What are the sources of vocabulary learning?
And how can we make use of them in our lessons? Explain them briefly.
Word List
In
this vocabulary source, L1 words in the form of list are put together with their
L2 translation regardless of theme. Learners can create their list without
considering usefulness, frequency, or lexical field; only based on their needs.
Although this way seems to be hard to create cognitive depth in terms of
learning, students still like it. We can say that it is a quite economic material
as it only requires pen and paper, and learners can test themselves easily by
covering one side and uttering other side of the list. Another reason is that it is a time saving material.
With this strategy, some students can learn or memorize up to 30 words in an
hour.
Contrary
to word cards, it is inevitable to experience serial effect, which is
remembering words by previous or next one. And one can easily say that this is
not suitable for real life vocabulary use and words are needed to be learned in
context, not by an order in a list. These are quite significant concerns.
To
integrate this in a class, the teacher asks randomly from the list. Then, the
learner reveals the L1 counterpart or demonstrates the picture. In order to
create more cognitive depth, the teacher can request from learners to construct
a story using 6 of 10 words from the list. Students can test each other with
their own vocabulary catalog which they, themselves, created, based on current
or previous lesson content.
Reaching
the threshold of 2000 to 3000 vocabulary is really tough diet to digest, requiring
numerous times of exposure. Utilizing word list is not a cure but and
alternative that can smooth the way.
Word Cards
Word
cards are another source for vocabulary learning. One side of the cards are
written with L1 words while the other ones with target language (L2)
counterparts. Cards can be prepared by the teacher or students, or it can be
provided from somewhere else. The teacher can make a word box in the class by
putting new words in it. He/she can make little quizzes with words taken out of
the box. So that previous vocabulary is reviewed. There is no specific rule needs
considerations such as choosing the words from similar context. Any word can be
written down regardless of context. Important parts are that cards should be
around 20 to 50 and words with difficulties should be put the top of the pile.
Another thing is, words already learned I should be put aside for focusing on
unknown ones
Coursebooks
In
modern coursebooks, lexical content of a course is given in the syllabus description.
These words are carefully chosen by getting analyzed their usefulness,
frequency, learnability and teachability. For this reason, core vocabulary is
frequently taught due to their favorability in usage and frequency in content. Cognates,
not false friends, and loan words are picked up for increasing
learnability. Abstract nouns and words hard to pronounce, such as congratulations,
are mostly avoided in the beginning so as not to hinder teachability. Or
illustrations are used to make vocabulary more teachable. However, in terms of
presentation, words appear in three different aspects: integrated, segregated, and
incidental.
Integrated
This
can be understood from the name, this activity is integrated with while
activity as either pre-activity or post/follow up activity. In both ways, words
from while stage are taught or practiced. Frequent words or words hindering
comprehension are priority for teaching. Word matching activities with definitions,
synonyms, and pictures are tradition of this section. However, at antonyms are
mostly avoided for not causing misunderstandings and extra difficulty.
Segregated
Segregated
sources are vocabulary activities that is independent from while activity. They mainly take place in consolidation areas
in coursebooks.
Lexical Sets
Segregated
sources can be lexical sets, which are using hyponyms. For example, colors,
days of week, and common objectives are mostly taught, which is a good source
for single slot substitution. However, it has been realized that students have
less confusion with unrelated words. Because in substitution activities,
students suffer from confusion due to similarities. Still, lexical sets are
considered favorable. However, coursebooks aim to emphasize differences, not
similarities. So that confusion is aimed to occur less. Within this direction, we
can say that chunks are preferred mainly such as hot water, cold beer.
Thematical
Vocabulary
Thematical
vocabulary is giving learners words from specific scenario, such as ordering in
a restaurant regardless of parts of speech. Words are learned by
contextualization. By this aspect, words
cannot be substituted generally as in lexical sets. By this, minimal chance of
interference is aimed.
