Information collection & exchange

 Sp
y 
Many people have unpleasant memories of learning vocabulary. Do you remember memorizing long lists of 
words in a foreign language, each one matched with its meaning in English? Do you remember studying 
vocabulary with the aid of flash cards, methodically going through the pack, trying to remember the meaning 
f the words and flipping the cards to see if you had recalled (or guessed) correctly? Do you remember 
r to understand and use the 
nguage, but there are better ways than these to learn vocabulary. 
derstand that it is easier to learn and remember vocabulary when it is 
resented within a context, rather than in a list or in a set of flash cards. "Context" means the other words in 
nlinguistic situation in which the words are used. 
tic and nonlinguistic context contribute their own meanings and set up 
makes it possible at least to guess at the meaning of unknown words and later to 
ave to know. True, a lot of effort is spent in beginning courses on supplying the learners with a 
tock of basic vocabulary. But once the learner has a vocabulary of, say, 2000 commonly occurring words, 
ing to one well-known frequency list of English words, adding 1000 more words 
g to teach words which occur as infrequently as 30 times per million running words. 
naturally occurring written text (one which has not been especially 
several conclusions we can draw about the teaching of 
re effective to introduce and practice new words within a natural context-at a minimum, within a 
phrase or a sentence; a longer context is better. 
3. In a particular written text, unknown words are o three types: words which are central to the meaning 
of the text (key words) and should be explicitly taught; words which are also important but whose 
meaning may be inferred by the reader; and words which may be safely ignored. 
 
 Explicitly taught words and inferred words 
Explicitly teaching unknown words means 
either through a gloss in English (i.e., a 
ictionary-like definition, perhaps simplified) 
students' native language. Don't 
fee
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of 
hoose to teach explicitly the key words of the text, probably no more than five to ten words, depending on 
e length of the text. Quite often the teaching of these words may be made part of the pre-reading 
[Amy L. Sonka. Skillful Reading. Prentice-Hal]
Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.] 
Even this brief sketch will show how a sequence of exercises is constructed so that there is ample 
preparation for the more demanding tasks. It is worth noting also how rea
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