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to put words work

Integrating new knowledge into old tasks Decision-making o o Integrating new knowledge into old Production tasks Games

Traditionally, the presentation of new language items would swlftly !e followed by the prictice of these items. This practice would typically takethe form of somi of kind of oral repetition, such as a drill. This notion of 'practice makes mechanical practice underlies the popular belief that perfect'. However, as we saw in Chapter 2, simply repeating newly learned words is no guaranteethat they will move from the short-term memory store into permanent memory. New knowledge- i.e. new words - needsto be integraied into existing knowledge- i.e. the learners'existingnetwork of or what we called the mental lexicon. As we also saw in word associations, the discussionon memory, there is a greaterlikelihood of the word being havebeen made about integratedinto this network if many'deep'decisions it. In other words, to ensurelong-term retention and recall, words need to be'put to work'. They needto be placedin workingm9m9ry, andsubjected to diff.rent operations. Such operations might include: being taken apart combined,matched,sorted, and put back togetheragain,being compared, visualisedand relshuffled, aswell asbeing repeatedlyfiled awayand recalled In this the easierrecallbecomes)' (sincethe more often a word is recalled, chapter we will look at ^ range of activity tJpes designedto do just that' They might best be thought of asintegration activities,rather than'practice 'reinforcement activities', since both these latter terms have activitiest or with a more mechanical,less cognitive, approach to language associations teaching. There are many different kinds of tasks that teacherscan set learners in order to help move words into long-term memory. Some of thesetaskswill require more brain work than others. That is to say, they will be more cognitively demanding.Tasksin which learnersmake decisionsabout words ."n b. divided into the following types, roughly arrangedin an order from least cognitively demanding to most demanding: ' identifying . selecting ' matching

Decisionmaking tasks

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Vocabulary How to Teach

' sortrng . ranking and sequencing The more of these task types that can be performed on a set of words the better. In other words,-an identification task could be followed by a matching task, which in turn could be followed by a ranking task. Idend$ng words simply meansfinding them where they may otherwise be'hidden', such as in texts. W i' Here, for example, are some identification tasks relating to the text Fear of Ftying (on page 42). Give the learnersthe text and ask them to: ' Count the number of times plane(s) and train(s) occur in the text. ' Find four words connectedw\thflying in the text. ' Find five phrasalverbs in the text. ' Find eight comparativeadjectivesin the text. ' Underline all the words ending in -ing in the text. Ask them to read the text, then turn it over, and then ask: ' 'Did the following words occur in the text?' busy crowded fast dangerous uncomfortable dirty convenient inconvenientnoisy . 'Now check the text to seeif you were right.' Listening out for particular words in a spokenor recordedtext is also a form of identiflcation activity.Below is a selectionof identification tasksbasedon this text: no tie, and ffi\ OK, that's Mr Brown. He's wearing a iacket and trousers, 7 he's talking to the woman with the long dark hair - she's wea,ringa black dress. Now Mrs Brovrn is over there. she's wearing a skilt and a blouse, and she's talking to a tau man with fair hair. And thelr son, Richard ... Xgs,there he is, he's over in the corner. He's wearingieans and a T-shirt - he's the one with very shorbhair. (Beginner CUP) Workbook), in lJse (from Doff A andJones C, Language . ' '
.

List all the clothes items that you hear. Raiseyour hand when you hear a clothes item' Put theseitems in the order that you hear them:
blouse tie skirt jeans jacket T-shirt dress trousers Tick the items that you hear: blouse shoes tie shorts skirt socks jeans jacket hat T-shirt dress trousers suit shirt

Listen for clothes words and write them in the correct column:

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6 . Howto out words to work

Identification is also the processlearnersapply in tasksin which they have to unscrambleanagrams(such as utis,snaje,eti - for suit,jeans,tie), ot when they have to searchfor words in a'word soup', such as the following (also ftom Languagein Ue):

What are theseclothesin English? are all in the wordsquare. The answers

S J A T I E O S S

H A T R D X D K U

I C C O A T R I S

R K J

T E N

O T J E A N S U T H

S I

O R T

n
t

U 5 M W P E R U U S T I

J P

l'l l 'l l t l t t l-l


tU

) E

Selecting tasksare cognitively more complexthan identification tasks,since they involve both recognising words and making choices amongst them. This may take the form of choosingthe'odd one out', asin this task (again, basedon the lexicalset ofclothes):

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How to Teach Vocabulary

the odd oneout in each group: ,ffi' Choose


'l

2 3

trousers blouse T-shirt

socks skirt suit

jeans tie shorts

T-shirt dress t r a in e r s

Note that with this kind of aciviry. there is no 'r!ght'answer necessarily. What is important is that learnersare able to justify their choice,whatever their answer.It is the coqnitive work that counts - not getting the right
answef. Here is anotheropen-endedselection task,with a personarised element:

I Work in pairs.Choose five words to describe yourself. Usea dictionaryif necessary.

