Students need a free and open atmosphere to express anything in the language.
At this level learners acquire the most basic vocabulary, such as the words from everyday life, school, free time, or housing. They are not taught any scientific terms or poetic expressions. They learn the lexis which serves to express basic needs. They learn to ask for help, information, permission, to react at the doctor’s or a shop, to name family members. In fact during their speech they use the learned utterances and phrases. Their speech is not fluent and can hardly be referred to as communication. At this stage learners acquire the biggest amount of words. Everyday they learn something new, and very often this vocabulary remains in their minds for a very long time, if not forever. Presentation of vocabulary is mostly done through using visuals, either pictures or realia. Short and simple techniques for practice or revision are used, e.g. matching words and pictures, labelling pictures, drills, question – answer techniques, or pointing at objects.
2.4.2.2 TEACHING INTERMEDIATE LEVELS
At this stage learners have already reached a certain communicative ability, fluency and awareness of mistakes. The teacher’s talk is no longer the crucial one. Learners start to initiate the conversation and interaction within the class. They often tend to concentrate on grammatical accuracy, however they should realise that they are learning a language and not about the language. The quality of the four basic skills gets better steadily; students are creative and able to interact in many, even unknown situations.
Learners come into contact with more abstract words now, with terms and technical expressions, too. They can freely read a poem, and will understand some often-occurring archaisms or poetic expressions, and what is more, they will even know to use them actively in communication. At this stage the amount of vocabulary increases, especially in the field of synonyms, antonyms, collocations and secondary meanings. Learners’ speech and use of words become richer and more natural. Students are able to create stories, interviews, or they can work in groups and express their opinions. The lexis at this level can be presented through definitions, since learners already master some language. The visuals are not used so often as they are with beginners. Students may practise new words through multiple matching, multiple choice, putting words/sentences in order, filling in gaps, or speaking.
2.4.2.3 TEACHING ADVANCED LEVELS
Advanced learners develop fluency, accuracy and confidence in language using. The teacher is now more in a role of assistant and provider of feedback; still he/she chooses the language features which are to be learned, although it is possible to discuss the choice with students and give them the right to suggest what to learn.
Such students are able to speak fluently; they use more scientific and more formal words. They get familiar with less common idioms and collocations. They may even be taught some slang expressions, since these often occur in the native speakers’ communication and in broadcasting, too. Useful techniques for this level are group debates with argumentation, role plays about various topics, discussions and presentations. Students take an opportunity to get in touch with an authentic language, they often wish to deal with materials for a specific purpose which they will need, for instance, in their future career. The amount of acquired vocabulary is now difficult to recognise, and students often feel that they do not learn anything new. In fact, they do, however they go more into detail. Advanced learners are fully capable of abstract thinking; they understand words’ definitions, and they discover many words meanings by themselves, whether through grasping from a context or through some discovery technique. The teacher does not present vocabulary in such an amount as he/she does with previous two proficiency levels. Now the discovery of the meaning is mostly left on learners’ shoulders.
At the very top of this level there is the superior level which can be compared to a native-speaker level. Such a speaker participates effectively in the most formal and informal conversations on any topic, including the abstract one. He/she acquires a very special vocabulary, mostly through reading scientific texts or communication with experts.
(adapted from Brown, 2001:96-112)
To sum up, students make a great deal of work during the learning process while becoming more advanced in the target language. It is mostly obvious at the beginning stage, when students accept an enormous amount of vocabulary and they start using the language. Beginners acquire words of everyday objects and notions, which is mostly done through showing the visuals. As the process continues, the achievements seem to be less visible. Students already know how to express themselves; they just learn different ways of doing so. Towards the higher proficiency level they come across abstract concepts and also the range of teaching/learning techniques increases. Now the teacher can also present vocabulary verbally, through definitions, descriptions or circumlocutions. Teaching each of the levels has own specifications and rules, but at the same time they have something in common: every student, regardless of his/her proficiency level, needs to be in regular contact with words. The teacher together with students has to try to continue improving students’ proficiency, to teach them and motivate them to acquire more and more vocabulary.
All in all, the individual differences which arise out of the students’ age and proficiency levels help teachers to decide which techniques and teaching material to use during the lessons, what is better for children and what for adults. It is obvious that we cannot approach children beginners at the same way as adult beginners. We will rather not present a verb read using mime with adults as we can do with children. Also the range of vocabulary varies to suit learners’ needs. We teach children beginners the words that stand for toys, but adult beginners are rather taught vocabulary of housing, or a family.
To conclude, each word which is going to be presented together with any technique that is used for teaching it has to be considered in accordance with students’ characteristics and needs. In order to investigate them, we have looked at some facets.
We have mentioned three learning strategies: memory strategies which are used for fixing new words, compensation strategies that make it possible to speak or comprehend a text even without knowing a particular word, and social strategies which enable learners to cooperate with others. The ways learners deal with strategies and own learning processes are called learning styles. Students may concentrate on detail or on the main idea. Next division of styles into visual, auditive and kinaesthetic show the bodily preferences of learners. These styles overlap with three out of eight kinds of intelligence, introduced by Gardner. A student may be of more types of intelligence, and these should be supported during the vocabulary acquisition. Vocabulary taught/learnt and techniques chosen also depend on a learner, i.e. on his/her age and proficiency level which have certain features and characteristics that have to be considered.
What follows is in fact reinforcement. Learning strategies, styles, and learners’ intelligence, age and proficiency in the language determine the techniques in vocabulary acquisition, and vice-versa. This signifies that the teaching/learning process of vocabulary is complex and its participants have to try to achieve results which have been intended.
3 TECHNIQUES IN VOCABULARY ACQUISITION
Vocabulary acquisition plays an important role in learners’ language competence and performance. Students have to learn the lexis and they should interact with words in order to know the language. Learners need to come into contact with words and work with them. Vocabulary teaching is thus one of the basic tasks teachers have to fulfil. Without teaching vocabulary, it would be impossible to teach grammar, the four basic skills and students would not acquire the language. Therefore the lexical part of the language is fundamental and great attention has to be paid to its teaching/learning.
There are several techniques teachers can use to teach vocabulary effectively, and there are many ways of how students themselves may acquire it. Teachers may choose from the techniques for presentation, practice, and revision (with respect to the aim of the lesson), and what is equally important, students can work individually or in pairs using some out of many discovery techniques. This part of our study introduces basic techniques used in the vocabulary acquisition.
First of all, we look at the term technique. Brown (2001:129-130) distinguishes between terms like task, activity, procedure, practice, strategy and technique. He accepts “technique as a superordinate term to refer to various activities that either teachers or learners perform in the classroom. In other words, techniques include all tasks and activities.” A lesson may contain a number of techniques, some teacher-centred, some learner-centred.
3.1 PRESENTATION TECHNIQUES
The presentation of vocabulary is the teacher’s task especially with beginners. We need to choose a presentation technique according to the words we teach, since not every new word can be presented using each technique. If the word stands for a small object, like comb, we can bring it into the classroom. If the word is a concept, such as loneliness, we cannot use realia to teach the word and so we can define it.
