Teaching Vocabulary: Strategies and Techniques by Paul Nation. Heinle, Cengage Learning.

2008
(Notes by Christine Scharf many of these notes are taken word for word or near word for word for Paul Nation with page numbers written at the end of lines)

The goals of this book are (1) to show teachers ways they can evaluate their own vocabulary programs from a teaching and learning perspective, and (2) to make informed changes to their programs so that vocabulary growth is more likely to occur. The Big Picture In order of importance, the teachers jobs are planning, strategy training, testing, and teaching vocabulary. 1 Planning: Vocabulary should be divided into four equal parts: 1. Meaning-focused input reading and listening learners need to focus on understanding and enjoyment. There should be no more than one unknown word in every 50 running words. Extensive reading, listening to stories, listening to lectures, talking part in conversation, and reading for study purposes. 2. Meaning-focused output speaking and writing push learners to use vocabulary, but do not overload them. Get them to focus their attention on giving prepared talks, discussing and writing about what has been read, taking part in conversation, doing ranking, problem-solving, role play, retelling, and split information activities. 3. Language-focused learning deliberately learn new words and study more about previously encountered vocabulary, and teachers should pay special attention to vocabulary and vocabulary strategies. Make sure students get intensive reading practice, always getting feedback on their speaking and writing progress, learning and practicing strategies, and doing vocabulary exercises. Strategies include: guessing from context, using word cards, using word parts, and using a dictionary. 4. Fluency development students become more proficient with words they already know. There should be no unknown vocabulary. Speed reading deals with extensive reading of easy material, the 4/3/2 activity, linked skills activities, when discussion leads to reading which leads to writing, repeated listening and repeated reading, and 10 minute writing. Strategy training - guessing from context, using word cards, using word parts, and using a dictionary. It takes a few months and several minutes each week for learners to get really good at using each strategy. A strategy is not learned in one training session. 3 Testing: Teachers need to be able to test their learners and to interpret those tests to detect when learners are in their vocabulary development stage in order to plan future teaching and to continue motivating learning. Teaching Teachers need to limit the scope of a word. They cannot teach everything there is to know about it. Teachers need to known the meaning, form and use of a word. The most difficult of the three generally deserves the most teaching time. 1. High Frequency/AWL vocabulary deserves the teachers attention and deserves direct instruction. Low frequency vocabulary does not deserve teaching time this is where strategy teaching comes in. 2. The amount of strength of learning depends on the quality of the mental processing. To increase the mental processing, involve more aspects of knowing a word. 5 3. There are many ways of communicating word meanings. The best way is to be clear, simple, and brief. Wherever possible, the first-language translation should be given.

4. The meaning given should describe the underlying meaning that includes most of the words usages and its different senses. 5. Words should not be taught with others that belong to the same lexical set, such as near synonyms, or opposites 6. There should be repeated opportunities for increasingly spaced retrieval of each word. A future encounter with a word is more important than the initial presentation. 7. Direct teaching is only one part of the four strands that a word should be met in, and is only one way of giving specific attention to it. 8. Learners should take control of their own vocabulary learning. Learners should be taught how to learn vocabulary and how to choose the vocabulary they wish to learn. The learners job 1. Need to practice deliberately learning vocabulary word car, mark dictionary lightly with pencil. 2. Take responsibility for their own learning. Testing Receptive knowledge vs. productive knowledge Vocabulary and Listening 95% of a movie such as Shrek comes from the first 4,000 words. Native speakers learn roughly 1000 words a year. Simplified texts can be used for non-native speakers. 17 Native speakers learn most of their useful vocabulary through listening, but it must be easy enough for them to be able to do the following: 1. to focus on message of input 2. to become interested in what is being listened to 3. to become familiar with 98% of the input 4. to have the support and skill to guess the remaining 2% 5. to have plenty of input that should provide repeated opportunities to deal with new words and establish confidence in themselves to face unknown vocabulary. Dictation level test page 18 Activities: Remember the Word 19, What is it 20, Feel the Objects, Word Detectives 21-22, Listening to Stories 23, Unexploded Dictation 25, Controlling the teacher 26 Quizzes 27, Information gap activities label the picture, find the difference, put them in order 31, perform the action 32, listening using an information table 33, notetaking 34-35, Oxford Bookworms Vocabulary and Speaking Speaking and writing vocabulary are distinct. (e.g. well, right, actually) Learning a word for productive use requires more learning than for receptive use. If learners have a reasonably large receptive vocabulary, but are unable to put enough of this to productive use, then the teacher needs to concentrate on activities that enrich the learning of known words and improve the access to them. 44 Same or Different 39, 40, Saying known or partly known words 41, Kims game 41, Remember the pictures 42, The paraphrasing strategy 44, Communicative crosswords 45, twenty questions 46, describe it! 46, beating the odds 47, split information problems 49-53, headlines 53, where should the prison be built 55, 4/3/2 56 Vocabulary Learning and Intensive Reading Intensive reading is the assisted careful reading of texts with the goal of understanding the text and learning language items from the text. Typically the text is something the students would need assistance with to understand. 59

