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1K views106 pagesPenny Ur, Scott Thornbury (Editor) - Penny Ur's 77 Tips For Teaching Vocabulary (Cambridge Handbooks For Language Teachers) (2022, Cambridge University Press)
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/ 106
Penny Ur’s
V7
Tips for Teaching
Vocabulary Penny Ur’s 77
Tips for .
Teaching
Vocabulary ‘Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers
‘This sesies nove with over so tides offers practical ideas techniques
ng activities forthe teaching of English and other languages, providicg,
inspiration for both teachers and trainers
‘The Pocket Editions come faa handy, pocket-sized format and are crammed
{ull of ips end ideas from experienced English language caching professionals,
‘wenrich your aching practic.
Recent titles in thi series
Classroom Management Tochriques
yinescnsvaxes
(UL Activities
Areca sng laaeacas
Language Learning wth Technology
esata eceoerintecesoon
‘Translation and Oun-language Actives
‘Language Learning with Dighal Video
Discussions and More
Onley paces ntbtscam
Interaction Onine
Cesearvtefor bene caig
[ENDeae CEANOTELD AND JL HADI
‘Activites for Very Young Learners
“Teaching and Developing Reading Skis
Lexical Grammar
‘teste ching oneperngpaters
Offthe Page
Adesso ahve ad rtnclersng
‘Teaching in Challenging Crcumstances
Recent Pocket Editon
Penny U's 100 Teaching Tie
Jack. Richards’ 50 Tips for Teacher
Development
Tac mICHARDS
‘Scott Thornbury 30 Language Teaching
Methods
‘an Maley's 50 Creative Actives
Scott Thombur/ 101 Grammar Questions
‘Mark Hancock's 50 Tips or Teaching
Pronunciation
Carol Read's 50 Tips for Teaching
Primary Chileon
David Cras 50 Questions About
English Usage
HerbertPuchta's 101 Tips for
Teaching Teenagers
Nicky Hockys 50 Escorial of Using
Learning Technologies Penny Ur’'s 77
Tips for
Teaching
Vocabulary
Penny Ur
Consultant and editor: Scott Thornbury
CAMBRIDGE
QP UNIVERSITY PRESS
See eee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEeEeLEEEE CAMBRIDGE
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Unicesty Piting House, Cambridge CRABS, Unies Kingdom
ne List Plaza, 20th Flos Neve York, NY 10006, USA
477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Austelia
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103 Penang Road, 15-0607, Visionceest Commercial, Singapore 238467
Cambridge Univessity Pres is part of the University of Cambridge.
Ii farshers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge inthe pursuit of
‘edocation, kanning and research atthe highest international levels of excellence
wwrmcanibridge-org
Information on this tle: wwwecambridge.org/9781009074001
© Cambridge University Press 2022
“This publieation is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
snd to the provisions of relevant collcrive licensing agreements,
‘to reproduction of any pact may take place without the written
penission of Cambridge University Press.
Fist published 2022
20 19 18 17 16 18 14.13 12 110987654524
/oup (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CROAYY
|A catalogue record for this publication is auslable from the British Library
ISBN 978.-1-009-07400-1 Paperback
ISBN 978-1-009-07401-8 oBook
Cambridge University Pres has no sesponsbilty fr the persistence or accuracy
fof URLs for external or third-party intemer websites sefecced to inthis publication,
nd does not guarantee that any content on such websites i, or wil remain, accurate
Printed in Great Britain by CPL
‘or appropriate Contents
Read this first vi
A: The importance of vocabulary learning 1
1 Devote time to vocabulaey teaching 2
2 Raise learners’ awareness of the importance of vocabulary 3
Selecting vocabulary to teach 4
3 Priortise the most common vocabulary items 5
4 Include multi-word items 6
5 Teach word families selectively 7
6 Teach occasional idioms and proverbs 8
7 Teach basic texting vocabulary 8
‘ 8 Use published vocabulary lists with caution 10
i 9 Prioritise internationally acceptable items u
20 Avoid introducing lists of words that arc all ‘the same
kind of thing? 2
11. Teach aseful classroom vocabulary early on 13
, : Introducing now vocabulary “4
! 12. Teach wntten and spoken forms together as
13. Keep metalanguage (e.g. adjective) t0 a minimum 16
14 Teach first che most common form of a word 17
15. Teach one meaning at atime a8
16 Teach collocetions (links with other words) »
17 Teach how new words behave grammatically 20
i 38 Teach new vocabulary both in context and in isolation 21
t 19. Draw attention to problematic pronunciation 2
t 20 Draw attention to problematic spelling 23
21. Write up new vocabulary on the board and leave it there 24
22. Make sure learners write down new icems 2s
23 Make learners aware of common mistakes associated with
anew stem 26
Clarifying meanings of new vocabulary 7
24 Explain meanings yourself, rather than sending learners to
a dictionary 28
25. Link the new vocabulary to items previously taught 29
26 Explain meanings briefly 30
27. Use the learners’ mother tongue (L1) to help clarify 31
28 Use pictures and realia 32
! 29 Use mime, gesture, facial expression 33
: 30 Vary the way you explain 34
31 Teach where itis appropriatefinappropriate to use anew tem 35
' 32 Teach connotations 36
33. Avoid asking learners to study corpus data themselves 7 E: Vocabulary review and practice 38
34 Practise a lot 39
35 Avoid meaningless copying or repetition of the new items 40
36. Give tasks that get earners to retrieve 41
37. Make exercises interesting to do 2
38 Personalize vocabulary review 4B
39 Review after a time-gap 4
40. Try to avoid word games 45
41 Use collaborative activities 46
42, Encourage learners to use new vocabulary in their own.