Word Formation
Word
formation is a segregated vocabulary source taking part in coursebooks. By word
formation, the learner can create a new word from different parts of speech (adjective
to verb, for example). There are many ways for word formation. However, mostly
affixation or word compounding are preferred in coursebooks.
Other Segregated Sources
Other
segregated sources can be observed as visual practice such as matching pictures,
sequence activities not depending on coursebook topic, testing activities at
the end of the unit, or strategy activities such as guessing out of context.
Incidental
It is
unintentional and self-learning, which may be caused by instruction or from
reading text in the coursebook, an object in the class or even a signboard that
students see in the real life. In incidental learning, students learn by
themselves without guided discovery.
Vocabulary Books
Vocabulary
books covers vocabulary needs for variety of purposes depending on learners
needs such as business, technical, or academic English. Apart from single words
they also handle phrasal verbs and significant phrases known as chunks
in order to familiarize collocation. Words are generally organized thematically
and mostly frequent words are targeted. Word formation activities such as
affixation and compounding are interwoven in vocabulary books alongside thematical
context.
When integrated in
classroom environment, the teacher can carry out a diagnostic exercise or quiz
in order to emerge already known words and focus on unknown ones. So that he or
she can allocate more time for activities accelerating cognitive depth such
as brainstorming, telling, and comparing with pairs and writing definitions. The
teacher can create a production environment in which learners utilize
vocabulary they discovered in the class. This can be creating subcategories for
the vocabulary in the lesson, adding new words into their categories free of
using dictionary, ranking items in terms of usefulness, telling an experience
about the item (new vocabulary), or asking personal questions such as “would
you give it (the new vocabulary) as a birthday present?”. So, we can say that
vocabulary books is primarily for practicing vocabulary is rather than testing.
The teacher
The teacher is
valuable source in the class in terms of vocabulary learning. Learners mostly
come across new vocabulary or phrases in classroom environment associated with
activities and instructions. They can also discover from the teacher’s
interpersonal communication. In both
situations, learners discover incidentally in context or environment without
teacher’s intention. Self-discovery occurs here.
The teacher can
tell a short anecdote and turn this into a learning source. He or she can ask
the learners to note the words down during listening part. He or she could replay
the record with the help of a recorder if needed. After revising incorrect
forms in notes, he or she asks the learners to reconstruct the story. With this
activity, known as dictogloss, we can create more cognitive depth in
vocabulary.
Some teachers also
write new vocabulary on the board in an allocated area with the aim of revising
at the end of the class. This can be vocabularies in the lesson, words they
utter during conversation, or a brainstorming output before a writing or
speaking activity. He or she can ask direct translations, small definitions or
can ask learners to remember the context the words were used in. Moreover, in a
conversation environment they pause and
focus on specific vocabulary by asking questions to students from time to time,
which is called as guided discovery.
Other students
Apart
from teachers, the students, themselves, are really beneficial source for each
other. There are numerous ways that we can prove that this is favorable for themselves.
So, we can give a few examples that they learn from each other with social interactions:
Brainstorming activities, student presentations in class, peer teaching through
information gap, short narrations based on specific vocabulary.
In
order to benefit from brainstorming, teacher can create small groups assigned
with specific theme. He can ask them to find vocabulary for their theme, such
as food, traveling, etc. In other words, the teacher asks students to create a
lexical field. If there are many options, the teacher can narrow groups in
terms of searching criteria such as finding vocabulary whose initials are
specific letters or specific parts of speech such as noun or adjective. The
teacher can ask groups to create lexical fields with different lexical sets.
Afterwards, the teacher can combine oh regroup groups for exchanging
information.
In
student presentations, the other learners learn incidentally as in teachers
speaking. The teacher asks learners to take notes during presentation or the
teacher gives vocabulary about the field an ask students to write a summary.
Another
way of learning vocabulary from each other is peer to peer interaction. a word
known by one student is also learned by others. If the other peer does not
know, then the narrator peer teaches him. This is called as information gap
activity.