2 Thinkof threepeople you admire verymuch. Theycanbe politiciant musicians, *ports personalities etc.or people you knowpersonally. Choose the person you admire mostand think of threeadjectives to describe thisperson. Thenchoose the second and third person you admire and think of threemoread.jectives for each person to explain why.

Think of otherwords youcan use.


honest, friendly... your choice Discuss of wordswith yourpanner. I think I'rn usuallyoptirTtistic. And I'*t alaayspolitel Does helshe agreewith you?

from Greenall S, Reward Pr e- I nt er medi at e, MacmiTlan Heinemann

Another useful selecting task that can be applied to anyvocabulary lesson is:
:-*

1*

Lhoose frve (.orten or twenty) words from this lessonto learn. Think - in the next class of how you will demonst'ate - that you havelearned them.

^1

The samekind of task can be applied to anytext that the learnershave read or listened to' And, as a.way of recyclingvocaburary items from previous "frotri lessons,learners can selectwords their notlbook, to test' their classmates at the beginning of eachlesson.

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to work 6 . Howto putwords

A matching task involves first recognisingwords and then pairing them with - for example- a visual representation,a translation, a synonym' an antonym, a definition, or a collocate.As an exampleof this last type, here is a verb-noun matching task:
WORD PAIRRACE

ly. er ht

pairsofverb + write asmanycorrect In fiveminutes, aspossible. noun phrases

)n

nk ed ad
US

from Oxenden C and Latham-Koenig C, Englisb File Intennediate, OUP

eir

Pelmanism is a memory game which involves nothing but matching. word pairs (or picture-word matches) are printed on indMdual cards*f,i.h "r.a placed face_ down in a random distribution. Playerstake turns to pick up card and then search for its partner. If they iorrectly locate the partner but,.as-thegame progresses, by'remembering where liry.ofy llr Suesswork, individual cards are located), they keep the !air, and"haveanother-turn. If 97

How to Teach Vocabulary

not, they lay the cards face down where they found them, and the next playet has a"turn. The player with the -ort p"irc at the end of the game is the winner. Typical pairs might be: . antonyms (tall - short, tbick - thin, dark - Iight, etc.) ' British and American equivalents(bill - check, pharmacy- drugstore, Iift elevator, etc.), or . collocations (wide + autake, stark + nakedrfast+ asleep, etc.) activities require learners to sort words into different categories. lgrting The categories fan either_be given,or guessed.Here is an example]of th" former (from Thornbury S, High light Pre-In terme diate, Heinemann):

Word field: characteristics


2 put theseadjectivesinto two groups - positive and negative. emotional confident offensive friendly ambitious kind good-humoured rude selfish outgoing self-centred nice

Here is an activity in which learners(at a fairly advanced level) decide ,R '1 the categories themselves: Put thesewords into four groups of three words each.Then, think of a title for each group. goal net piece club racket shoot board green court hole pitch referee check serve tee move Now; can you add extra words to eachgroupl Finally, ranking and sequencing activities require learnersto put the words into some kind of order.This may involve arranging the words on a cline: for examplg, adverbs of frequency (akuays,soietimes, never, occasionally, often,etc). Or learnersmay be askedto rank items accordingto preference: F. Imagine you have just moved into a completely empry flat. You can lfford lo buy one piece of furniture a week. Put ihe following items in the order in which you would buv them: fridge bed desk diningtable sofa wardrobe chair dishwasher bookcase cooker washing machine chest of drawers Nour,compareyour list with another student and explain your order.If you were sharing the flat together,would you agree? If not, make a new list that you both agreeabout. Here is an exampleof a ranking activiry (from MorganJ and Rinvolucri M, Vocabulary,9up) that can be adapted to differenf levels by changing the selectedwords: 98

6 . How to put wordsto worK

knowledge D/13 Classifying


Intermediateto Advanced 20-30minutes lN CLASS and askthem to rank the followingtypes in threes I Put the srudents in everydaylife; (b) in terms of skill&nowledge (a) for their usefulness thar might be gainedthroughacquiring ofthe valueofqualifications suchknowledge. toothcare soilchemisuy surgety psychiany arithmeic geometty plaincookery micro-computing hniting music darning leaguefootball litaaty ritbisn popmusic bleucoohay nuclearphysics cordon ancicntGreek carpsntry a mow car sewicing roadsafety fUinsintaxforms their into ninesandcompare 2 Ask the threesto cometogether rankings.