speech and writing, 47
‘Teaching vocabulary from a reading text 48
43 Be selective in deciding which vocabulary to teach 49
44 Use vocabulary profilers 50
45. Check if chere are useful multi-word items in the text 3
46 Draw attention to vocabulary learners have been taught before 52
47, Eneourage learners to choose which vocabulary to leaen 3
48 Preeteach some of the new vocabulary somecimes 54
49-Be wary of asking learners to infer meanings from context 55
G: Vocabulary enrichment and expansion 56
50. Initiate deliberate vocabulary expansion activities 7
51 Teach new meanings for old words 38
52 Use Word of the day’ 59
53. Use dictionaries and chesauri for vocabulary expansion 60
54 Teach prefixes and suffixes selectively ol
55. Explore synonyms a
56 Compare target language words or phrases with their
1 translations 63
H: Activities and materials for vocabulary review and expansion 64
57. Use dictation-based activities 65
58 Challenge learners to recall 66
59 Ask learners to create contexts “7
60 Use Pass it ound’ 68
61 Get learners to mingle 69
62. Use word cards 0
63 Inclade translation activities a
{64 Use open-ended tasks (questions with lots of right answers) 72
65 Use yeshno worksheets 2
|: Testing vocabulary 4
66 Do brief weekly quizzes, 7
67_ Include a vocabulary component in general tests 76
{68 Include an optional component in tests r
69. Test productive not just receptive knowledge 78
70 Get learners to design their own test items 9 38.
39
40
41
a2
4B
45
46
"7
48
49
50
su
53
4
35
56
7
38
39
60
6
62
63
64
65
66
o
68
o
a
74
18
78
9
71 Use translation for testing
72 Test (also) aspects of vocabulary other than writen form
and meaning
:ncourage independent vocabulary learning
73. Encourage out-of-class vocabulary learning
74 Teach spelling rules
75 Teach dictionary skitls
76. Incroduce advanced learners to phonemic symbols
77, Encourage use of online tools for vocabulary learning
References
Further recommended reading
Glossary
Index
80
at
82
as
85
87,
88
89
93 Read this first
‘The content and aims of this book
‘This book consists of a series of practical tips on vocabulary eaching.
Their goal is to help the reader/teacher in a variety of teaching
situations to decide which vocabulary items (both single words and
phrases) to teach and how, and which kinds of learning and teaching
strategies are likely to work well — or not so well. Most of them apply
to the teaching of any language; a few are specific to English. The tips
are based primarily on my own teaching experience, but in some cases
are supported by ideas I've got from other teachers or the professional
literature, or by insights from applied linguistics research.
Of course, any particular tip may work for me but not for you: we each
have our own teaching personality and preferences and our situations
and learner populations vary widely. Please relate to the tips cautiously,
8 recommendations from a colleague rather than as directives from
an authority, and adopt, reject or adapt them according to your own
professional judgement.
Types of tips
Most of the tips recommend practical procedures or strategies that
can promote good learning of vocabulary, A few, however, are caveats:
suggestions to avoid teaching procedures which may not lead to good
learning, in spite of the fact that many teachers and textbooks use
them (e4g.,'Avoid meaningless copying or repetition of the new items"),
Some of the tips are generic practical principles, like ‘Practise a lot’ or
“Teach new vocabulary both in context and in isolation’; others are
ideas for specific Iearner tasks or teacher steategies, like (Use yes/no
worksheets’, or Use pictures and reali’.
Using this book
‘Teachers: The book is not intended to be read through page by page.
Have a look at the Contents, sce which sections or individual tips
interest you and turn to them first. Or flip through the book, skipping
the tips that don’t seem relevant to your own teaching and focusing on ach
s
iy
ts:
d
s).
ag
on
those that are likely to be more helpful for you. Or if you are looking
for a particular topic, use the Contents or Index to find it.
“Teacher trainers/educators: Some of the tips in this book can be used
as a starting point to provide student teachers with more substantial
input on key research-based information: the use of corpora to establish
frequency, for example (see Tip 44), or types, function and importance
of multi-word items (chunks) (see Tip 4). Others can lead in to debates
‘on more controversial subjects, such as the place of L1 and translation
{see Tips 27, 56) or the usefulness of inferencing (see Tip 49).
Materials writers: Many of the tips have immediate relevance for
the design of coursebook components that deal with the teaching of
vocabulary: in particular, those that deal with vocabulary selection and
the design of enrichment and review procedures.