ways of dealing with words Preteach

reasons 1 4

Replace it in the text before giving the text to the learners Put in a glossary Put it in an exercise after the text Quickly give the meaning Do nothing about it Help the learners use the context to guess Help the learners use the dictionary Break it into parts

4,5

1,2 4,5 1,2 4,5 6

1,2, 4 3 3 5 7,8 1,2, 4,5 7 The teacher guides the learners through a guessing 3 strategy to work out the meaning. 1,2, 4,5 7 The teacher guides the learners in using the 3 dictionary to look up and learn about a word. 1,2, 4,5 6 The teacher helps the learners practice a word 3 analysis strategy relating the word parts to the words meaning. Spend time looking at its 1,2 4,5 6 The teacher interrupts the reading to spend time range of meanings and explaining the meaning of a word and aspects of its collocations form, meaning, and use. 60 1 high frequency word will occur in other texts, 2 useful technical word, 3 low frequency, 4 important for the message of the text, 5 not important for message of the text, 6 has useful parts, 7 is easy to guess from text, 8 cognate of or like an L1 word 66

explanations Before the learners read the text, the teacher spends some time explaining the meaning of some words and focusing on their form, meaning, and use. The text is simplified by replacing some unknown words with known synonyms or removing part of the text. Some unknown words are listed with their meaning given in L1 or L2. Some unknown words are put in cloze, word building, or other types of exercises after the text. The teacher gives a quick L1 translation or L2 explanation of the meaning.

Vocabulary Learning Through Extensive Reading Reading is a source of learning and a source of enjoyment. It can be a goal in its own right and a way of reaching other goals. It can be a way of gaining knowledge about the world. As learners acquire skill and fluency in reading, their pleasure in this activity will increase. 69 Reading requires considerable knowledge and skill which includes: recognizing words, idioms and expressions, having a large vocabulary and substantial grammatical and textual awareness being able to bring knowledge of the world to the reading task, and developing a degree of fluency with reading skill. Learning through extensive reading is largely incidental learning, where the learners attention is focused on the story and not on the items to learn. As a result, the learning process tends to be weak, and thus it is important to have a substantial input with plenty of opportunities for vocabulary repetition. 70 Learners should be interested in what they are reading and their attention should be on the meaning of the text rather than on learning the language features of the text. Large quantities of varied, self-selected, enjoyable reading at a reasonably fluent speed are needed. 70 As time goes by, some of the vocabulary acquired may be lost, so it is important to have repeated exposure to the words. Large amounts of reading need to occur continuously over long periods of time. 71 Extensive reading can only occur if 95%-98% of the running words in a text are already familiar to the learner so the learner is not burdened with the load of heavy vocabulary tasks. No more than 2 words out of a hundred should be unfamiliar. Graded readers are needed. Silent Sustained Reading - they can read a book in English from beginning to end and can enjoy it. One graded reader is recommended every two weeks.