The choice from the range of presentation techniques also depends on students’ age and proficiency level. Children require a visual support and body movement as well, and therefore teachers introduce new vocabulary through pictures, real objects or physical activities. Older learners are already able to understand abstract notions, thus teachers can transfer the word meaning through the use of other techniques, such as synonyms or antonyms. With beginners almost every word meaning needs to be made clear, whereas more proficient learners may understand the word from a context or they may recognise it through a discovery technique.
The meaning of a word can be made clear for students with several methods. To the basic ways of introducing vocabulary, according to Cross (1999:5), belong ostensive means, verbal definitions, and audio presentation. This division, however, brings certain problems, and therefore we are going to mention the techniques differently. We begin with techniques which introduce concrete words towards abstract ones. Each of these techniques has its pros and cons, and can be applied to teaching students with respect to their learning styles, intelligence, age and proficiency.
Textbooks used at schools are constructed so that they introduce new vocabulary through a context. It is either a text or, in elementary books, it is often a picture that presents a situation. The context plays a significant role in the vocabulary acquisition, since it is easier for students to remember the words contextually, and not isolated. Learners often learn the words in connection with other lexical items, for instance be afraid of, great sense of humour, etc. Cross (1999:8) adduces a technique called illustrative sentence which we consider a part of context, since such a sentence (or sequence of sentences) creates a context in which the meaning of a word becomes clear.
One of the basic presentation techniques is showing when a word meaning is introduced by showing an object, or an idea. Learners look at the object in the classroom, outside of it, or they can bring some objects themselves. This way of presenting is widely used with beginners, as we know the visual support makes it easier to transfer the meaning.
Showing methods include:
– Realia which are real things. These can be brought to school and presented, e.g. fruit, vegetable, objects of everyday use – scissors, glue, a ruler, a candle, etc. If it causes a problem, we can even use models, e.g. models of cars, buildings, engines, etc. The teacher points to the realia or model, says the word and learners repeat it;
– Pictures are used for objects which are impossible to carry to the classroom or are unavailable. The pictures may come not only from magazines; they can be drawings, wall pictures, charts or flashcards. Through the pictures we present various concepts, such as below and above, under and over, creations of nature, e.g. iceberg, rainbow, etc.;
– Body can be used as well. Through the body teachers often convey the meaning to students. We may use:
– Facial expressions to show feelings, such as happiness, sadness, smile, cry, anger, excitement;
– Gestures, i.e. to use hands and arms to show e.g. caress, wave goodbye, wide, narrow;
– Mime and actions to show some verbs and adverbs, e.g. to eat, to drink, to wake up, to fall asleep, angrily, calmly.
Up to now we have mentioned techniques which mostly develop the visual intelligence of our learners. However, also the auditive intelligence may be supported, namely through the audio presentation. This way of introducing a meaning familiarises students with the audio side of the notion – with its typical sound. It can often be applied only through recording a tape or CD, e.g. the noises of argument, car crash, a siren, a wedding march, etc. Students of the auditive intelligence will remember the sound of the idea and consequently remember the word.
The teacher can present the meaning of a new word through ‘playing’ with the words, when the linguistic intelligence is supported. He/she may provide words for learners to show certain relations among them:
– Synonyms are words with more or less similar meaning, e.g. pretty and nice, young and juvenile, brave and daring;
– Antonyms are words with an opposite meaning. We contrast the meanings of short and tall, slim and fat, young and old.
Other techniques are:
– Word definitions, when the meaning of a word is explained in other words. Defining the word, however, may only be used with students who are at a higher level of the language, i.e. they have already acquired a certain stock of vocabulary which is necessary for understanding definitions. Verbal definitions are often used to explain abstract notions, e.g. ‘thunder’ is the loud noise you often hear in the sky during a storm;
– Cognates are words, which have the very similar or even the same form, both in the students’ mother tongue and in the target language, e.g. environmental and Slovak enviromentálny. However, we must be aware of ‘false friends’. This kind of technique is in its substance similar to translation;
– Translation is often used when no other easy alternative exists. We translate words whose exact meanings may be misunderstood, or words, whose definitions are too difficult or contain unknown words, e.g. believe. This implies that it is sometimes better to use a mother tongue equivalent rather than spend time trying to define the meaning; however, still we should not forget that the translation might discourage students from interacting with words.
The primary presentation of vocabulary lies on the teacher’s shoulders. He/she is the person who transfers the meanings to students. In order to do so, the teacher can choose from many types of presentation techniques. The showing ways are mostly aimed at children, since they require visual support of learning material, and the teachers mostly use these activities to convey the meanings of everyday objects to beginners as well. Verbal definitions, on the other hand, are utilised to explain the meaning of abstract notions and are designated for learners of a higher level of proficiency. The audio presentation comes in useful with words that ‘sound’.
The presentation techniques should be adjusted to the word characteristics, because the notion of the word determines the type of a technique. Any presentation technique we use, we have to bear in mind that introducing vocabulary is not enough. Learners have to interact with words if we want them to acquire the lexis.
3.2 DISCOVERY TECHNIQUES
Vocabulary teaching should be intensive and student-centred. When learners achieve certain language knowledge, discovery techniques may be introduced. These techniques are very useful, since learners themselves discover the meaning of a word. And if students are able to identify specific concepts, they will also know to address problems during participating in both, spoken or written contexts. Naturally, it is expected that students will access the study independently with the teacher as a facilitator. It is necessary to organise the class to create suitable conditions for the application of discovery techniques. In short, students should work on their own, without the teacher’s help. Pair work is possible, too, whether while using discovery techniques, or checking the outcomes. The teacher only gives prompts and feedback. Discovery techniques may be used for different purposes; either for introduction with learners at a certain level, or for practice and revision with less proficient learners.