Added features 7
Research evidence: Many of the tips have footnotes citing research
studies that support or give more information on suggestions made in
the tips. A full list of these is shown on page 88
Further recommended reading: A list of books and articles, grouped
under topic headings, provides further information on some of the
issues mentioned in the tips.
Glossary: A brief glossary explains terms that may not be familiar to the
reader. Words appearing in the glossary are shown in bold in the text. A: The importance of
vocabulary learning
Vocabulary is the most important
component of language to learn. You can
communicate with limited grammar and
less-than-accurate pronunciation, but you
cannot do so without a lot of vocabulary.
The more vocabulary a learner knows,
the better they are likely to function in
the new language.
1 Devote time to vocabulary teaching
2 Raise learners’ awareness of the importance
of vocabulary 1 | Devote time to vocabulary teaching
If learners have little or no exposure to the target language
outside of class, they are not likely to pick up a lot of,
vocabulary just through reading and listening. It is
therefore essential to devote time to deliberate vocabulary
teaching in class.
A earner needs to know an enormous amount of vocabulary: at
least five thousand words in order to cope with the needs of most
communicative situations; much more if they wish to understand
tunsimplified texts and interact successfully in high-level discussions.
When learning our mother tongue, we acquired an extensive vocabulary
incidentally: through listening and, more importantly, reading. But
learners of a new language, particularly if they are learning in a country
where the target language is not spoken outside the classroom, cannot do
the same: their reading and listening outside class is likely to be in their
mother tongue, and the limited amount of reading they will do in the new
language, though important as a supplement (see Tip 73), is not enough
to ensure they acquire the numbers of vocabulary items mentioned above.
We therefore need to spend instructional time on the deliberate
presentation, explanation and review of new vocabulary: I would suggest
at least a quarter of lesson time, and the same proportion of homework.
This does not, of course, mean simply taking a list of words and
teaching them dry one by one! But it docs mean:
+ Drawing attention to the forms and meanings of new items
encountered in texts (see Tips 43-49);
+ Encouraging learners 10 write down new items and review them
(sce Tip 22);
+ Introducing occasional new items for the sake of vocabulary
enrichment (see Tip 52);
* Doing frequent vocabulary-review activites (see Tips 34-42);
+ Including vocabulary tests in any periodic assessment procedures
used during the course (see Tip 67). uy
1
t do
eh
Dove.
ggest
ork,
Raise learners’ awareness of the
importance of vocabulary
If learners are aware of the importance of vocabulary, they
are more likely to be willing to put in the necessary effort
to acquire it.
I’s worth devoting some lesson time early in the course to awareness-
raising discussions, with the aim of getting the students to appreciate
why itis so important to learn a lot of vocabulary in the target
language. If they are not very advanced, then do this in thei mother
tongue (assuming they all speak the same language, which you also
know). Such awareness-raising is useful for various reasons.
First, its a good idea for teachers of any subject to share with learners
their reasons for teaching the way they do. Learners need to feel they
are active partners in the learning process, that they know what is going
on and why they are being asked to do certain things.
Second, it cannot be taken for granted that learners will know
intuitively that vocabulary is important: not even all teachers are
aware of its crucial role in the achievement of proficiency. (It’s far more
important than correct grammar!) If learners understand why and
how all this vocabulary-focused activity will promote their success in
learning, they are more likely to invest effort in doing it
‘Third, once we move beyond the fairly basic levels of the target
language (A1/A2}, learners will need to supplement the vocabulary
they are learning in class with active learning outside it (see Tip 73).
We need, of course, to teach as much as we can in class (see Tip 1), but
in most courses the number of teaching hours is too small to ensure
enough vocabulary coverage. Successful learning of new vocabulary
outside the classroom depends crucially on motivation: and motivation
in its turn depends on an awareness of the importance of such learning. B: Selecting vocabulary to teach
If you are using a coursebook, this will
often give you guidance as to which
vocabulary items to teach, though you
may find that you want to omit some and
add others. If you are choosing your own
materials as you go, then the choice of
which vocabulary items to teach will be
completely up to you. In either case, the
tips in this section may help you decide
which to prioritise.
Prioritise the most common vocabulary items
{include multi-word items
‘Teach word families selectively
‘Teach occasional idioms and proverbs
‘Teach basic texting vocabulary
Use published vocabulary lists with caution
Prioritise internationally acceptable items
10 Avoid introducing lists of words that are all
“the same kind of thing’
waorvouse
11 Teach useful classroom vocabulary early on Prioritise the most common
vocabulary items
Learners need to acquire a lot of vocabulary, and the
number of hours we have to teach it is limited. We
therefore should not waste time teaching rare words that
will not be very useful.
Particularly in the case of elementary learners, our priority is to get
them to master the most common vocabulary items, in order for them
to feel as soon as possible that they are able to understand and convey
basic messages in the new language.
‘Many elementary coursebook units focus on sets of words like colours
or parts of the body (see Tip 10), with the result that learners are taught
relatively rare words like purple, toes, before they know common and
essential ones like just, thing, and may not learn useful multi-word
chunks like of course, go on.
