How to Present Vocabulary1

7/30/2019 How to Present Vocabulary1

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to presentabularyPresenting ocabularyUsing ranslat ionHow to illustrate meaningHow to explainmeaningHow to hig hl ight he formHow to involve the learners

Presenting In the last fwo chapterswe looked at possible ources f vocabularyinput,vocabulary including vocabulary ooks, eaders, ictionariesand corpora.A motivatedand selFdirectedearnermight be able o acquirealargevocabulary implyby using these resources. owever, many learnerssign up for languagecourses n the expectation hat, at least some of the time, they will bepresented with language,rather than having to go out and find it forthemselves. y presentation,we mean thosepre-planned essonstages nwhich learners are taught pre-selectedvocabulary items. Of course,incidentalvocabulary eaching can occur at other times of the lesson,aswhen a text or a discussion hrows up unfamiliar vocabulary. n this chapter,however,we will be mainly concernedwith waysvocabularycan be formallypresented n the classroom.But many of the issuesare relevant o theinformal teaching of vocabularyaswell.As we saw n Chapter 2, at the very east earners eed o learn both themeaning and the form of a new word. We shall deal with each of thesecomponentsn turn. But it's worth pointing out that both theseaspects fa word shouldbe presentedn closeconjunction n order to ensurea tightmeaning-and-form it. The greater he gap between he presentation f aword's form and its meaning, the less ikely that the learner will make amental connectionbetween he two.Let's say he teacherhas decided o teach a related set of words - forexample, items of clothing: sbirt, trousers,acket, socks, ress,eans. Theteacher asa numberof optionsavailable. irst, here s the questionof howmany words to present.Tiis will depend on the following factors:' the level of the learners whetherbeginners, ntermediate,or advanced)' the learners'likely famlliarity with the words (learnersmay have met thewords before even hough they are not part of their active vocabulary)' the difficulty of the items - whether, for example, hey expressabstract

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rather than concretemeanings,or whether they aredifficult to pronounce. f:l:::Llo;lity'- wheth.rlfo, "u-ple, they ;" b.;;ritlxptained oroemonstrated' whether items arebeingrearned or production (in speakingand writing)or for recog^nitionnlylas in listening""d ,.^di"gj.'s;;;;;. time wilrDeneedeclor the former, he numberof items Jfikely to be fewer hanif the aim is only recognition.Furthermore, the number of new words presentedshould not overstretchthe learners'capacityto remember them. Nor shourd ah.- r.r..rt"tio'extend so far into the lesson hat no time is avalrabreo put tl. *ord, towork (see he next chapter).Coursebooks tend to. operate on the . principle t3, " vocabularypresentationshould nclude at most aboutadoze" it'.-". H.r",-for exampliare the items listed in the presentationof clothes"o."u"i"iy irr"" ".rrr.rrttyb"g;tit elementarycourse6ook from SoarsL and I:Hrr;;;;'El,mr,tn y,a jumpera jackettrousers

a shirta sui tjeans

a T-shirt a dress a skirta t ietrainers shoes bootsHowever, claims for the desirabiliry of much higher vocabulary earningtargets.haveeenmade,especialryy proponents f teachinemethods hatsubscribeo 'wholep.tror t."r"i"g'i rri.r, "r """"i*"i"Tr"ining and;lgg::::p:Si(a method irstdevel6pedyGeorgiL;r;;; il Bufariaf^thl::r following hesemethods^useechni{u.soi i.t*ution andsuggesfion' n order to,predispose he learnerto massiveamountsof input,n 1*gl':.llllllydieds oiwordsnasession.o_.oiir,.r"-.r"i_,rybe excessrve' ut it may alsobe a fact that conventionalteaching methodsunderestim te rhe learner'scapaciry o retain .; ;;;;ft ;.'I';;rp.rati nginto lessons omeof the basii principlesof hu-"r, -*fr/ (-as-o.rtlinedn

chapter 2) ryaybe a meansof extending he somewh"r.orir.rr,"r;ve targetsset n coursebooks.^{aving decidedon the number of items to teach, here s then the choiceof the sequence f presentation, ither:

: meaningfirst, then form, or' form first, then meaning):.*._tt:,r::"i:1. teacher ould, or example,oldup api*ure of ashirt:; "' " 'rDL vpuurr rrre reacnercourcr, or example,hold up a picture of a shirt(the meanrng), and then say lt i a shirt (the form). Ii a ,form first'T T T T I I I D Ll;:':^:i:i'"::n::f 1*:r:!:il,^."To.t"f '-:';!;;;,r,.',,i,a".,,srepeat*.^y*l:il ',"1yhenpointo.the i.t,r..B;thdpp;;ffir';;";ffi:fher; is anargume"thaipresentinii;;;;"-g hriJ.r# aneedor __ : -- r . ru4r yrrDrrr l r . r rB Ll lc I l leanlng ll rthe torm, opening the appropriate mental ,dles,rv rurr'r upc'urg rne ^approp'ate mentarfires" and making thep^resentationboth more efficient and more memorable. on the other hand.n the otherhand.9:f I'l t1111ntatio1wor$.rt*h*1h. *ord,"r. p;.;;;,J;::#H:1":1.:"-'text,so that the r""r".r, .* ;il";;; th#.;ning forthemselves.