There are many discovery techniques which develop deciphering competence and equally increase learners’ stock of vocabulary:
Multiple matching means putting certain items together. There is a set of words provided for students who have to match the relevant items to form a pair, phrase or sentence. It measures the student’s passive vocabulary and provides practice in recognition. There are many variations of multiple matching. We can:
➢ match words and pictures, e.g. everyday objects;
➢ match opposites, or synonyms;
➢ match phrase/sentence parts to form short definitions (such an activity is sometimes called definition match), e.g. Inflation + an increase in + the productive capacity of an economy over time;
➢ match idioms with possible meanings, e.g. I’ve taken a lot of flak + strong criticism;
➢ match a job/room and the activity, e.g. a pilot + flies planes; the kitchen + cooking dinner;
➢ match words that go together, i.e. collocations, e.g. natural + phenomena, shake + hands, babies + cry;
➢ match a question with its reply, e.g. How are you? + Fine, thanks;
➢ match the word and its symbol, e.g. sun + ☼;
➢ match the euphemism with its meaning, e.g. senior citizen + old, pass away + die;
➢ match the place with the notice, e.g. shop window +
– Labelling means that learners look at a picture in front of them and label it without being given the actual words. They have to recall the words from memory, ask their schoolmates or find the expressions with the help of a dictionary. Students may label a picture of the human body, airplane, house, etc.;
– Mind mapping means drawing a chart and putting relative words into different groups or categories, e.g. deciding what you can buy at a clothes shop, chemist’s, café, bank, newsagent’s, etc. An alternative is to put words into columns, e.g. when learning different kinds of sports, students may fill in the following columns:
sport/activity play/go/do people place equipment needed
(adapted from New Headway Intermediate, Unit 2, page 22);
– Matching words from a text with their definitions – here students meet a new word in a context and on its base they are able to match it with its definition. An alternative is to give synonymous expressions to those occurring in the text below it and students should identify the pairs;
– Guessing the meaning means to decipher the word meaning from a text. Students can often guess the meaning of a new word, and this is a good chance to develop their skills and strategies in guessing. The teacher provides students with a sentence, e.g. It was so boring I fell asleep in the first act and asks them to find out what it stands for. In addition, students are able to identify and recognise the grammatical category which may help them a lot. Students also know something about the word formation, for instance, they know which suffixes and prefixes are used for making the meaning negative;
– Scales or Weak and strong meanings of a word involve understanding the relationships among the words and identifying which words are stronger or weaker than others in the box. Students usually put the words into a correct order according to their understanding the ideas, e.g. freezing, chilly, cold, warm, hot, boiling. Scales may present the meanings of words by sequencing them along a scale between two antonyms. E.g. we put words like nasty, unpleasant, pleasant and nice between the opposites of horrible and wonderful. Besides, there are some adjectives which have the idea of very, i.e. they are stronger concepts than their neutral counterparts, e.g. huge – very big, beautiful – very nice;
– Word sets (enumeration) are in fact groups of words which have something in common. Learners can infer a general concept from more specific meanings. E.g. we enumerate items such as carrot, onion, pepper, etc. and learners deduce the term vegetable. The technique may be used conversely, too, however it is often very difficult. If students know the meaning of weather, we may list the words like fog, mist, sun, wind, and snow to show their belonging to the group, but learners will not understand their meanings, so another technique has to be used. Still it would seem logical that we should teach vocabulary in the lexical sets. Learners apparently store words in their brains in groups of related words (or word sets) and not in alphabetical order like a dictionary does; therefore it is easier for them to retain the words in their memory;
– A gap – filling activity is basically based on students’ imagination which words may fill in the blanks. This technique also improves understanding the text as the whole; it increases the importance of meaning in context. There are many possible variations of this activity. Students may be provided with words or not, i.e. they may be given a box with items from which they will choose a suitable word, and besides there may be a distracter or not. Students may fill in one word only, a phrase, or they should complete a conversation, e.g. at a restaurant, at the doctor’s. An alternative is to ask students to listen to a song, and then give them its text. They will choose the best word (from a box, if available) for each line and complete the song;
– Odd one out improves students’ logical thinking and at the same time develops their competence of expressing opinions. Usually students are to decide which of the words does not fit in the group and why. E.g. plum, apple, ham, pineapple. Ham does not belong to the group, because it is not fruit as the others;
– Pronunciation of a word may help to its acquisition, too. There are several activities concerning pronunciation; for instance, identifying words which sound the same, e.g. I have a black eye. No, he doesn’t know the answer. This part of vocabulary may be practised also through correcting spelling mistakes in a sentence, e.g. I can here you but I can’t sea you, which students are to discover. Or learners may see the phonetic transcription such as /sΛn/ and find out the pair of words with the same pronunciation. Furthermore, students may read and rewrite a piece of text written in the transcription. Another activity might be called silent letters which students are to recognise in given words, e.g. island, walk, bomb.
On the whole, all these discovery techniques are favourite with learners, because they come across something new and they themselves find out the meaning. This means they are involved in the learning process as active participants. Then there is a greater probability that such learnt items will remain in the long-term memory. Discovery techniques may be used for both, presentation and practice. Of course, teachers have to think of the suitability for their students, whether they will be capable of discovering the words at their language levels. If they are, they can work individually, and then compare the results with their neighbours in pairs or groups. Here is the place for discussion, argumentation and explanation of reasons why they have decided for this one meaning, and not for another one. As a consequence, they develop the intra- and interpersonal skills.
3.3 PRACTICE TECHNIQUES
Learners will best acquire a new word, if they use it. We have to make our students interact with the word, they have to hear it and use it actively. Among the most widely used practice techniques are: extension questions (Cross, 2001:12), labelling pictures, multiple matching, finding synonym or antonym counterparts, gap filling, implementing new words into a drama (e.g. words of religion or art), a role – play (at the seaside, or in the theatre), creating a dialogue or conversation (about books, weather). Students may think up a story or they may create a chain story using particular words, put the lines of a conversation in the correct order, etc.
During the practice stage teachers may ensure that learners have understood the words they are teaching. We can do this by concept checking, i.e. we ask simple questions using the new word, for example, the word bakery in questions: Can we buy shoes in a bakery? What can we buy in a bakery? Tell me where a bakery is in our town.
Other techniques for the practice of words are:
– Multiple choice asks learners to choose the correct word/phrase from a selection of two, three, or more possibilities;
– Transformations give students the opportunity to practise word grammar, parts of speech, word building processes, etc. In this activity, students are to transform the given sentence into another one, using particular words, or phrases, e.g. My brother has always wanted to be successful - He has always wanted to achieve success. This may also mean to substitute words of the same/similar meanings, e.g. phrasal verbs;
– Jumbled words in phrases are to be put in the correct order, e.g. time / a / nice / have;
– Expanding a sentence using words from the list, if available, and adding necessary grammar words, too, e.g. The man kissed the woman – The handsome man, living next-door, kissed the young woman, who works in the shop over there.
In fact, students may practise new words through all the techniques which teacher uses for presentation. Each student or a group of students may choose a new word and present its meaning to the rest of the class. Although they will present the word, at the same time they will practise it. Students may even test one another. In addition, the activities mentioned in the part ‘DISCOVERY TECHNIQUES’ (see pages 46-49) may be applied during the practice, too.
Textbooks pay only a little attention to the practice. There are usually one or two exercises of multiple matching, or the practice is done through speaking. Coursebooks should contain more activities for vocabulary acquisition in order to allow students to play with words. Since there is still much to catch up, the teacher has to devote time and efforts to the practice and provide good practice activities for students. The learners should practise new words in order to remember them effectively, and to use them actively in their speech or writing.
While practice, learners may enrich both their passive and active vocabulary. for instance, multiple choice provides practice in recognition, whereas expanding a sentence requires the active participation of the learners.
3.4 REVISION TECHNIQUES
Revision is very important in the acquisition process, so it needs to be done regularly. We can profit from the work we did during the presentation stage. We do not have in mind oral or written examinations of vocabulary items. There are different ways of reviewing words; you can use pictures, or ask students to write down some illustrative sentences associated with the pictures. The other ways are:
– Vocabulary networks – we choose a topic area and write the key word in the centre of the box, and learners will suggest words connected with this key word. If we put the associated words on the place of the key ones, the list can be enlarged;
– Scrambled sets – we dictate a mixture of words and ask students to group them according to some rule;
– Jumbled words – we jumble the letters of a word and ask learners to find out which word is ‘hidden’ on the card, i.e. they have to put the letters in the correct order to create the correctly spelled word, e.g. ritan = train, lasec = scale;
– Hangman – we choose a topic, offer students the alphabet and they have a number of guesses remaining to guess the word, e.g. topic kitchen, _ _ _ _ _ _ (cooker);
– Word maths – we implement mathematical symbols in order to find a word, e.g. 2borrow – b + m = tomorrow, o + 2p+ o + sit + e = opposite;
– True/false – we provide students with some sentences, each one containing a word in italics; we ask them to decide whether the word has been used properly, i.e. to mark a word/sentence true or false, and if they consider it false, they have to suggest the correct word. This activity can easily be applied while revising word building, e.g. Can you ‘advice’ me, please, what to do?;
– Quiz – we select a topic, provide students with a sentence with a gap and offer them four words, from which they should fill one in the sentence;
– Alphabetical revision – we choose a letter from alphabet and ask the class to call out words beginning with this letter;
– Word finds (word search) – we provide a set of words and a square of letters. Students are to search for the given words that are ‘hidden’ in 8 possible directions;
– Problem solving review – we provide students with a brain teaser or a riddle in order to solve it with a word;
– Illustrative sentence or word story – we give students a set of words and let them make up a sentence using each word once to show the word meaning. A little difficult alternative is to ask students to create a short story using all the given words;
– Brainstorming – we select a topic and ask students to brainstorm all the words connected with the topic which they can remember.