Often your own common sense will tell you which items from the
materials are likely to be more common and useful. If you want more
objective criteria, refer to a corpus (a large database of naturally
occurring written and spoken texts in a specified language). See,
for example, corpora listed on the Brigham Young University site
(englishcorpora.org), or the sources referred to in Tip 44, which can
tell you how frequent any particular vocabulary item is. As a rough
guide: words that occur within the top 1,000 most frequent words are
probably appropriate for beginners, or Al learners; those within the
3,000 most frequent would be appropriate for learners up to about B1.
Tm not suggesting, of course, that all the vocabulary taught at early levels
needs to be taken from the lists of the most frequent items: items that are
essential for the theme or situation being taught or for understanding a
text, or ones we need for classcoom interactions or that are relevant to the
ly be included in any interesting
language-teaching programme. But we should not spend too much time
con them; che common, useful items need to be prioritised
learners’ culture — all these will necess Gi Include multi-word items
Vocabulary is not just single words. It also includes items
which are composed of more than one word, but convey
a single meaning like a word does. Some examples are by
the way, more or less, look after:
Ir as been estimated that at least one-tenth of the vocabulary we need
to learn consists of chunks ike these.
In many cases, these are non-compositional: that is, their meaning.
cannot be guessed by knowing the meaning of the component words
and the grammar that links them. For example, you could not guess
the meaning of by and large by putting together the basic meanings of
by, and, and large. Nery often such items can be paraphrased by single
words: by and large, for instance, means the same as generally.
Even compositional chunks are worth teaching, First, even if it is clear
what the item means, learners need to know, for their own production,
that this is how the idea is idiomatically expressed in the target
language. For example, “What's the time? in English is the conventional
way of asking about the time of day, rather than the equivalent of How
late is it?” as in German, or ‘What hour is it? as in Spanish. Second,
memorising a common multi-word item can help fluency: the learner
doesn’t have to compose the phrase or sentence word by word, but can
say the whole sequence straight off, confident that it is correct.
‘When choosing which vocabulary items to teach from a text, itis
important to search for and identify chunks that occur within the text
that it might be useful to draw students’ attention to; your coursebook
‘may not identify them (see Tip 45).
A useful fist of the most frequent non-compositional chunks can be
found in Martinez and Schmic (2012) (see the full reference below}.
Schmit, and Martinez, R(2012).‘A pheasel expressions Ist? Applisd Lingus,
3312), 299-320. ns
y
Teach word families selectively 5 |
Icis sometimes taken for granted that it is useful to teach
word families: to add other items from the same family
when teaching any new word. For example, together with
act we might teach acting, acted, activity, action, inactive.
Note that not all words learnt earlier are necessarily the most basic
form of the word: learners are likely to learn computer before compute,
for example. So teaching another member of the word family may
in fact mean teaching base form when learners have just learnt a
derivative rather than vice versa, +
Other words from the same word family may not necessarily involve a
prefix or suffix. The new family member may look and sound exactly
the same as the basic word you have just taught but be used as
another part of speech. For example, in English, when teaching sign the
noun, we may teach that the same word can also be a verb.
‘Teaching word families is, in principle, a quick and easy way of,
‘expanding vocabulary based on words the learners already know. But
‘we need to be cautious: not all the family members of a given word are
necessarily useful to the learner or easy to learn,
» Some derivatives have little or nothing to do with the root meaning
of the word: a nuclear reactor for example has no obvious connection
with the word react, or with the prefix re- or root verb act.
* Some members of a word family may be rare and not very useful to
most classes: if you teach proportion, it is probably not 2 good idea
to also teach disproportionately.
Bottom line: if you are going to teach other members from the same
family as a new word, then focus on the most common and useful ones,
with clear links to the meaning of the original word. Don't feel you
nced to try to teach them all, Gl Teach occasional idioms and proverbs
There is a common belief that idioms (like the best of both
worlds in English) are a common feature of the speech of
native speakers ~ and that it is important to teach them.
Neither of these ideas is true.
Idioms like the best of both worlds are very race. This one, for example,
occurs on average a litte less than once pet million words: about the
same frequency as words like scrutinise or evasive, which we certainly
‘would not see as useful items for any but the most academic level classes,
The same goes for proverbs: even an apparently common proverb like
better late than never rates only 0.5 per million in frequency.
So why teach them?
* Because they happen to come up. If I find myself using an idiomatic
expression like this, or encounter it in a text, then P'll teach it as
extra enrichment.
* Because they are fun, Learners may enjoy learning the sometimes
interesting, humorous or piquant idiomatic expressions that occur in
another language,
= Because they may have cultural value. Its interesting to compare a
proverb in the target language, with parallel, or contrasting proverbs
in the L1, and explore the cultural implications,
Bottom line: T would not recommend teaching a whole set of idioms
‘or proverbs for their own sake as pact of the vocabulary syllabus,
unless your class is very advanced (C1-C2}, They are not common or
useful enough to merit the time and effort needed. But teach occasional
‘examples, for one or more of the reasons given above.