Ordering items chronologically is another way of getting studentsto make judgements about words. For example: K ' Put the following words in the order in which they typically happen in your countryl

graduate get married be born get divorced get engaged home havechildren re-marry startschool die retire leave of activities - from starting a c r to bufng a home - lends Any sequence itself to the sametreatment. Here, for example,is a task that focuseson the language of at travel (from Garton-Sprenger J and Greenall S, Flying 2, Heinemann): Colours

Vork in pairs.Think about what peopledo when they travel by plane. Put the action$belowin the correct column. after the flight

leavethe plane land unfastenyour seatbelt go into the departure lounge go to the departure gate fastenyour seatbelt go through passporrcontrol

checkin collectyour baggage go through passportcontrol listen to the safetyinstructions go through customs board the plane go into the arrivalshall

Number the actionsin the order peopledo them.

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Vocabulary How to Teach

Note that there may notbe a'right answer'in a rank)ngor sequenLingrask but that the exerciseof makinglhe choicesand even better comparing is good'brain work'. choices, them with a classmate's

Production tasks

The decision-making tasks we have been looking ^t .arc principally receotive:learners rn-"k. irrdq.ments about words' but don't necessarily the orod.r.. them. (Of .o,rrr., thiy can then becomeproduction tasksby judgements.) these a6out to talk learners the inviting ii-pf. expedient of H#.u.r,'t"sks that are prJductive from the outset are those in which the into some kind learnersare required to incorporate the newly studied.words. of two main as being classified be can These activity. of speakingor writing types: ' completion- of sentences and texts ' creation- ofsentences and texts Sentenceand text completion tasks are what are more generally known as gap-fills They are rrrr"lly writing tasksand thgr 11eoften used in tests(see ."ry to dJsign and mark. They have many different bhuot., 8) as'they "r. ."n-b. madebetweenoPen and closed gapdistinction but a basic forrriats. drawing on the learner fills the_gaps.by where is one fills. The open type letter of first as the such though, (There a clue, be may their mental lexicon. prwided, words.are the hand, the other on gap-fil|, the word.) In a closed for example.It is simply in the form of a list at tf,e'beginning of the exercise, gaP-' which in goes word which a matter of deciding Here are som. e"ampleinstruciionsfor open and closedgap-filltasks: ' Complete the text by writing an appropriateword in.each^spag9: ,GretaGarbo,the swedish-bornfilm , wasborn in 1905.Shewon ln 7924 a a scholarshipto drama school, where she learned to _. called a Swedishfilm " '' film directoi choseher for a -in I-Jse . Choose the best word from the list to complete each sentence. eachword once ... Note that there . Select words from the list to completethesesentences. '.. are more words than sentences . Choose words from the text you have just read to complete these ... sentences ' Choosethe bestword to completeeachsentence: 1 When I feel tired,I cant stop -.. a sneezng b yawnmg coughing d weepmg Note that the last exampleis a multiple choice task.These arcvery popular tests(seeChapter 8). of vocabulary with designers

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to work 6 . Howto put words

In completion tasks,the context is provided, and it is simply a matter of slotting tire right word in. Sentence and text creation tasks, however, createthe contextsfor given words. Here are someq?icai require"learnerJto task instructions: . IJse each of these words to make a sentencewhich clearly shows the meaningof the word. ' ChoosJsix words from the list and write a sentence using eachone. . IJse each of these words to write a true sentenceabout yourself or someoneyou know. . Write a short narrative (or dialogue)which includes at leastfive words from the list. Tasks such as these lead naturally into speaking activities either reading aloud or performing dialogues to the class,or comparing and explaining sentencesin pairs Jr small groups. These activities involve many of the thai serveto prornote retention in long-term memory' such as pfocesses and explanation. repetition rehearsal, need start as writing tasks.Here is a speaking activitiei Not all cieation (also 2) which requireslearnersto cfeate sentences Flying Colours ftom task vocabulary: using pre-selected