Generally the learners are required to keep track of their progress by writing the name of the book, how long it took to read, a brief comment about the quality of the book (Was it a good story? Would you recommend it to others?) The less time the forms take, the more time they have to read. Activities: Perhaps placing a sheet of paper at the back of each book, so the student has the opportunity to write comments and make suggestions. Oral book reports should encourage others to read. Training Learners in Guessing from Context Draw from sources of information including: 1. the clues that are in a phrase or sentence in which an unknown word occurs 2. the clues that are nearby the phrase or sentence 3. the information that has been built up so far from all the previous parts of the text 4. knowledge of the nature of such texts 5. background content information from outside the text 6. the readers common sense knowledge of the world 7. the morphological form of the unknown word Checklist for younger learners to guess from context: ___ This word makes sense in the story ___ Everybody knows that these things go together. ___ I already know this story. ___ The sentence with the word tells us the answer. ___ Part of the word looks like a word I already know. 75 Older learners can 1. Look at the unknown word and decide on its part of speech. 2. Look carefully at the clause containing the unknown word. This can involve the What does what? Technique where learners are given a word from the text and they have to put it in the simplest context possible using the information from the text. 3. Work out the relationship between the adjoining clauses and the clause containing the unknown word. What conjunction marker words are used or could be used? Because cause and effect, or alternatives, etc. 4. Have a guess. 5. Check the guess. 76

The Nature of Strategy Training Week 1 The teacher demonstrates the strategy to the learners working on a reading text. This is done several times for a few minutes a day for a week or so. The teacher writes the strategy on the board. Week 2 The teacher encourages the learners to work cooperatively with her going through the steps of the strategy while guessing some unknown words in a text. Week 3 The teacher and learners work together on guessing the goal being to learn the steps in the strategy. The teacher spends a little extra time focusing on step 1, deciding the part of speech Week 4-6 The teacher and learners continue to work together on guessing. The teacher spends more time on step 2, using clues in the same clause as the unknown word. Week 7-9 The teacher and learners continue to work together. The teacher spends some time focusing on step 3, using conjunction relationships. Occasionally the teacher gets the learners to work in pairs without her guidance. They can report back on the steps they followed.

Weeks 10-12 Most of the guessing is now done in pairs with feedback on their guesses. The teacher focuses on step 5 of the strategy, checking the guess. Weeks 13-14 The learners do some guessing individually and report back to their classmates. The teacher has some sessions where the strategy is discussed and learners comment on their difficulties and successes using the strategy. 78 Deliberate attention Boosting vocabulary learning through extensive reading 1. Before reading a text, the learner quickly skims it and selects 5 or 6 words to focus on while reading. This has the effect of raising awareness about some words and thus enhancing the words when they come across them in the text once again. 2. While reading the learner can make a list of new words that are repeated in the text and put on word cards for later deliberate study 3. A more formal follow up to this technique is for learners to report to the class on a word that they found while reading, explaining what it means, how it was used in the text, its word parts, its etymology, and any unusual features about it. 4. The use of a dictionary while reading can also have positive effects, though it increases the risk of dependency and over usage of the same. 79 Vocabulary and Writing For students with academic aims, this type of vocabulary must be learned not only receptively but also productively, because the ability to use academic vocabulary is a way of becoming a member of the academic community. 85 Teaching vocabulary for writing purposes includes spelling, the use of words in sentences, and using vocabulary to signal the organization of a written text. Spelling dictation, spelling by analogy, sound-spelling correspondences, look and recall 86 Ten minute writing learners write as much as they can on an easy topic. The teacher doesnt correct spelling or grammatical errors, but responds to the content of the text, encouraging the learners to write more. The speed of writing is kept in words per minute on a personal graph by each learner and their goal is to see if their speed increases. This is done three times per week. 88 Reading texts in the same genres as the learners are required to write in is important preparation for the writing process. Analyzing these texts and finding useful expressions to memorize are also helpful procedures. Using a dictionary - it may be necessary to use both a bilingual as well as a monolingual dictionary. 89 Learners dictionaries are better because they include syllabification, meaning, grammar, collocations, register appropriateness, frequency, and advice on common errors. Linking skill activities work on the same theme using different skills read, discuss, write 91; speak, listen and write; reading like a writer, semantic mapping 95 The Deliberate Teaching and Learning of Vocabulary Deliberately teaching vocabulary is one of the least efficient ways of developing the learners vocabulary knowledge, but nonetheless it is an important part of a well-balanced vocabulary program. The best results occur in the context of message-focused activities involving listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and where the teaching deals with items that learners see as being totally relevant for that activity. 98 Decide if the word is worth spending time on.

