Peter Watkins
peter.watkins@port.ac.uk
What do we mean by vocabulary?
“There are some groups of words, like good
morning and at the end of the day, which seem
to be used like single words. Some of the groups
may be items that have not been analysed into
parts but are just learned, stored and used as
complete units.”
(Nation and Meara, 2010, p.35)
Ways of looking at vocabulary
We can study
 how words link together, their relationships and
patterns
 how people are likely to learn words and what is
most likely to promote acquisition
 strategies for teaching words
Teachers’ views
Teacher 1: “I think vocabulary is the relatively easy part of
language learning. It’s grammar that’s difficult.”
Teacher 2: “I generally teach vocabulary before we do
reading and listening work.”
Teacher 3: “The whole question of vocabulary is difficult –
just because there is so much of it – where do you start?
There’s so much to learn.”
Teacher 4: “The most important thing is to recycle it
[vocabulary] – go over it again and again.”
Teacher 5: “The advice I would give is to try to make
vocabulary learning fun.”
Teacher 6: “Practising is one thing, teaching is another!”
No one right way…
“Research has provided much useful information about
vocabulary learning and instruction. What it has not
provided is a simple formula for optimal instruction,
because no such formula can exist.”
(Beck, McKeown and Omanson, 1987, p.150)
Theorization of practice
“While traditional views of teacher learning often
viewed the teachers’ task as the application of
theory to practice, more recent views see
teacher learning as the theorization of practice;
in other words, making visible the nature of
practitioner knowledge and providing the means
by which such knowledge can be elaborated,
understood and reviewed.”
(Burns and Richards, 2009, p.4)
“Practising is one thing, teaching is
another!”
 implicit versus explicit instruction
 working out from context
 working out from morphology
 paraphrase
o
learner explanation
o
teacher explanation
o
translation
o
dictionaries
o
glossaries
“Learning vocabulary is relatively easy”
the place of vocabulary in language teaching:
 grammar-translation
 audiolingualism
 communicative language teaching
 lexical approach
“The fact is that while without grammar very little
can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing
can be conveyed.” [original emphasis]
(Wilkins, 1972, p.111)
“Learning vocabulary is relatively easy”
what learners need to know:
 forms and meaning(s) – denotation and
connotation
 collocations
 grammar (we will meet ourselves at 8.00*)
 relationships with other words
 style/appropriacy (father, dad, old man)
“I teach vocabulary before texts”
 common practice
 adjusts level of text by supporting bottom-up
processing
 essentially a strategy to support other skills,
particularly reading and listening
 see words in context
 can study texts after reading too
Vocabulary teaching questions:
 Are the words frequent and useful?
 How will the words will be recycled?
“There’s so much vocabulary to learn”
 3000 word families give somewhere around 90-95%
text coverage
 more would be needed for more specialized texts –
eg academic ones
 suggests a need for independent learning to be
developed
 quality of learning, as well as quantity, is important
“There’s so much vocabulary to learn”
O’Keeffe, McCarthy and Carter (2007), cited in O’Keefe (2012)
“Recycling vocabulary is important” and
“make it fun”
 distributed practice
 seeing words in different contexts – ‘narrow’
reading
Other factors are also important in learning
vocabulary, particularly:
 depth of cognitive processing
 depth of affective processing
Word search
c
a
s
i
n
o
r
o
d
a
l
o
v
e
g
a
h
k
b
o
z
o
v
e
r
t
a
k
e
r
n
j
e
t
s
e
t
l
e
e
i
s
y
o
a
e
n
l
q
m
s
u
v
e
h
p
e
t
k
n
c
a
l
s
u
v
s
a
c
a
c
j
o
e
d
a
t
h
e
y
r
e
a
p
i
t
s
t
o
p
l
w
l
e
d
d
f
n
e
r
n
y
b
o
r
a
f
e
r
r
a
u
d
x
p
o
e
p
e
i
p
r
i
n
c
e
l
r
f
i
a
t
s
b
x
x
u
t
p
o
d
i
u
m
n
h
g
a
l
l
casino driver grand prix hairpin jet set overtake palace podium prince
Word search
c
a
s
i
n
o
r
o
d
a
l
o
v
e
g
a
h
k
b
o
z
o
v
e
r
t
a
k
e
r
n
j
e
t
s
e
t
l
e
e
i
s
y
o
a
e
n
l
q
m
s
u
v
e
h
p
e
t
k
n
c
a
l
s
u
v
s
a
c
a
c
j
o
e
d
a
t
h
e
y
r
e
a
p
i
t
s
t
o
p
l
w
l
e
d
d
f
n
e
r
n
y
b
o
r
a
f
e
r
r
a
u
d
x
p
o
e
p
e
i
p
r
i
n
c
e
l
r
f
i
a
t
s
b
x
x
u
t
p
o
d
i
u
m
n
h
g
a
l
l
casino driver grand prix hairpin jet set overtake palace podium prince
Making sentences
journey
to
work
travels
first
long
soon
usually
enjoys
class
trip
a
Jay
journeys
travel
business
has
is
hotel
and
a
on
going
reading
reservation
Making sentences
journey
to
work
travels
first
long
soon
usually
enjoys
class
trip
a
Jay
journeys
travel
business
has
is
hotel
and
a
on
going
reading
reservation
Games to recycle vocabulary
Games to recycle vocabulary
syllable
realia
controlled
practice
antonym
synonym
meronym
hyponym
collocation
connotation
Odd one out
To teach the word order:
a) order command advise
b) order tell
instruct
c) order ask
obey
demand
suggest
(from SÖkmen, 1997, p.243)
Word bags
Word bags
• Begin a lesson by asking the learners to guess which words
from the previous lesson you have put into the bag.