PS, Ifyou do teach an idiom, don’t use pictures of the literal meaning,
(as opposed to the actual message} of the expression to teach it: for
example, don’t use a picture of someone pulling a leg to teach fo pall
someone's leg. If you want to use 2 picture, then use one that illustrates
the communicative meaning.
8 orbs
matic
nes
cour in
are a
coverbs
ms
nor
sional
ning
pull
strates
Teach basic texting vocabulary
The language of phone texting, using messaging apps,
has developed as a genre in its own right, and has been
extensively studied. Should ‘texting’ vocabulary therefore
be part of the syllabus of a language course?
Some teachers would answer ‘no’ to this question: the language used in
texting, some say, is an inferior shorthand, impoverishing rather than
cnriching language knowledge. Anyway, if learners need it, they will pick it
up through exchanges with friends, they don't need us to teach it. And they
might start using such language in formal writing, where it is unacceptable.
‘On the other hand, itis undeniable that our learners today will need to
be able to communicate effectively through texting in their new language
as much as ~ maybe more than — they will need to be able to compose
and understand emails. If this is so, then surely we should be supporting
their learning of the vocabulary for such communication. Also, there's the
aspect of our credibility as teachers: we need to show that we are up to
date with the development of the language and its use in modern genres.
In general, most of the vocabulary used in texting is similar to that of
informal speech. Some differences specific to this genre are:
«Simplified spelling, (e.g., nite for night);
+ Abbreviated or clipped words to save keying in long sequences of
letters (e.g., demo for demonstration);
+ Substitutions of single letters or symbols for full words (e.g., # for
you, 4 for for);
= Initials (e.g.,a5ap, bf).
My own opinion is that there is a place for teaching such vocabulary,
while making sure that our learners ace aware that it is specific to
texting and not appropriate for more formal writing, The selection of
which items to teach is a more difficult issue: in general, choose the
more common, well-established itesns that you use yourself, rather than
very new ones that may not yet be widely recognised.
9 | 3 | Use published vocabulary lists
with caution
Many teachers in recent years have begun to use published
vocabulary lists as a basis for vocabulary selection. Such
lists can be helpful, but should be used with caution.
Published vocabulary lisis of the most common vocabulary isems in
English can be useful in designing or evaluating a vocabulary syllabus,
‘or when deciding which theme-based items are most important to teach.
‘Three major ones are the General Service List (GSL), the Academic
Word List (AWL), and the English Vocabulary Profile (EVP).
Michael West's General Service List, originally published in 1953, is
a list of 2,000 useful words, which is somewhat outdated, yer stil
surprisingly popular today. It has more recently been updated to the
New General Service List, based on corpus data, of nearly 3,000 words,
listed by frequency (httpy/Awww.newgeneralservicelist.org/}
‘The Academic Word List (heapss/Iwww.wgtn.ac.n2/lals/resources!
academicwordlistlinformation} includes 570 word families based on.
a corpus of academic texts from different disciplines. It is widely used
in courses for university students whose mother tongue is not English
studying in an English-medium university.
The English Vocabulary Profile (htrps//www.englishprofile.org/
wordlists/evp), based primarily on a corpus of learner language and
textbooks, includes both single words and multi-word items. You can
type in any word or phrase and the EVP will rell you what level the item
is according to the CEFR categories (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2).
You will find other lists on the internet, too many to detail here. They
vary quite widely in their content, according to the corpora they use and
the criteria for inclusion adopted by compilers, Many do not distinguish
between different meanings or parts of speech (e.g,, mean may be listed
asa single item); the majority only give single words and provide no
information on frequency of multi-word items. You will, therefore,
often need to use your own professional judgement in evaluating and
supplementing information they provide (see Tip 44).
» shed
in
labus,
o teach.
nic
is
IL
the
words,
fon
used
lish
Prioritise internationally JE
acceptable items
Teachers of English used to wonder whether to teach
British or American vocabulary. Today this is an irrelevant
question: the criterion for selection is rather whether
the vocabulary item will be understood by people using
English for international communication.
English is being taught these days primarily as a lingua franca, enabling
communication between people speaking different languages. Only a
minority of learners are planning to live, study or work in an English-
speaking country. Most of us are thérefore aiming to equip our students
‘with the English that will be optimally useful to them internationally.
‘Most English vocabulary is internationally acceptable anyway: the
common words and expressions that we teach in beginner or lower-
intermediate classes are likely to be used in the same way anywhere English
is spoken. However, at more advanced levels, we begin to encounter words
‘where this is not true. The word fortnight is not comprehensible to most
people who are not speakers of British English; bifold is confined to those
speaking American English; and prefpone (the opposite of postpone) to
English speakers from India and Pakistan,
‘Teachers coming from English-speaking countries may not know ~
as I did not when I began teaching ~ which words and expressions
commonly used in their native variety of the language are not
internationally comprehensible. As time goes on, both teachers and
materials writers are becoming increasingly aware of this issue and
try to avoid teaching vocabulary that is limited to a particular speech
community, Very often dictionaries can help: a good dictionary will tag
a usage if it is limited (for example, Br, if it is used mainly, or only, in
British English). I have yet to find, however, a dictionary which tells you
which usage is most used internationally, A useful tool is the Glowbe
corpus {https:/Avww.english-corpora.org/glowbe/) which will show you,
for any particular word or expression, whether its use is spread over a
‘wide range of speech communities, or confined to only a few of them.
ul | 10 | Avoid introducing sets of words that
are all ‘the same kind of thing’
In many coursebooks for young beginners, new vocabulary
is presented in lexical scts: for example, colours or
animals. This probably does not facilitate learning.
