An Introduction to Applied Linguistics

few close friends, he was very lonely’.
7 Form. The direct object (a house) precedes the indirect object (my parents) when 
the indirect object is in a prepositional phrase. Without the preposition, this 
sentence would have been accurate.
Here is an example of an activity that would promote noticing of number phrases 
used in singular form before a noun (see Question 1).
Bring into class some advertisements from the real estate section of the newspaper. 
Such advertisements contain phrases such as ‘3-bedroom house’, ‘two-car garage’, ‘two-
bathroom apartment’, ‘5-acre lot’, etc. See how many of these number phrases before 
nouns students can find. They may need help with any abbreviations that are used.
Here is an example of a practice activity that would help students work on the 
order of direct and indirect objects (see Question 7).
Think of five friends or relatives that you have. What gifts would you buy for each?
For example, I would buy a book for my sister. OR I would buy my sister a book.
Chapter 3, 
Vocabulary
Research has shown that vocabulary size is directly related to the ability to use 
English in various ways. Although around 2000 to 3000 word families should 
supply the bulk of the lexical resources required for basic everyday conversation 
(chat), Nation (2006) found that it takes 6000 to 7000 word families to engage 
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Suggested Solutions
easily in a wide variety of oral discourse. For written discourse, the figures are 
closer to 8000 to 9000 word families. Second language learners with a knowledge 
of the most frequent 9000 words in English can be considered to have a wide 
vocabulary, which should allow them to operate in a university environment (see 
Chapter 13, Reading).
It is important to note that these sizes are approximations, and the ability to 
accomplish the things in English also depends on many other factors, including 
speaking and reading skills, background knowledge and strategy use. However, 
they do provide useful ‘rules of thumb’ which can be used as lexical goals by both 
teachers and learners.
Suggested solutions
Four vocabulary learning strands 
Strand
General conditions
Activities and techniques
Meaning focused 
input
Focus on the message
Some unfamiliar items (2%)
Understanding
Noticing
Reading graded readers
Listening to stories
Communication activities
Language focused 
learning
Focus on language items
Deliberate study
Direct teaching of vocabulary
Direct learning
Intensive reading
Training in vocabulary strategies
Meaning focused 
output
Focus on the message
Some unfamiliar items
Understanding
Noticing
Communication activities with 
written input
Prepared writing
Linked skills
Fluency development
Focus on the message
Little or no unfamiliar language
Pressure to perform faster
Quantity of practice
Reading easy graded readers
Repeated reading
Speed reading
Listening to easy input
4/3/2
Rehearsed tasks
10 minute writing
Linked skills
Chapter 4, 
Discourse Analysis
Both these texts are about the same topic – cockroaches – but they are clearly 
different in many respects. Perhaps the most obvious difference between the two 
texts, is that the first text is a written text about cockroaches (taken from the 
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Volume 5, p 909) and the second text is an anecdote told 
by a woman to her friends during an informal chat over lunch at work.
Text 1 is characterized by the following features typical of written discourse: