Are You Teaching Vocabulary in Your Class

In our classes, teaching vocabulary seems to be neglected. Vocabulary learning is usually incorporated into reading sessions. In these sessions, words may be defined only in passing or pupils may engage in more traditional individual activities such as synonyms, opposites, definitions, matching words and filling the gaps.  Pupils do not have the opportunity to take intensive vocabulary –building lessons. So, pupils become more concerned with individual words and less aware of the context which gives them meaning. The drawbacks of this way of handling with vocabulary are obvious: too much explanation of words – of any difficult word- kills all interest in reading and even interfere with comprehension. Pupils are not given the opportunity to ‘read’ and discover meaning while reading, concentrating and reasoning.

After several years of teaching, I have found that enabling pupils to derive meaning with the help of context clues is an effective approach to increase vocabulary and reading comprehension.

Guessing vocabulary from context is the most frequent way to discover the meaning of new words. Researchers on pupils’ acquisition of vocabulary agree that to learn words in context and not in isolation is an effective vocabulary learning strategy. A word used in different contexts may have different meanings; thus, simply learning the definition of a word without examples will not help learners to fully understand its meaning. Learning an isolated list of words without reference to the text is merely a memorization exercise which makes it difficult for learners to use the words in spoken and written language. Looking at the context in which the word appears seems to be the best way of learning vocabulary.

So vocabulary acquisition is an essential element in learning a foreign language, but vocabulary cannot be taught or learned in complete isolation from the rest of the linguistic components such grammar, morphology, phonetics as well as discourse.

Many experts in English language teaching have proposed diverse criteria to help teachers make valid decisions on the right vocabulary items to teach at every educational level.

Here are some agreed on criteria:

• Frequency: the most frequently used words should be taught first. These frequently-used words should appear in a wide variety of texts.
• Pupils’ needs and levels: the vocabulary items to be taught should be appropriate to the pupils’ levels and respond to their needs.
• Cultural factors: the learners’ background is to be considered, since learners from different countries may need different words to express their everyday life, or may not need to be taught words that might ‘ hurt ’ their feeling, traditions and customs…
• Concretion Vs abstraction: concrete words should be taught at lower levels, whereas abstract terms should be taught at higher levels.
• Coverage: General words should be taught before specific terms.

Experts in ELT have also thought of techniques in presenting vocabulary.     Using a wide range of techniques brings variety to the classroom and helps pupils remain alert. Used correctly, the following techniques favour the long-term retention of newly-learned vocabulary. These techniques are divided into two groups:  visual and verbal. 

a)    Visual techniques

• Realia : Using a variety of real objects is one of the most efficient ways of teaching and learning vocabulary.
• Pictures: The main advantage of pictures is that they are able to illustrate very large objects which are not easily brought into the classroom.
• Mime and gesture: This is an extremely effective way of introducing a new word since it resembles to the Total Physical Response, which clearly promotes the understanding and meaningful retention of new vocabulary items.

b)    Verbal techniques

• Definitions and illustrative sentences: the introduction of a word in English through the use of other words in the same language offers the advantage of contextualization. I n addition, sample sentences complement the definition because they show how the new word is used.
• Synonyms and antonyms: Synonyms and antonyms are especially important in building new vocabulary because learners are able to use know vocabulary.
• Scales: This technique is the presentation of related words in scales that include the combination of both verbal and visual and visual techniques; for example, in the term 32° Celsius, the degree sign is the visual.
• Explanation: This technique explains the meaning and the use of a given foreign word in the foreign language
• Translation: Although many linguists state that translation is not a good presentation technique, it is only considered dangerous for pupils if it becomes the only presentation technique. However, the major drawback may be when L2 words are introduced in lists…..