‘There has been substantial research on whether itis « good idea to
introduce new words in lexical sets. A number of studies have found that
learners remembered sets of new items better if they were all different
kinds of things (see the references below) than if they were from a list of
‘words relating to the same semantic field and all the same part of speech
(parts of the body, for example). It seems that if items have similar
meanings the learner tends to confuse them, which slows down learning.
It seems likely that the same applies to the initial teaching of any sets of
words that are ‘the same kind of thing’. It is probably not a good idea to
introduce together words pronounced similarly, or sets of synonyms, or
items with similar grammatical structure (a list of phrasal verbs based
on get, for example).
New words are likely to be learnt better if they are connected
thematically or syntactically: if they tend to appear together in a
particular kind of context or sentence. So, for example, itis better to
teach blue with sky than blue with red, yellow, green.
Note that this applies only to the first time new vocabulary is presented.
Single items taught later can be linked to sets of words already learnt
(see Tip 25); and there are excellent review tasks that are based on
‘grouping vocabulary items into sets: ‘odd one out? exercises, for
‘example, or brainstorming associations.
Exten, 1, H.ond Tekin, M, (2008). “Effects on vocabulary acquisition of presenting new
words in semantic sets versus semantically urclaced secs” System 36 (3), 407-
Papathanasiou, E, (2009). ‘An investigation of two ways of presenting vocabulary. ELT
over 634), 13-322,
‘Tinkham, T (1997)."The effects of semantic and thematic clustering ia the leacning of
second language Vocabulary’ Second Language Research 13(2}, 138-63,
12 hat Teach useful classroom vocabulary
early on
pulary In order to be able to run the lesson in the target language,
it’s essential to teach words and phrases that will be often
used in lessons.
10 Inevitably, in many monolingual classes a lot of the instructions for how
ound that to do tasks and explanations of language points in beginner classes will
ferent be done in the learners’ mother tongue (L1). But to use L1 to express
1a list of things or activities thar regularly come up in the classroom process is
of speech surely a lost opportunity for learning. Many kinds of words, phrases
lar and even sentences are repeatedly used in lessons; once the learners have
learning. been taught them, they are likely to encounter them again and again
and learn them well.
ay sets of
od idea to ‘These include, of course, single words like page, book, look, listen,
nyms, or read, word. But perhaps even more important are standard teacher
s based instructions like “Please sit down’, ot ‘Open your books at page ...’, a5
well as questions like‘Do you understand’, or evaluative comments
like ‘Excellent!’ or ‘Very good’. And scarcely less important are useful
phrases for the learners themselves to memorise and use:‘I don’t
understand’, ‘Can you repeat that, please?’, Later it is useful to teach
sen standard coursebook instructions such as ‘Circle the right answer’ or
‘Complete the sentence’, More advanced classes will need the words we
resented. use to talk about texts or the learning process: paragraph, presentation,
learnt scan. Other useful items these days relate to learning online: ebat box,
Jon ‘Mute/Unmute your microphone.
If you are teaching face to face, it is useful to keep such items displayed
in the classroom and add to the display as you teach more.
‘Once your students have a vocabulary of useful classroom language,
2, don’t let yourself lapse into using L1 for things they already know in the
any’ ELT target language, or allow them to do the same {easier said than done,
Tknow, but still ..1).
ning oF
3 C: Introducing new vocabulary
“The goal of the first introduction of a new
word or phrase is primarily to make learners
aware of its form and meaning, and to do
this clearly and with maximum impact. ll
go more deeply into ways of explaining
meanings in the next section: this one gives
some general tips on managing the first
encounter with new vocabulary items.
12 Teach written and spoken forms ‘together
13 Keep metalanguage (¢-€.. adjective} to a minimum
14 Teach first the most common form of a word
15 Teach one meaning at a time
16 Teach collocations (links with other words)
17. Teach how new words behave grammatically
18 Teach new vocabulary both in context and
in isolation
19 Draw attention to problematic pronunciation
20 Draw attention to problematic spelling
21 Write up new vocabulary on ‘the board and leave
it there
22. Make sure learners write down new items
Make learners aware of common mistakes:
“4 Teach written and spoken
forms together
In general, it helps if you make sure that learners encounter
both how the new vocabulary item sounds and what it
looks like when written. It's not so good to present the
oral version first and delay teaching the spelling until later.