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Usingtranslation

5 r How o presentocabulary

The next set of choices elates o the means of presentation whether topresent he meaning through:' translation. real things' pictures. actions/gestures. definitions' situationsAnd whether to present he word in its:. spoken orm, or. written formand in what order (e.g.spokenbefore written) and how soon(e.g.delayingthe written form until the spoken orm has been thoroughly learned).There are also decisions o be made concerning the degreeof learnerinvolvement.For example:. should the teacherprovide both the meaning and the form hersel0. should the teacherpresent he meaning and attempt to elicit the forml. should the teacherpresent he form and attempt to elicit the meaning?. should the learners epeat he form, and if so,whenlWe will addressall these ssues n this chapter.Traditionally, translation has been the most widely used means ofpresenting he meaning of a word in monolingual classes.anslation hasthe advantage of being the most direct route to a word's meaning -assuming hat there is a close match between the target word and its L1equivalent. It is therefore very economical, and especially suitable fordealingwith incidental vocabulary hat may crop up in a lesson.However,aswe have seen,an over-relianceon translation may mean that learners ailto develop an independent L2 lexicon, with the effect that they alwaysaccess 2 words by meansof their L1 equivalents, ather than direcdy.AIso,becauseearnersdorit have o work very hard to accesshe meaning,it maymean hat the word is lessmemorable. case f 'no pain, no gain'.However, there are a number of different ways of incorporatingtranslation into the vocabulary presentation.Here, for example,are threeimaginary extracts n which the Spanish-speaking eacher s teaching herSpanish-speakingtudents lothing vocabulary:1 rBecnen: En inglspantalonese laman rousers.Trousers.hora, odosjuntos ... lln English pantalonesare called trousers. rousers.Now; all together ...]

sTuDENTS: rousers.2 rnRcnnn: Does anyoneknow the English for una camisa? o? Listen,it's a sbirt. Shirt. Repeat.sruoBNrs: SZirl.

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How toillustratemeaning

3 rnecnrn: what's this? fpointing to picture of a dress]Do you knowwhat this is irriinglishl No? Listen, it's a dress. ress.Repeat.stuoeil'rs: Drsss.TEAcHER:How do you saydressn Spanish?Marta?MARTA: Falda.TEAcHER:That's right.In the first extract ali the teacher's alk is in Spanish.This effectivelya"ori*, learnersof valuable12 inpt.Moreover, not much attempt is made;i;;* ,h;-l."rr,.rr, apart rorn simplygetting them to rePeathe word'In the secondextract, he teacher rt.J only English (the target anguage),up"rt fro- when L1 words are used o iniroduie meaning.They.are thus;;d ;; " lot -or. English than simply the targetvocabularytems' Iniiri ifrita .",ract, the preseitation s entirlly in English.Spanishs usedonlyto checkthat learneri harteunderstood'opinion is very much divided as o the merits of eachapproach.Here for..#;i;; ir ur &.h"r,ge on the subject of translation, between teachers""rii.'i"",i"* or, "r, I.riernet discussiongroup (IATEFL Teacher

ainers'Sp..ii Inte-restGroup Mailing List: ttsig@listbot'com)fDerrin] On the L1 question.I,a nativeEnglish speaker,,frequentlyindmvself usine L1 to q,li.kly clar:fymy Catalan students'doubts as to the*'."ni"g of'.rnkno*n lexis n texts hey- re exposed.to.,see ittle pointi" *"ff.i""g arounda room acting ike a chickenfor half an hour when youcansay'po11o'.fDennis]well, half an hour would be overdoingt (andareyour studentsrHnr ,1o* on the uptake?).But although-thereareclearly occasionswhen a short,sharp ranslations the mosteftectle methodot conveylng-."rrirrg, is it necessarily he most effective method of encouragingil;t# I bet ifyou did walk around he ro_om ctinglikea chicken,evenfor fivJ minutes, sayingl I'm a chicken. I'm a chicl


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5 o How o presentocabulary

for example, s advice or teachers rom a popular Direct Method courseofthe 1940s:HOWTO TEACH THE NAMESOF OBJECTSThe usual procedure s as ollows. 'The teacher irst selectsa number of objects, n batchesof say rom 10to 20. [...] The objectsma ybe(a) those that are usually found in the place where the lesson s given,e.g.door, window, knife, match, book; or parts of the body or articlesofclothing.(b) those collected specially or the purposesof the lesson,e.g. a sticlqa stone,a nail, a piece of wire, a piece of string etc.(c) those represented y pictures,suchas hose printed on picture cardsor wall charts,or by rough drawings on the blackboard.The teachershows or points to each object in turn and names t. Hesays he nameclearly(but naturally) three or four times. [...] When thepupils have had sufficient opportunity to ltear he words and sentences(and to grasp their meaning) they are called upon to say them. In thefirst instance hey m y re?eat hem after the teacher ...(from Palmer H, The Teacbingof Oral English, Longman)

Such an approach s especiallyappropriate f teaching beginners,and withmixed nationality classes,where translation is not an option. It is also atechnique that has been reclaimed by practitioners of Total PhysicalResponse (TPR), a method that promotes initial immersion in a highquantity of comprehensible input. In making use of the immediateenvironment of the classroom,and of things that can be brought into theclassroom, he intention is to replicate the experienceof learning o-r,re'smother tongue. A TPR lesson ypically involves he teacherdemonstratingactions,usingrealobjects,and then getting the learners o perform the sameor similar actions n response o commands.Typical classroomcommandsmight be:

Point o the apple.Put he banana ext o the apple.Give he apple o Natasha.Offer he bananao Maxim.etc.(Plastic fruit and vegetables re deal for this kind ofactivity.)Visual aids take many forms: flashcards publishedand home-made), wallcharts, ransparencies rojected on to the board or wall using the overheadprojector, and board drawings. Many teachers collect their own sets offlashcards tom magairnes,calendars,etc. Especially usefirl are pictures ofitems belonging to the followingsets:food and drink, clothing,bousenteriorsandfurniture, landscapes/exteriors,formsf transport plus a wide selection ofpictures of people, sub-divided into setssuch as obs, nationalities,sports,

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How o Teach ocabulary

activitiesand appearanceta//,strzng,sad,healtby,o/d, etc).Not only can suchpicturesbe used o presentnew vocabularytems, but they can be used opractisehem.The useof picturesor objectsasprompts or vocabularyeachingcan beenhanced f some basic principles of memory are taken into account,including the principle of distributedpractice seepage 24).In teachingaset of say, en clothing items, it is important to keep reviewing thepreviously ntroduced items, preferably n a varying order - something ikethis:

presentshirtpresentacketDresent rousersrevew shirtreview trouserspresentdressrevrewacketPresents-weaterrevlew qressrevtew shirtpresentsocfuetc.

Another principle underlying effective memorisation is, as much as ispossible, o allow learners o work at their own pace. n this way they canform associationsand think of mnemonic devices that are personallyrelevant,and appropriate to the degree of difficulty the word is causingthem. This is more likely to happen f they are working on their own or insmall groups.But by building pausesnto a teacher-ledpresentation,heteacher an provide earnerswith time to'catch up'and to reflect.Here, by way of example,are some activitiesusing flashcards:& The teachershows cards one at a time, and either elicits or says heword it represents.As a rule of thumb, about ten unfamiliar words isprobably sufficient. Periodically the teacher backtracks and changesthe order (seeabove).Finally, stick all the cards on to the board, andwrite the words alongsideor ask earners o comeup andwrite them).., Stick a collection of picture cards (e.g. clothes) on the board andi number hem. (I f you areworking round alarge table,place he cardsface up on the table.) Invite learners o ask you about the words theyare unfamiliar with. For example: What'snumber 6? Check to see fsomeoneelse knows before giving the answer.When students aresufficiently famlliar go through them all, asking, What\ number8? etc.As a check, urn the cards around, one at a time, so that they cant be

seen,and again ask I{hat! numberB? Finally, write the words on theboardalongside achpicture.

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5 . How o oresentocabularv

Stick a selection of cards on the board and a1low earners to usebilingual dictionaries o find the words they represent.They can thenwrite the words adjacent o the pictures.Give pairs or groups of three a selectionof cards each.They can usebilingual dictionaries to find out the word for each picture. Then,repreientatives rom each group can 'teach' the rest of the class hewords they havediscovered, sing the visual aids.Show the classawall chart or a arge picture containing manydifferentitems (e.g.a streetscene r an airport) for a short period of time, sayten seconds.ndividually or in pairs, the learners hen have to writedown as manywords - in English - as hey can rememberhavingseenrepresentedn the picture. Al1ow them to use dictionaries.Show thepilture againfor another few seconds,o let them extendtheir lists ofwords. Reveal he picture for the checkingstage: he individual or pairwith the most correctwords is the winner.

Of course, elianceon real objects, llustration, or demonstration, s limited.It is one thing to mime a chitken, but quite another to physicallyrePresentthe meaningbf a word hke intuition or becorner trustuorthy. Also, wordsfrequently come up incidentally,words for which the teacherwont havevisual aids or realii at hand. An alternativeway of conveying he meaningof a new word is simply to use words - other words.This is the principlebehind dictionary difinitions. Non-visual, verbal means of clarifyingmeaning include:. providing an examplesituation. giving severalexamplesentences. giving synonyms,antonyms,or superordinate erms' giving a fulldefinitionAll of the above procedures can be used in conjunction, and also incombinationwith visualmeanssuch asboard drawingsor mime. Althougha verbal explanationmay takea ittle longer than using translation,or visualsor mime, the advantages re hat the learnersaregetting extra'free'listeningpractice,and,by being made o work a litde harder to get to the meaningofi word, they may be more cognitively engaged.Obviously, t is important,when using words in order to define other words, that the defining wordsthemselveJare within the learners' current range. Doctor Johnson'sdefinition of a net n his famous dictionary is an exampleof what not to sayin the classroom:Anytbing reticulatedor decussatedt egual distancesuithintersticesetueen he-interictionslA situational presentation nvolves providing a scenariowhich clearlycontextualiseshe target word (or words). Here, for example, s a situationfor teachinge nb rrased/ e nbarras ng :

