Vocabulary Learning at Advanced Levels:

Challenges and Best Practices.

Polina Kordik
CELTA, Delta (1,2 Merit), MA Bilingualism, MA European Languages, TKT, IH CAM, CPE (A)

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‘I know a lot
of
vocabulary
but it’s all
somewhere
in my ‘I forget the
memory.’ right words
when I
speak’

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 Use:
• Grammatical
functions/colligation;
• Collocations;
• Constraints of use
(register, frequency).

Form: Meaning:
• spoken; • Form and meaning;
• written; • Concept and
• word referents;
parts. • Associations.

A WORD

Based on Nation (2013)

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 Use:
• Grammatical
functions/colligation:
transitive
• Collocations: image,
quality of life, reputation,
features
• Constraints of use: no
frequency: 2000
Meaning:
Form: • Form and meaning: to
improve the quality,
• Spoken: ɪnˈhɑːns
amount or strength of sth
• Written: enhance
• Concept and referents,
• word part: verb
associations: photo editors

ENHANCE

Based on Nation (2013)

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Equal attention to all aspects of vocabulary
knowledge?..
- The form-meaning link receives most attention in
textbooks;

- Textbooks do not provide sustained activities that

target ALL aspects of word knowledge;

- Teachers also focus mostly on meaning (70% of

classroom vocabulary teaching episodes).

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Doesn’t your vocabulary
learning and teaching
look like that?...

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 A Gap Between Receptive and
Productive Competence

‘More effort should be devoted to

developing learners’ receptive
competence than their productive
competence. Productive ability will
arise naturally from receptive
knowledge’.

Professor Stephen D. Krashen (1982)

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 A Gap Between Receptive and
Productive Competence

‘People learn about the things

they attend to and do not
learn much about the things
they do not attend to.’

Professor Richard Schmidt (1990)

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 The Noticing Hypothesis

INPUT INTAKE
(what learners (that part of input
hear/read) that learners notice)

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 Noticing happens when we give attention to a
language item as a part of the language
rather a part of a message.

- When you see a word and think ‘I have seen this word before’,
‘That word is used differently from the ways I have seen it used
before’;
- The teacher draws attention to a word;
- Learners negotiate the meaning of a word.

Nation (2013)
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 Noticing also works when we

- Look up a word in a dictionary;

- Guess from context;
- Have a word explained to us;
- Highlight the word (textual enhancement);
- Deliberately study a word.

Nation (2013)
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 Noticing: Classroom Application

- Identify differences between what students hear and a printed

version of the text: work with the scripts!
- Complete a cloze version of the listening text.
- Complete sentence stems taken from the text.
- Check off from a list the expressions that occurred in the text

Richards (2008)
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 Example Procedure of a Listening Lesson:
Lead-in (visuals, questions) -> gist task (1st listening) -> specific information (2nd listening) ->
study the script;
Highlight interesting fixed phrases, collocations, idioms, phrasal verbs;
Ask Ss to work out the meaning from the context;
OR do a matching exercise: item + meaning;
Explain the items, give examples, provide translation if necessary;
Personalise (ask Ss questions related to the language items).

NEXT lesson: give Ss the same script with gapped items you focused on at
the previous lesson.
Optional: create a Quizlet set with gapped sentences.
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 Noticing. Gapped audio script: prepositions.
Fill in the gaps as you listen.
Hi. I’m Simon and last week I got to spend a whole day __ the National Museum where I
was shown around __ one of the curators. I’d only been there __ a visitor before, so it
was interesting to find out what goes on behind the scenes. The collections __ the
museum are quite diverse – there’s a whole floor devoted __ the natural environment,
for example, and, of course, a large section for Pacific cultures. Melanie, the curator,
told me she’d done a degree __ anthropology, but when she applied __ the museum, she
decided to focus __ social history, and she’s been working __ that area ever since.

