ELTWeekly Newsletter Vol. 3 Issue#96 | August 29, 2011 | ISSN 0975-3036
Shiny Kochappilly works with the JMJ College for Women, Tenali.
A crucial component of learning a second language is the acquisition of vocabulary. Hence, vocabulary should be placed in the centre of language teaching as it plays an important role in creating understanding of language through what a student hears, sees and reads in the classroom. This article describes various methods which include brainstorming, visual aid, dramatization, and drawing pictures etc. can be incorporated in the teaching of vocabulary in a language classroom. These methods are rather limited, yet this provides some insight for teachers to realize the benefits of using creative activities to teach vocabulary in ESL classroom.
Introduction
In India, certainly, English is used much more for higher order communication than for day-to-day social interaction. However, students entering college are expected to possess enough word knowledge and proficiency in English to cope with the demands arising from having to handle it as a medium of higher learning. Sometimes, the learner needs to go to another state or to other parts of the country for educational or occupational purposes. A student is usually required to take an examination on competitive basis, for entry into a specialist field of study or a job or face an interview. In such cases, the learner has to master English words to communicate and meet the demands of the present day society. For these reasons, it becomes necessary for the language teachers, to teach the core aspects of basic vocabulary such as meaning, spelling and pronunciation which lead to proficiency in English language. Allen (1999) claimed that “experienced teachers of English as a Second Language know very well how important vocabulary is. They know their students must learn thousands of words that speakers and writers of English use.”
Hence, teaching vocabulary to ESL learners is essential as it plays a dominant role in creating understanding of language. Vocabulary should be taught to the learners as proficiency in vocabulary lead to proficiency in language. New words have to be introduced in such a way as to capture the students’ attention and place the words in their memories. Vocabulary learning can often be seen as a laborious process of memorizing lists of unrelated terms. If vocabulary is taught in an uninteresting way such as by drilling, simple repetition and learning lists, then the words are likely to be forgotten. Teachers need to teach vocabulary innovatively so that the learners may store them in their memory and use the words appropriately in real contexts.
The research shows that teaching vocabulary in an explicit manner is very essential for various reasons such as:
- vocabulary is the basis of any language learning.
- language consists of grammaticalized lexis, not lexicalized grammar (Lewis, 1993).
- continuous enriching and expanding vocabulary enhances learners’ knowledge of comprehension of texts in L2.
- vocabulary plays an active role in both receptive and productive language skills.
- vocabulary is crucial for achieving academic success and for seeking better employment opportunities.
- it is essential for communicating and expressing ideas and feelings.
Success in this competitive world often depends on the candidates’ effective use of words in context. According to Wilkins (1972: 111) without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed. Thus, it signifies that a language teacher should be innovative and proficient in the application of methodologies pertaining to teaching vocabulary items in a classroom situation.
Teaching Active and Passive Vocabulary
Learners need to have both active and passive vocabulary knowledge. That is, the learners need to use some English words for oral communication and those they will merely have to recognize when they hear them or see them written down by others. Teaching passive vocabulary is important for comprehension, that is, enough knowledge of words used by others to comprehend their meaning. This is also called receptive knowledge of English. Teaching active vocabulary is important for advanced students’ in order to create their own sentences. Active vocabulary contains the words a student can understand and manipulate in order to use for their own personal expression. This is called productive knowledge. Thus, teaching the learners both active and passive vocabulary is important for developing their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills.
Following are a few methods that can be adapted to teach vocabulary in an ESL classroom:
Brainstorming
When teaching new vocabulary, the method of delivery needs to be fresh and interesting for the students or else they will not remember the words. A key word can be written up in the middle of the board and the new vocabulary relating to it can be written around it.
Visual aids
It means the use of pictures, diagrams and paintings in the classroom to teach vocabulary. In this way, words are remembered by their colour or position on a page or their association with other words, pictures or phrases. Images can link to a word; words can also be linked to other words, for example, a student might link the word ‘car’ with ‘garage’ and with mechanic. This idea of engaging the other sense can also help with developing a kind of semantic map where words are listed which relate to each other, which create a situation where one word reminds the student of another.
Dramatization
Through this method, the teacher can win the favour of the students as they like dramatizations and can easily learn the words. The teacher can provide authentic materials that are taken from the realities of life to dramatize or to demonstrate.