The following revision activities may be very useful and they come from the web page .uk/try/vocabtry/vocab_activities.shtml:
– Stop the bus is a game that can be used with any age group at any proficiency level. Students are to be put into groups of three or four. Each group gets a table with certain headings, and learners have to think of an item beginning with the set letter to fit in the category. Then the answers are checked and written on the board to revise the vocabulary items for the whole class. For instance, the following categories may be listed:
| |Animals |Colours |Food |Clothes |Countries |Sports |
|T |Tiger |Turquoise |Tuna |Trousers |Tunisia |Tennis |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
– Snake – word checks how rich students’ vocabulary is. The class is divided into teams which send their representatives to the blackboard, standing in a line. Each pupil has a different coloured piece of chalk. One student writes a word, the following one must write a word beginning with the last letter of the previous word, and so on, e.g. pen – neck – kitchen – number – etc. They write the words so that they make a snake, i.e. peneckitchenumber…. The time is limited and if a student has not written a word, another student of the team will replace him/her;
– Guess the word activity provides learners with a lot of language. The teacher or students write a set of clues to help students guess the word. This game can be played with the whole class or teams. Example clues: I am a noun and I am very important. I begin with the letter ‘f’. People in prison have lost it and want it back. It is related to speech. (The guessing word is freedom).
For revision, all the activities for presentation, or practice may be used as well. If, for instance, a word was presented through its definition, students may revise it through matching the term with parts of the definition, or by the means of synonyms, antonyms, collocations, idioms, or multiple matching.
Vocabulary may be revised at school, but at home as well. Teachers can give some words for homework and ask students to do some of the above-mentioned activities with them.
Another possibility is to practise or revise vocabulary using a computer. There are various language programmes and Internet pages which offer countless exercises for interaction and experiments with words. We may either work on computer in language laboratories at schools, or students may practise and revise vocabulary at home. We would advise our learners the following web pages:
➢ contains activities such as crosswords, word finds, true/false, fill-in-the-blanks;
➢ vocabulary.co.il offers activities like hangman, quiz, and jumbled words.
With all these activities it is possible to choose a topic and in this way revise the words belonging to the set.
If we do not wish to use computers in our lessons, we may adjust these activities and use them in the classroom. We may either produce some worksheets, or write an exercise on the blackboard, charts, or cards. There are more possibilities and we can choose any of them. We think that our students will find the activities enjoyable and consequently they will acquire the vocabulary more effectively.
A vocabulary book plays a quite significant role in the vocabulary acquisition and revision as well. Indeed, it serves like a store of all the learnt words. There are attempts that each student should have own exercise book, where new words are to be put down. It is advisable to organise the words into the sets according to the topic. Some questions appear when thinking of learning them. Should students memorise the words from their glossaries? Should they learn the lexis separately? No, certainly not. Many researches have shown that words are best acquired through learning in context. Students then create certain connections between the words and their surroundings, remember collocations and link the words with topics. Making topical linkages seems to be better for acquiring the words, since students know when and where to use them. Nevertheless, vocabulary books enable students to revise the vocabulary, and find the needed item according to the topic. Glossaries are mostly important for students with visual intelligence and for those who have to write the word before remembering it.
In conclusion we would like to say that teaching vocabulary has its rules. Presentation of new words can be carried out visually, or linguistically. Whatever way we use, we should not forget, that after the introduction the practice stage and revision stage must take place. Language is learnt progressively and cumulatively, thus the work has to be planned in a sequential order. We should not neglect the discovery techniques which have their place in this process, too. It is better for students to find out the meaning of a word with their own strengths. Discovery techniques can be applied not only with more proficient students, but during practice and revision with beginners as well. The whole learning process should be enjoyable for students, and therefore a variety of activities should be employed.
In addition, no language can exist without its vocabulary. It is not enough to memorise the words; learning vocabulary has to be meaningful, interesting and motivating for students. This is achieved through using a wide range of techniques aimed at vocabulary acquisition.
4 PRACTICAL PART
The practical part of the study investigates the coursebooks Project 1 and New Headway Pre-Intermediate in order to find out, how these books deal with vocabulary in certain units. We look at the lexical part of the English language from the point of learners, their characteristics and individualities. We try to suggest some more activities to enable learners to acquire the new lexis properly and effectively.
Children use the coursebook Project 1, when they start learning the English language. In this paper, Unit 1, which introduces the first couples of words to pupils, is investigated. In our opinion, the beginnings of learning a foreign language are very important. Children’s first experience with the new language may influence their attitude towards learning it. Therefore, the learning process has to be interesting and motivating. Teachers should take advantage of various activities, which will make use of learners’ visual, auditive, kinaesthetic and other kinds of intelligence. At the same time, the teacher’s approach should be patient and slow. There is no need to hurry; after all, we wish pupils to learn the language and acquire it properly. We suggest that a good way of achieving this is through teaching/learning vocabulary in order to allow children to speak and communicate freely. We intend to look at the lexis and at the ways it can be presented, practised and revised with children, most often using the memory strategies.
From New Headway Pre-Intermediate coursebook we have chosen Unit 13, because we want to verify how vocabulary teaching/learning works in the real school conditions. That is why, we apply own suggestions with the 2nd grade students at the Gymnázium in Kysucké Nové Mesto. We provide worksheets to let students practise and revise new vocabulary. Since students are nearly at the intermediate level, learner-centred techniques and discovery techniques are freely used. The activities concentrate more on the linguistic intelligence, although we will implement activities for supporting the other kinds of intelligence as well. Due to students’ proficiency level, we, besides of involving other strategies, make use of compensation strategies as well.
1. PROJECT 1
Project 1 by Tom Hutchinson (1994) is a coursebook of the English language for young learners. Pupils usually use this book from the year 5 at the primary school when they start learning English as a foreign language. It is directed at the beginners, although some of such learners may already have some knowledge of English.
At this part of our study we are going to look at Unit 1 with the title ‘Getting started’. It is preceded with the part ‘Hello’, in which pupils learn to introduce their names and country of origin. The first unit deals with much new information from the areas of numbers, some useful words, adjectives, instructions in the classroom, spelling and the alphabet, possessions, prepositions and plurals. As we can see, learners have much to do to go through the unit and acquire the information properly. It forms a language foundation which enables to use English in the class instructions and during the learning process.