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How to explainmeaning

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Catherinesawa man at the bus stop.His backwas turned but shewassure it was her brother, so she tapped him on the shoulder with herumbrella and shouted Look out! The police are after you!' The manturned around.He was a completestranger.SHE WAS TERRIBLY EMBARRASSED.T WAS A VERYEMBARRASSINGXPERIENCE.(fromO'Neill R, Englishn Situations,OUP)Reinforcing a situational presentationwith pictures, board drawings, orgesture *uk , it more inftlligible, and perhaps_more memorable.Moreiremorable still is the situation that comesdirectly from the experienceofthe people n the room - whether the teacheror students.n other words,the ieachercould el l her own storyof when shewas embarrassed,nd theninvite the studentsto tell their own. Again, the extra 'free' speakingandlisteningpracticeustifies he relativelyong time spenton just one or tlvoitems of vocabulary.An alternative io the situational approach is to provide studentswithexamplesentences, achone being a tipical instanceof the target.word nconteit.This is not dissimilar o the wayconcordancesanbe used see age

70). From the cumulativeeffectof the sentenceshe studentsshouldbe ableto hypothesise he meaning of the target word _- using induction: the-.rri"l process f hypothesising rom examples.Here is a teachergivingsentenceexamplesor the wordfancy:r: Listen to thesesentences nd see f you can work out what the verb

ifancymeans:Number one:He's eal/ynice,but I don'tfancybim. lpauseJTwo: Ifancy ealingout nnight. Don'tyou? fpause]Three: Do yoifonclta-cupof cffie? fpause]Four: Fancya drink? lpause] Five: That [u1tontle d.aryceJl9or - hereallltfancie_simself lpause]And six: I neoei eallyfonciedpackagetolidaysmuch. pauselOK, talk to your neighborrra.rdthen I'll read hem again ..Allow the students as many hearings of the sentences s they think theyneed before they are confident enough to venture an answer. (Forparticularly difficult words, it may help if the learnerswrite the sentencesdown.) Depending on whether the class s monolingualor not, the teachercan then elicit a mother tongue translation of the target word, or,alternatively,a synonym or definition.One advantage f this approachs that the learners ear he word severaltimes, ncreasinghe likelihood of retention n memory.Another advantageis that they hear the word in a variety of rypical contexts(rather than justone) so they can start to get a feel for its range of usesas well as ts typicalcollocationse.g.fancya drink). Finally, hey get informationon the word'sform and grammar - whether, for example, t is irregular or transitive (if averb), or countable(i f a noun). It may seem to involve quite a lot ofpreparation or the teacher,but consulting dictionariesand corpora forexamples f the targetwords n contextcan help reduceplanning ime.Very often a quick explanation, sing a synonym frrty'- it meanslike),

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5 . How o presentocabulary

antonym ('outgoing'- it\ theopposite.ofh!, introverted) or_ supefordinateterm (a ;hrring'"it a kind bi 7tn1,- will ,serve, especially in. incidentalvocabulary*otf.. Thir is paitiiularly useful when glossing (explaining)words that comeup in texts.More elaboratedefinitions, such as those in dictionaries,require moreeffort on the part of both teacherand learner.Lexicographers dictionarywriters) ,p.rrd u greatdealof time agonising verdefinitions,sothere s noreason oihink tf,at teacherswill find them any easier.Fortunately, earners'dictionaries phrase their definitions in language that offers teachers areliable-od.l, should hey needone.Here, foi eximple, is the definition forpetrify from two dictionaiies - first, a conventionaldictionary and, second,a learners' ictionary:

p6'trifi u. l. r.t. changc into stone; 1fig.)paralrsc orrtupcfv with astonishmcnt, crror, ctc.. l!.lrwd uthlrai "ti.\: deprive (mind, doctrinc, ctc.) ofvitality' 2'' . i . rurn' i . tosronc 1l i t .or f r+.) . l f -E pi l i jer I mcd. Lpctriftcarc. L f. Ck pe*a rock; see rv] (from the ConciseOxfordDictionary)

petrlfy /pgtrrfar/,petrlfles, petrllylng' petrl'fled. I tl something erlllec you, t ma*esyou ee l v+overy frightened nd-eed, erhapsso trigitened tl?t lif;*"ryyoucannotmove. ro The warning whistlestarted obtow.The soundpetrtfied,liirn. G petrllled' s ll I o ru,Sl4niadnl bel";n atoni t wouldn\ trsvi bcen neerly so - terriliedpetrltied.I tyben somethitg dead Ptltlllet, it gradlally v-aochanres Dto stone. o ftrlllcd' * Tbe mowtatn grlsctr.str:nngi lamed menacingTyi*e *me petri-tiedptehie Atrrntaric$onsteiopctrlllctlloo/pgtrlftk9$a'n/. ot{utrcffI|tt It something such &5 a soclety or lnstitution vERoDelrlfl3or it dmething elseFetrlller il it *ease3 c * sisgntlelhsneeand develop;a formal usf' goMilitatism andxenoihobia etifrx the ficial order... ..i1 clviliza'tron wasaof to niil:er or petrity. n pttrltlcttlot. r*l 0 xursunrIirese stalenrerf" aken" tw iit*tdtly, lead to dl *3ttgn'tl6npetrillc,tiar ot meaain$,

