Teaching vocabulary

It is experience of most language teachers that the single, biggest component of any language course is vocabulary. If language structures, says Jeremy Harmer, make up the skeleton of language, then it is vocabulary that provides the vital organs and the flesh. For many years vocabulary was seen as incidental to the main purpose of language teaching - the acquisition of grammatical knowledge about the language.

Recently the status of vocabulary has been considerably enhanced. This has come about mainly as a result of the development of communicative approaches, proponents of which point out that the acquisition of an adequate vocabulary is essential for successful FL use otherwise comprehensible communication can hardly be possible.

The problem is what words and idioms students should retain, what are the principles and criteria of vocabulary selection. Different scholars (M. West, McCarthy, Richards, and Galina Rogova) name the following: frequency, coverage or range of contents, ease, learnability, familiarity, learners'needs.

Word frequency is an example of purely linguistic approach to word selection. It is claimed to be the soundest criterion because it is completely objective. But frequency does not necessarily equate with usefulness or relevance to learner needs and coverage or range of contents may be more important. The useful words for learner are those which occur across a wide variety of texts. The next criterion for vocabulary selection for teaching purposes is ease with which words may be learned. For example, abstract items are more difficult to learn than words that denote concrete things, actions or qualities. The ease or difficulty a word presents depends on variety of different reasons, and may need special attention or focus in teaching. According to Michael McCarthy learnability of words is an important criterion which should be taken into account selecting vocabulary for teaching purposes. Words with low learnability cause some problems for students (e.g. spelling or phonological difficulties, vague or half- comprehended cultural setting, words may be perceived as very close in meaning by the learners and then confused, etc.). Words with high learnability do not cause additional difficulties and may be more familiar to learners. The criterion of familiarity is a concept incorporating frequency, meaningfulness, concreteness (Richards). Learners who are familiar with a particular sphere of life (e.g. physics, economics, etc.) will find the words connected with the sphere less difficult to learn. It is important to understand that different learners need differentiated vocabulary lists, and that the list should reflect the communicative needs of learners. Thus, an important criterion for selection is learners’ needs. Teacher and coursebook writer should predict learners' communicative needs and equip learner with the basic core of language (the most common grammatical and lexical items) and a survival vocabulary, creating at the same time a sense of need for a word in learners.

The selection of vocabulary, though important, is not teacher's chief concern. Teacher's concern is how to get their students to assimilate the vocabulary prescribed. Teacher should bear in mind that a word is considered to be learned when:

•it is spontaneously recognized while listening and reading;

•it is correctly used in speech (both oral and written), the right word in the right place.

Real vocabulary that learner possesses serves both productive and receptive purposes. When producing speech (while speaking/writing) learner operates freely some words, word-combinations, and expressions for their communicative purposes, their vocabulary is called active / functional / productive vocabulary. When comprehending wide variety of texts and utterances (while listening and reading) learner is able to understand but not yet use the vocabulary, it is called passive / recognition / receptive. Learners can be seriously under-equipped to deal with authentic language if they neglect to extend their passive /receptive vocabulary and develop their potential vocabulary.

It is undoubted that any language is a rationally organized structure. Not only grammar but also vocabulary is based on some structuring principles. The teacher's job is to find the ways to utilize the regularity and organization of lexical structure and help learners acquire lexical competence.

Lexical competence is viewed as acquiring an appropriate quantity of lexical units, in other words, owning vocabulary. Unlike the learning of grammar, which is essentially a rule-based system, vocabulary knowledge is largely a question of accumulating individual items. To know a word means to know its

•meaning (denotation, connotation, polysemy, homonymy, synonymy, antonymy,

hyponymy),

•form (phonology, orthography, morphology),

•distribution (collocation, register, style)

Constant use of a new word is the best way of learning it. New words should be approached from different sides, in many different ways, by means of many different forms of work. Teacher can ensure lasting retention of words for their learners, relying upon their sensory perception and thinking upon their auditory, visual and kinaesthetic analysis so that learners can easily recognize the words while listening and reading and use them while speaking and writing.

There are numerous techniques concerned with vocabulary presentation. For example, the meaning of a word can be given by using an L1 translation; using a known L2 synonym or a simple definition in the L2; showing an object or picture; giving demonstration; drawing a simple picture or diagram; breaking the word into parts and giving the meaning of the parts and the whole word; giving several example sentences with the word in context to show the meaning; commenting on the underlying meaning of the word and other referents.

It is possible to draw attention to the form of a word by showing its spelling as well as pointing out any spelling irregularity in the word; giving the word pronunciation; showing the prefix, stem and suffix that make up the word.

In drawing attention to the use of the word it is a good idea to show the grammatical pattern of it; to give a few similar collocations, a well known opposite, or a well known word describing a group or a lexical set it fits into.

If we want to help learners remember new language more easily, it is useful to have some insight into how students learn. Marilee Sprenger asserts that memories are stored in different areas. She lists five memory lanes:

•semantic (deals with words only without any context);

•episodic (location driven);

•procedural (involves step-by-step process);

•automatic (associations);

•emotional (emotions are involved via music, role play, debates etc).

To maximize the effectiveness of learning, all the memory lanes should be accessed through a variety of appealing activities - games, problem-solving and others, which can improve language learning ability of students when used as a central strategy in the language classroom and not just for fun.

Дата добавления: 2017-01-13