4.1.1. USEFUL WORDS
After learning the numbers, pupils are supposed to acquire ‘some useful words’, as the second part is named. Authors dedicate page 8 to teaching new vocabulary items together with the indefinite article. First of all, learners should leave their books closed, since next to the pictures there are the written forms of the words and we do not want pupils to watch the spelling at the same time, as they listen and repeat. Exercise 1 instructs pupils to listen and repeat, and asks the teacher to point to the actual objects in the classroom for learners to identify. The exercise is good, however, it contains 23 new words, which we think are too many for pupils to learn them at a stroke. Children, in our opinion, will not be able to acquire the words properly. The standards for primary schools (statpedu.sk/buxus/generate_page.php?page_id=1) state that learners should learn approximately 400-450 new words per school year, if they are to remember the words well. We deduce that it makes 5-6 new words per lesson. Therefore we would divide the words into a few sets, each set introduced in another lesson. The words can be classified into the following groups:
1. school objects: a book, a pen, a pencil, an exercise book, a bag;
2. furniture: a desk, a chair, a board, a window, a door, a picture;
3. people/animals: a man, a woman, a boy, a girl, a dog, a cat;
4. food: an apple, an orange, an egg;
5. useful objects: a watch, an umbrella, a house.
The presentation of words may be arranged in the following way. While listening to and repeating the 1st and 2nd group of words, the teacher would point to the actual objects, i.e. realia, which are found in the classroom. With the 3rd group, pictures can be used as well to transfer the meaning of man, woman, dog and cat. The last two groups could perhaps be taught during the same lesson, since they consist of 6 words together. Pictures or realia will transfer the meanings of words easily. The new vocabulary will then be presented in four lessons.
The way children acquire a language and its vocabulary is spontaneous. They need to be interested in the subject taught/learnt, and in order to involve them in the learning process, teachers should provide them with some motivating elements, e.g. in the form of visual and kinaesthetic support. Applying visuals is one of the basic memory strategies, and it is known that connecting the visual with the spoken information is a very good method for transferring the meaning not only to children beginners. A physical movement, on the other hand, enables pupils to stretch their arms or legs, so they are relaxed and open to learning. To take advantage of both, the visuals and the movement, teachers can proceed teaching the new vocabulary along the following steps:
– let children listen to teacher/record and repeat, and point to the realia or picture;
– give pupils two drawings of faces, one of them smiling, the other one frowning (see Appendix A), and explain them that the smiling face means YES, and the frowning one NO. Then point to an object, or a picture and ask a question: Is this a/an ………? Pupils should raise their hands with the proper face to agree or disagree. We consider this activity better than eliciting YES, NO answers from learners, since these replies are considered a bit discourteous;
– introduce the structure of: Yes, it is; No, it isn’t; and practise it again through asking the question: Is this a/an ………?; and elicit the correct answer: Yes, it is; No, it isn’t. If necessary, pupils may still raise smiling/frowning faces;
– the production will be required in the following lesson, i.e. we will ask a question like: What is this?; and students will answer: It’s a/an ………. Moreover, they will practise asking questions and answering in pairs (to apply the social strategies) using realia or pictures;
– the last step will be an activity of a small dialogue:
A: Is this a/an ……….. (pen)?
B: No, it isn’t.
A: And what is it?
B: It’s a/an.……….. (pencil).
While practising, the teacher will go round the classroom, providing help and feedback.
After the successful acquisition of the words and previous structures, the pupils may look at the written forms of the words, as the book offers on page 8. First, the teacher will read the words together with their articles, and the learners will read afterwards. Then, the indefinite article (that is a part of word grammar) may be introduced, i.e. the teacher asks learners whether they can derive some rule, when a/an is used; they explain it in Slovak. To strengthen this knowledge the teacher may dictate the words and the pupils will write them into two columns on the blackboard according to their article, with the help of the book if necessary:
A AN
book apple
pen exercise book
watch umbrella, etc.
To reinforce, every pupil gets two cards, one card containing the article a, the other one an (see Appendix B). Then the teacher will utter a word, and the learners should raise the hand with the correct card. If some pupils raise wrong cards, the others can explain them the rule again.
In the life of young children, learning, doing, and playing are not separate activities - they are integrated. For a child, a play is not just a relaxation from work; it is the most important activity. Teachers have to try to follow this during the lesson. Therefore, for the practice or revision of the words, we would implement some game into the lesson, e.g. a memory game (see Appendix C), where the class search for a pair of a word and its picture. The pictures could be pressed on coloured sheets of paper, and the words are to be written on differently coloured papers. We put the pictures in one line together, and the words in another one under that of pictures, with all sheets face down on the floor. In groups, learners work together and pick up one piece of paper from each line to find a pair. If a group does not find the pair, another group takes its turn.
Alternatively, the pictures and cards of words can be fixed to the blackboard. The one, who finds the pair, will pronounce the word with its article and show the picture to the rest of the class. The memory game can be played in pairs at the desks, too.
Another example of a good activity, which will surely interest children, is listening to a song that contains some of the target words. Music influences children’s mood and the class atmosphere as well. For instance, children can listen to and sing the song about animals called ‘What’s this?’ (see Appendix D). The song is available in coursebook Chit Chat (2004:14). Singing and learning this song takes advantage not only of the musical intelligence, but of the naturalist one as well. Children practise words, such as cat, dog, and meet new words of animals, e.g. fish, bird, rabbit, and spider. Teachers may bring some pictures of these animals into the classroom, and give them to children. Each child may ‘stand for’ an animal, and may use its picture when dancing.
Alternatively, children may learn the song as a poem by heart. We would write the words of the song on the blackboard so that every pupil can see them. The whole class will read the poem a few times. Then, we will delete some words/phrases and children are to call them out, while repeating the whole poem. The process will continue until any word of the poem is left on the board. This procedure of memorising a poem appeared in the book Vocabulary by Morgan and Rinvolucri (2004:41).
In the following activity, a child mimes or gestures a notion and asks the other schoolmates to guess the word. The fastest pupil will continue miming an object. Children will have a lot of fun while playing this game. At the same time, the visual and kinaesthetic intelligence are applied.
Next activity makes use of the linguistic and visual intelligence. We call it ‘word find/search’. Pupils are offered a table of letters and they are to identify/find the given words. The words are written in eight possible directions (see Appendix E). Since the activity is much time-consuming, pupils may do it for homework for revision, or the class can be divided into groups, each group looking for words from one column. The answer key (see Appendix E) may then be projected on transparencies. The word search was prepared with the help of the web page puzzles.htm.
For revision, the activity suggested by the authors of Project 1 (2004:14) may be used. They come up with drawing a picture on the board. A learner will ask the other schoolmates to respond to: What is this? Another pupil comes to the blackboard, utters the word, writes it next to the picture, and draws another one. The activity practises not only the oral form of the word, but the written one, too. Since not every child can draw, children may bring some pictures to school and in this way examine each other.
It may seem to somebody, that there is a lot of focus put on teaching/learning these words. However, the vocabulary items have to be trained properly, since they build a certain foundation for using English during the lesson. The lesson plan has to be prepared carefully, and techniques and activities used regularly. Children need to become acquainted with the language and the ways they can acquire it and its vocabulary.
