How to help students learn vocabulary?

[Lixia Wu]

Hi, I'm in China. In university, most students just take a vocabulary book which lists thousands of words and they learn those words by heart again and again. In fact it's really hard work and inefficent. I wonder how to help them to enlarge their vocabulary. How do you help your students learn vocabulary? Would you like to share some effective ways of vocabulary learning with me? Thank you a lot!

[ouyang]

I think there are two important principles for learning vocabulary. 1. Words need to be learned in phrases and clauses. Can you use it in a sentence? The meaning of words can change slightly or drastically depending on the sentence. 2. There are only a limited number of words that can form relationships with most other words. Certain nouns combine with certain verbs and with certain prepositions, etc. Associating words with topics is one way of identifying these "collocations", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collocation

[woodcutter]

Such vocabulary books tend to give the word and then place it in a few example phrases. Nothing wrong with that, though a bit dull. Language learning books which make use of longer essays and then provide a list of vocab stick in the head a bit more, and give fruitier context. Still most people think that is dull too, but then most people think WWF wrestling or Oprah Winfrey is what constitutes exciting stuff. It's not easy to please them.

The internet has become a great way to learn vocab through reading whichever content tickles your fancy though, because there is now no need to fumble about for a long time - perhaps fruitlessly - with dictionaries. When I read online in French I use the Wordreference.com dictionary, and almost any unfamilar word or verb form is just a click away, and it will usually give me lots of helpful examples and phrases (perhaps including the phrase which has me perplexed).

[Sally Olsen]

Here are some discussions we have had on the subjects and there are good ideas hidden in them I think.

http://forums.eslcafe.com/teacher/viewt ... vocabulary

http://forums.eslcafe.com/teacher/viewt ... vocabulary

http://forums.eslcafe.com/teacher/viewt ... vocabulary

http://forums.eslcafe.com/teacher/viewt ... vocabulary

[fluffyhamster]

Nice to see you've dug out some of the good old stuff on the Lexical Approach and Wordsurfing, Sally!

[matbury]

Hi,

I think teaching EFL/ESL vocabulary well is one of the most difficult things to do. Reportedly, the most successful techniques involve cognitive learning. I think it's important to focus on what students intend to use their English for, i.e. Is it for translation? Written correspondence? Oral communication? Passing exams to get a certificate for university/a job? etc.

Personally, I believe in an integrated approach and I think a well designed EFL/ESL course book will teach vocabulary effectively, mainly for the following reasons:

1. We learn and use language in contexts (i.e. our interaction with the world around us) - we need a strong, obvious context to learn to use a new word/expression correctly. Books tend to group language into contexts.

2. Words themselves derive their meaning, tone and connotation from their collocation with other words. I read a book, not so long ago, that claimed that a mere 200 words make up 50% of all spoken and written English. Obviously, those 200 words can express more than 200 meanings!

3. A picture says a thousand words - e.g. It's much easier for most people to understand the concept of the object 'lemon' by looking at it or at least a photo of it. - Books usually use photos wherever possible.

4. In most cases, students need to learn the correct pronunciation and stress, and also the correct rhythm and intonation when using the word in a sentence. Good EFL/ESL course books usually have pronunciation exercises and accompanying CDs or CD-ROMs for practice.


Also, I think it's important to prioritise language learning. Less is more, as they say. I aim to teach my students around 1,000 new words per year. I'd rather they learned to use 1,000 words correctly, with natural pronunciation, intonation, stress, connotation, confidently and fluently, than have them struggle, stumble and continuously make mistakes with 2,000 or 3,000 new words. I've read that the average native speaker uses around 6,000 to 12,000 words (Shakespeare reportedly used around 25,000 in his written body of work). So I think it's possible to teach students to speak English well (CEF B2 "independent user") in four or five years if they attend at least 3 hours of class per week and do around 1-2 hours of homework.

With this in mind, I think good course books 'should' limit and clearly identify target language and establish clear contexts where it is used. Personally, I wouldn't try to make up a vocabulary course, I'd much prefer to use an integrated course that treats all areas of the English language in a consistent and balanced way.

I hope that answers your question!

At the moment, I'm using Cutting Edge and New English File course books. I like them!

[Stephen Jones]

Claims on how many words people use depend on how you count them. The general figure for most people is around 30,000.

The 50% figure you quoted has been well debunked by Pullum et al at Language Log. Words such as 'a' and 'the' take up a considerable percentage. Three words take up 13% of this post.

[matbury]

Hi Steven,

Yes, the number can vary enormously on how you define people's vocabularies - active or passive, comprehension, etc. It's one thing to recognise a word an infer meaning from it in a context, but it's another to be able to use it correctly in a number of different contexts.

A more detailed definition for the number of 6,000 words I used is that with an active vocabulary of 6,000 well chosen words, a learner can understand and express him/herself around 90% of the time.

The 50% figure I quoted ("Natural Grammar" by Scott Thornbury, Oxford University Press) was to illustrate that simply memorising lists of words without a context is not particularly helpful for students who want to understand English. Precisely the point that Lixia Wu made when starting this thread.

[woodcutter]

I wish people would stop claiming that Asians generally spend ages working with context free lists. They don't. They do tend to use books focused on the vocab supposedly aimed at one particular exam, and the words are always given some context. I use them too.

[JuanTwoThree]

Come on Lixia. You asked the question. What do you think?