Learning
English: How to form effective lexiñal vocabulary of the students?
Kazakh
State Women pedagogical university
Department
of foreign languages
Abstract: This
article is devoted to developing the most effective ways to enhance the
students` lexical vocabulary during teaching English on a basis of updated
linguistic methods. The fact that English language proficiency refers to the tasks of
national importance in Kazakhstan leads author to make a scientific analysis
for modern methods and strategies of acquiring vocabulary in a foreign
language. Article
also deals with descriptions of different techniques in learning new words as it will be very essential for students to
communicate successfully in real life.
Keywords and phrases: English language proficiency, linguistic
methods, vocabulary acquisition, scientific analysis.
I. Introduction
Nowadays the English language proficiency is
considered as a national importance in Kazakhstan. English is regarded as a
condition for successful integration into the global economy and becomes one of
the main priorities of the state policy.
President of Republic of Kazakhstan pays a great
attention to education and especially to vital importance for the acquisition
of English language in his annual addresses to the people of Kazakhstan. A new project called “Trinity of Languages”,
with an ultimate view to making the country trilingual in the state language of
Kazakh, in Russian, “the language of inter-ethnic communication” and in
English, “the language of successful integration into the global economy” was
proposed by the President of the country.
In Kazakhstan, as well as around the world, English is
one of the languages of intercultural communication. We see and listen to English everywhere and every day. Therefore having at least basic
knowledge in English is necessary for everyone.
II. Denotation of the word
“vocabulary”
It
should be noted that vocabulary acquisition is the largest and most important
task facing the foreign language learner. David Wilkins summed up
the importance of vocabulary for language learning: “Without grammar very
little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.” If you
spend most of your time studying grammar, your English will not improve very
much. You will see most improvement if you learn more words and expressions.
You can say very little with grammar, but you can say almost anything with
words.
It goes without saying that new words are appearing
every day. That is why we have to learn and remember many words even in the
target language. So let us try to
define the meaning of the word “vocabulary”. According to the historical data
the origin of the word “vocabulary” refers to middle of the 16th
century from a Medieval Latin “vocabulum” as ‘denoting a
list of words with definitions or translations’. It is also defined as ‘the
words of a language’. Linguists sometimes refer to it as ‘lexis’. In accordance
with the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary “vocabulary is a
list of words with their meanings, especially in a book for learning a foreign
language”.
III. Principles of learning and teaching
vocabulary
However many theories about vocabulary learning
process were written, it still remains the matter of memory. Thus, there are
several general principles for successful teaching, which are valid for any
method.
The principles are following:
v AIM – what is to be taught,
which words, how many;
v NEED – target vocabulary
should respond students’ real needs and interests;
v FREQUENT exposure and repetition;
v MEANINGFUL presentation – clear and
unambiguous denotation or reference;
Learning vocabulary is a complex process. The
students’ aim to be reached in learning vocabulary process is primarily their
ability to recall the word at will and to recognize it in its spoken and
written form.
Generally, knowing a word involves knowing its form
and its meaning at the basic level. In deeper aspects it means the abilities to
know its:
1) MEANING, i.e. relate the word to
an appropriate object or context.
2) USAGE, i.e. knowledge of its
collocations, metaphors and idioms, as well as style and register (the
appropriate level of formality), to be aware of any connotations and
associations the word might have.
3) WORD FORMATION,
i.e. ability to spell and pronounce the word correctly, to know any derivations
(acceptable prefixes and suffixes).
4) GRAMMAR,
i.e. to use it in the appropriate grammatical form.
Unlike
the learning of grammar, which is essentially a rule based system, vocabulary
knowledge is largely a question of accumulating individual items. The general
rule seems to be a question of memory. And during the process of teaching and
learning vocabulary an important problem occurs: How does memory work?
Researchers into the workings of memory distinguish between the following
systems.
−
short– term store
–
working memory
–
long– term memory
Short
- term store
Short-term store is the brain capacity to hold a
limited number of items of information for periods of time up to a few seconds.
It is the kind of memory that is involved in repeating a word that you have
just heard the teacher modeling. But successful vocabulary learning involves
more than holding words for a few seconds. To integrate words into long - term
memory they need to be subjected to different kinds of operations.
Working
memory
Working memory means focusing on word long enough to
perform operations on them. It means the information is manipulated via the
senses from external sources and/or can be downloaded from the long- term
memory. Material remains in working memory for about twenty seconds. The
existence of articulator loop enables this new material processing. It works a
bit like audiotape going round a round again. It assures the short- term store
to be kept refreshed.
The ability to hold a word in working memory is a good
predictor of language learning aptitude. The better ability to hold words in
working memory the smoother the process of learning foreign languages is.
Long
–term memory
Long-term memory can be seen as kind of filling
system. Unlike working memory, which has a limited capacity and no permanent
content, this kind of memory has an enormous capacity and its contents are
durable over time. However, to ensure moving new materials into permanent
long-term memory, requires number of principles to be followed.
v REPETITION – repetition of
encounters with a word is very important, useful and effective. If the word is
met several times over space interval during reading activities, students have
a very good chance to remember it for a long time.
v RETRIEVAL - another kind of
repetition. Activities, which require retrieval, such as using the new items in
written tasks, help students to be able to recall it again in the future.
v SPACING - it is useful to split
memory work over a period of time rather than to mass it together in a single
block.
v PACING – to respect different
learning styles and pace, students should be ideally given the opportunity to
do memory work individually.
v USE - putting words to use,
preferably in an interesting way, is the best way of ensuring they are added to
long – term memory. This is so called “Use it or lose it” principle.
v COGNITIVE DEPTH -
the more decisions students make about the word and the more cognitively
demanding these decisions are, the better the word is remembered.
v PERSONAL ORGANISING -
personalization significantly increased the probability that students will
remember new items. It is achieved mainly through conversation and role-playing
activities.
v IMAGING – easily visualized words
are better memorable than those that do not evoke with any pictures. Even
abstract words can be associated with some mental image.
v MNEMONICS – tricks to help retrieve
items or rules that are stored in memory. The best kinds of mnemonics are
visuals and keyword techniques.
v MOTIVATION - strong motivation
itself does not ensure that words will be remembered. Even unmotivated students
remember words if they have to face appropriate tasks.
v ATTENTION - it is not possible to
improve vocabulary without a certain degree of conscious attention.
