Teaching vocabulary

theory and practice

Monday, May 9 , 2011

 Kamal Raj Lamsal

lamsalkr@yahoo.com
Mobile: +9779846070767
 Beautiful
Lovely
…windy………
…………
………….
………….

 Sunday, June 20, 2010

 Consider How Important
Vocabularies Are.
 Like many other ancient ………….., the
………….. of ………….. Egypt developed
around a river – the Nile. It is the country’s
………….. The river provided a …………..
supply of water in a land that had
………….. no rain. It’s …………..floods
………….. the fields in which the
………….. was planted.
 Imagine reading a page of that?
What are the missing words?

 That’s what it would look like to a student who didn’t know the
meaning of the following words:
 Civilisations
• Ancient
• Lifeblood
• Regular
• Virtually
• Annual
• Irrigated
•
Crops.
 Like many other ancient civilizations, the
civilization of ancient Egypt developed
around a river – the Nile. It is the country’s
lifeblood. The river provided a regular
supply of water in a land that had virtually
no rain. Its annual floods irrigated the
fields in which the crops were planted.
 Let’s play a game
 Divide them into two group
 Explain the rule:-
 One person of group A comes in front of the
class and sits on the chair facing the board back
 One from group B comes and writes a word on
the bb.
 One from group A defines the word without
naming the word
 The person on the chair guesses the word and
 If he is correct, group A gets one mark
 What you do?
 Do you teach all the vocabularies?
 How do you select the words you teach?
 Do you teach vocabularies in isolation?
 When do you teach vocabulary items?
Before /during/after the lesson.
 What aspects of vocabulary items do you
teach
How do you select the vocabulary
items to teach?
 ……………………………….
 ………………………………
 ………………………………
 ………………………………
Ways of selecting vocabulary
Frequency (no of occurrence of a ling.
Item-which occur many times)
Range (comes under many topic)
Availability (the words remembered first
and easily are said to have high availability.)
Coverage (broader word- furniture covers
desk, bench, sofa, chair....etc.)
Learnability etc.(easy to learn)
 what do you mean by knowing a
word ?
 ………………………….
 …………………………..
 ………………………..
 ………………………..
 ………………………..
 …………………………..
 …………………………
 Knowing a word means the ability
to
 Recognise it in its spoken or written form
 Recall it at will
 Relate it to an appropriate object or concept
 Use it in the appropriate grammatical form
 In speech, pronounce it in a recognisable way
 In writing, spell it correctly
 Use it at the appropriate level of formality
 Be aware of its collocations and associations
 collocations and associations

 Which is faster, heat or cold?

 Heat, because you can catch a cold.

What aspect of a word/ vocabulary
item do you teach?
 …………………….
 ……………………
 …………………..
 …………………..
 ………………….
 …………………
No one has mastery over vocbs
 The two beginning ESL students went to
Honolulu on holiday
 Soon they began to argue about the
correct way to pronounce the word
“Hawali.”
 One student insisted that it is Hawali, with
a “w” sound.
 The other student said it was pronounced
like “Havali” with a “v” sound.
 Finally they saw an old native on
the beach and asked him which
was correct.
 The old man said it’s “Havali”
 The student who was right was very happy
and thanked the old man
 The old man said “you are “velcome”
Jeremy Harmer and me
Aspects of vocabulary item to be
taught Thanks to Harmer
 .
When you teach vocabulary you
.
Teach students to
 Say words accurately
 Read words accurately
 Spell and write the words
 Understand the meaning of words
 Work out the meaning of words in familiar and unfamiliar
contexts
 Link the words with relate words in networks
 See how new words came from words they already know
 Find the hidden animals
 Example
 Close the door at once
 Close the door at once
The person who finishes first will be
the winner
 THAT WILL BE A REAL HELP.
 SHE CAME LATE YESTERDAY AFTERNOON.
 HE CAME TO AMERICA TODAY.
 ERIC OWES ME TEN CENTS.
 WE MADE ERROR IN EACH ONE.
 DO GOOD WORKERS SUCCEED?
 IF I SHOUT, HE WILL HEAR ME.
 WE WILL GO AT TWO O'CLOCK.
 continue.
 IS IT THE SIXTH OR SEVENTH?
 IN APRIL I ONLY COME ONCE.
 I WILL SING YOU HUM ON KEY.
 I MADE XEROX COPY OF IT.
 SHE CLOTHES NAKED BABIES.
 IT IS ONLY A KILOMETER
AWAY.
 AT LAST I, GERALD HAD ONCE.
 Answers
 Bear
 Camel‘
 Cat
 Cows
 Deer
 Dog
 Fish
 Goat
 Horse
 Lion
 Monkey
 Ox
 Snake
 Tiger
 yak
Let’s discuss the following table

Vocabular meaning Technique

y item
River side Side of the river Explanation,
drawing
buffalo- like the shape of demonstration,
shaped a buffalo, looks explanation
like a buffalo
horror fear explanation by
creating situation
 Other?
Enormous very big demonstration,
illustration
Escaped got free explanation,
illustration
Incredible impossible or explanation,
very difficult to illustration
believe
 Let’s complete the table with 20
words

