1 enhancing effectiveness of vocabulary learning and teaching at secondary level october &...

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Enhancing Effectiveness of Enhancing Effectiveness of Vocabulary Learning and Vocabulary Learning and Teaching at Secondary Teaching at Secondary

LevelLevel

October & November 2012October & November 2012

English Language Education Section English Language Education Section Curriculum Development InstituteCurriculum Development Institute

Education BureauEducation Bureau

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Objectives of today’s prograObjectives of today’s programmemme

• To enhance teachers' understanding of effective vocabulary learning and teaching

• To develop and explore strategies for effective learning and teaching of vocabulary to promote the development of vocabulary building skills

• To introduce to teachers how to make effective use of the resource package ‘Enhancing English Vocabulary Learning and Teaching at Secondary Level’ to develop appropriate learning and teaching materials to improve the quality of vocabulary learning and teaching in the secondary English Language classroom.

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Evaluation on the lesson Evaluation on the lesson The teaching focuses mainly on meaning (direct Chinese translation) and the pronunciation of the target vocabulary.

Reading aloud and being told the Chinese meaning of the vocabulary may not help students to retain the vocabulary learnt and retrieve for use it later.Does covering all vocabulary from the textbook/vocabulary book mean that we are helping students to strengthen their vocabulary power?

Should students be taught mainly

meaning and pronunciation of the vocabulary?

How can we help students to retain and

retrieve the vocabulary

learnt for use?

How can we help students to

strengthen their vocabulary

power?

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Understanding of effective vocabulary learning and

teaching

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Why do we teach students Why do we teach students vocabulary? vocabulary?

Why do students learn Why do students learn vocabulary?vocabulary?

• Communicative purposes (tackling texts & expressing ideas)

Inside Classroom

(lesson activities)

Outside Classroom(daily life exposure)

Under teachers’ control

Under students’ control

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How to enhance and How to enhance and strengthen students’ strengthen students’ vocabulary power? vocabulary power?

• Introducing vocabulary in context.

• Students learn and apply target vocabulary items purposefully and meaningfully.

Purpose of

communication

The need to learn what they

do not know

The motivation

to learn

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Dimensions of vocabulary Dimensions of vocabulary knowledgeknowledge

Spelling

Meaning

Pronunciation

Word families

Hyponymy

Lexical field

Style & Register

Homonymy

Connotation

Synonymy & Antonymy

Word formation

Word combination

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Meaning of wordsMeaning of words• Literal meanings (Denotative

meanings)• Implicit meanings (Connotative

meanings)

– E.g. “blue”

“heart”

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Lexical field, HyponymyLexical field, Hyponymy• Semantical relations

– E.g.Food: vegetables, meat, fruits, drinks, dessert …

Vegetables: lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, tomato…

Meat: pork, beef, lamb …

Fruits: banana, orange, apple, durian, grape …Hyponyms (lexical

members, sub-categories)

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Word formationWord formation• Affixation (e.g. cybercrime)

• Blending (e.g. infotainment, email)

• Clipping (e.g. ad, blog)

• Giving a new meaning to an existing word (e.g. mouse, traffic)

• Conversion (e.g. google, text)

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Word combinationWord combination• The patterns the words appear

– E.g. multi-word units (formulaic expressions, idioms): a piece of cake, give me a hand, get cold feet …

• The ways words are used– E.g. word collocations: play

badminton, go fishing, make my lunch, take up a post …

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The Mental LexiconThe Mental LexiconWith proper use of vocabulary building skills, students can organise the words they learnt and build associative networks in their minds effectively.

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Key priorities in vocabulary Key priorities in vocabulary teachingteaching

• Promote cognitive ‘elaboration’ of the form-meaning relationship through instructional intervention

• Guide pupils in the development of vocabulary building skills

• Provide multiple exposures to target words using vocabulary-focused activities and create opportunities for vocabulary use

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Strategies for effective

learning and teaching of vocabulary

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Some effective strategies Some effective strategies • Create associations by

– Making use of lexical relations– Attending to word collocation (multi-word units)

• Teach word formation (e.g. affixation, blending, clipping …)

• Use graphic organizers

• Create multiple exposure to words taught / learnt

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Creating AssociationsCreating Associations

Two Strands

Topic Strand(associative networks)

Collocation Strand(associative networks)

focus on size(breadth)

focus on word combinations (depth)

paradigmatic approach

syntagmatic approach

help students expand the size of the vocabulary bank

help students understand the usage of the vocabulary

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Paradigmatic approachParadigmatic approach • Develops associative networks • Associations are based on semantic catego

ries

• Deliberate organisation of words into hierarchies

• Associates with receptive vocabulary

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flat

bedroom bathroom kitchen

stove sink cupboard

tap

strainer

Paradigmatic approach Paradigmatic approach (cont.)(cont.)

