Fun with Vocabulary Learning and Paraphrase

Mohammed Arroub, Syria

Mohammed Arroub is a permanent teaching staff member (EFL teacher) at the Higher Institute of Languages, Al-Baath University, Homs, Syria. He holds an MA in ELT from the University of Warwick. He has written many articles published and has recently created two ELT games. His interests are teacher training, spoken English and teaching English to young learners (TEYL). E-mail: arroub2camford@hotmail.com, website: www.arroub-edu.com

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Introduction
Background
Vocabulary assembly and vocabulary explanations through rhyming
Students’ views (1)
Paraphrase and exercise adaptation: activities/tasks
Students’ views (2)
Conclusion

Introduction

This paper touches upon a problem most students have: vocabulary learning. For the problem in question, I would like to share EFL/ESL teachers two thoughts I tried out for presenting vocabulary in the classroom: first, assembly of synonymous and antonymous words in rhyming sentences and providing English explanations of words in way of rhyming as well. Second, sharpening students’ paraphrasing skills to be equipped with and sensitized to a compensatory strategy for vocabulary deficiencies. This was done through an adaptation to the vocabulary exercises in the set course book.

Background

First, as some of my adult students – whose first language is Arabic – complained that it had been difficult and daunting to memorize and retain the huge quantity of vocabulary items in the set course book, I tried to present those vocabulary items in an amusing way in an effort to help facilitate their memorizing the vocabulary items. That presentation took the form of gathering two or more synonymous lexical items in one rhyming sentence. Additionally, that presentation included giving English explanations for new lexical items in rhyming sentences. That presentation, in its two parts, aimed to help the students learn some lexical items by heart in an enjoyable way, and aimed to encourage them through rhyme to recite lexical items along with their English translations.

Second, I conducted a classroom activity on paraphrase and circumlocution. This activity was done by turning vocabulary exercises into paraphrasing and circumlocutory exercises. On the one hand, it aimed to activate and reinforce the students’ lexical repertoire, and on the other hand, to familiarize students with the strategy of paraphrase and train them to know how they can overcome and make up for their vocabulary deficiencies when they arise while speaking. Furthermore, it aimed to encourage and prepare the students to become risk-takers.

Vocabulary assembly and vocabulary explanations through rhyming

This section shows two rhyming sentence types as far as vocabulary learning is concerned: sentences that assemble semantically-related vocabulary in one rhyming sentence, and sentences that provide English explanations for a lexical item in one rhyming sentence as well. The aim of the rhyming vocabulary sentences was to ease the process of memorization of lexical items for students. In other words, the purpose behind rhyming vocabulary sentences was to make the process of learning lexical items by heart as enjoyable and less daunting as possible for the students. As for the other type of the rhyming sentences, rhyming explanation sentences, the aim was to make students avail themselves of lexical accumulation as this accumulation can help them have a richer lexical repertoire; consequently, it can further help ease and enhance communication.

Firstly, I tried to assemble the synonyms of one lexical item in the course book in one rhyming sentence as rhyming can make sentences or a piece of writing to be memorized catchy, hence its effect of making the process of memorization easier. Examples of those rhyming synonym assemblies are:

1. Inconsequential means unimportant or insignificant or non-essential.
2. The adjectives that cause death are: lethal, fatal and deadly. Sorry, I could not say it subtly.
3. Antagonism means hatred that exists between a couple soon after they are married!
4. And, of course, to guess means to speculate, that’s it, my mate!
5. Reaching a mountain top, summit, or peak is what I always dream of and seek.
6. Near the foot of that mountain – I mean near its bottom or base is where we should launch or start the race.
7. Rarely do your eyelids sag; bend downwards or droop in a class taught by Mohammed Arroub!
8. Nightmares, Nightmares. This is what I usually have when a hurricane takes place, happens or occurs.
9. Oh, you look pale! Is that the case when you hear the words ‘climb’, ‘ascend’, and ‘scale’?

Secondly, I used rhyming as well in order to provide an English explanation for a lexical item as some students recited new vocabulary items along with their Arabic translations only. Taking into account that Arabic translations of English lexical items are not as accurate as those provided in English, I tried to make it appealing for students to recite the new English lexical items along with their English translations instead through rhyming.

Since some students did not recite the English explanation of a new vocabulary item, that caused them some imperfect learning of the new English lexical item. For instance, some English-Arabic dictionaries do not explain that the word ‘crew’ has the meaning of a group working on either a ship or plane; they just explain it as a group of people working together, letting the fact that most of the Arabic translations of English lexical items are usually provided in the form of an Arabic lexical item for a single English one only! So it does not help the students to know the exact meaning of a lexical item; consequently, some students may use that word incorrectly.

Moreover, the explanation given in English can help a student to gain lexical and grammatical accumulation and develop their paraphrasing skills through experimenting with the way a lexical item is defined. Thus, this can also be seen as a way of paraphrase in case a student finds it difficult to remember a certain lexical item. Examples of rhyming English-English explanations are:

1. It is the meaning of crew I’d like now to explain. It means the group of people who work on a ship or plane
2. Wow! I guessed right – ‘sleep debt’ is the accumulation of sleep loss night after night.
3. The condition of being short of sleep is sleep deprivation – a condition I usually experience the nights before an examination.
4. Have you ever tried counting sheep when you have insomnia or when you are unable to sleep?
5. Is to open and shut your eyes quickly the same as to blink? What, my friend, do you think?
6. A ‘Hi! I can’t attend today’s class; I have bigger fish to fry.’
   B ‘What a pity! So you have a priority; more important things to do, don't you?’
7. Come, come! Stop talking down to everyone. You talk to everyone as if they were stupid or dumb.

