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Introducing Vocabulary To Lower Level Learners Through The Use Of Word Lists (1)
Introducing Vocabulary To Lower Level Learners Through The Use Of Word Lists
1. Introduction
In this paper
I am going to discuss the importance of vocabulary acquisition to language students. I shall then go on to discuss the ways in which vocabulary (to be taught) is chosen. I will go on to discuss the role of vocabulary word lists, and how they can be implemented with regard to frequency, learner needs and level of study. I will also discuss the particular problems that students have in learning vocabulary. Finally, I will look at some of the current practices in vocabulary teaching, and discuss those I feel appropriate for my classes.
2. The Importance of Vocabulary
Whilst students often focus on the learning of new grammatical structures as a guideline to their progress in learning English, the same can rarely be said of an English learner’s regard for the importance of vocabulary acquisition. Whilst it is true that language structures form the basic skeleton of a language , vocabulary undoubtedly provides the flesh to these bones.
So, why do students place such importance on the acquisition of grammar? After all, a great deal of time is spent in classrooms giving explanation and definition of new lexical items . This is perhaps the case as the number of grammatical structures covered in a particular coursebook are a great deal more quantifiable than assessing the number of words that they can say they ‘know’. However, it is certainly true that an essential piece of vocabulary used by a learner in a given context can far outweigh the importance of the correct use of a grammatical structure. I will exemplify with a situation from my own experience. When I first started to learn Turkish, I was able to purchase basic goods, such as bread and milk, by simply uttering ‘ekmek’ and ‘süt’, and making what I considered to be appropriate hand gestures. My desire to purchase was made clear by merely mentioning the word of the product, and a grammatically correct request was unecessary. In this situation, I had clearly stated meaning through the use of essential vocabulary.
Whilst the benefits of learning language structure are obvious, i.e. they allow us to generate sentences, Harmer (1991) suggests that it is important to have a store of words available to select from so that we may express the meaning of what we wish to say . Indeed, Jordan (1997) expands on this by stating that vocabulary knowledge is the single most important area of second language competence .
3. How Is Vocabulary Selected?
There seems to be a general consensus of what grammar should be taught at what level , although the same cannot necessarily be said for vocabulary. While there are some obvious connections, for example, the teaching of items of clothing when introducing present continuous to show what a person is wearing at the moment, different coursebooks have considerably different ‘word lists’, thus indicating some indecision about what is essential at a particular level. Having said this, it should be noted that this situation is changing, and Gairns & Redman (1986) acknowledge the increase in organised and structured vocabulary activities in modern coursebooks . There is some sense, at lower levels in particular, to teach concrete ‘right in front of you’ items to elementary levels, as these words are easily explained, at more advanced levels it seems more pertinent to focus on vocabulary based on factors such as frequency. This is certainly a fundamental consideration that is used when formulating the vocabulary lists that students are required to learn at the institution that I currently teach in. This is a point I will return to later.
I suggested earlier that is somewhat difficult for a student to quantify the number of words that they know , and for this reason advancement in grammatical knowledge may be reflected on (by students) much more than progress in vocabulary knowledge. Not only is it difficult for a student to gauge where they are in terms of the quantity of known vocabulary, it is, and this is equally important, difficult for students to gauge how well they know a word. What do I mean by this? It is recognised that a student’s knowledge of a word passes from passive (also known as receptive) knowledge to active (productive) knowledge . Channell (1988) acknowledges this, stating that learners gain receptive control of a word before productive control . However, it should be noted that not all words will (or necessarily should) reach the status of ‘active’ in a given student’s mind. I work in a situation in which this is a valid consideration. In my teaching environment, much thought is given to separating the words that must become active and those that may remain passive, and their separation into two coexisiting word lists will be explained in the next section.
Published: August 01, 2007