In general, time should be spent on high frequency words in order to satisfy the learners needs.. 1. For low priority words: use L1 translation, use an L2 synonym or definition, show object or picture, give quick demo, diagram, break the word into parts, give several examples of the word 98 2. Draw attention to the form of the word, or the grammar of the word 3. Keep it simple and clear. Relate present teaching to past knowledge. Use both oral and Meani Form and Is the word a loan word in L1? ng meaning Is there an L1 word with roughly the same meaning? Concepts and Does the word fall into the same structure as an L1 word referents with a similar meaning? Associations Form Spoken form Can the learners repeat the word accurately when they hear Written form it? Word parts Can the learners write the word correctly when they hear it? Can the learners identify known affixes in the word? Use Grammatical Does the word fit into predictable grammar patterns? functions Does the word have the same collocations as an L1 word of Collocations similar meaning? Constraints on Does the word have the same restrictions on its use as an use L1 word of similar meaning? 100 written presentations. give attention to words that are already partly known, dont use words from same lexical sets 99 Getting to know a word Discovering the learning burden what needs to be taught about the word Vocabulary learning exercises that require little or no preparation Word Meaning Find the core meaning The learners look at dictionary entries and find the shared meaning in the various senses of the word. Word Card Testing The learners work in pairs. Each learner gives their pack of cards to their partner who tests them on their recall of the meanings given about the word and getting them to give the translation. This can also be done by giving the translation and getting them to recall the word form. Using the dictionary When a useful word occurs in a reading text, the teacher trains learners in the strategy of using a dictionary Guessing from context Whenever a guessable word occurs in a reading text, the teacher trains the learners in guessing from context Word Form Spelling dictation Teacher says words or phrases and the students write them. Pronunciation The teacher writes words on the board and the learners pronounce them getting feedback from the teacher. Each learner chooses a word to say from the list. Word parts The teacher writes words on the board and the learners separate them into parts and give the meanings of the parts. Word Use Suggest collocates The learners work together in pairs or small groups to list collocates for a given word. Word Detectives A learner reports on a word he or she has found in their reading. They talk about the meaning, spelling, pronunciation, word parts, etymology, collocates and grammar of the word. ** 102 Prepared exercises Meaning Word and meaning matching,. Labeling, sentence completion, crossword puzzles, semantic analysis, completing lexical sets

Form Following spelling rules, recognizing word parts, building word family tables Use Sentence completion, collocation matching, collocation tables, interpreting dictionary entries A good vocabulary exercise does the following: 1. It focuses on useful words, preferably high frequency words that students are familiar with. 2. It focuses on a useful aspect of the learning task. That is, it has a useful learning goal. 3. It gets learners to meet or use the word in ways that establish new mental connections for the word. It sets up useful conditions involving generative use. 4. It involves the learners in actively searching for and evaluating the target words in the exercise. 5. It does not bring related unknown or partly known words together. It avoids interference. Giving repeated attention to vocabulary 1. Spend time on a word by dealing with several aspects of the word, such as spelling, pronunciation, parts, derivatives, meaning, collocations, grammar, and restrictions on its usage. 2. Get learners to do graded reading and listening to stories at the appropriate level. 3. Get learners to do prepared activities that involve testing and teaching vocabulary, such as same or different, find the difference, word and picture matching. 4. Set aside time each week for word by word revision of the vocabulary that occurred previously. List the words on the board and do the following: a. Go around the class getting each learner to say one of the words. b. Get learners to break the words into parts and label the meanings of the parts c. Get learners to suggest collocations for the words d. Get learners to recall the sentence where the word occurred and suggest another context. e. Get learners to look at derived forms of the words. Dont try and deal with all the complexities of a word in one session. The amount of time spent on deliberate teaching needs to be balanced against the other types of language-focused learning such as intensive reading, deliberate learning, and strategy training, and needs to be balanced against the other three strands of meaningfocused input, meaning focused-output and fluency development. 104 A good program has a balance of both deliberate and incidental learning. The two types of learning should be complementary. The most effective deliberate strategy is Word Cards 106-110 Word Part Strategy 110-112 Dictionaries 114-117 In order to use a monolingual learners dictionarylearners need to have a vocabulary of at least 2,000 words. This is because the most accessible of the dictionaries use a controlled defining vocabulary of around 2,000 words. If learners have less vocabulary than that, they will have great difficulty in understanding definitions. Thus beginning and intermediate learners are better off using a bilingual dictionary or bilingualized dictionary. Multi-word units117-122 Testing Vocabulary Knowledge The vocabulary level test is a diagnostic test. For each level each word represents 33 words. A score of 20 out of 30 would mean that a learner knows approximately 667 words at that level. 143