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Syntagmatic approachSyntagmatic approach • Develops associative networks • Associations are based on collocations (word

combinations)

• Focuses on:• multi-word units (e.g. ‘See you later.’, ‘Have a

good trip!’, ‘keep abreast of’ …)• collocations (e.g. ‘go shopping’, ‘have a shower’,

‘play football’ …)

• Associates with productive vocabulary

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Some examples and links of graSome examples and links of graphic organisers for recording vophic organisers for recording vo

cabularycabulary

• http://www.educationoasis.com/curriculum/GO/vocab_dev.htm

• http://wvde.state.wv.us/strategybank/VocabularyGraphicOrganizers.html

• http://freeology.com/graphicorgs/vocabulary-organizer/

Vocabulary Word

Cluster

Word Detective

AdjectiveOrganiser

Synonyms &

Antonyms

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Can we re-plan the Can we re-plan the teaching teaching

of food items?of food items?

Teach the food items in discrete items

Teach the food items in a context (E.g. introduce the target food items using a restaurant review)

Focus on meaning / pronunciation

•Introduce synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, word formation, word collocation …•Introduce lexical relations to help studetnts categorise the words•Design a purposeful and meaningful task to allow students to apply / use the words learnt

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Multiple exposures to new words• Teachers are always puzzled: Why do students fail to recognise words that have already been ‘taught’?

• Far more vocabulary is learned if the same text is read 6 to 20 times (Horst & Meara 1999)

• REMEMBER: Provide sufficient encounters with the target vocabulary

Create ways of RECYCLING previously

taught vocabulary

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Hands-on activities to develop students’ vocabulary building

skills

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Hands-on activities to Hands-on activities to develop students’ develop students’

vocabulary building skillsvocabulary building skills

Activity 1: Meeting friends for fun- Word pair race

Activity 2: A trip to nature – Compound Uno

Activity 3: A leaflet about Ocean Park

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Situation for Activity 1Situation for Activity 1Four exchange students from the US have recently joined an overseas exchange programme in your school. You and your classmates are selected as the ‘Student Ambassador’ who are responsible for planning various fun activities for them.

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Activity 1: Meeting Activity 1: Meeting friends for fun- Word friends for fun- Word

pair racepair race• In three minutes, brainstorm different fun activities

that you and your classmates could do with them in the coming weekend based on the following verbs and nouns/ noun phrases.

• Write down your answers in the table provided.

VERBS

do have make

play go

NOUNSlunch a party surfing shopping

sightseeing a drink badminton golf

tennis the cooking swimming gymnastics

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Activity 1: Meeting friends Activity 1: Meeting friends for fun- Word pair racefor fun- Word pair race

do have

go make

play

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In what ways can Activity 1 help In what ways can Activity 1 help students to develop vocabulary students to develop vocabulary

building skills?building skills?

The use of word collocation to help students retain the target vocabulary

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Situation for Activity 2Situation for Activity 2You have joined an ‘English Uno Competition’ organised by English Club of your school and will compete with other classmates. Listen carefully to the procedures on how it will be conducted.

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Procedures of conducting Procedures of conducting Activity 2Activity 2

1. Form groups of four and each gets a deck of word cards from the facilitator.

2. Each competitor takes four word cards after shuffling. The remaining cards can be put on the desk.

3. Take one card from the deck, turn it over and it becomes the starting card.

4. Decide who is going to start first. The starter should try to find if any of the word cards matches the starting card. He/ she can put it on the left/ right hand side of the starting card to form a compound noun. The turn will then go to the one on his/ her left who can continue by hitting any card to start another matching.

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Procedures of conducting Procedures of conducting Activity 2Activity 2

5. However, if the starter does not have an appropriate word card that matches, he/ she has to take one word card from the deck.

6. If this happens, it is the next competitor’s turn to match a word card with the previous card on the desk.

7. As long as a competitor cannot match the word card with another one, he/ she needs to take a word card from the deck.

8. During the process of playing, all competitors should agree with the matching of the cards.

9. Each competitor can only hit one card in each round.

10. The first competitor who gets rid of all the word cards is the winner of the competition.

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The use of word formation to help students’ form compound nouns and guess meanings of unfamiliar words

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Situation for Activity 3Situation for Activity 3 You work as a summer intern in Hong Kong Tourism Board and one of your duties is to improve a short description about Ocean Park. Now, read the following draft.

