SOME PROBLEMS OF VOCABULARY ACQUISITION

MARGARET ANNE CLARKE

The lexical system of Portuguese poses many challenges for a language learner:

False friends in English.

Penso means guesthouse, not pension.
Preciso means necessary, not precise.

Words which are plainly cognate but have mutated into slightly different
meanings in English and Portuguese.
Lar in Portuguese is cognate with the English lair, but whereas lair is only
connected with animals in English, it is used to denote home in Portuguese,
as in Lar, doce lar home, sweet home.

The problematic relationship that Portuguese has with Spanish.

For example, oficina means office in Spanish, but also means workshop or
seminar in Portuguese.

Specific vocabulary usage for standard words in different contexts.

Longo, for example, is the standard word for long, but comprido is
generally only used to apply to hair, clothes and texts.

Words with several meanings.

Farto can mean fed up or fat, big, according to context.

The problem of accents, the omission of which can radically change the
meaning of a word.
Est with accent means is
Esta minus accent means this.

Brazilian Portuguese, where considerable differences have evolved in the

lexicon. For example, great confusion was caused during the course of a
simple exercise where the students were required to describe what they were
wearing: the word camisola normally meaning sweater in European
Portuguese, had somehow mutated into a nightie by the time it had got to
Brazil.

SOME PROBLEMS OF VOCABULARY ACQUISITION IN PORTUGUESE

One of the recurring tasks throughout this academic year in all my language
classes from beginners Grade 1 to final year Grade 6 has been the working out

of principles and procedures for teaching vocabulary on the basis of insights I

have gained regarding the lexical system of Portuguese. Over the past year I
have drawn some tentative conclusions about which teaching strategies are
effective for various aspects of vocabulary learning. I have also been reviewing
the methodology and material contained in the various textbooks at my disposal
and what sort of use can be made of them with regard to vocabulary acquisition.
It is evidently the view of many current textbook writers that, as well as
indirect learning through handling the language in classroom activities, some
direct vocabulary instruction is also useful. It is also clear that the task of
vocabulary learning in any language is a formidable one, and it is important to
give considerable thought to both the introduction of vocabulary and its
progressive learning throughout if the student is not to be overwhelmed. The
lexicon of adult native speakers has been variously estimated since the
beginning of this century, but a more recent study (Goulden, Nation and Read,
1990, 341-63) gives an average of 17,000 words for the educated speaker.
Certainly contemporary coursebooks in Portuguese such as Portugus Ao Vivo
and Portugus sem Fronteiras are as carefully structured lexically as they are
syntactically.
A key issue for coursebook writers and curriculum developers concerns
the basis on which one selects and sequences vocabulary. Frequency is one
often invoked criterion, and considerable attention has been paid to the issue of
a minimum adequate vocabulary. Various lists have been published based on
frequency counts which provided learners with a minimum adequate
vocabulary (West, 1960). However, these lists are based on frequency counts,
and assume that teaching learners the words they are most likely to encounter
frequently is the most effective was of building a functional vocabulary.
However, learners who want to comprehend such material need a much more
extensive receptive vocabulary. Receptive words are those which readers
understand but which they do not necessarily use.
In his critique of word lists generated on the basis of frequency, J Richards
(1974) points out that frequency does not necessarily equate with usefulness or
relevance to learner needs. Coverage, or the range of contexts in which the
words are encountered, may also be more important than frequency. Richards
also suggests that familiarity, a concept incorporating frequency,
meaningfulness and concreteness, needs to be taken into consideration. Thus in

