Vocabulary workshop by Comunidad Fulbright

Developing Student Vocabulary: Fun Ways to Learn Words Katie Bain www.elfellowkbain.wordpress.com ktbain53@gmail.com

Objective Participants will learn, interact with, and apply new ways of learning and teaching English vocabulary.

How do you teach vocabulary?

What are the challenges for teaching vocabulary?

Challenge 1: The large number of words 1. The number of words that students need to know. –

2,000 – 3,000 word families to understand spoken communication

–

8,000 – 9,000 word families for reading authentic texts!

–

4,500 – 5,000 word families for a C2 Level of proficiency!

Example of Word Family: •.

stimulate

•.

stimulated

•.

stimulates

•.

stimulation

•.

Stimulative

(Schmidtt, 2008)

Challenge 2: Depth of Knowledge Needed • Students must know a lot about a word in order to understand it well and use it correctly. • What is involved in knowing a word? – Form – Meaning – Use (Schmidtt, 2008)

Form – Meaning – Use suburbs Form – Spelling – Pronunciation (stressed syllables) – Word parts (roots, prefixes, suffixes)

Meaning – definition, part of speech, connotation

Use – How do you use it in a sentence? – What other words usually come near this word in sentences (collocation)? InstructedSecondLanguageVocabularyLearningSchmittNorbert.pdf

Five Types of Vocabulary Learning 1. Single Words 2. Set Phrases 3. Variable Phrases 4. Phrasal Verbs 5. Idiomatic Expressions

(Folse, 2008)

Single Words Single words express one single concept. room living room bedroom

(Folse, 2008

Set Phrases Set phrases consist of more than one word and cannot be changed at all. Example: “On the other hand” NOT “On the other hands” “On the other fingers”

(Folse, 2008

Variable Phrases In Variable Phrases, most of the phrase stays the same, but some parts may change. Examples: “It has come to our attention.” “It has come to my attention.”

(Folse, 2008)

Phrasal Verbs Phrasal Verb = verb + particle put up take down come

make

away

get over

(Folse, 2008

Idioms (Idiomatic Expressions) In an idiom, the meaning of the whole phrase is different than the meaning of the individual words Example: “Who let the cat out of the bag?” means “Who told the secret?”

(Folse, 20

Multiple Meanings (Polysemy) • Hammer (noun or verb?) • Table – furniture – set of numbers – action of stopping conversation – description (table cloth)

(Folse, 200

Connotation

Positive

Neutral

Negative

purebred

dog

mutt

youngster

child

kid

pass away

die

kick the bucket

(Folse, 2008)

Part of Speech

noun – amazement verb – to amaze adjective – amazing adverb - amazingly

(Folse, 200

Frequency usual common • “Smith” is a common last name. discard throw away * I’m going to discard my old books. (Folse, 2008)

Collocation co = together together + location Collocation has to do with a word or phrase that naturally or frequently occurs near another word in context. • squander….money/resources • commit… murder, suicide, fraud, grand larceny

(Folse, 2008)

How do we select words to teach? • What are my students’ ability levels? • What words are most frequently used? • Which words are necessary for communication? • Which words are relevant to my students’ contexts or lives? • What are the demands of the class or course? • What are my students’ language goals and/or needs?

Tools to Help You Determine Which Vocabulary Words to Teach • West General Service List • Academic Word Lists • Lextutor Vocabulary Profiler • Readability Score

Lextutor Key • Blue – K1 – Top 1 – 1,000 most-frequently used words in English • Green – K2 – Top 1001 – 2,000 mostfrequently used words in English • Yellow – Academic Word List • Red - Offlist

Article

K-2 Level Words advice, attended, borders, delivery, disappointed, discussions, firm, flood, government, hospital, inside, inside, international, international, lessons, programs, relief, risked, solution

Academic Words access, achieve, affected, aid aid aid aid aid, approaching, assembly, assessment, assistance, citing, civil, commissioner commissioner, commitment, comprehensive, conference conference, conflict conflict conflict conflict, consult, convene, debate, economic, established, eventually, finance, financial, impact, institutions, intervention, involvement, major, released, remove, response, security, shift shift, significance, significantly, vision

Readability Score

Audio/Text

K-2 Words asleep brain brain brain brain brain brain brain brain brain brain brain brain brain brain brains brains brains brains brains brains connected connections connections cure drum electrical electrical electrical electricity electricity formal frequency frequency fun health information information instrument instrument instrument instrument instrument instrument instrument instrument instrument instrument lessons lessons lessons lock locking lot noisy noisy program programs purple pushing quick restaurant sadder screen screen screen smoke sports urges wires worse

Academic Words administrators adults affects affects analogy areas automatically benefits challenging classical classical communication communication complex computer computer computer computer computer confer devices domain economic elements elements energy function fundamental fundamental identifying inherently instance instruction investigates major major minor participated passively physically physically processed processed research researchers researchers respond respond responded responding response responses responses task task volunteer volunteers volunteers volunteers volunteers volunteers

Readability Score

So what do we do? • Successful vocabulary activities help students to … – Focus on the vocabulary – Experience the words many times – Develop good learning strategies

(Folse, 2008

Goal 1: Focus on the Vocabulary • How do we make students NOTICE words? – write them on the board – keep a section of the board or chart paper for vocabulary – word walls – Students mark key vocabulary

(Folse, 2008)

Goal #2: Experience the Word Many Times • Students have to see, hear, and use a word multiple times to understand and know it well. – matching – writing – spelling – naming/identifying – writing it in a sentence (Folse, 2008)

Goal #3:

Develop Successful Vocabulary Learning Strategies

â&#x20AC;˘ Teachers show students many different ways to acquire and memorize vocabulary. â&#x20AC;˘ Students eventually pick and choose what works best for them.

(Folse, 2008)

Activities and Ideas 1. Keep a running list of words 2. Vocabulary Cards 3. Ranking Vocabulary Items 4. Scrambled vocabulary envelopes 5. Word Sorts (Lexical Sets) 6. Dialogues 7. Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s missing 8. Erase 9. Smack 10.Listen and Draw 11.Taboo 12.Collocations Matching 13.Word Comparisons