Vork in pairs.Ask and sayhow you feelabout your town or village. it. I loveit. It's all right. I can'tstand rUflhich your town or canyou useto describe of the following adjectives village? interesting boring annoying depressing frightening marvellous beautiful peaceful noisy lively Can you explainwhy? nothingto do in theevenings' there's I find it boringbecause
is a good way of putting vocabularyto work in the The useof questionnaires form of question-and-answerexchanges.Many areas of vocabulary lend themselvei to some kind of questionnaireor survey.The samevocabulary items in the precedingexamplecould be usedasthe basisof a questionnaire or survey. ,ffi Students can preparea survey using these examplesas a model: 1 Is your hometown boring or interesting?Why? interesting,livelyor noisyl Whyt 2 Do you find big cities:depressing, etc. They then ask each other their prepared questions, and report the results to the class, using full sentences,such as Mario thinks his is interestingbecause it basa lot of historicalrnonurnents. hometozan 101

VocabularY How to Teach

Games

'How to put words to work', it would be While the title of this chapter is wrong to suggestthat vocabulary learning has to be all work and no pfay. of all Langiage pla]', including word gamgs,has a long_history..Children 'Hangmari,tyge,,and 'I there ...' or ..t1tir.rlr".*'to enjoy gamer of ihe rpy been have which of a number is a long tradition of adult word games, comfortably word games adapted-fortelevision.Most first-language l_t_TtftI classroom.The most useful will be those that are to th. second-language 24 and 25.For with thi principlesof learning outlined on pag_es consistent from me_morythe re-trieved example,the more often i word is successfully are those that useful games easiei it becomes to recall it. Therefore, consistent Or,. at_ speed. encouragelearners to recall words and, preferably, about decisions multiple. make with thE principle that learners need to students Iace',where words, a useful game would be one like a'dictionary first sort words into alphabeticalorder, then into parts of speech,and then into lexical sets- the fitrt gto.tp to complete all three tasks correctly being the winner. However, since many word gamesdeal solely with isolated rather than on the processing shallow contextualised wordi, and often require only jydiciously. on a spnt The time part of the learner, they should be used 'Hangman',.for example,has to word in a gryneof iingle de-contextualised be iveighed up against the more productive, contextualisedand cognitively q"T:t are used to deep aitivitiei o,itlined earlier in this chapter.Too ^o_fte1 language-rich filled with which could more usefullybe plug holes in lessons memorable, more words iakl Nevertheless,the fun factor may help make even the to animate and, like it or not, a competitive element often serves most lethargicstudents. So, here are someword gamesto try: & Word clap: Studentsstand or sit in a circle, and, following the teacher's lead,maintain a four-beatrhythm, clappingtheir handson their thighs three times (one-two-tht.. ...) and then both handstogether (four!). The game should start slowly, but the pace of the clapping can The idea is to take turns, clockwise,to shout out a gradually increase. f,iff.r.rri word from a pre-selectedlexical set (for example,fruit and vegetables)on every fourth beat. Players who eithet repeat a word alriady used,or break the rhythm - or saynothing are'out'and the game resumeswithout them, until only one playeiis left. The teacher fan change the lexical set by shouting out the name of a new set at strategicpoints: Furniture! Nationalities!Jobs!etc.

On a piece of .#. ' Categories: Learners work in pairs or small groups. to a model on the paper]theydraw up a numberof columns'according set: e'g.fruit, a lexical board, eaih colurtn labelled with the name of letter of the out a animals,sports.The teacher calls transport,clothes, (e.g. students minutes), three alphabet(e.g. B/), and to i time limit letter in the that *iit" do*n ar many -ords asthey can beginning with baseball, bear, baf, separatecolumns (banana,berry; bus;bihini, blouse; bisketbatt...).The group with the most (correct)words wins'

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6 . How to put wordsto work

crossesgrids on the ..w Noughts and crosses:Draw nvo noughts and board:

One is blank. In the other each squareis labelled with a category,or etc), or with nine different phrasalverb pirticles (up, on,o.ffiin, back, -tion,-etc). of number a Piipare nine different affixei (un-, non-,'-less, (if is class the questions relating to each category. For example is the Or, Wb-at English? monolingual):How do you say'tamburo'in if in.'e Divide ihe classinto two teams: noughts and crosses. obbosite ffre object is to take turns choosing a category and answering a questio; in this categorycorrectly so as to earn the right to place their team's symbol in thE .brt"sponding position in the blank grid. The winning team is the first to ireate a line of three (noughts or crosses), either virtically, horizontally, or diagonally.