any modern language course which is attempting to link the learning

programmes at all points with the historical, social and cultural milieu within
which that language developed; thus vocabulary learning must hinge on the
point that language is best encountered in context. This obviously has particular
implications for vocabulary acquisition and practice. Students may still expected
to write down and maintain lists of a hundred or more decontextualized
vocabulary items. This is in my opinion a complete waste of time and does not
accord well with the general philosophy and working practices which underpin
language learning at SLAS. One of the most cogent criticisms of the traditional
practice of presenting lists of isolated words to learners is presented by
Schouten-van Parreren (1989) who presents the following arguments:
1. If words are presented as isolated elements, there is no point of support, no
cognitive hold for them in the learners memory, so despite sometimes
considerable learning effort, they are quickly forgotten again.
2. Isolated words or words in isolated sentences do not present a linguistic
reality
as the meaning of a word is in most cases partly defined by the context
(Beheyde, L, 1997)
3. Isolated words or words in isolated sentences do not present a psychological
reality, because the do not carry a message. For this reason they cannot
evoke emotions or involvement in the learner, a factor which plays an
underestimated but important part in long-term acquisition.
Thus the emphasis in class should be on encouraging learners to develop
strategies for inferring the meaning of new words from the context in which they
occur and teaching them to use a range of cues, both verbal and non-verbal.
(eg, pictures and diagrams in written texts) to determine meaning, rather than
getting the students to continually undertake the time-consuming task of
memorizing long lists of words, or continually looking up unknown words in a
dictionary. This is certainly not to outlaw the use of dictionaries or structured
dictionary work altogether (indeed, students can often be observed furtively
consulting dictionaries in class) and, as Summers points out, it is only by
repeated exposures through a number of teaching strategies that a word can
enter a persons active or receptive vocabulary, whether in first or subsequent
language acquisition (Summers 1988, 112)

Nonetheless, as Graves and Rein (1988) point out, too much dependence
on bilingual dictionaries should be avoided, as this can ultimately encourage the
students to see Portuguese as corresponding directly to their native language
and no language can be transposed directly on to another. This approach works
for a while but can fall apart when considering a words referential or denotative
meaning, that is, the reference to a words object, action or event in the physical
world. Novice language learners can make the mistake of believing that one
language maps neatly onto another and the task of learning it means simply
learning new words for sets of objects, or states, or concepts. However, even
the task of learning vocabulary in relation to physical objects is complicated by
the fact that language reflects the world in different ways and uses different
categories to describe it. Learners in Portuguese are thus faced with different
labelling systems. For instance, for the standard English word long the
Portuguese learner is faced with two alternatives: the common longo which is
used in a variety of contexts, and comprido which is applied specifically to
written texts, clothes (as in calas compridas long trousers) or length of hair.
It is important, therefore, that these lexical items be introduced within coherent
learning sequences as in, for instance, a lesson devoted to learning about
clothes and buying them with other specialist vocabulary linked to garments and
the context firmly fixed (see Appendix 3, Figure 1)
The second aspect of meaning that has to be considered when learning
and teaching vocabulary concerns the sense relations (or syntagmatic relations)
that is, the relations between lexical items in sentences as they occur in
sequence. For example, in Portuguese the position in which an adjective is
placed in relation to a noun can crucially alter its meaning. The word grande, for
instance, denotes big (as in physical size) when placed after a word; whereas
um grande homem means great man as in someone with stature and status.
Then there is the question of paradigmatic relations between words, or
the complex relationships that exist between items in the whole lexical system.
For example, the meaning of a word is often defined in relation to other similar
words (synonyms) or opposite words (antonyms) and the students wordlists in
their dossiers must feature these items, and the students are encouraged to
write down all the wordlists they can find. This is a minefield, however, because
tow words which mean roughly the same thing are not readily substitutable in all
contexts; for instance, the vocabulary list at the back of my Essential Course in

Modern Portuguese gives two words for to go away: ir-se embora and afastarse de. Ir-se embora means, simply, to leave but in the case of afastar-se de
we have a subtle change in meaning: to distance oneself from. There is simply
no alternative to the teacher continually elucidating these nuances in meaning
throughout the course.
All of the above points seem to point to one conclusion: that if direct
vocabulary instruction is to be used, then it must be well contextualized, for
example, thorough listening or reading material which provides a springboard for
linked vocabulary work. The activity in Appendix 3, Fig. 2 is based on the
principle that as learners develop their vocabulary knowledge, they acquire not
only new words, but also new meanings associated with words they have already
learnt. These are acquired gradually as words are met in different contexts and
eventually a word might have extensive and complex meaning associations. The
exercise in the materials extract here includes the familiar cloze or gap exercise
in which words are deleted from a text, words-in-context exercises, and contextenrichment exercises.