Students’ views (1)

Generally speaking, students have found those rhyming vocabulary sentences appealing for accumulating a large number of semantically-related vocabulary, thus expanding their lexical reservoir. In addition, they found it beneficial to have almost all the synonyms in the syllabus gathered. One of the students commented: ‘ I really forget sometimes most of the synonyms in the course book because there are loads of them, but now I find it easy as I see them collected in a very amusing, catchy way….it is really fun now memorizing lexical items!’ That student further commented on this rhyming synonym assembly as ‘a way that helps me memorize more lexical items that share the same meaning, and that enriches my vocabulary input.’ As for helping with more successful communication, another student commented: ‘If it happens now I forget a lexical item, I can compensate for it using one of its synonyms that I have memorized.’

As far as rhyming sentences with English explanations are concerned, one student commented to the effect that ‘those rhyming sentences are really enjoyable and fun to recite.’ Another student commented: ‘I see now how very close we get to the meanings of new English lexical items’, ‘that encouraged me a lot to recite English explanations of new lexical items’, the student added. Those rhyming sentences seemed to realize their end as one student commented ‘I started to use an English-English dictionary’, ‘I now come across loads of new lexical items that stick to my mind because of contextualization’ the student added.

Paraphrase and exercise adaptation: activities/tasks

The exercise aimed to help students become more confident and to encourage them to take risks since lexical difficulty was one of their speaking problems. The adaptation was made in order to make students aware of one of the communication strategies, circumlocution or paraphrase, and to train them to use this strategy to compensate for their lexical deficiencies. In other words, the exercise adaptation intended to help students and prepare them to become effectively communicative.

Students were given vocabulary exercises done and were asked to only paraphrase and use circumlocution rather than just to fill in the lexical gaps. Students were also encouraged to use mime when it was difficult for them to re-lexicalize in many words or when it was difficult to give synonyms. The students were noticed to make use of the vocabulary items they learnt in previous sessions where it was possible, and that helped them to practise those previously memorized lexical items as well. Examples of the exercise adaptation are:

1. If you have culinary skills, then you do not have to spend your dough on ready meals or let servants take advantage of you.
   Student’s paraphrase: ‘If you know how to cook, then you don’t have to spend your money on prepared meals or let servants exploit you.’
2. McCourt’s students stared at him as if he’d lost his wits.
   student’s paraphrase: ‘McCourt’s students looked at him as if he were crazy.’
3. Writing books is not really her bread and butter. Actually, her main source of income is teaching.
   Student’s paraphrase: ‘Writing books is not really the means through which she can earn her living. Instead, she earns her living from teaching.’
4. As the pan had got quite hot, the steak began to sizzle.
   Student’s paraphrase: ‘The steak began to make a sound in the hot pan like… (the student miming and making a sound that sizzling makes).

Students’ views (2)

Firstly, they regarded the exercises on circumlocution and paraphrase as vocabulary lessons: ‘We learnt how to say a word in another way.’ ‘…It’s a way to express words.’ Secondly, they said that these exercises further reinforced their previously learnt vocabulary items because this kind of exercises made those lexical items ‘which were in the oblivion’ surface automatically as the need arose. They further commented on the exercise as ‘a way to become confident’: ‘What we do is that we are thinking and speaking at the same time.’ One student remarked that he had had the vocabulary repertoire that must have enabled him to conduct and remain in a conversation, ‘but the only problem’ he had was retrieving the lexical items. He expressed this point saying: ‘Every time I want to use a word from my lexical mental dictionary while in a talk, I feel that I’m trying to get that word from 'Australia'!’, ‘ But now I don’t only learn words by heart, I also practise them every time I use the strategy of paraphrase or circumlocution.’ The student added.

All students shared the feeling that their confidence had increased. They attributed this to the fact that ‘even if we don’t know a word, we can explain it.’ It seemed that their insecurity primarily stemmed from the fear of inability to retrieve or use the ‘the right word’, as they put it. Most students said: ‘We no longer feel intimidated by the idea of interacting with someone of higher linguistic competence because we know how to compensate for lexical deficiencies when we are stuck in communication.’

It seemed that the exercises achieved their goals. It let students experiment with circumlocution and equipped them with paraphrasing skills. They also made use of the mime strategy as they were encouraged to incorporate it with their circumlocutory paraphrase in order to substitute for a lexical item they could not find a synonym for, or when they could not express it in many words. The exercises made them feel confident and encouraged them to take risks in communication and that was clearly noticed when they were willing to interact and when their participation in class interaction increased; as a result, their instances of silence were reduced to a minimum.

Conclusion

In summarizing all the aforementioned, it bears repeating that introducing the two types of rhyming vocabulary sentences and paraphrase into my classroom yielded desired results and helped my students ease their vocabulary difficulty learning and retention as they expressed. The rhyming technique added fun to the process of vocabulary learning and the paraphrase technique could assist my students to recycle existed vocabulary and to become more confident learners.

Please check the Pronunciation course at Pilgrims website.
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