Adapted from Ready for Advanced (2014)

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 Noticing. Gapped audio script: prepositions.
Fill in the gaps as you listen.
Hi. I’m Simon and last week I got to spend a whole day at the National Museum where I
was shown around by one of the curators. I’d only been there as a visitor before, so it
was interesting to find out what goes on behind the scenes. The collections at the
museum are quite diverse – there’s a whole floor devoted to the natural environment,
for example, and, of course, a large section for Pacific cultures. Melanie, the curator,
told me she’d done a degree in anthropology, but when she applied to the museum, she
decided to focus on social history, and she’s been working in that area ever since.

Adapted from Ready for Advanced (2014)

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 A Gap Between Receptive and Productive
Competence: The Output Hypothesis

‘Practice in using target language

forms is necessary for learners to
acquire new target language’.

‘Carefully structured and managed

output is essential if learners are to
acquire new language’

Professor Merrill Swain (1985)

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The Output Hypothesis: Classroom Applications

- Personalisation activities;

- ‘Forced choice’ activities.

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Personalisation
Personalisation: Example Procedure
Noticing stage:
Let students become familiar with the vocabulary in the unit
at home, referring to a good dictionary, underlining the words
they find funny/peculiar/particularly useful.
Personalising stage:
In class (one-to-one or in pairs) ask your students:
- What animal represents you?
- To what extent do the characteristics apply to you? What
words would you choose to describe yourself? Why?

- Think about your best friend/partner/parent/family

member. Repeat the above questions.
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Personalisation: Example Procedure
Possible extensions (creative use):

1. Pick a celebrity everyone knows. Speculate about their

personality.
2. Pick a famous personality, describe their character. The
others should guess who it is.
3. Write an essay describing your teenage idol. Speculate
about their character.

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‘Forced choice’

Complete Advanced
2nd ed. (2014)
‘Forced choice’

Complete Advanced 2nd ed. (2014)

Forced Choice: Example Procedure

1. Preparation stage: noticing + deepening the knowledge +

horizontal phrase expansion:
2. Expand words to collocations; collocations to full
sentences:
3. ‘bond with each other’ -> ‘to develop a close bond with
each other’ + ‘spend quality time together’ ->
4. ‘Thanks to spending some quality time together, the
mother and the daughter may develop a close bond with
each other’.

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Forced Choice: Example Procedure

Production stage:
1. Choose 3-5 phrases from the list.
2. Planning + preparation time (sum up the work from the
preparation stage).
3. Do the task (describe + speculate + answer the question
about the pictures) and use the phrases you’ve chosen.
4. Feedback from the teacher.
5. Repeat the task with a different partner (can be 4-3-2
minutes task repetition).

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However…
‘The decision to incorporate a word in ones productive
vocabulary is entirely personal and varies according to
each student’s motivation and needs’.
(Moras: 2007)

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However…#2
Insufficient amount of knowledge about the word and
insufficient number of revision opportunities may prevent
learners from using new words.
They may be simply not ready yet.
Give them time.

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 References:
• Brown, D. (2011). What aspects of vocabulary knowledge do textbooks give attention to?
Language Teaching Research, 15(1), 83-97
• Krashen, S. (1982). Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Pergamon
Press.
• Moras, S. (2007). Teaching vocabulary to advanced students: a lexical approach.
• Nation, I.S.P. (2013) Learning Vocabulary in Another Language. 2nd edition. CUP
• Richards, J. (2008). Moving Beyond the Plateau. From Intermediate to Advanced Levels in
Language Learning. Cambridge University Press.
• Schmidt, R. (1990). The role of consciousness in second language learning. Applied Linguistics,
11, 129–159.
• Schmitt, N. and Schmitt, D. (1995). Vocabulary notebooks: theoretical underpinnings and
practical suggestions. ELT Journal, 49/2.
• Swain, M. (1985). Communicative competence: some roles of comprehensible input and
comprehensible output in its development. In S. Gass, and C. Madden (Eds), Input in Second
Language Acquisition. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
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Thank you for
your attention!
Enjoy your
teaching!

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