Vocabulary item meaning techniques

 Techniques of presenting
vocabularies
 Ostantively
 Using mime
 Using Contextual Clues
 Using Dictionary /Discovery techniques
 Linguistically
 Combining Different Techniques
 Ostantively
 Realia
 Picture
 Photographs
 drawings
 Pointing
 Using mime
 actions,
 gestures, and
 facial expressions
 Using Contextual Clues
 context provides a considerable amount of information
about the meaning of an unknown word
 For example, for a student who doesn’t know the
meaning of an ‘emperor’ the use of the word ‘emperor’ in
the sentence ‘The Taj Mahal was built by an emperor in
memory of his beloved queen’ is enough to guess its
meaning.
 The contextual clue ‘his beloved queen’ suggests that
the ‘emperor’ is the ‘queen’s husband’, a ‘king’. In order
to retain learned vocabulary, the learners need to meet
the word in a variety of context
 Using Dictionary /Discovery
techniques
 Dictionaries are invaluable tools for learners
 giving them independence from the teachers
 students are able to check pronunciation,
spelling, word formation, word grammar,
metaphorical and idiomatic use, style and
register, examples that illustrate usage-a whole
profile of a particular word in dictionaries.
 Discovery techniques: the teacher asks the
students to work out what words mean, rather
than just handing them the meaning.
 Linguistically

 Antonyms/Synonym
 Hyponymy/ super ordinate/hyponyms/co-
hyponyms
 Definition: the word ‘locksmith’ can be
defined as ‘a person whose job is making,
fitting, and repairing locks’
 Explanation: use in sentences. For example a
word ‘bye’ can be explained by saying that
this is the word we use when we depart from
each other either for short time or long.
 Linguistically
 Cognate: a word in one language which is
similar in form and meaning to a word in
another language because both languages
are related
 For example, English ‘Brother’ and
German ‘Bruder’ are cognates
 The words like ‘lantern’, ‘coat’, ‘colonel’
etc. might be considered as cognates for
Nepali learners of English
 Linguistically
 Scales, Series and system
 The meaning of words, which denote
volume, degree, frequency etc., can be
taught by using scales of two opposite
words
 warm

cold cool warm hot

 May

 .

Must might may must

not
 Often

sometimes generally always

never 0ften
 Linguistically

 Translation
 How do you teach the word “Lorry”?
 For example, ‘Lorry’ is a kind of vehicle’ is
not as helpful as translation for the
learners who want to know exactly what
kind of vehicle it is. But, it should neither
be overused nor be underused.
Combining Different Techniques
 Smile  Facial expression
 - Drawing or picture
 - Gesture
 - Translation
Games for motivation and fun
 "I'm thinking of" - You give the class a few definitions
corresponding to a 5-6 vocabulary words and the
students guess the word.
 The teacher whispers the word and the students try
and recognize the word.
 The teacher spells the word backwards and the
students try and recognize the word.
 Bingo using the words. The teacher calls out the
definitions or translations.
 Games for motivation and fun
 Solving equation by unjumbling the
words. E. g. 2f + hit =
 fifth
 Arranging vowels and consonants to
form words. E.g., plp ea =
 apple
 Morphemic analysis. E.g., unfriendly =
 un-friend-ly
 Games for motivation and fun

 Finding words within another word. E.g.,

 Swallow =
 allow, all, wall, low
 Teachers =
 tea, each, ache, her
Games for motivation and fun
 Rearranging the letters to make other
words.
 Star, arts, tars, rats
 Post… ………….
 Meat… …………
 Least… …………
Games for motivation and fun
 Look, say, cover,  Look at and
write, check memorize it.
method  Say it.
 Cover it.
 Write it from memory
 Uncover it and check
it.
Activities for vocabulary practice
 Adjective and noun game. Divide them
into A and B groups, give them the
following flash cards and ask them to
match.
 Brainstorm round a word

take

Decision
discuss
 Answer Relating decision
 Discuss
 Parliament
 Mistake
 Wonder
 Judge
 Regret
 Committee
 Sure
 Decision
 Doubt
 Think
 Director

Unscramble the following words
 lppea
 tnhpeeal
 minbadnot
 skbtae
 tcounry
 ibdr
 orhowomek
 khymoe
 sumoe
 surne
 tca
 oustrers
 Cnlue
 petmel
 Answers
 Apple
 Elephant
 Badminton
 Basket
 Country
 Bird
 Homework
 Mondey
 Mouse
 Nurse
 Cat
 Trousers
 Uncle
 temple
 Other exercises
 Opposites/sameness
 Crosswords
 Vocabulary steps
 Same word, different meanings
Crosswords
answers
 A: What is the word that everybody always
says wrong?
B: "Wrong".
Q: What five-letter word becomes shorter
when you add two letters to it?
A: Short
A: What's the longest word in the
dictionary?
B; Rubber-band -- because it stretches
Thank you very much

Everybody thinks of changing the world but

no one thinks of changing himself”
-Leo Tolstoy

lamsalkr@yahoo.com
 References:
 Harmer, J. 1991. The Practice of English Language Teaching. Essex: Longman Group UK
Limited.
 http://doritsasson.suite101.com/how-to-use-vocabulary-activities-a31127
 http://people.bu.edu/jpettigr/Artilces_and_Presentations/Vocabulary.htm
 Imam, S.T. (1995). Brush Up Your English. Patna: Bharati Bhawan.
 McCarthy, M. and F.O ’Dell. (1994). English Vocabulary in Use. Cambridge: Cup.
 Peters, P. 2004. The Cambridge Guide to English Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press. Harmer, J. 1991. The Practice of English Language Teaching. London: Longman.
 Pickering, G. 2010. British and American English. Paper Presented At Homerton Teacher
Campus, Cambridge, UK, 8th July 2010.
 Richards, J. C., Platt, J., & Platt, H. (1992) Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied
Linguistics (2nd Ed.). Essex: Longman.
 Richards, J. C., Platt, J., & Platt, H. (1992) Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied
Linguistics (2nd Ed.). Essex: Longman.
 Swan, M. 1996. Practical English Usage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
 Ur, P. (1991). A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cup.
 ____ (1992). Five Minute Activities. Cambridge; Cup.