• Take five or six words at random from the bag, check the
meanings and ask the learners to use these words in a short
narrative that they write with a partner.
• The learners work in pairs. Give each learner three words
from the bag. They have to elicit the words from their partner
by describing the meanings or by giving other information.
• Give the learners some nouns from the bag. Brainstorm
adjectives and/or verbs that collocate with each one.
• Ask a different learner each lesson to choose the words that
should be put into the bag from that lesson.
• At the beginning (or end) of a lesson, take five or six words
from the bag and elicit each word from the learners by giving
the meaning.
(Watkins, 2013)
Rewriting a text
Recently I did a mediation
between two families living in
neighbouring houses. In one of
the families, the father had a
passion for restoring old cars.
He’d work on these cars outside
until quite late at night, and the
front garden was full of bits of old
car, oil cans and the like. The
other family hated the noise and
the mess but – as quite often
happens, I’m afraid – they simply
put up with the problem and
hoped it would go away.
(Tilbury, Hendra, Rea and
Clementson, 2011, p. 104)
Rewriting a text
Recently I did a mediation
between two families living in
neighbouring houses. In one of
the families, the father had a
passion for restoring old cars.
He’d work on these cars outside
until quite late at night, and the
front garden was full of bits of old
car, oil cans and the like. The
other family hated the noise and
the mess but – as quite often
happens, I’m afraid – they simply
put up with the problem and
hoped it would go away.
(Tilbury, Hendra, Rea and
Clementson, 2011, p. 104)
Recently I did a mediation
between two families living in
near-by houses. In one of the
families, the father liked working
on old cars. He used to play
around with these cars outside
until really late at night, and the
front garden was full of bits of old
car, oil cans and other junk. Not
surprisingly, the second family
hated the noise and the mess but
– as quite often happens, I’m
afraid – they simply tolerated the
problem and hoped it would go
away.
Learners’ strategies
“Learning strategies are conscious mental and
behavioural procedures that people engage in with
the aim to gain control over their learning process.
Strategies can be cognitive (among which
memory-related and compensatory strategies are
important), metacognitive, social and affective.”
(Ortega, 2009, p.214)
Learners’ strategies
Anja: I read a text and write definitions of new words (from a
dictionary) but I do not write the new word down. I try to
remember the word that goes with the definition the next day.
If I can’t, I reread the text and try the exercise again. If I do
remember the word I write it down, although I sometimes wait
to see if I can remember it after two or three days.
David: I copy out the sentences from the text that have a new
word in but in place of the new word I leave a gap. At
university you have to read ______ journals (academic).
Later I go back and try to fill in the gaps.
Learners’ strategies
Gaston: When I find a new word I ask myself as many questions as I
can about it. What does it rhyme with? Where’s the stress? How
many syllables does it have? What word class is it? What words are
derived from it? What words combine with it? What does it make me
think of?
Aasmah: Whenever my teacher teaches me new grammar or
vocabulary, I always try to use it over the next few days. I try to use it
in lessons and outside if I can. That way I think I remember it better
and I get feedback on if I’m using it properly.
Patricia: I try a few different things to learn vocabulary. Whenever I
try a new method, I always ask myself if it is better than other things I
use. I think that’s important.
(adapted from Watkins, 2014, p.104-5)
Bibliography
Beck, I.L., McKeown, M.G., and Omanson, R.C. (1987). The effects and uses of diverse
vocabulary instructional techniques. In M.G. McKeown & M.E. Curtis (Eds.), The
Nature of Vocabulary Acquisition (pp. 147-163). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Burns, A. and Richards, J.C. (2009). Introduction. In A. Burns, & J.C. Richards (Eds.),
The Cambridge Guide to Second Language Teacher Education (pp.1-8). New York:
Cambridge University Press.
Nation, P. and Meara, P. (2010). Vocabulary. In N. Schmitt (Ed.), An Introduction to
Applied Linguistics (pp.34-52). Abingdon: Hodder Education.
O’Keeffe, A. (2012). Vocabulary instruction. In A. Burns, & J.C. Richards (Eds.), The
Cambridge Guide to Pedagogy and Practice in Second Language Teaching (pp.236245). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Ortega, L. (2009). Understanding Second Language Acquisition. London: Hodder
Education.
SÖkmen, A. (1997). Current trends in teaching second language vocabulary. In N. Schmitt
& M. McCarthy (Eds.), Vocabulary: Description, Acquisition and Pedagogy (pp.237257). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tilbury, Hendra, Rea and Clementson (2011). English Unlimited Upper Intermediate.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Watkins, P. (2014). Learning to Teach English (2nd ed.). Peaslake: Delta Publishing.
Watkins, P. (2013). By teachers, for teachers. English Teaching Professional, 84.
Wilkins, D. (1972). Linguistics in Language Teaching. London: Edward Arnold.