‘There are, of course, exceptions to this: if, for example, the students you
are working with are not yet literate; or if they are in the early stages,
of learning a new language which uses a different writing system, when
they obviously cannot yet decode the letters that form the word. But
jn most cases, seeing the written form will help learners perceive the
spoken form more accurately, and vice versa. It will also help the item
make more initial impact and leave a better memory trace which can be
reinforced in later review (see Tips 34-42).
Some have claimed that presenting a word visually helps ‘visual”
learners, and presenting its written form is better for ‘auditory’ ones.
However, 'am sceptical about this: there is no research that I am aware
‘of that supports this division, and in my experience most learners
benefit from both seeing and hearing any new language materia.
Finally, providing only the written, or only the spoken, form of a new
word or expression may create mistaken perceptions in the learners’
minds which may persist: for example, they may mispronounce a word
because they have only seen the written form, or misspell it because
they have only heard it~ mistakes which will need to be corrected later,
Jremember as a child mispronouncing ‘misled’ as /marzhd/ because I
had only been exposed to it in print — and being laughed at. In foreign
language teaching itis a pity to allow situations like this to arise when
they could have been prevented.
1s Keep metalanguage (e.g., adjective)
to a minimum
‘The use of terms like adjective and definite article doesn’t
contribute very much to learners’ understanding and
learning of new vocabulary: try to avoid using them.
If you have taught the word red and are satisfied that your students
have understood its meaning, then it is unlikely that they will try to
use it, or understand it, as a verb, noun or adverb. The same goes for
any other vocabulary item. The part of speech is an integral part of
the meaning of a word: if you know the meaning of a word, you will
be implicitly aware of its part of speech. It is therefore unnecessary for
learners to write the part of speech by each new irem they write down: a
note of its meaning is all that is needed (see Tip 22).
A farther factor to be taken into account here is the infrequency of most
‘metalinguistic terms. The word adjective for example, appears only in the
sixth thousand of Nation’s frequency list of word families, the BNC/COCA
headword list (https://wwww.wgtn.ac.nz/lals/resources/paul-nations-
resourcesivocabulary-lists)~ which would make it, in CEFR terms, at
east C1 level. Such terms are therefore not a very useful addition to most
learners’ general communicative vocabulary knowledge. If you do feel you
want fo teach grammatical aspects of a new word, use simpler terms: ‘more
than one’ instead of plural, the’ instead of definite article,
Exceptions to all this are where the term is fairly simple anyway and
represents a feature which it is important for learners to understand:
count and non-count for example, for those learning English whose
own language treats this distinction much less consistently (.g., has
only one word for much and many),
Note that although metalinguistic terminology, in my view, is to be
avoided as far as possible at beginner and intermediate levels, it may be
useful with advanced learners, who are likely to understand and benefit
from more abstract explanations,
16 ive)
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Teach first the most common form of BY
a word
‘Many common words have grammatical variants (irregular
pasts of verbs, for example) or derivatives formed with
prefixes and suffixes. in gencral, teach the most common
one ~ which may not be the ‘base’ word.
This tip looks obvious. Of course we teach a word like see before we
teach the past saw and a word like act before we teach action. And in
most cases, this is how it works: the base word is the most common,
and to be taught first.
‘The simple present tense of the verb is the most frequently used tense of
‘most verbs, so it makes sense to teach the base form that this requizes.
Only for a very few verbs - such as bleeding, chasing, starving ~is the
progressive/continuous form more common; and only one verb that
Thave found (said) is used more commonly in the past.
However, sometimes the simplest base word form is not the most
common, In such cases, it is the most frequent form that should take
the priority in teaching, not the one that looks simpler.
‘One example of this is plurals such as children, people ~ much more
common than child, person. Similarly, most parts of the body that occur
in pairs are more frequently found in the plural: eyes, ears and feet are
more common than eye, ea foot, In such cases it makes seuse to teach
the plural fist ic will probably be encountered first anyway ~ and.
come on to the singular later.
Another example is words with derivational prefixes and suffixes. It
is sometimes assumed that learners will first learn the base form of a
word and later its derivations. However, in many cases the base word
is actually rarer than one or more of its derivations, so it is better to
teach the derivation first, Some examples are government, beautiful,
accessible, where the base forms govern, beaty, access are less common.
7
Xx————eEeEeEeEOeeee [£m Teach one meaning at a time
Many words have multiple meanings, so itis tempting to
teach some or all of these when introducing the word. But
it’s usually best to teach only the most common one first.
A lot of the most common words in any language are polyseme:
they have accumulated other meanings over time, mainly through
metaphorical association: head as part of the body and head meaning
the leader or principal of an organisation, for example. The question is
whether to teach two or more of such meanings at first encounter, or
‘only the meaning implied in the context where the word occurs.
Supposing, for example, you come across the word crane in English,
meaning a machine used in building Are you also going to teach that it
is the name of a large migrating bird? If you encounter star meaning a
twinkling light in the sky, are you going to teach that it also means an
‘outstanding actor or singer?