We have offered some activities that may interest children and thus motivate them to learn vocabulary. Raising hands with cards of frowning or smiling faces, or cards with the indefinite article brings a movement to the lesson. The memory game, on the other hand, makes use of the visual skills. Singing a song, or learning a poem by heart, include the musical and rhythmical intelligence. Finally, the word find practises mainly the linguistic skills and the spelling of words.
4.1.2 ADJECTIVES AND COLOURS
Next part of the unit introduces adjectives and colours. There are eight pictures, under which an adjective typical of the notion in the picture is written. We shall pre-teach the word hair, since learners do not know it. We may point to the picture or to our hair to transfer its meaning. Then we can present the adjectives in the following way:
1. revise the structure of ‘This is a/an………’;
2. listen to and repeat eight new adjectives (focus on the fact they are opposites);
3. join the adjective with the noun in the picture, e.g. a big/small dog;
4. implement the adjective + noun pair into the sentence: ‘This is a/an……..’, i.e. This is a big dog. This is an old umbrella.
We prefer this procedure due to more reasons. The first one is that it revises the structures which were taught/learnt at the previous lessons. The second one is that learners use the learnt adjective-noun pair within a sentence, and thus practise expressing a thought or idea.
The colours can be presented with the help of the classroom objects, or by the means of clothes which our learners wear, i.e. pupils wearing different colours come to the blackboard. The teacher will point to the colours, utter the word and the whole class will repeat. Moreover, we may let children create a ‘rainbow’ by the means of colours they wear. Then we can introduce the adjective favourite, and ask some learners what their favourite colour is. At the same time, they can point to a felt-tip pen or pencil of that colour. For further practice, we may point to the objects in the classroom and say, for example: this is a brown chair, this is a green board, etc. This activity can freely be used for revision as well, with a little adjustment that pupils will test one another. They may be allowed to walk round the room while pointing to the objects, in order to satisfy children’s need for the physical activity.
In the summary, the teacher and learners should realise that teaching/learning a language is hard work. Immediately, from the beginning of teaching/learning English as a foreign language, this process should be regular, constant and systematic. The activities are to be explained and demonstrated slowly, and everything that has been taught, needs to be practised and revised. Teachers have to bear in mind, that their learners are children beginners, and that they only start getting familiar with the language. A strong focus should be put on the acquisition of vocabulary, which children need for any further learning. Therefore, it is not a waste of time that is devoted to the vocabulary teaching. Every practice and revision activity bears fruit. Since Project 1 is aimed at children, we will use such techniques that support and develop the visual and kinaesthetic intelligence, i.e. we will try to bring some pictures, drawings and cards into the classroom, and allow children to move round. Through this way we will, hopefully, develop in pupils a positive attitude towards English and thus motivate them to enjoy learning it.
4.2 NEW HEADWAY PRE - INTERMEDIATE
The coursebook New Headway Pre-Intermediate (Soars, 2003) is mostly used with students at secondary schools, or with adult learners. Such learners are already capable of abstract thinking, and do not require visual images to such an extent as younger learners do. Our choice of unit 13 is conditioned with the curriculum and lesson plans of the 2nd grade students at the Gymnázium in Kysucké Nové Mesto, with whom we carried out a small survey on the vocabulary acquisition.
The title of Unit 13 is ‘Earning a Living’. This unit concentrates on the acquisition of the Present Perfect Continuous tense, with many exercises for practising it, so analytical students will probably find it interesting. Vocabulary is mostly presented in reading texts, listening activities and in the part Everyday English. As for the lexis the focus is put on the word formation, adverbs and jobs, although the texts contain words from the other areas as well.
In Unit 13 the linguistic skill is mainly supported. This is usually done through discussing grammar, speaking activities, sentence completion, making questions, listening, getting information and giving news, etc. In addition, the visual intelligence is applied in exercise 3 (2003:104), where students are to make a sentence using an idea from the given box and explain the reason according to the drawing. Pictures are also placed next to the speaking exercises, reading comprehension and listening. Learners are often asked to work in pairs, so the interpersonal skill develops here. We would also implement the kinaesthetic intelligence, to let the class move. The lesson needs to be interesting, since we want students to participate actively during the learning process.
4.2.1 WORD FORMATION
On page 105 (Soars, 2003) there is a vocabulary part with two main sections: Word formation and Adverbs (see Appendix F).
The word formation is a piece of important knowledge which students must know about a word (see chapter 1, page 18). Exercises 1 and 2 deal with words which, according to the instruction, have already appeared in previous units. In exercise 1, students should complete the charts by the means of word building, and mark the stress. There are two charts: in the 1st one learners have to derive a verb from a noun, or vice-versa; in the 2nd one a noun from an adjective, or vice-versa. Learners will work on completing 20 pairs. The Teacher’s Book advises to put students in pairs to do the activity and to ask them to guess what the missing words are. That is a discovery technique, since students work without the teacher’s help. After finishing the task students are to say the words, and if necessary their pronunciation mistakes should be corrected.
Below these charts there is exercise 2 where students should complete the sentences with a word from the exercise above. There are nine sentences, which practise 10 out of 40 words. The Teacher’s Book suggests that students, again, should work in pairs and then they could write own sentences using some of the other words in the charts.
Both exercises mostly support the verbal intelligence and since students should work in pairs, the interpersonal one is developed, too. Moreover, they should implement some logic while deciding which words fill in the sentences.
We think that these exercises are not sufficient for complete practice of the words. Learners have to interact with the words, use them and work with them more than once. Therefore, we are going to suggest some small changes and additional activities. But, in our opinion, there occur other problems, too.
Firstly, the instruction of exercise 1 is a bit misleading. It says that those “words appeared in the last few units” (2003:105). However, the items such as waste, honest, advertisement appear in the glossary of new words. Therefore, the teacher needs to ascertain whether students know the words meanings. At the beginning he/she can ask learners to look through the charts and find some unknown words. If somebody does not know a word, there may be another student who is able to explain the meaning to the others, i.e. the answer is elicited from students. If nobody knows the unknown words, the items are to be pre-taught. There are more possibilities of transferring the meaning, whether by the learner or the teacher, e.g. through:
➢ a definition: waste = the useless materials or parts which are left after you used something;
➢ opposites: honest vs. false, deceitful;
➢ synonyms: wealthy = rich;
➢ an illustrative sentence: The advertisement in a newspaper invited me to apply for the job;
➢ a translation: believe = veriť, uveriť (we rather translate the words that are difficult to define).
A feasible way of interpreting (or revising) the meanings is to compare/contrast the words through their synonyms/antonyms, which students can think of, e.g.
WORD SYNONYM ANTONYM
wealthy rich poor
die pass away live, survive
comfortable warm, cosy uncomfortable, miserable
Students thus learn sense relations, which is another significant factor in knowing a particular word (see chapter 1, page 16). Of course, not every vocabulary item has a clear synonym/antonym, so we will use such an activity only if it is possible.
When we are sure that the students understand the words, they complete the charts in pairs. Then we check the completion together, and if we come across a problem, the students may check it in a monolingual dictionary. We will let students work with the dictionary and discover the parts of speech by themselves, rather than telling them the correct answer. Pre-intermediate students should be able to work with the dictionary, and teachers should allow them to practise such competence.
