Second Language Learning and Language Teaching

64
Box 3.8 Vocabulary and teaching
●
Teach the complexity of words.
●
Fit in with the students’ strategies.
●
Teach basic-level words first.
●
Teach lexical relationships.
●
Think about the first presentation of the word.
●
Teach some words through components of meaning.
●
Remember that it is how the word is practised, not how often, that is
important.
●
Remember that students transfer L1 meanings as well as the words themselves.
●
Put words in their structural context.
list of separate items, each with a specific meaning. Instead it is building up the
richness of vocabulary in the students’ minds.

---

actually means something different from ‘I was very interested in the class’. Perhaps
I have been wasting my time: if all the L2 users know perfectly well what they mean
by ‘interesting’, what I understand by it is beside the point, unless they want to com-
municate with me and my fellow natives rather than with each other.
Discussion topics
1
Take a lesson or a page from the textbook you are most familiar with: what
new words are taught, and how?
2
What strategies would you now encourage in your students for learning
vocabulary?
3
To what extent can we learn the words of another language without learning
a new way of thinking to go with them?
4
How useful are dictionaries for students?
5
Decide how you would teach a beginners’ class these high-frequency words:
●
Nouns: time, people, way, year, government, day, man, world, work, life.
●
Verbs: say, know, get, go, see, make, think, take, come, use.
●
Adjectives: new, good, old, different, local, small, great, social, important,
national.
Further reading
An interesting book with many exercises for vocabulary teaching is Lewis (1993)
The Lexical Approach. Useful books on vocabulary are: Nation (2001) Learning
Vocabulary in Another Language, Cohen (1990) Language Learning, and Singleton
(1999) Exploring the Second Language Mental Lexicon.