(fromthe CollinsCOBUILD EngluhDictionary)

A variant of the definition approach s to presenta layereddefinition - thatis, one that is segmentednio several hort statements, achone ncludingthe target l"o.J. Thir is similar to the example sentencesapproachmentioied above, ut in this case he sentencesrediscrete omponents falargerdefinition.For example:r: If you feel petrified you are Yeryvery frightened. Someonecan bepeirified by'feai. peirifed literaliy -ir.rr turned to stone. Petrifed'*oo"a ir #ood that has becomestone. n someplacesyou can seepetrifed forests.

In this way, he meaning- and shadesof meaningof a word arebuilt uppieceby piece,with tho added advantagehat the learnershear the target-ord nliorrly in context,but repeated in the aboveexample ive times).

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How tohighlight the

form

In realiry most teachersdraw on a range of techniqu.es situations,Svnonyms,xample entences,tc. in their presentationsf word meanlng'A.re,'for ."^-pi., is an extract rom a lesson n which the teacherusesa"^rl"q, A -."ri, - including words that the students are apeady amiliarwith - to introducePetrifed:

T: oK is anyonevery frightened of ghoststwould you be frightened ifyou sawa ghost? +;gitrnra. OK,I know if I saw, or example' f I saw'u ghort, tf,ere is on"e eeling- would feel. I would feelfrightened.i*?it"r]'B,rt evenmore thanlfrightened,holvwo,rldyou feel f you saw" ghotil Mor e thanfr ;I h un;d, stronger, hanfrig h ened'S :

T '

S :

q '

T :

Tbrrified.Coo'a, terrified. fwrites] Tbrrified' An1'thing even stronger thanterriftd? Aword in English. Even,really,you'resoJrtgbtenedyoure 'Scared?it utt not, that's the same asfrightened.There's something that'sstronger.Astonished.Astonished.Astonisheds a little bit more lTkesurprisel' I think -i'rrified; there's an even stronger word, which would be Petrified'fwrites] And it meanswhen you-ar sgfrightgned hat you 91n ts^peak,,ror, "rr, think, and you ."rrt -on". You'ri absolutely2etrif'ed'And Iif,inf. if I saw , ghort I would probably be ilaughs] probably bepetrif.ed,being hJrather patheticsoul hat I am'

Finally, t's worth emphasisinghat learningthe meaning. f a word - orlearninganything, or that matter -- is a-process.of radualapproxlmatlon'Erre' iri oui firstiungrrage, t may take a lbng_ eriod of.'fuzziness' eforewefeel comfortableabo"utting ..ri"in words. If is probably askingtoo muchof teachers o expect hemlo chrify every nuance of a word's meaning atfirst encounter.better that they orientaie their learners in the generalJir..,io' of aword'smeaning,while equipping hem with the skillsand themotivation to continue er,"plotittg ire-iurther reachesof that word's'semanticspace'.In Chapter 2 we noted the fact that the sound of words, as much as theirr**ing, determines he way they are stored n the mental lexicon'The factthat fikJjsounding words areoften confused tambourinesot trarnpolines, rchicken or kitche"n,or example) is evidence of this. This suggests hat|,igf.iign,i"g the spoken form of a word is very important .in terms of..r"r,rriig it"is appiopriately stored.This in turn means drawing learners'attention to the way the word sounds.Words seem o bL storedand accessedrimarily according o their overallsyllable structure and stress.Hence it ii easyto confuse tambourineandirampoline because hey have the same general-:hlP.t'. despite someii'ff.'r.rr.", of individual'sounds.This suggestshat highlighting_ he stressurrdq.rr.rul shapeof the word is a usefulaid to retentionand deserves smucf,attentionas he individualsounds'