Making tests Consider: Why do you want to test vocabulary? What vocabulary knowledge do you want to test? (recognition, receptive, productive) How difficult should the test be? 144 1. If the course focuses heavily on reading, it should be a receptive test, if it focused on writing and speaking, then it should be a productive test 2. The degree of difficulty should be in accordance with the difficulty of the level of the learners. Difficult words require easier tests to show that some learning has taken place. 3. If the exam time is long, an easy test may be required to show that some learning has taken place. 4. Knowing a word is not an all-or-nothing state. The knowledge can consist of different aspects, such as grammar, its collocates, and its word parts. It can also consist of different strengths of knowledge, that is, how well particular aspects are known. Learners should have plenty of experience with a word before having to produce it. Learners should be given credit for what they have learned, and should have the chance to show how well they have learned it. 150 A good vocabulary test should be valid, reliable, and easy to follow. 153-4 Self evaluation to encourage students to focus on their individual needs and shortcomings. Make note of the words you know, the words you know well, and the words you dont know. See chart on 145

Planning the Vocabulary Component of a Language Course 1. Find the present vocabulary level of the learners The vocabulary Levels Test but doesnt check production 2. Find what use the learners need to make of the language. Do they need the AWL or specific technical vocabulary? 3. Decide on what and how much vocabulary they need to learn. Remember that learning a word is cumulative; learning rates from different activities are not equal. 4. Divide the learning time equally between the four strands of meaning-focused input, meaning-focused output, language-focused learning, and fluency development needs to be balanced among these four a. Set up a substantial extensive reading program and use the listening to stories activity on a regular basis b. Provide opportunities for receptive vocabulary for learners to become productive in speaking and writing c. Train learners in deliberate learning using words cards and word parts. d. Do intensive reading on a regular basis. e. Give fluency practice through the four skills by regularly doing Speed reading, 4/3/2, Ten minutes writing, and using English for classroom management. 5. Decide how progress through the course will be tested. a. Diagnostic b. Testing should encourage learning c. Check for reliability, validity, and practicality d. Teachers may not wish to use vocabulary knowledge as a partial measure of the final grade for a program, preferring to let measures of language use such as reading comprehension, spoken production, or writing skill indirectly give account of the vocabulary acquired.. 160 6. Decide how the vocabulary component of the course will be evaluated. a. Does the course achieve its goals?

b. c. d. e. f. g.

Do the learners like the course? Does the course apply state-of-the-art knowledge about teaching and learning? Does the course attract learners to enroll in it? Does the course make money? Does the course satisfy the teachers? Does the course run smoothly? 161

Principles for evaluation a course 1. Make sure vocabulary development occurs across the 4 strands of meaning-focused input, meaning-focused output, language-focused learning, and fluency development. 2. Have clear vocabulary learning goals based on information about learners present knowledge and their future use of English. 3. Spend time on high frequency words. 4. Spend time on the strategies for high and low frequency words. Guessing from context, using word cards, the known-to unknown imaging strategy, and dictionary use. 5. Take strategy learning seriously. Plan for it and give each strategy repeated attention until learners can use it well. 6. Make sure words get increasingly spaced repeated attention. 7. Encourage thoughtful processing of vocabulary, at least retrieval and preferably generative use. 8. Avoid interference. 9. Monitor learners present knowledge and progress through the course. 10. Encourage learners to take responsibility for their own learning and make sure that they understand the principles described here and can apply them. 161 Courses can also be evaluated by getting information from the learners. This information can be the result of regular testing, surveys of their attitudes to the course, as well as the learners self-assessment of their progress. 162