How to Present Vocabulary in a Language Classroom in a Communicative Way

Adriana Pčolinská, Slovakia

PaedDr. Adriana Pčolinská, PhD. studied English language and literature at the Faculty of Education, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia. After graduation, she has continued with her academically oriented activities and research in the field of foreign language teaching and the theory of communication. She lectures on foreign language methodology, pragmatics and discourse analysis. As part of her scientific research and professional studies, she also participated in the exchange programme at the Montclair State University in New Jersey, where she was asked to give a sequence of lectures concerning training of foreign language teachers on the basis of the communicative methodology. She is also an author of several scientific studies, articles, university course-books and a monograph, all predominantly aimed at foreign language teaching/learning. E-mail: adriana.pcolinska@gmail.com

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Introduction
What does it mean to know a word?
Vocabulary teaching techniques
Practical recommendations for vocabulary teaching
Communicative revision of vocabulary
Conclusion
References

Introduction

A lot has been said so far, concerning the teaching of vocabulary in the context of a language classroom. The aim of this article is to point out some theoretical aspects related to vocabulary teaching that might be of a great help to language teachers. However, I will not limit my contribution to purely theoretical claims as these would be of no benefit to practitioners or others involved in the teaching process. My intention is to appeal to the communicative side of the problem. As a point of departure, I would like to quote one quite insightful remark that can easily trigger further elaborations. “Without grammar very little can be conveyed; without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.” (Wilkins 1972:111) Similar point of view was also presented by Krashen (1982) within his ´Natural Order Hypothesis´. According to this hypothesis, words are the building blocks of any language and there is no point in lengthy explanations of grammar structures as students will always acquire them in a fixed predetermined order regardless of their mother tongue. These are, however, only theoretical descriptions with considerable practical implications. By means of the following lines, I will present my personal point of view, stemming from my rich experiences with foreign language teaching. The recommendations that I shall present will be relevant across all proficiency and age levels. This will be due to the fact that my observations will be related to the nature of vocabulary in general. I will cover various strata of vocabulary teaching, paying primary attention to communication strategies that are of an immense importance from a communicative point of view.

What does it mean to know a word?

“Knowing a word involves knowing its spoken and written context of use; its patterns with words of related meaning as well as with its collocation partners; its syntactic, pragmatic and discourse patterns; its syntactic, pragmatic and discourse patterns. It means knowing it actively and productively as well as receptively.” (Carter – McCarthy 1991: 43). Teacher can choose from several ways how to present vocabulary. He/she can either show the meaning in some way or he/she can use the language that students already know in order to clarify the meaning of a new lexical item. The third way is the least used technique when presenting vocabulary. Teacher can present meaning through sounds. It offers another approach to the problem of introducing difficult words. There are words, which are very easy to introduce, but there are also ones that are more difficult because they denote abstract notions. Many theoreticians attempted to exemplify what it means to know a word (see for example Harmer 1991). I am of the view that the following aspects need to be taken into account:

• What it means
  It is inevitable to get across the meaning of the item clearly. Comprehension questions might be used in order to check students´ understanding of new vocabulary.
• The form
  Students need to identify the word class of a word and they need to be aware of potential conversion (e.g. ´water´ as a noun and ´water´ as a verb).
• How it is pronounced
  This can be particularly problematic for learners of English as there is no one-to-one correspondence between the form of a word and its phonetic representation. In many cases the distribution of stress can change the meaning of a word as well (the so-called suprasegmental features).
• How it is spelt
  Spelling needs to be carefully mastered form the very beginning. Remember to clarify the pronunciation before showing the written form.
• If it follows any unpredictable grammatical patterns
  For example, irregular plural form ´man-men´ / ´information´ (uncountable); prepositional phrases e.g. depend on.
• The connotations that the item may have
  ´Bachelor´ is a neutral/positive word whereas ´spinster´ conjures a more negative image.
• The situation when the word is or is not used
  Is it formal/neutral/informal? For example, die, pass away, kick the bucket.
• How the word is related to others
  For example, synonyms, antonyms, lexical sets.
• Collocations
  In English we speak about ´heavy rain´, not ´strong rain´ and in order to ask a question you 'raise your hand' you don't 'lift your hand'.
• What the affixes (the prefixes and suffixes) may indicate about the meaning
  For example, prefix ´-re´ indicates repeated action (rewrite, re-evaluate, etc.).

Which of these areas you choose to highlight will depend on the item you are teaching and the proficiency level of your students. Now it is useful to analyse the ways in which we can get the intended meaning across.

Vocabulary teaching techniques

There are numerous techniques concerning vocabulary presentation. Gairns and Redman (1986) suggest the following options for vocabulary presentation.

1. visual techniques
2. verbal techniques
3. dictionaries

Visual techniques for the presentation of new lexical items pertain to visual memory, which is considered helpful especially with vocabulary retention. Learners can remember the presented material far more effectively if it has been presented by means of visual aids. They help students associate presented material in a meaningful way and incorporate it into their existing system of language.

