Vocabulary is our language repertoire, words, phrases, chunks, idioms, lexical items in general acquired or learnt. Vocabulary acquisition is the largest and most important task facing a language learner. Language improves by studying words and expressions not grammar, or system of rules. And as Scot Thornbury says: “You can say very little with grammar, but you can say almost anything with words”.
Learning new words and new meanings for old words does not stop even in our first language. Our knowledge of a lexical item is deep when our mind’s network is aware of its spoken and written form, meanings, connotations, derivatives, collocations, syntax, grammatical behavior, phonology and sociolinguistic aspects. This is so since one word can have various forms and meanings thanks to the different add-ons, prefixes or suffixes they take on.
When we try to identify a word, the brain’s search machine looks in its lexicon for meaning. If no light flickers, it examines the form of the word and sets on a phonological, syntactic and morphological search. So, knowing a word means connecting all ends through our mind’s labeling system. That is why building and developing a vocabulary network is crucial. A reminder here: avoid translation. It may be an economical way to present meaning, but it sabotages the building of a second language lexical network.
HOW DO WE PRESENT NEW LEXIS?
How we present words depends on the level of our students, on how we are inspired by the sound, the look, the idea represented by the word and what it lends itself to. Sometimes, we focus on the form, others on the meaning. Whatever presentation, instruction or activity we use, we aim at helping students embed the word into their mental files and move them from the receptive to the productive stage. Needless to say, words with strong emotional charge are easier to store in our mental lexicon.
According to Scot Thornbury “Learning a second language is moving to a new town. It takes time to establish connections and turn acquaintances into friends. New words are first acquaintances which can easily be forgotten but once they turn into friends they are never forgotten”.
TO ILLUSTRATE A LEXICAL ITEM, WE NEED TO:
• tap into our students’ prior knowledge and actively involve them through elicitation and response.
• use real objects of the immediate environment, visual aids (pictures, posters, flash cards, diagrams), realia brought in class.
• use nonverbal techniques (facial expressions, signals, pantomime, gestures).
• demonstrate, get physical, draw, act, chant, dramatize.
• drill the word to the point of automation.
• story or contextualize it to build emotional & sensory contexts around it. Words are like clans and love context. Devise a scenario relevant to the learner. Let’s story the word “grave”.
“If you knew the gravity of the situation, you wouldn’t be laughing” Mr. Farmer was grave addressing his colleagues. The seriousness of his face froze everybody. “I was at the graveyard just a few minutes ago”, Mr. Farmer, went on adding: “Three graves had been opened up and the coffins were missing. Everybody was speechless and grave. The gravity of the situation was deeply felt.
• dissect a new word into its morphemes, isolate the affixes, train students to examine the root, use clues and make educated guesses.
• Associate, collocate, teach groups of words which “travel” or “live” together. ex. “Ruthless dictator”, “insatiable desire”, “swarm of bees”.
• Spider gram lexical sets of words because topically connected words are easier to remember than unrelated ones.
• Use mnemonics by creating an image for the word. This always works no matter how abstract, ridiculous and embarrassing these visualizations may be.
GAMES TO REINFORCE THE WORDS
Vocabulary learning need not be “all work and no play”. Recycle vocabulary in game like situations. Word games of the “I spy with my little eye a word starting with …” or the “hangman” type” concern isolated rather than contextualized words and require shallow processing on the part of the learner. It is best to go for games which challenge students’ mental lexicons. Some suggestions are Kahoot, Quizlet, Word Wall, Pictionary, Charades, Bingo, Scattergories, Taboo. More suggestions follow:
Brainstorming. Class is divided in 3 groups and three categories are supplied (e.g. jobs, sports, food). Groups are given 6 letters of the alphabet and brainstorm to find as many words as possible for their assigned categories.
Turning students into Language Detectives to sort out long sentence with no gaps or sort out letters into meaningful words or untangle taught words (atrobmoh = bathroom) or pair words or get the odd word out.
Jogging memory. Students are shown pictures of words that have been taught individually or in pairs, and write down as many words as they remember.
Vocabulary helpers are asked to create one set of (say 10 items) with words they have been taught and another set with definitions, synonyms, or antonyms. They blue tack these strips on the blackboard at random and volunteers pair the two groups.
Quiz, the tennis way. The teacher throws a word at a team player and expects a response showing understanding of the word. It could be a synonym, antonym, a noun, an adjective or a collocation.
REFERENCES
- Thornbury, S. 2002. How to Teach Vocabulary. Pearson ESL
- Brown, R., Waring, R. & Donkaewbua, S.(2008). Incidental vocabulary acquisition from reading, reading- while-listening, and listening to stories.
- James Coady, Thomas Huckin: Second language vocabulary acquisition: A rationale for pedagogy. Cambridge University.
Zafi Mandali is a Teacher, Teacher Trainer, storytelling Coach and Educational Consultant.
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???????? Vocabulary is the key to effective communication! In her latest article, Zafi Mandali shares innovative strategies and engaging games to make vocabulary building a dynamic and rewarding experience for learners. Perfect for EFL teachers and students!