Drawing Pictures
This is another interesting and interactive method. The teacher can divide the class into two groups and provide each one a list of vocabulary words. The teacher asks the first group to draw the picture on the black board with the help of the given words so that the students in the other group can guess the words or expressions they are trying to represent. This is a fun way to break up the class routine.
Playing with Words
Teachers can motivate the learners to play Scrabble, Boggle and do crossword puzzles as building one’s vocabulary is a lifelong proposition.
Word Cards
Teachers can use devices for vocabulary teaching such as simple flash-cards or word-cards. The teacher writes the English language word on one side of the card and a sentence containing the word, its definition, its synonyms and pronunciation on the other. Word cards can be excellent method of memory aid. This is also a handy way for students to carry their new vocabulary around with them to look at whenever they have the opportunity.
Word Association
Another successful method of vocabulary teaching is the word association technique. If words are stored individually, they are more difficult to remember as they have no context. But if the words are stored together in commonly used phrases and sentences, they are more readily absorbed. Putting words with collocation partners in this way helps the students to relate connected words together.
Collocations
Grammatical collocations are when a noun, verb or adjective occur (usually) alongside a preposition. For example: ‘on purpose’, ‘by accident’, ‘in case’. Lexical collocations are made up of combinations of lexical items such as nouns, adjectives, adverbs and verbs. Examples of lexical collocations are: dripping tap, hopelessly addicted, cook dinner.
Teaching lexical phrases is another way of improving the natural sound of the students in speaking the language. Phrases such as ‘thanks very much’, ‘don’t mention it’, ‘have a nice day’, ‘sorry about that’, are useful in conversation.
Connotations and Appropriateness
Teaching connotations are important in vocabulary teaching inorder for students to feel confident using the new vocabulary in new situations. The connotations of a word are the feelings it strikes up such as positive or negative, and more specific ones for certain words. Therefore, it is very essential that the learners’ should know the connotations of a word and its appropriate usage.
Idioms
Alongside chunks of language and fixed phrases and expressions, teachers may include in their vocabulary teaching, idioms of the English language. Idioms are common features of everyday language and are an important part of advanced language use and a major step towards fluency. Idioms can be introduced to the ESL classroom through authentic reading materials such as informal text from magazines, newspapers, letters, comic-strips, dialogue from radio or television dramas etc.
Prefixes and Suffixes
Prefixes can make a word negative, for example, adding ‘un-‘, ‘a-‘or ‘dis-‘. These inflections are vital for students’ understanding of words and can increase their vocabulary substantially simply by inflecting words they already know. Suffixes work in this same vocabulary enhancing way, by adding such as ‘ing’, ‘less’ and ‘ly’. Teaching the prefixes and suffixes appropriate to new vocabulary can help students to guess what a new word might mean by reference to words they already know. In this way, prefixes and suffixes can help to introduce many new words easily. For example, knowledge of the word ‘fiend’ can help a student to guess the meanings of the words ‘friendly’, ‘unfriendly’ or ‘friendless’.
Polysemy and Homonymy
When teaching vocabulary, there are subtle differences between similar words that need to be communicated to the students’ inorder to avoid causing confusion. Teaching polysemy enables the student to distinguish between the different meanings of a word with closely related meanings; e.g. head of a person, of an organization. Teaching homonym distinguishes between the different meanings of a word with distinct meanings. For example, the noun ‘bear’ and the verb ‘bear’ are homonyms.
Matching Columns
Once the new vocabulary has been taught, a useful way to test if students have understood the meanings of this new vocabulary is to ask them to match new words from one column with definitions from another column. The new words are numbered in column one and the definitions are mixed up and lettered in column two. Students can also make up sentences using this technique, matching the beginning of the sentence or phrase from column 1 with the end of the sentence or phrase from column 2.
Conclusion
It is indeed very necessary to help our learners to acquire sufficient vocabulary for communication in the second language. The use of creative methods in teaching vocabulary enable the students improve their word knowledge and continue to acquire more words outside formal classroom instruction. An efficient language teacher can use selected vocabulary activities according to the level of understanding and interest of the learners. There is no fixed or sure method to enhance the vocabulary of the L2 learners.
References
Allen, J. (1999). Words, words, words: teaching Vocabulary in grades 4-12. York, ME: Stenhouse
Lewis, M. (1993). The lexical approach. LTP.
Nation, Paul (Ed.), (1994). New Ways in Teaching Vocabulary.New York: Pantagraph printing
Wilkins, D. (1972). Linguistics and Language Teaching. London: Edward Arnold.