Teaching English Vocabulary Vocabulary is a glue that

Teaching English Vocabulary: “Vocabulary is a glue that holds stories, ideas and content together making comprehension accessible for children” Vocabulary is all about words A person’s vocabulary is the set of words within a language that are familiar to that person. A vocabulary usually develops with age and serves as a usual and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge. Vocabulary is so important; it is of much more importance than grammar. It is the key to communicate successfully with other people. To have mastery over vocabulary is of much importance because the people judge you by the words you use. Secondly, having a better vocabulary really improves your ability to think.

English Language: English is a rich language having more than 5, 000 words. Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the largest challenges in learning a second language. To make children learn English language and its vocabulary, teachers must set a pattern, for example to teach 2, 500 to 3, 000 words during a six year course. Robert A. Heinlein Says: “English is capable of defining sentiments that the human nervous system is quite incapable of experiencing. ”

Selection of words (Words are the currency of communication) In order to teach English Vocabulary we need to select words which are governed by following principles. 1. Word’s Frequency 2. Word’s Usefulness 3. Word’s Structural Value 4. Word’s range of Applicability 5. Word’s Productivity 6. Word’s Regional Value

Word’s Frequency: Shows the popularity of a word in daily life i. e. the number of times a word is used in normal reading. For Example: The, sometime, every, how, are and etc

Word’s Usefulness: It depends on the mental level of a student like how suitable is it for his mental condition to learn a specific word. For Example: A toddler know how to speak mama, papa and toys. But grown ups like us cant survive with these words only. Word’s Structural Value: Words are of two kinds Structural words and Content words Word’s Regional Value: Certain words are taught because they are needed in a particular region for the adjustment.

Words Range of Applicability: Deals with the application and usage of word, either it is appropriate in a situation in which it is used. Word’s Productivity: The capability of a word to produce words from it like prefixes and suffixes. Prefix: Overflow, Overcharge To: To-night, To-morrow Suffix: -ness : Darkness, Sweetness, Goodness, Boldness -ship: Hardship, Friendship, Lordship Words Power = Words Building

Gradation Of Vocabulary Definition of Gradation: Anything with a bunch of levels or stages. The process of moving from freshman to senior year. Your position in the series of steps. PRINCIPLES: There are four principles of gradation 1. Usefulness 2. Structural value 3. Teach ability 4. Simplicity

Usefulness • Some words are more useful for the child at a particular stage. For Example: The first year of teaching English. The child uses words for things like Book, Pen Consider: Common relationships Father, Mother Environmental areas like School, Home. Everyday actions like Sit, Stand, Go Certain qualities like Good, Bad.

Structural words are graded. The basic structural words taught earlier. For Example: Prepositions on and in are taught earlier than at. teach ability Some words are easier to teach than others. The word, table is easier to teach than others. For Example: Teacher can show the word table but he will have to create verbal situation to teach honest. It is easier to teach ‘open’ than to teach ‘kill’.

Showing the meaning visually Table Watch Window

� The simplicity of a word depends on its spelling and pronunciation. � E. g. Strange is simple than Mysterious. � Only one meaning of a word be taught at a time. � That meaning should be simple one. E. G. THREE MEANING OF WORD ‘HAVE’ (showing permanent possession). I have two hands. (as helping verb). They have gone. (followed by infinitive). They have to work.

ACTIVE AND PASSIVE VOCABLURAY Active Vocabulary: • • General and academic words. Those words that a man can use correctly in his own speech and writing. He fully understands the meaning of those words. Its also called working or functional vocabulary. PASSIVE VOCABULARY � � � Passive vocabulary consists on those words of a man which he recognises when he meets them in prints or in the speech of others. He can make out the meanings of those words. It is also called recognition vocabulary.

“Content and Structural Words” Words are of two kinds Content Words Structural Words

CONTENT WORDS Content words are usually nouns, verbs, adjectives, sometimes adverbs. and Those are the words that help us form a picture in our head. They give us the contents of our story and tell our listener where to focus his or her attention. We want our listener to be able to quickly grasp the main content of our story, so we make the content words easier to hear by bringing attention to them with added stress.