n
ffi

Coffeepot: This is a guessing game. One learner answrs yes/no questio;sfrom the restofthe clasi (or group) about averb that shehas thought of, or that the teacherhas whispered to her. I-n t\e questions usedin placeof the mysteryverb.So, forcxample, the #ord coffeepotis or outdoors?_k studentsmighl askDo you cffiepot indoors .cffiep.otting etc. If the verb that or difficult?Canyoi cofeipoiuith your bands? easy and thJ srudJirt has seleciedis yawnthe aniwers would be: Both indoors your hands.. ' To make It's easy;No,you ian't, but you might use outdoors; the game easieia list of, tay, t'tenty verbs can-beput on the board and 'it' one of them' This can alsobe playedin chooses the [erson who is palrs. student who questions.The student siis facing the class,back to the board; the tlacher writes a recently studiedword or phraseor idiom on the board, out of sight of the student.The student asksdifferent studentsyes/no or eitherTorquestionsin order to guessthe word. For example,.H-4go: is it a verb o7 a noun? (A'uerb.) Dittrnar, is it an action? (No.) Karlyou do with your rnind? (Y:t.) .. etc.To make the Heinz, is it sometbing qame easier,the wJr"dschosen can be limited in some w^y - e.g. all and so on' adjectives, fhrasal verbs;all character

This is another guessing game' but this time the w Back to board: 'it' has to guessa word by asking the rest of the class is

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Vocabulary How to Teach

game of the same name' Basedon the commercialised ,p,Pictionary@: this involves studentsguessingwords or phrasesfrom drawings.They work in teams,eachmemberof the team taking turns to be the'artist'. 'artists' to the front go If there are three teams,for example,the three wherethe teachershowsthem a word (or phrase)on a card. of the class At a cue, they quickly return to their group and try to get their group to correctly guessthe word by drawing it with pen and paper.The first a turn correctlyearnsa point, and three new'artists'have team to guess with another word. This is good for reviewing idiomatic expressions' in the such as green raith envy, down in the dumps,under the zaeather, dark,overthemoon.At the end of the game,groupscanusethe pictures as memory prompts in order to recall and write down the expressions to that came up in the g me, and then to put them into a sentence show what they mean. Word snap:Using word cards- e.g. from the classword bag or word box (seepage 51) - studentswork in small groups,with the aim of tvvoword One player'deals' collectingas many word'pairs' aspossible. to think The first player read them. up, so that everyonecan cards,faCe and two more keep the pair, of a way the words are connectedgets to of speech; be: same could part words are laid down. A connection synonyms or antonyms; same lexical set; or, simply, a meaningful can be madeusingboth words.If no connectioncanbe made, sentence the two cardsare shuffled back into the pack.The teacherwill need to being'challenged'. to decidein the caseof connections be available

,,

race: The classis divided into teams and each team is given a W Word board marker pen (or piece of chalk). The board is divided into as appointed The teacher(or a specially asthere areteams. many sections and the first team to get a word in the students'language, student)says the correctEnglish translationon to the board earnsa point. The game to review.The game continuesfor as many words as it is felt necessary but a variation of it, which would be is suitablefor a monolingual class, would be to read out definitions of suitable for multilingual classes, words, or give synonymsor show pictures,rather than give translations.
,1.\

Spellingrace: The board is divided in two halves,and a representative from each of two teams standsat the board with a board marker pen or chalk. The teachershowsthe rest of the classa word on a card.The teams must simultaneously spell (not say) the word to their who cannot seethe word. The first team to get the word representative, on to the board with its correct spelling earns a point. The game continues with different students taking turns to be the team This game is more difficult ihan it sounds,especiallyif representative. words are chosenthat include letters which are frequently confusedsuch as i and e, v and b,j and g. Lots of variations of this game ^re The word could be displayedas a picture, so that the teams possible. have to decidewhat the word is before spelling it.

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to work 6 . Howto put words

The above is by no means an exhaustive list of_word games, but is uf tottt" generic game tyPes'guessingbeing one of the most representative favoured. Used with discretio-n,prr*ing words to play is a valid and enjoyableway of putting words to work.

Conclusions

activitiesdesignedto integrate In this chapter we looked at classroom newly acquiredwords into the learner'smental lexicon.Key principles underlying suchactivitiesare the importanceof: r making successive about words decisions . productiveas well as receptivetasks . the judicioususe of highly engaging activitiessuch as games tasks includethe following types: Decision-making o identification r selecting o matching o sorting . ranking and sequencing Productiontaskscan be divided into those that require: . completion of sentences and texts . creation of sentences and texts Gamesthat draw attention to newly learnedwords often encourage and categorising. recallthrough guessing

Looking ahead

'contain' other words (as that words both In Chapter 1 we established head ii contained in ahead),and that a word-like unit may in fact consistof severalwords (as in head and shoulders or a head starf). ln 'wordiness"from individual fact, there seemsto be a continuum of This chunks. up to what are now commonlycalledlexical syllables, expandednotion of what a word is - and how it impactson teaching - is the subject of the next chapter.

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