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There are a number of waysof highlighting the spoken orm of the word.Essentiallyheseare:' listening drills. oral drills. boardworkHaving established he meaning of a new word, the teachercan model itusing fistening drills. A drill is any repetition of a short chunk of language.In tf,is case,t is the teacherwho does he repeating, o as o accustomhelearners o the phonological eaturesof the word. Customarily, his takes heform of a cleir but nitural enunciation of the word (or words), usuallypreceded y somesort of cue,such as'Listen ...'. This is repeated wo orthreetimes.To draw learners'attention o the syllablestructureand stress fthe word, this modellingprocess anbe accompaniedy somekind ofvisualstimulus, such as using the fingers of one hand to represent he differentsyllables.The teachercan also ask the class o identif' the stressed yllable'Thequestion Where\ hestress?s agood one for learners o get usedto. One wayof introducing he idea of stress in the first lesson,or example is to askthe learners o r"y how many syllables here are in their own names, andwhich of thesesyllabless stressed.Of course,f it's a one-syllable ame,the stresswill be on that one syllable.)In drill-and-repeatypemethodologies,uchasaudiolingualism,t wouldthen be customary oriearners o repeat he newword, both in chorusandindividually, in order to reinforce t in memory.More recently, he value ofsimply repeating newly introduced language - especially grammaticalstructures--hasbeen questioned.Somewriters argue hat the requirementto'get one's ongue round it' may distract from the cognitivework involvedin'letting one'smind round it'.-As we saw n Chapter2 (seepage 23)^,'yeforget words quickly if there is any interference or interruption of then ti"ol"toty lobp (the processof subvocalrepetition on which workingmemory depends). his iuggests hat allowing learners wo or three seconds'processing'-timebetween hearing a new word and saylng it might have6enefits in tet-s of retention in memory. One way of encouragingsubvocalisations sometimesknown as a mumble drill. At a cue from theteacher, earnersmumble or muttef the word to themselvesat their ownpace.Evidence suggestshat subvocalisations a technique that_ uccessfuli."trr.tr usenaturilly (seepage161),so t may be oneworth establishing sstandard lassroom ractice.However, to withhold production indefinitely is likely to frustratelearners,whose instinct is often to have a go at repeating a new wordthemselves.And nothing gives earnersa better feel for the shapeof a wordthan saying it - even iF ihe teacher's ntention is to teach the word forrecogniiiononly. t may be appropriate,herefore,o getlearners o vocalisethe new words, after they ha-ve irst subvocalisedhem, by meansof choralor individual repetition, i.e. drilling.

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How o Teach ocabulary

Featuresof the word's pronunciation can also be highlighted using theboard. Many teachersuse some kind of symbol - such as a small box - toindicatewhere the primary stress s placed.Frghtana.dpZtriFied

Providing Tearnersj*.: transcrption of theword usingphonemic scriptis another way-o! highlighting the pronunciation visualy. The phonenictranscription offrigb teneds /fratend/ .use of phonemic symbolsalso avoidsthe potentially negativeeffectsofsound-spellingmismatches but seebelow).of course,hir "-rr.r-.r learnersare familiar with phonemic script. If they are not, they may find the extralearning load daunting, especially f they are still getiing used to Romanscript.(asmaybe the case or learnerswhosemotheitongie usesa differentscript)._onthe other hand, there s no great mystery 6 phonemicscript,especially eading t (as opposed o writing it). Mbst of the consonantsoundsare easily-decipherableo it is mainly a task of getting to know howthe many English-vowel soundsare represented a taJk thuican be spreadover a number of lessons,-f necessary. Iso, the fact that al1good learnerdictionariesusea standardisedorm of phonemic script meanJthat furtherreinforcement can be provided by dictionary activities that focus onpronunciation (see page 66). (For a detailed referencechart of EnglishsoundsTd !h: way they are produced,seeAppendix A in Gerald rJuytHoru to Teach ronunciation,n this series.)How soon should learners meet the written form of a new word?taditionally, it was felt that meeting the written form too soon wouldinterfere with correct pronunciation habits. This is specially the case nEnglish. (it_was argued), where sound-spelling matc^hes rl notoriouslyunreliable. Learners who are pronouncing *otls like cupboard,uit, anAlsland..perfecdyorrectly,Jlavingonly heard them, often ,.gr.r, to',cup-board', 'sweet'and'is-land', nie exposedo th e written foim. on thesegrounds,presentationof the written -formused o be delayeduntil learnerswe_rehoroughly familiar with the spoken orm.However, the counter atg..-,-ent .,ns that - since earnersare going tomeet the written form.evenru?lly - i1 may be better to deal #th"unysound-spellingmismatches_h-eadn, and get ihes. difficulties out of the waysooner rather than later. After all, learners are likely to form u -.rrt"lrepresentationof the probable- pelling of new words as soon as they firsthear hem, so t is betier that this -ental representations an accurare ne.Moreover,the sound-spelling rregularities n English are often overstated.It is true that there aresome.extremely nreliables-pelling(the -oughfamilybeing he mos-t ommonlycited).Bui the vastmajority6fwords in'Englisiiconform to a fairly small set of rules.Avoiding the issueby withholding'thewritten f,orq ma.ydeprive learnersof the opportunity of observing tleseregularities for themselves.A useful strategy, herefore, might be"to asklearners, oonafterhearinga newword, to atGmpt to rp.ll it. (or, if the first