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Activity 3: A leaflet Activity 3: A leaflet about Ocean Park about Ocean Park

Let’s have fun in Ocean Park!Ocean Park is a must-see for both people in Hong Kong and tourists. Ocean Park is located in the southern part of Hong Kong Island and easily accessible.Ocean Park is an interesting place with lots of interesting things to see and do. For example, there are lots of sea animals such as dolphins, sea lions and seals. These sea animals can do lots of interesting tricks. In addition, there are exciting rides that will surely give you an exciting experience.

Step 1: Underline the repeated ideas/vocabulary of the draft below.

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Activity 3: A leaflet Activity 3: A leaflet about Ocean Park about Ocean Park

Repeated ideas/ vocabulary include:• Subject (‘Ocean Park’)• Adjectives describing Ocean Park (‘interesting’ &

‘exciting’)• Quantifier (‘lots of’)• Noun (‘Sea animals’)

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Activity 3: A leaflet Activity 3: A leaflet about Ocean Parkabout Ocean Park

Step 2: lexical substitution

Let’s have fun in Ocean Park!Ocean Park is a must-see for both people in Hong Kong and tourists. Ocean Park is located in the southern part of Hong Kong Island and easily accessible.Ocean Park is an interesting place with lots of interesting things to see and do. For example, there are lots of sea animals such as dolphins, sea lions and seals. These sea animals can do lots of interesting tricks. In addition, there are exciting rides that will surely give you an exciting experience.

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Activity 3: A leaflet about Activity 3: A leaflet about Ocean ParkOcean Park

How to avoid repetition of vocabulary?• Lexical substitutione.g. Use of pronouns & synonyms

* Discuss, in groups, how the content of the draft could be improved with the application of lexical substitution.

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Step 3: lexical expansion Let’s have fun in Ocean Park!

Ocean Park is a must-see for both people in Hong Kong and tourists. It is located in the southern part of Hong Kong Island and easily accessible. The amusement park is an amazing place with lots of interesting things to see and do. For example, there are various sea animals such as dolphins, sea lions and seals. These marine animals can do various funny tricks. In addition, there are exciting rides that will surely give you a thrilling experience.

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How to further enrich the draft?• Lexical expansion• Use of ‘ODSACROM’- the use of adjectives according to

the following categories before a noun :

Opinion, Dimension, Shape, Age, Colour, Religion, Origin, Material (ODSACROM)

+Noun

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Activity 3: A leaflet Activity 3: A leaflet about Ocean Parkabout Ocean Park

e.g. Application of ‘ODSACROM’ when describing a church

1. Opinion- A graceful cathedral2. Dimension (i.e. size, length, width)- a big compound,

a 45-metre tall tower, a thin layer3. Shape- a cross-shaped church4. Age- a modern/ classic building5. Colour- a white house6. Religion- a Catholic church7. Origin- a Chinese temple8. Material- wooden windows

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- The application of ‘lexical substitution’ and ‘lexical expansion’ to enrich the content in writing

- The use of ‘ODSACROM’ to expand and enrich the vocabulary when writing

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Vocabulary learning and teaching Vocabulary learning and teaching summarysummary

Step 1: Background of vocabulary learning and teaching•Communicative purposes•Teaching in context•Inside classroom (daily lessons)•Outside classroom (daily life exposure)

Step 2: Introducing various vocabulary teaching strategies & vocabulary learning activities

•Instructional intervention•Retaining of vocabulary

Step 3: Retrieval and application of new vocabulary learnt by students in the future •Teacher’s role- creating opportunities for retrieval of target vocabulary when designing tasks/ conducting class activities

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Wordlists for the English Language Curriculum

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Wordlists for the English Wordlists for the English Language curriculumLanguage curriculum

• A compilation of words with reference to the vocabulary content of the English coursebooks on the CDC Recommended Textbook List

• Provides teachers with a general indication as to what and how many words students should learn

• Four stages: KS1, KS2, KS3, SS• Two categories: alphabetical and thematic • Teachers are encouraged to design meaningful tasks

and activities to help students to develop their vocabulary knowledge and skills; Mechanical memorisation not encouraged

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Wordlists in alphabetical Wordlists in alphabetical orderorder

Select the required key stage of words and click ‘Show Wordlist’.

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Wordlists in alphabetical Wordlists in alphabetical orderorder

Click the letters to select words.

Words with different meanings are shown on the right column.

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Wordlists by categoryWordlists by category

Select the required category/ categories, key stage(s) and click ‘Show wordlist’.

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Wordlists by categoryWordlists by category

Words are shown by category.

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