In narration
activities, the teacher gives vocabulary about a theme, in other words lexical
field, and asks the learners to build a short story and narrate before the
class.
Graded readers
Graded books are
one of the most favorable resources for vocabulary building. Classified as
extensive reading, the learner experiences comprehensible input, which is a reading
content consisting 90 to 95 percent of already known words. With graded
readers, students come across new words they discovered in context multiple
times. This is essential because the learner requires to be exposed to new
vocabulary at least seven times to embrace it. The more the student enjoys the reading the
less it seems to be challenging work and consuming reading resources turns out to
be a pleasure for learners.
Another clue for
graded readers is narrow reading, which is reading around the same topic in
order to come across and strengthen the vocabulary on specific area. Narrow
reading should not be narrowed into reading because listening and watching are
also utilized for the same purpose. For instance, a learner watching a TV
series plotting in an island will naturally be better at vocabulary on island
life or a reader reading detective and mystery stories will be better at police
terminology.
Dictionaries
When
we look back, we can see that students were encouraged to guess meanings out of
context rather than checking on dictionaries. With their reassessed value, dictionaries
have two different types: bilingual and monolingual. Learners tend to use
bilingual dictionary at first because it takes minimum time to reach the
meaning, in reading and listening the context is covered with shorter
interruptions, and it is a real source for productive skills such as writing
and speaking. On the other hand, monolingual dictionaries help us build the
meaning in L2.
Apart
from types, we can categorize dictionaries for two different purposes: native
speaker dictionaries and learner dictionaries. In learner dictionaries, we see
restricted definitions so as not to confuse the learner. And contrary to native
speaker dictionaries, they demonstrate usage, grammar such as weather the noun
is countable or uncountable, or whether they were is gerund or infinitive. Some
dictionaries also warn about typical errors that learners make.
We
can always consider dictionaries as a source for vocabulary building because
they are organized alphabetically or thematically. By the way, picture
dictionaries are thematically organized depicting the same lexical field. However,
they do not have many options because not all words can be illustrated.
We
can clearly say that thematic dictionaries are better for productive skills.
Learners get words they require and integrate them their speaking or writing.
Language
of dictionaries are based on core vocabulary, which means most frequent used
2000 words in a language. Because these words are mostly known, an independent
user (B1/B2 CEFR) can use it freely. Today, dictionaries have specific purposes:
business, idioms, collocation, phrasal verbs, and pronunciation. Learners can
prefer depending on their needs.
While
using a dictionary, learners should be careful about polysemes (the fact of
having more than one meaning) such as “digest” in “digesting the food” and
“digesting the words”. Another thing is homonyms (a word that is spelled the
same as another word but that does not have the same meaning). We can say that
not all dictionaries tend to give example for this category. For example,
marine /məˈriːn/ meaning “found in or produced by sea” and marine meaning
“member of a body of soldiers trained to fight on land or sea.” are completely
different words but spelled and pronounced the same.
In
order to create some cognitive depth, before having students check on
dictionaries, teachers can dictate words sharing same sound but different
letters or words having common letters but different sounds. Today some
dictionaries also offer activities in order to enhance cognitive depth as in
vocabulary books.
Corpus data
“A
corpus is a large collection of written or spoken texts that is used for
language research.”[1]
We can call them as work banks. In modern course books and dictionaries, sentences
given as example, and some rules are placed or determined by analyzing millions
of corpus data.
Carpus
data are search via concordancing dictionaries, which are typical search engines
for vocabulary usage. Corpus data are convenient source for verifing vocabulary
usage because words are displayed with collocation. It can be ultimately said
that corpus data is favorable source for vocabulary practicing because it takes
it from real extensive resources.
Teachers
also can benefit from corpus data for their classes. Keywords are frequent and
important words in the piece of text. By searching corpus data, the instructor
can search for keywords for the class subject and utilize them as a pre-teach
material in the class. Moreover, they can bring example sentences into the
class. Multiple occurrence or examples of a word will help learners to understand
and internalize to word easier.