Teachers can benefit from the use of:

1. flashcards,
2. photographs and pictures, blackboard drawings
3. word pictures
4. information on culture
5. labelling pictures / objects
6. mime and gesture
7. action
8. incongruous visuals

However, before I start to present a new vocabulary, it is useful to implement some recommendations:

1. Spoken language precedes written mode. When our students can pronounce words, we can introduce their written form. This can prevent them from trying to pronounce English words as if they were written in their own language.
2. Try to present new words in context.
3. Revision is essential. We can blend new words into later practice.

Teacher can choose from several ways of presenting vocabulary and making clear its meaning. He can use these separately or in combination with each other. The way to present the meaning of many abstract words is through the creation of a context or a situation that is helpful when deducing the meaning of a word. When we want to present person’s feature as “innocent” it is very useful to create a character who is innocent (e.g. a figure taken from the history). If it is necessary we can accompany example by mime or drawing. Ur, in this connection, offers the following ways of presenting the meaning of new vocabulary items:

• concise definition (taken from dictionary, or invented by the teacher him/herself)
• detailed description (appearance, qualities)
• examples (hyponyms)
• illustration (picture, object)
• demonstration (acting, mime)
• context (story or sentence in which the item occurs)
• synonyms
• opposites (antonyms)
• translation
• associated ideas, collocations

Practical recommendations for vocabulary teaching

Apart from the above mentioned recommendations concerning vocabulary teaching, I would like to add more observations that can enhance the success of vocabulary learning.

• Give your students a few vocabulary items. Tell them to find their meaning, pronunciation and ask them to write a sample sentence with the word in.
• Prepare worksheets and ask your students to match words to definitions.
• Ask students to classify a group of words into different categories (so-called semantic fields).
• Ask students to find new vocabulary from reading their homework. They can teach each other in the class.
• Review the vocabulary you teach through a game or activity and encourage your students to do the same at home.
• Encourage autonomy in your learners. Tell them to read, watch films, listen to songs, etc. and point out useful words.
• It is a good idea to teach/learn words with similar meanings together, but only in case of more advanced students.
• Encourage your students to buy a good dictionary and use class time to highlight its benefits.
• Teach your students grammatical names for the parts of speech and the phonemic script of words.
• Always keep a good dictionary by your side in case a student asks a word you are not sure about.
• If you have never heard of the word, tell the student you will check and get back to them. Do get back to them.

Communicative revision of vocabulary

Revision plays an important part in vocabulary teaching/learning. It assists the learning process, so it needs to be done properly and regularly. Teachers can incorporate revision throughout the whole lesson (at the beginning, in the middle or at the end). In this case, essential is the way it is incorporated. In compliance with the basic principles of the communicative approach, it is recommended to make use of communicatively oriented activities and tasks (see e.g. Brown 1994, Keller and Warner 2002). The point is that communicative activities create opportunities for communicative and authentic use of language where communication strategies are activated. I offer some examples of the already mentioned communication strategies that can enhance students´ communication abilities.

Opening communication strategies

On the whole, ...; Guess what!; To tell you the truth, ...; To be honest, ...; That reminds me of, ...; It´s my opinion that, ...; To my mind, ...; What I´m more concerned with is ...; This shouldn´t be passed around, but, ...; If I were you, ...; Why not ...; How about ...;

Linking communication strategies

What bothers me is ...; That´s very kind of you.; That may be so, but ...; As a rule, ...; Very true,but ...; Generally speaking, ...; By and large, ...; In my experience, ...; To give you an idea, ...;

Responding communication strategies

That´s right.; Exactly!; You´re close.; I agree!; That´s just not true!; Don´t give us that!; No, I´m afraid not!; Yes, but don´t you think ...; I´m afraid I can´t make up my mind.; I might consider it.; I doubt it.; Not for all the tea in China!;, Not (even) if you paid me!; It´s no good, I can´t remember.; That´s very kind of you.; Do you really think so?;

As for the choice of vocabulary, the lexis for revising can be chosen in a random way. Vocabulary can be grouped in different areas. Words can be sorted by topic (e.g. food, body, vegetation), by situation (e.g. the bank, the post office, the supermarket), by semantic field (e.g. boy, youth, man, guy, mister, husband), or by grammatical category (adverbs, adjectives, etc).

Conclusion

The aim of my article was to point out some theoretical aspects of vocabulary teaching/learning that substantially determine the work of a teacher in a language classroom. My analysis and recommendations are fully based on the fundamental tenets of the communicative approach and thus support communicative behaviour of students.

References

Brown, H. D. 1994. Teaching by Principles – An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Regents.

Cairns, R. and Redman, S. 1986. Working with Words: A Guide to Teaching and Learning Vocabulary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Carter, R. and McCarthy, M. 1991. Vocabulary and language teaching. London: Longman.

Harmer, J. 1991. The Practice of English Language Teaching. London: Longman.

Keller, E. – WARNER, S.T. 2002. Conversation Gambits. Boston: Thomson Heinle.

Krashen, S. D. 1982. Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. Pergamon Press.

Wilkins, D. A. 1972. Linguistics in Language Teaching. London: Arnold.

Please check the Creative Methodology for the Classroom course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Methodology and Language for Secondary Teachers course at Pilgrims website.