Etymology of Modern English Vocabulary. Content Introduction

Etymology of Modern English Vocabulary.
Content


Introduction
1. Comprehension and retention of foreign language words
presented in texts
2. A case study on vocabulary learning through reading
picture books
3.Individual differences in a variety of tasks concerning
vocabulary learning and reading
4. Measuring vocabulary
Conclusion
Used literature

Introduction
One of the main difficulties facing pupils in foreign language learning, lies in the huge number of words they have to acquire. Although this fact is widely acknowledged, the methods used in school practice are, on the whole, not very effective and even demotivating. In my research - partly based on my thesis tried to work out an alternative way of teaching vocabulary. In this paper I will discuss three experimental studies which - though diverse in character - all shed light on the psychological processes involved in vocabulary learning through reading.
Before discussing the relevant aspects of these experiments, I will mention some
characteristics which all three experiments have in common.
They concern the general theoretical background of the experiments, the research method used, and the reasons for restricting the research to vocabulary learning through reading. First of all a few remarks concerning the theoretical background of the experiments and me research method used. The experiments were performed according to the educational principles of action psychology as they have been elaborated in the school of the Soviet psychologist Vygotskij and in the Netherlands by Van Parreren¹.
Actuality of the work: One of the main tenets of action-oriented educational psychology is that learning processes cannot be influenced directly, but only by means of exerting influence on the actions of pupils. In fact learning can be considered as developing a repertoire of actions. The quality of this repertoire is highly dependent on the quality of educational instruction. If inefficient actions are used (as is often the case in vocabulary teaching) the learning results will be poor in spite of considerable learning effort. Moreover, the motivation of the pupils will suffer. This implies that it is very important to map out actions which lead as efficiently as possible to the required learning results. Moreover, the structure of these actions should be analysed in order to gain insight into what pupils do and what they are or are not able to do. It may be difficult, however, to identify the required actions and to analyze their structure. A frequently used method to solve these problems is the method of thinking aloud. In this qualitative method (which I used too) generally subjects from different ability ranges are requested to perform a variety of tasks in the target area while thinking aloud. The protocol records thus obtained can then be analyzed with respect to errors and/or so-called expert behavior in order to find out which actions are relevant and why.