VOCABULARY RETENTION

A great deal has been written about the role of memory in the development of a
second language lexicon. Stevick (1976) summarizes some of the classic
research into memory which has been carried out by cognitive psychologists and
relates this to language teaching. This research has demonstrated that in order
for new items to enter long-term memory, some form of active involvement on
the part of the learner is desirable. In other words, a learner who has activated
this knowledge through use will be more likely to retain it than a learner who
has simply heard or read the item or seen a translation.
At beginners level, concrete visual examples are the easiest way of
promoting active use. Illustrations in textbooks can be backed up by all sorts of
realia, such as the clothes the students are wearing that day. For example, in
one exercise, the students, having memorized and been tested on the clothes in
Figure, were then required to write a short piece on what they were wearing and
read it out in front of the class. Having then watched a video depicting four
people purchasing clothes and shoes in various situations, the students then

divided into pairs and devised their own role-plays doing the same (Appendix 3,
Figure 3)
In his analysis of current trends in vocabulary teaching, Nattinger (1988)
presents a number of class room techniques for vocabulary development and
retention.

Guessing vocabulary from context

Techniques for guessing vocabulary from context include activating background

knowledge from the topic of a text, obtaining clues from grammatical structure,
pronunciation and punctuation, and using the natural redundancy of surrounding
words. For example, the reader should be able to guess the meaning of the
word espirrar (to sneeze) in the following dialogue (Appendix 3, Figure 4)) given
that in the preceding sentences, the protagonist of the dialogue has just
sneezed:

__ Tem febre? Sente-se enjoada?

__ No, senhor doutor. Mas sinto-me um pouco fraca. Aaaatchim!
__ Sade!
__ Obrigada!
__ Costuma espirrar muito?

Loci

These are a form of mnemonic in which a list of words to be learned are

associated with a familiar visual image such as a room or a well-known tourist
spot. This proved useful for introducing the students to vocabulary at the very
beginning of the lesson. Items in the students possession pens, paper and so
on were put in front of the students in one picture and when teaching basic
grammar items such as the definite article and the indefinite article, these items
were continuously referred to (see Appendix 3, Figure 5)

Paired Associates

In this technique, which is similar to the use of loci, words in the first and second
language which have some similarity of sound and meaning or are actually
cognate are associated. For example, lar in Portuguese, meaning home could
be associated with the English lair.

Word morphology

Learners can be taught to expand their vocabulary by mixing and matching word
stems, suffixes and affixes. The ability to recognize component parts of words,
word families and so on substantially reduces the number of completely new
words the student will encounter and increases their control of the lexicon. Once
a basic key verb has been mastered, then the compound of those verbs will
greatly help the students mastery of the language, which is, once again, helped
by the cognates which exist between Portuguese and English.

REFERENCES

Goulden, R., P. Nation and J. Read. 1990. How large can a receptive vocabulary
be? Applied Linguistics 11: 341-363
Graves, K and Rein, David. 1988. East West Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Richards, 1974. J.C. Richards, Word Lists: Problems and prospects. RELC Journal
5 (1974): 6984
Schouten-van Parreren, C. (1989). Vocabulary learning through reading: Which
conditions should be met when presenting words in texts? AILA Review, 6, 75
85
Stevick, E. J. (1976). Memory, meaning, & method: Some psychological
perspectives on language learning. Rowley, Massachusetts: Newbury House
Summers, D. (1988). The role of dictionaries in language learning. In R. Carter
& M. McCarthy (Eds.), Vocabulary and Language Teaching, 111-125
West, M. (1960) Learning English as behaviour. ELT Journal 15, 1: 3-11