Secondly, even advanced students encounter difficulties while marking the stress, so the task is difficult for pre-intermediate ones as well. We think, that the stress can be marked at the end, after listening to teacher pronouncing the words (to support auditive students) or after confrontation with the dictionary (to develop skills in working with dictionaries); otherwise students could remember their ‘own’ wrong stress. The pronunciation is another important factor in knowing a word (see chapter 1, page 12), hence a particular attention has to be paid to the students’ utterance of the words’ sounds.
Another difficulty arises from the fact that the British and the American stresses are sometimes placed on different syllables, e.g. Br. ad’vertisement vs. Am. adver’tisement. Although the British freely use the American expressions and pronunciation as well, we shall inform our students about the difference. Here, again the dictionary can freely be used, and learners will find out, which stress of the word is typical of Br. or Am. pronunciation.
Next important point is the completion of sentences. To practise 10 out of 40 words is not enough at all. Words are better remembered in contexts. Otherwise it is almost impossible to remember the new-formed words effectively. Brown (2001:377) claims “rather than viewing vocabulary items as a long and boring list of words to be defined and memorized, lexical forms are seen in their central role in contextualised, meaningful language”. Therefore there should be more exercises of different types devoted to the practice of words, e.g.: learners have to identify the correct word from those in italics in the sentence: I can’t belief/believe you’re telling the truth (see Appendix G, ex. 1).
We used this exercise with the students of the 2nd grade at the Gymnázium in Kysucké Nové Mesto, and there were no serious problems with it. The learners had filled the charts a week ago with their teacher, so they used our worksheets for practice and revision.
Another possibility is to ask learners to paraphrase sentences using a different form of the words printed in bold, e.g. My brother has always wanted to be successful. - He has always wanted to achieve success (see Appendix G, ex. 2). To make the exercise easier, students may be provided with some words of the target sentence. In this case, students are guided a bit, and thus avoid the production of different sentence types.
We can alter this activity if we provide students with a set of words and 14 sentences with gaps. The students will first fill the missing words in the sentences and then pair the sentences with the same or similar meaning (see Appendix G, ex. 3). We may put students in pairs or small groups. To check, students may write the pair sentences on the board. Then the kinaesthetic and logical intelligences are supported here. At the same time, suitable sentences will reveal the word grammar, e.g. advice is an uncountable noun, or students meet the word together with words which it goes with, i.e. collocation, e.g. achieve success.
We used both exercises with the students of the 2nd grade at the Gymnázium in Kysucké Nové Mesto. We applied the exercises in three classes of 15 students in each approximately. Two kinds of worksheets were prepared, both of them containing the exercise 1, and the other exercise was either the 2nd or the 3rd exercise (see Appendix H). The 2nd exercise was planned to be used at the classes 2.A and 2.C (classes with better English students), while the 3rd exercise was intended to be used at the class 2.B with less good students, since we considered it easier. Still, these students encountered difficulties in filling the words in the gaps, and therefore we provided the class 2.C with this exercise instead to find out, whether it is really so difficult. We have to say, that the 2.C students were more successful in filling the words in the sentences than the 2.B class, however they needed much time to do so. The 2.A students paraphrased the sentences from exercise 2 very well; they even considered the exercise easy.
Students can practise the words in many other ways. They can make up a story using some of the words, they can also play a role based on this story, and so they implement movement and drama to the lesson. Another possibility is to ask students to prepare own word stories using the words for their homework, and then rewrite them with some deleted words. In the next lesson students will exchange their worksheets with the missing words and their schoolmates will fill in. Learners can get much confidence in using the words and they see usages of these words in various contexts. They practise and learn a lot through this way. If we consider the task too difficult or time-consuming, students can only think up a story, then read it aloud, and other students will provide the feedback to the story and the usage of the words.
We tried this activity at the Gymnázium, too. Students prepared word stories using 10 words from the exercise 1, page 105 for their homework and in next lesson they read their stories. We really had fun while listening to the stories and students were interested in the ideas of their schoolmates. We add some of the students’ word stories to the Appendix I.
Teachers can furthermore prepare worksheets containing collocations or idioms for their students and ask them to fill in a suitable word and explain the meaning of such a phrase, e.g. peace and love; to have mixed feelings; over my dead body; etc. (see Appendix J). Such an activity, however, increases the amount of new information and can therefore be used only at a good class with students who are eager for knowledge.
The 2nd grade students enjoyed this exercise. They guessed the meanings quite well, moreover, girls really liked the phrase to be under petticoat government. Even a small cheerful discussion about men and women took place. From this experience we infer that if we give students some funny phrases containing the target words, students are more likely to remember them.
In order to support the kinaesthetic intelligence, the activity ‘dictation messenger’ can be used. The teacher prepares slips of paper, where the words’ definitions are written. Then he/she fixes the slips to the walls with a Blu-Tack or some other means of fixing, and organises the class into pairs. One learner will sit far from the walls, the other one will go to and fro in order to dictate the definition to the sitting learner. After each definition completion, they together decide on the word that the definition stands for and exchange their roles. The first pair, who discovers all the words, wins.
In short, any vocabulary item has to be practised and revised, if we want our learners to remember it. One exercise is not enough. Students have to interact with words, use them actively and see their usages in contexts. The practice and revision is left on the teacher’s shoulders and he/she chooses the techniques and activities that will best fit with students needs, interests and words’ characteristics. Discovery techniques are useful for realising of how the words work, and the learners’ production checks whether they are capable of using the words in speech or writing.
The above-suggested activities practise the word formation of certain words. Learners should know how the words can change their forms, and what their meanings then are. The exercises support the linguistic intelligence, which in our opinion, students of this age and level are mostly willing to apply.
4.2.2 WORDS FROM THE READING TEXTS
Pages 106 – 107 (Soars, 2003) deal with reading and speaking about funny ways how to earn a living. There are three comprehension texts which learners should be able to comprehend globally. We are not going to deal with the reading, because it is not the focus of this study. However, the texts contain many new vocabulary items, part of which we wish our learners to acquire after finishing the reading task.
The first of all activities, before the reading part, is the alphabet game with jobs. Students should enumerate all the jobs beginning with a, b, c, etc. they can think of. Our suggestion is that if we do not have much time, we can put learners into pairs or small groups, and make this activity as a competition. If we have more time, after brainstorming the professions we can play the game ‘Incognito’ (based on the TV JOJ programme). A student thinks of a job, provides a clue for the rest of students who should find out the profession only through asking Yes/No questions; in this activity the verbal and logical intelligence join together. Such an activity gives students a great opportunity to use the language and communicate. A modification of this game applies the bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence. A student can give a clue without words, i.e. using the body, mime, gestures, or implementing the visual - he/she can draw a picture on the board.
The three texts contain many unknown items, which are listed in the word list. Some of them, such as tin of food, barrel of beer, get wet can be guessed or comprehended from the context, others, such as deer, do not necessarily be understood. A reading comprehension task is used for understanding the idea of text despite the limitations arising from the unknown words, applying the compensation strategies. Learners should learn to ignore new items which are not needed for the comprehension. This task is popular with global students, since they do not require understanding of every single word. In the classroom there will certainly occur some students who will ask for the meaning of some unknown words, but they should already know that it is not essential to the general understanding and comprehending the text; they will be able to answer the comprehension questions even without knowing some meanings.
