Learning Vocabulary in another language
Table of contents
Introduction
- Learning goals
- The four strands
- Main themes
- The audience for this book
Chapter 1: The goals of vocabulary learning
- How much vocabulary do learners need to know?
- How many words are there in the language?
- How many words do native speakers know?
- How much vocabulary do you need to use another language?
- High frequency words Specialised vocabulary?
- Low frequency words
- Testing vocabulary knowledge
Chapter 2: Knowing a word
- Learning burden
- The receptive /productive distinction The scope of the receptive/productive distinction
- Experimental comparisons of receptive and productive vocabulary
- Aspects of knowing a word
- Levelt's process model of language use
- Spoken form
- Written form
- Word parts
- Connecting form and meaning
- Concept and referents
- Associations
- Grammatical functions
- Collocations
- Constraints on use
- Item knowledge and system knowledge
Chapter 3: Teaching and explaining vocabulary
- Learning from teaching and learning activities
- Vocabulary in classrooms
- Repetition and learning Communicating meaning
- Spending time on words
- Rich instruction
- Arguments against rich instruction Providing rich instruction
- Spoken form
- Written form
- Word parts
- Strengthening the form-meaning connection
- Concept and reference
- Associations
- Grammar
- Collocation
- Constraints on use
- Vocabulary teaching procedures Computer assisted vocabulary learning
- Vocabulary content
- Presentation of material
- Monitoring progress
- Using concordances
- Research on CAVL
Chapter 4: Vocabulary and listening and speaking
- What vocabulary knowledge is needed for listening?
- Providing vocabulary support for listening
- Learning vocabulary from listening to stories
- Learning vocabulary through negotiation
- The vocabulary of speaking
- Developing fluency with spoken vocabulary
- Using teacher input to increase vocabulary knowledge
- Using labelled diagrams
- Using cooperative tasks to focus on vocabulary
- How can a teacher design activities to help incidental vocabulary learning? Designing the worksheets
- An adapted activity
Chapter 5: Vocabulary and reading and writing
- Vocabulary size and successful reading Learning vocabulary through reading Vocabulary and extensive reading Extensive reading by non-native speakers of texts written for young native speakers
- Extensive reading with graded readers
- Extensive reading of unsimplified texts Extensive reading and vocabulary growth
- Intensive reading and direct teaching Preteaching
- Vocabulary exercises with reading texts
- Analysis of vocabulary exercises Readability
- What are graded readers?
- Designing and using a simplified reading scheme for vocabulary development
- How to simplify
- Alternatives to simplification
- Glossing
- Vocabulary and the quality of writing Measures of vocabulary size and growth in writing
- Bringing vocabulary into productive use
Responding to vocabulary use in written work
Chapter 6: Specialised uses of vocabulary
- Academic vocabulary
- The importance of academic vocabulary
- Making an academic vocabulary list Sequencing the introduction of academic vocabulary
- The nature and role of academic vocabulary
- Testing academic vocabulary
- Learning academic vocabulary Technical vocabulary
- Distinguishing technical vocabulary from other vocabulary
- Making lists of technical vocabulary Learning technical vocabulary Vocabulary in discourse
- Vocabulary and information content of the text
- Vocabulary and the organisation of the text
- Vocabulary and the relationship between the writer or speaker and reader or listener
- Words in discourse
Chapter 7: Vocabulary learning strategies and guessing from context
- A taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategies
- Planning vocabulary learning
- Sources: finding information about words
- Processes: establishing vocabulary knowledge
- Training in vocabulary choice and use Learners' use of strategies
- Procedures that integrate strategies Learning words from context Intentional and incidental learning What proportion of unknown words can be guessed from context?
- How much vocabulary is learned from context?
- What can be learned from context? What clues does a context provide and how effective are they?
- What are the causes of poor guessing?
- Do different learners approach guessing in the same way?
- How can teachers help learners improve learning from context?
- How can learners be trained to guess from context?
- Learning from context and attention-drawing activities
- Do glossing and dictionary use help vocabulary learning?
- Formats for testing and practising guessing
- Steps in the guessing-from-context strategy
- Training learners in the strategy of guessing from context
Chapter 8: Word study strategies
- Word parts
- Is it worthwhile learning word parts? Studies of the sources of English vocabulary
- Studies of the frequency of affixes
- Do language users see words as being made of parts?
- Word stems
- The knowledge required to use word parts
- Monitoring and testing word building skills
- The word part strategy
- Using dictionaries
- Is it necessary or worth training learners to use dictionaries?
- What skills are needed to use a dictionary?
- What dictionaries are the best? Evaluating dictionaries
- Dictionary use and learning
- Learning from word cards
- Criticisms of direct vocabulary learning Decontextualized learning and memory
- Decontextualized learning and use
- The contribution of decontextualized learning
- The values of learning from word cards
- The word card strategy
- Training learners in the use of word cards
Chapter 9: Chunking and collocation
- Chunking
- The advantages and disadvantages of chunking
- Language knowledge is collocational knowledge
- Fluent and appropriate language use requires collocational knowledge
- Some words occur in a limited set of collocations
- Classifying collocations
- The evidence for collocation Collocation and teaching
- Encouraging chunking
- Chunking through fluency development
- Chunking through language focused attention
- Memorizing unanalysed chunks
Chapter 10: Testing vocabulary knowledge and use
- What kind of vocabulary test is the best?
- Is it enough to ask learners if they know a word?
- Should choices be given?
- Should translations be used?
- Should words be tested in context? How can depth of knowledge of a word be tested?
- How can I measure words that learners don't know well?
- How can I measure how well learners actually use words?
- How can I measure total vocabulary size?
- Choosing a test item type
- Types of tests
- How can we test to see where learners need help?
- How can we test whether a small group of words in a course has been learned?
- How can we test whether the total vocabulary of the course has been learned?
- How can we measure how well learners have control of the important vocabulary learning strategies?
Chapter 11: Designing the vocabulary component of a language course
- Goals
- Needs analysis
- Environment analysis
- Principles of vocabulary teaching Content and sequencing
- Format and presentation
- Monitoring and assessment
- Evaluation
- Autonomy and vocabulary learning
- The goals of vocabulary learning
- What should be learned and in what order?
- Learning procedures
- Checking learning