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meeting is with the written form, to attempt to Pronounce t.) If they arehavingirouble doing this, the teachercan prompt the_m y reminding themof fariiliar words wilh a similar pronunciation or spelling. n Chapter 9 wewill look at someuseful spellingrules that can be taught to learners.But there is an evenmbre important reason or being introduced to thewritten form as soon as possible.Crucial clues o meaning are often mucheasier o identify in the #titt.n form than in the spoken orm of the word.Im;*:ffi l;filill,il'"iT;".iJ,T;[z"uy;and police staiion comes out as plee station. In the absence of keymorpiological information (like hand- andpolice) earnershave nothing toatta;h the-new word to - or nowhere to -'file' it - and therefore find itdifficult to understandand remember.So the effort involved in learning- t::,'H:"T'i::f?:::ffi#H':ffi*,::?;::J:X*if#[i'li.-form of a word they ha=veeen abouring to makesenseof. Depriving themof this form may be counterproductive.How to involve The word

'presentation'has connotations of teacher as transmitter, andthe learners learnersas passive ecipients,of language acts. But, ls Yls pointed out inChapter2 (page30),'learnersneed -obe actively nvolved n the learningofwords'. How ian learnersbe given more involvement in the presentationphaseof word learning?' One technique that has abeadybeen mentioned in this chapter_selicitation. A siandardelicitation procedure s for the teacher o present hemeaningof a word (".g.by showinga picture) and asking earners o supplythe form:

(showingpicture of uaterfall) What's this?Tomas?Cataract?Not exactly.Elena?Waterfall?Good.

Alternatively, the teacher can supply the word, and elicit a definition,synonymor example:T: What's a waterfall?Anyone?s: Like Niagara?T: Yes,exactly.

This secondprocedure,going from form to meaning, s typic_al f text-basedvocabularywbrk. It alsooccurswhen words come up naturally n classroomtalk (see,or example, he extractof classroom alk on page50).The rationaleunderlying elicitation is that:. it actively nvolves he learners n the lesson. it maximisesspeakingopportunities' it keeps he learnersalert and attentive

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Howto Teach ocabularY

. it challenges etter learnerswho might otherwise turn off'. i; ;;r;, I way of checkingthe leariers' developingunderstanding. in th. ."r. of form-firsi presentationst encouragesearners o usecontextualcluesIf overused, owever,many of the advantages f elicitation maybe lost. Firstof

"n,only the better leainers may be irivolved in the procss'while the

others r.rriain passivebystanders. he use of names(or nominating) wheneliciting is oneiay rorrnd this: What\ a waterfall?Etsuko?or Sylaia,hottL ojou say'kolega'n English?' PrJlorrq.? eficitaiion sequences an end up b-eingvery frustrating fort.rlr,.r, i? tn.y simply dont koo* the answeis he teacher s seeking a.io* b.r*.. n'a qu\i rho* and a police interrogation. Finally, if all or mostoi tt . teacher's'questions are elicitation -questiottt,.,tl . quality .ofi"".h.-rtrrd.nt talk can becomecompromised.After all, in the outside*"rfa, we seldomspenda lot of conv6rsationalime aski,ng.questionsor*fri.il*rAready know the answer like What\ a wate.rfall?)Jhele are imes*rr.r, t.urrr"rs rr.ed exposure o 'real'questions, such as what's the biggestuaterfa/lyou\te verseen? 'itii; ;ggests that another mportant way of.involving learners s to havethem pers"nalise the ,r.* *ordr. Personiisation s simply the process.ofusing'thenewword in a context hat is real or the learnerpersonally' he;;;? ;; t -ud., in Chapter2 (page30), hat 'memoryof newwordscanbei;l;;d ii,fr.y "r. ,lr'.d to &pi"t, personallyrelevantmeanings'.Thereare many *uyt o? doing this. Here are some deas:5$, Ask learners o write a true sentenceusing the new word' preferably;;;1",t- it to th.-relves or someone hey know - more easilydone

":iit';;rdr Iike frishtened and enbarrassid han perhapswords like*oirrfrtt.To help,p"rovide Tnt-ence rame,suchas Tbe ast ime Ifeltfrighiened ot *bri. . Or Thebiggest aterfall ha,e e'er seen...% Learners write questions for other learners, ncorporating the:rew/l ;;;J. F". ."u-pl"' Whar makesyou embarrassed/frightened?hey^exchangequestioirs,write the urr*Lrr, and then report to the rest ofthe class.k Ask learners to make an association network centred on the new- **a. That is, heyconnect he word to otherwords hat theyassociatewith it, however ar-fetched,drawing a diagram in the manner of the."u-pi" opposite.They then .orrrpit" thelr networks with those ofother'srudents,skingatout, andexplaining,he associations.ere, or.*r-pl., is the assoliationnetwork producedby one student or theword iron:

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R If teaching a lexical set suchas food items, or forms of transport, ort . jobs, or kinds of film, ask the learners o rank the items in order ofpersonal preference- from most preferred to least preferred. Forexample, drama, thriller, musical,western, costume rama, horror mo'uie... Then, in pairs, hey compareand explain their rankings.