Nonetheless, certain new words are required in the answers to the comprehension questions. Even though, students could be able to reply to questions using these words, they may not understand them. Therefore the following words need to be pre-taught, or elicited from learners, if possible:
➢ indoors and outdoors even occur in the comprehension questions, so teacher can just check, whether students have identified their meanings from this context;
➢ plumber can be defined as a man who fits and repairs the equipment needed for supplying and storing water;
➢ land can be explained as a verb which means coming down to ground while arriving to a place by a plane, or balloon.
There are three reading texts, which are to be read as a jigsaw reading activity. We would divide the class into three parts, each part reading a different text. After answering the comprehension questions and doing the speaking activity, each group will look at five vocabulary items from their text which the teacher has chosen before; i.e. the first group will look at fetch sth. for sb., put off, lively, realize, calm (from the text about Tom); the second one will look at beach, tin, reply, pension and honest (from the text about Terry); and the last one at heaven, routine, windy, heavy, get wet (from the text about Cathy). All these words are listed as new in the glossary and we think that the students could learn them. (Reading comprehension texts contain many unknown items, which are not aimed at the active vocabulary acquisition. Yet we think that some of them may be taught/learnt after the reading. The choice out of the many new words is conditioned by the fact that the words mentioned above might be useful for learners. After the confrontation with a frequency dictionary, we have chosen those words which are marked with 3 or 2 asterisks, and students at the pre-intermediate level could acquire them.) The students of a group should agree on the words meanings on the basis of guessing from the context and decide how they could transfer those meanings to other groups. If they face some difficulties, they can confront a monolingual dictionary or ask their teacher for help.
The last activity will be the introduction of the five words to the other schoolmates. According to the number of the students in the groups, each student or a pair can present one word. The decision depends on the situation in the class, since we wish to involve all the students in the lesson. The whole procedure makes it possible for the students to discover the meanings by themselves, and at the same time the activities are learner-centred. If there is some time left, the learners may retell their text using those particular five words. For their homework the students should read the remaining texts.
Since the texts contain many new vocabulary items, and we want our students to acquire some of them, in the next lesson the practice will take place. There are more possible ways of identifying the meanings, e.g.:
1. Students can guess the meanings by themselves, i.e. we will try to encourage them to guess the meaning from the context, e.g.
➢ words that sound or look similar to Slovak equivalents: routine, pension;
➢ words that are easily understandable from the context: get wet, windy.
Students can define the word how they understand it from the context, or use it in an illustrative sentence.
2. We may use a recording (which we create by ourselves) and ask students to identify certain notions, e.g.
➢ a recording of two persons discussing a problem, when one of them is shouting and the other one replies in a peaceful manner = calm;
➢ the sound of wind = windy;
➢ the sound of ‘aha’ to show that a person has suddenly realized sth. = realise.
This is again a discovery activity, which makes use of the auditive intelligence of students.
3. We may also bring some pictures into the classroom and so practise the meanings of a beach, a tin, to get wet. Besides, students may label the pictures and give the class their descriptions.
4. We can prepare synonyms (or alternatively opposites) of some of them and ask students to find the word with similar meaning in the text, e.g.
➢ answer = reply;
➢ food container = tin (Am. can);
➢ weighing a lot = heavy;
➢ peaceful and not affected by strong emotions = calm;
➢ opposite of sunrise = sunset.
5. We can furthermore provide definitions of some of the words and then ask students to find the relevant word in the text, e.g. an adjective describing a person who does not tell lies or cheat people = honest. To make it easier for students we can tell them, which of the texts contains the target word. Moreover, the words can be filled in a crossword puzzle with a solution in order to interest students (see Appendix K).
We used this activity with secondary students during the lesson the next day after the reading. In spite of the fact that the 2.A students had read the texts at home, they experienced difficulties in identifying the words. They probably are not used to such a task. Therefore the remaining classes were divided into groups of four or five in order to recognise the words coming from one text only. Through this way the situation got better, and students did not need so much time to fill in the crossword. Globally, the learners were willing to go to the blackboard and write the words into the crossword. They guessed the solution ‘Have a nice day’ quite easily.
All of the activities mentioned above depend on the work with the texts and on understanding their contexts. Students should not have big problems with doing these activities if they were used to them.
A more difficult way to practise or revise the new vocabulary is to create a chain story using those words. We may write all the words on the blackboard and tell the first sentence of a story using one word. Then each student will continue telling the story, always using one of the remaining words. Since this activity is really hard, it may only be used with very good learners, who are playful and communicative enough to do it.
Moreover, the texts contain some useful vocabulary items. Although, students should already know them, we can revise them and point at the word grammar, collocations, etc.:
➢ to like meeting people (+ no preposition between meet and people);
➢ to keep busy;
➢ time goes quickly;
➢ to make the decision;
➢ to walk up and down 5 miles of beach;
➢ to be rich in;
➢ to pay for;
➢ to make a living;
➢ to last an hour (no preposition).
We prepare a worksheet with the sentences from the texts, however with those deleted parts which we want students to focus on. It will be more difficult, if we do not offer any words or phrases, which learners may fill in (see Appendix L). The students will fill in the gaps by themselves, and then check their sentences with the Student’s Book. The secondary students of the Gymnázium worked individually (applying intrapersonal skills) to fill the words in the sentences. Sometimes they filled in another word (e.g. to like helping people, to take an hour), nevertheless, they succeeded in the word grammar.
In brief, the texts make it possible for learners to see the words in contexts, in their environments and together with other words which they co-occur with. It is easier then for students to acquire the words and remember in which situation the words appeared, so they will know when and why to use them.
In conclusion, the practical part of this study tried to apply the information which we had investigated in the previous theoretical parts. We focused on both, active and passive vocabulary, and on the facets that learners have to acquire in order to fully know a word. Moreover, we used various techniques and activities during the teaching/learning process with respect to the learners’ age, proficiency, and intelligence. While with the younger learners the memory strategies are mostly used, the older learners are able to make use of the compensation strategies as well. The social strategies are developed through pair- or group-work, albeit sometimes it is useful to let learners work individually to develop their self-confidence.
Children require visual images and a body movement, and therefore we should enable them to learn vocabulary by these means. On the other hand, the older learners like working and thinking abstractly and logically, thus such activities should be implemented. Of course, for the warm-up of both types of learners, other activities, such as games, may be applied.
We suggested various activities and exercises for presenting, practising and revising vocabulary items. Besides, we prepared worksheets, which were applied with the 2nd grade secondary students. Globally, we may conclude that the students were successful in working with the worksheets, and we dare to say that most of them have acquired the target vocabulary well. Hopefully, they have enjoyed the time which we spent together.
All in all, whether with children, teenagers or adults, teachers have to prepare suitable learning conditions for their learners. It does not only involve classroom equipment, teaching aids, or class atmosphere, it also means providing learners with right techniques and activities for the effective acquisition of the language and its vocabulary.
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LIVING ROOM
KITCHEN
BEDROOM
BATHROOM
HOUSE
STAFF WANTED
................
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