IV.
Major Ways of Teaching Vocabulary Acquisition
Making analysis on modern techniques we decided to
choose two major ways in which students acquire new vocabulary, the students
for whom each way is best suited, and strategies for teaching vocabulary
acquisition.
Incidental Acquisition vs. Direct Study
Students may
acquire vocabulary in two ways:
1. Incidentally, through the conscious or unconscious use
of context clues during independent reading and listening activities
2. Through direct
instruction and study.
Incidental Acquisition
Incidental
vocabulary acquisition is a common means of learning new vocabulary, especially
for proficient readers. Students with strong reading skills who read a variety
of texts may realize substantial gains in their vocabulary without direct
instruction. High-risk students may also realize some incidental vocabulary
gains through independent reading, however.
Teachers
should neither ignore nor rely solely upon incidental acquisition but rather
seek to enhance its effectiveness with vocabulary logs, word walls and other
techniques discussed below.
Direct Study
Of the two
ways students acquire vocabulary, direct study is the more efficient,
particularly for high-risk students with poor vocabularies. There are several
reasons that students may fail to learn new vocabulary on their own:
ü
Lack of Independent Reading: High-risk students often have a history of
reading difficulties. As a result, these students generally read less—and with
less comprehension—than students with strong reading skills and rich
vocabularies. The less students read, the fewer the opportunities to acquire
new vocabulary.
ü
Inability to Use Context Clues: Students often lack the ability to find
and use context clues to infer word meaning. Students may simply skip over
unfamiliar words or, if the concentration of unfamiliar words is high, quickly
become frustrated and stop reading entirely.
ü
Weakness of Context-Clue Vocabulary
Acquisition:
Even when students are able to use context clues to infer the meanings of
unfamiliar words, the words may not become part of students' speaking,
listening, or reading vocabularies. Studies show that students cannot recall an
unfamiliar word whose meaning they have inferred unless they encounter the word
repeatedly and within the same or a similar context.
ü
A Multifaceted Approach to Vocabulary
Acquisition
Because most
classrooms contain a variety of types of students—high-risk, gifted or
talented, and everything in between—teachers are wise to adopt a multifaceted
approach to vocabulary acquisition. This approach provides direct instruction
as well as opportunities for incidental learning.
Here are some strategies for implementing the
approach:
·
Require
independent reading: Create a recommended reading list. Include high-interest,
low-level books suitable for high-risk students as well as books that will
challenge the gifted or talented. Then require students to read a certain
number of books of their choice from the list. Students might provide feedback
on their reading in a variety of ways: oral or written book reports, posters
with plot summaries, performances of key scenes, or the creation of "book
boxes"—cardboard boxes that contain objects key to the plot or characters
in a book.
·
Encourage
the use of semantic maps: Semantic maps are graphic organizers that help
students associate an unfamiliar word with familiar related words. To map the
word noun, for example, draw a circle and write noun in the center of it. Then
draw smaller circles around the central circle and fill each with a key related
word, such as person, place, and thing.
·
To complete
the map, surround each outer circle with a series of subcircles, each
containing an example of the related word, such as the name of a specific
person, place, or thing. Then show the relationships by connecting all the
circles with lines.
·
Have
students keep vocabulary logs: Require students to reserve a section of their
journals or notebooks for listing, defining, and using new words that they
learn during independent reading or in their classes. Have students copy the
context in which they first encounter each word. Periodically collect students'
logs and create opportunities for students to hear, see, and use the words in
context. For example, you might use words from students' logs in classroom
conversations. Have students create a "word wall"—a bulletin board displaying
new words in sentences or graphic organizers—and require students to use the
new words in compositions.
·
Teach
students the key word method: To use this mnemonic device, students think of an
image that connects an unfamiliar word with a familiar key word that sounds
similar or is contained within the target word. For example, to remember the
word truculent, students might think of the key word truck and then draw or
visualize a picture of a fierce-looking person driving a truck to represent the
meaning of the word.
·
Pre-teach
unfamiliar vocabulary in reading assignments: Studies suggest that students
must encounter a new word in print several times in order to remember its
meaning. However, the number of encounters needed to learn the word is
significantly reduced when students are taught the meaning of the word before
encountering it in a reading assignment.
V. Conclusions
Vocabulary
is an important part of the English teaching process. It is supposed to be a
very effective communicative device as it carries the highest level of
importance within peoples´ verbal interaction. However, language itself
is not only individual lexemes put together, but it is necessary to follow a
set of grammar rules to assure correct comprehension of speaker’s intention. Therefore,
vocabulary together with grammar rules acquisition plays significant role in
foreign language teaching.
References
1. Breen,
J., and D. Candlin. 1980. The essentials of a communicative curriculum
in language
teaching. Applied Linguistics, 1, 2, pp. 89–112
2. Gairns,
Ruth, Redman, Stuart: Working with Words, A guide to teaching and
learning
vocabulary, Cambridge University Press, 1986
3. Harmer,
Jeremy: The Practise of English Language teaching, Longman, 1993
4. Hornby,
A. S. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, Oxford University Press 2000, ISBN
0-19-431585-1.