Finally, an alternative to teacher presentation- and one that maximallyinvolves learners - is peer teaching, i.e. learners teaching each othervocabulary. One way of doing this is through an information gap activity.This is an activity in which information is distributed between students npairs or small groups. n order to complete a task, studentsmust exchangeinformation in order to 'fill the information gap'. If the information alsoincludeswords whosemeaning s known only to individual membersof thegroupr the information exchangewill require members o teach each otherthosewords.

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How to Teach ocabularv

ffir ,7I \ I IVV\ti,//=gAItggl2llgLgu Il@tli l l tIt---------JlV7-rvrr74cooker

r G l Q\-i \--'/c , - r ( )eggcups

/ - - - ' \ ,\%lilmicrowave

GM ,%\ [W]1Fl lTf:Tlf O a-?'Z-'Z) r rI | \t------.,, vl 'l ll-fryil

For example, magine eachmember of a pair has one of the followingpictures:


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5 . How o oresentocabulary

The aim is to exchangenformation about the pictures n order to findthe ten differences.At some stage his will involve studentsusing thewords that have been glossedat the bottom of their picture - forexamplejugin Picture A. Becauseheir partner doesnot have he wordfor ug, (and in all likelihood will not know it) he or she will have toask or an explanation.A probablesequencemight go like this:sruDENT1: Is therea ug on the table n your picture?sruDENT2: A what?sruDENT1: A jug.sruDENT2: What is jug'?sr,uDENT1: A jug is a thing for keep water or milk.sruDENT2: Ah. Yes. haveone- what is called judge?sruDENT1: Jug.J-U-G.sruDENT2: Yes, here s one ug on the table n my picture.etc.The extra effort put into negotiating the meaning and form of theunfamiliar words pays off in terms of learning. Note, for a start, howmany imes theword ugwas used.Research uggestshat negotiationof word meaning in this way is a.very powerful learning tool, and ismore memorable,on the whole, than teacherpresentation. n order tomaximise ts usefi,rlness,t may help if learnershave been taught somesimple defining expressions, uch as t\ a thingyou usefor .. . It's madeof ... It looksike ..

Other ways of setting up peer teaching asks nclude:W Give eachstudent n a group a card or cards)with a different word onI " it, the meaning of the word being provided in the form, for example,of a translation, synonym or picture. Students have to study theircard(s) silently and learn their words.Then the group is given a taskwhich involves using the words. For example, t might be a story-construction activity, n which studentshave to order sentences, ach

of which contains one of the targeted words. To do the task, eachstudentwould have o explain to the other membersof the group thewords that they have ust studied.,W Alternatively, they are asked o categorise he words on the cards nto! ' groups,or to rank them according to some criteria. They might, forexample,be objectswhich areranked according o their usefulness na desert sland. n order to do this task, studentswill first need o teacheachother the words they have earned ndividually.W Each student s given a ist of six to eight words, with their translationst ' or definitions. For example,one student may get the following: checkin, boardingpass, duty free, luggage,securityclteck,departuregate, etc,

Another may get: campfire,fryingpan, pocket nife, natcbes,ackpack,etc.They haveto work these words into a short narrative.They thentell eachother their narrative,explaining any unfamiliar words as heygo along.91


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How o Teach ocabularv

Conclusions

Looking ahead

ln this chapterwe lookedat techniques nd procedures hich nvolvedirect eacher ntervention n the teachingof pre-selectedtemsofvocabulary. mong the choices vai lableo the teacherwhenplanninga vocabulary resentat ion re he fol lowing:. how manywords o present t a t ime. whether to present he meaningof words first or the form first. whether o use ranslat ion s he means f presentingmeaning, r. whether o usesome orm of i l lustrat ion, uchasreal ia, isualaids,or mime,or. whether o usea verbalmeans f presentat ion, uchasan examplesi tuat ion, xample entences,ynonyms, r def ini t ions. how to present he spoken orm and whether his should nvolvestudent repetit ion. how soon o present he written form. how, and to what extent, o involve he learners n thepresentat ion,hrough he useof el ic i tat ion, ersonal isat ion,ndpeer eaching, or examPleSomeof the conclusionseached nclude he fol lowing:. the numberof words hat can be learned s constrained y factorssuchasword difficulty,bu t need not be limited to only a few words. establ ishinghe meaningof a new word first and then presentingits orm is a standard PProach. translat ion s an economical ay of presentingmeaningbut maynot be the mostmemorabler i l lustrat ingmeaning seffect ive, ut is imited o certainkindsofwords. explainingmeaning erbal ly s ime-consuming ut can be effect ivei f explanations re kept clearand simpleo the spoken orm can be highl ighted hrough he givingof clearmodels, he useof phonemic cript, nd repeti t ion. the wri t ten form shouldnot be withheld oo long. learners houldbe actively nvolved n the presentat ion

Presenting ords s only he t ip of the iceberg. o ensure hat learnersget to 'know' thesewords to the extent outlined in Chapter2, theywil l needplenti fulopportunit ieso engagewith thesewords n avarietyof contexts,an d to 'put thesewords to work' - the theme ofthe chapter ha t follows.

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How to Present Vocabulary1

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