Category Description Examples nouns people, places, things, and ideas Patty, Washington, cars, happiness main verbs without auxiliaries ran, swim, thinks adjectives words that describe nouns red, soft, careful adverbs (except adverbs of frequency) words that describe verbs calmly, quickly, carefully question words that denote a question who, what, where, when, why negatives words that negate not, never

Structural Words Structural words are those which have little or no meaning in themselves, but they bind together other words to make phrases, clauses and sentences They are also called functional words and are about 300 in number. Words like the, a, it, and but are found in almost every text and are known as Structural Words. For Example: All the pronouns: All the prepositions: All the auxiliary verb: All the conjunctions: All the relatives: Some structural adjectives: Some structural adverbs: I, You, Her etc on, under, with, behind , etc do, does, did, shall, will , etc and, but, or, lest, etc whose, which, where, etc this, that, some, any, etc ago, again, even, more, etc

HOW TO TEACH MEANINGS Meaning is the communication through the use of language. How to teach Meaning: Picture Association Use in context Some devices to teach meaning Knowledge of Prefixes & suffixes Words Association

� The child learn the meaning of a word very easily if it is associated with object for which it stands. For Example: � Show various classroom objects. � Take model of certain things. � Take few things to the class. � Demonstrated the Quantities.

CHAIR BENCH TABLE BAG BOOKS PENCIL

FLOWERS SOME FRUITS LEAVES

LONG RIBBON SMALL RIBBON A Big book , a small book

� Student will learn the meanings easily if they are shown the relevant picture. For Example: � Show some pictures. � Chart of fruits. � Draw some matchstick figures on the blackboard.

Chart of fruits Chart of vegetables Chart of birds

A tree A hut Boy climbing up the Tree

� Action words, that is verb. � Verb is taught by performing action. � Performing action in front of children make clear the meaning of the word.

RUNNING WRITTING JUMPING

Use in context: The best way to explain the meanings of a word is to explain its appropriate context. For Example: (i) Afford: He is a poor man. He earns only 300/- per month. He cannot afford to buy a scooter (ii) Late: The school opened a t 8 o’clock. Rashid reached the school at half past eight. He was late.

Words Associations • Meaning of new words may be taught by associating the new words with the words already known to the students. For Example: Telling synonyms: correct, right, accurate and exact. Telling antonyms: right, wrong coward, brave.

Definition and Explanations • In senior classes when the students have got sufficient defining vocabulary, meanings of words may be explained in English itself e. g. errand, essence Errand = Short Journey to take or get something. Essence = That which makes a thing what it is : the inner nature or most importantly quality of a thing.

Knowledge of Prefixes and Suffixes • Knowledge of prefixes and suffixes help students in enriching their vocabulary. For Example: A student knows that ir is negative prefix, he knows the meaning of regular and he can understand the meaning of irregular. A student knows that the suffix -ness indicates a noun , he knows the meaning of kind and he can understand the meaning of kindness.

Mother tongue equivalents • If the teacher finds that it is economical to tell the meaning of a word in the mother-tongue , he should not hesitate to do so. The teacher should give the mother tongue equivalents for the word is it is beneficial and help student to learn. For Example: Meanings of abstract nouns like Joy, contentment, greed may be given in the mother-tongue.

Expansion of vocabulary Ways of expanding vocabulary are as follows: Expansion through reading Expansion through families of words Expansion through patterns of form Expansion through word lists Expansion through word groups Expansion through word games

Expansion through reading • Reading is one of the best ways of expanding vocabulary. • The teacher tells the students how they use the words in their sentences. • After reading the supplementary books the students are able to guess their meaning from the context. Expansion through families of words • Students are asked to build several derived words from a basic one by analogy, e. g. • We can derived several words from word “care”. • care • Carefully • Carefulness • Careless

Expansion through patterns of form • Vocabulary is increased by giving example of a derivation pattern and asking the students to build derived words by analogy. For Example: • • • Words Hope Care Faith Cheer Doubt Adjective Hopeful Careful Faithful Cheerful Doubtful

Expansion through word list: These are the words grouped around a key word. Example: Key word=STATIOION WORD LIST booking Window coolies waiting room tea stall ticket hawkers passengers train ticket-Check guard whistle Expansion through word Groups: Student may be asked to arrange word according to certain groups. 1. Word groups with similar ideas like end, finish and close. 2. Word group with opposite ideas like Slow , fast ; upper, lower.

Expansion through word Games: Some word games may also be used to expand vocabulary 1. MEMORY GAME. In this game teacher show 15 objects in the class room and the teacher writes some words on the blackboard. The student see these word for awhile and later on reproduce them on their notebook. 2. COMPLITION GAME. The class is divided into two groups. A student from first group speaks a letter. A student from second group add letter to it. Then another student from first group adds another letter to it and so on till the word is completed.

g n i h c a Te h s i l g n E y r a l u b Voca Conclusion Vocabulary building is of the utmost importance for almost anybody who wishes to succeed in their career and have a successful social life. Listening, speaking, reading and writing are all affected heavily by vocabulary. Our communication in English is therefore dependent on our word knowledge. The more words we know, the easier it will be for us to communicate and express ourselves. This is why “Teaching English Vocabulary” is a key role in developing your English vocabulary and leading one’s life to the heights of success.

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