In the first case, the answer is faitly clearly ‘no’, because the word
crane meaning a kind of bird is rare and not particularly useful to
most learners. The second meaning of star, on the other hand, is
actually more common than the first, so the same reasoning would not
work heres nevertheless, itis probably better to stay with the primary
meaning as it appears in context, simply in order not to overload
learners’ memories with multiple meanings at first encounter.
Note that very often, as with both examples above, the most common
meaning is not the original basic one, but a metaphorical extension. If
‘we are not encountering the word in context, but simply teaching new
words in isolation (see Tip 52}, then we should teach the most common
meaning first, not necessarily the original concrete one.
18 ng to
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meaning
uestion is
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¢ common
Teach collocations (links with
other words)
When you teach a new word, it males sense to teach it
together with the words itis likely to go with in a natural
communicative context (collocation).
Many words tend to co-occur with other specific words in context: for
example, a certain adjective will be followed by a certain preposition,
even if there does not seem to be any particular logical reason for it
based on meaning; or certain kinds of objects may follow certain verbs,
and so on. Because the link is often apparently purely arbitrary it is
useful to teach the collocations associated with a particular word when
introducing the word itself,
For example, English says ‘angry with’ and not “angry on’ as some
other languages do; ‘afraid of rather than ‘*afraid from’; ‘responsibility
for’ rather than “responsibility of . It therefore makes sense to teach, for
‘example, the whole phrase angry with rather than just angry, and so on.
‘An associated problem is the choice between two apparently
synonymous words, which differ mainly in their collocational links.
Some verbs, for example, are differentiated mainly by the objects
they collocate with rather than their basic meaning, An example in
English is the distinction between make and do: you ‘make an effort’,
for instance, but ‘do your homework’. Similarly, some apparently
synonymous adjectives tend to collocate with different nouns: high and
‘all, for example, or big and large, small and little, There are some cases
where these are interchangeable, but many where they are not: it would
sound odd to refer to a **high person’ or a‘*tall mountain’, “*a large
difference’, or**a little amount’, In such cases, it helps to explain ‘the
kind of thing’ chat each collocates with, and also to provide plenty of
examples of the most common combinations.
» s¥@ Teach how new words behave
grammatically
This tip looks at a variety of grammatical aspects relating
to specific words, or kinds of words, which it is useful to
teach learners when introducing the new item.
This is important particularly where the equivalent word in the learners!
Lt has a different grammar, which might lead learners to make errors,
‘When we are teaching common modal verbs like can, should, must,
for instance, in English, it is useful to draw learners! attention to the
fact that they take a simple infinitive after them, without fo, since
‘many other languages may use the equivalent of to. Some English
verbs, like enjoy and hate, take -ing, and have parallel verbs in other
Janguages which may use the equivalent of to. Such points taught at
first encounter with the new verb can help learners avoid errors later
{see Tip 23),
Similarly, itis useful when teaching some English non-count nouns to
tell learners that they cannot appear in the plucal. This is not necessary
where the noun is clearly something that is unlikely to have a plural
anyway, like sugar, for example, or wisdom. But other words are mote
tricky: common learner errors are forms like * researches, “advices,
or “informations, because these words can occur in the plural in the
learners’ L1
Another area where initial teaching of a word can help learners avoid
grammatical errors is the use of definite/indefinite articles, which may
behave differently in the learners” L1. An example is abstract or general
terms: English refers to happiness or music with no definite article,
but these words translate into other languages preceded by the definite
article: la felicidad (Spanish) or la musique (French). Similarly, there is
the use of a with a profession: I would say of myself in English, ‘I am a
teacher? but some other languages omit the article when expressing the
same idea.
20 ating
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learners?
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in the
s avoid
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‘there is
Teach new vocabulary both in context
and in isolation
Teachers are often urged to teach vocabulary in the
context of a sentence or full text; but it is also useful to
look at the new item in isolation, particularly when it is
being taught for the first time.
‘When a learner encounters « new item in the context of a spoken text,
it may be difficult to identify it as a separate word or phrase because of
the unclear borders between words in the stream of speech. We need,
therefore, to identify it and focus on it in isolation, temporarily, to make
sure itis perceived accurately.
Another reason for teaching or learning an item in isolation is the
factor of use of time: it takes a lot longer to relate to each item within
a full-sentence context than it does to do so on its own, For example,
learners are sometimes told to write the new items in their norebooks
together with examples of the item in a sentence context. But it takes
time for them to write sentences, especially if they have to compose
them themselves, and it is questionable whether all this writing is in fact
‘worth the time and effort in terms of learning benefits.
Similarly, we often want to remind our students of the new vocabulary
items at the end of the lesson in order to help them to remember them,
In such cases, we don’t really have time to contextualise each within a
sentence. It makes more sense to have a quick review of only the target
items themselves: perhaps by challenging learners to recall them or
translate them. Later review will, of course, also include activities that
engage with the target items in context (see, for example, Tip 59}.
A useful occasional compromise is to insert items in ‘mini-contexts’
‘wo- or three-word phrases that contextualise a new item: adding an
appropriate adjective to a newly-learnt noun, for example,
21 '
