Vocabulary Global Education Sector Office of Overseas Programming

Vocabulary Global Education Sector Office of Overseas Programming & Training Support (OPATS)

Math, Science, Reading, ICT, TEFL, Girls’ Ed? • Regardless, you’ll be teaching vocabulary. • Often you’ll be teaching vocabulary to people whose home language is not English. • This session will help you make good decisions about what vocabulary to teach and how to teach it.

Before We Begin Volunteers! Need Volunteers! How will you teach these words to students? • Wet • Extraterrestrial • Extinguish • Red • Women (vs. woman) • Informer Audience, did each volunteer teach word the same way? What was different? Why?

Brainstorm in Groups • What are different kinds of things that people know about words? • How do teachers decide what kind of information is most important to teach about which words? • How can these teaching decisions have something to do with the characteristics and needs of students?

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO KNOW A WORD? 12 Things We May Need to Know About Words

12 Ways We Can Know A Word 1. Its pronunciation— /Pһo-tһey-Doz/ --to include its syllable and stress information (IIII-tuh-ly) 2. Its spelling. 3. Its part of speech (noun, verb, article, etc. ) 4. Its related forms. (apply, application, applicant, applied)

5. We Also Need to Teach Morphology That is, the “forms” within words. • Stems (or roots) and affixes are the major morphological forms Affixes (prefixes and suffixes) can be: – Inflectional: provide grammatical meaning; e. g. , “ly” is usually an adverb. – Derivational: provide meaning; e. g. , ‘trans” “across”

Knowing A Word Also Means Knowing: 6. Its definitions (note: the different definitions in the dictionary are called “entries”) 7. Its grammatical and semantic restrictions (e. g. , depend “on, ” not “of” & “cars” can’t “murder”) 8. Its Register and Context: • register: level of formality– “to throw up” informal, “to vomit, ” formal. • context: in family you might say “to throw up” but when you’re out with friends at the bar you might say “to puke, ” and in biology/science you might say “ to regurgitate. ”

Knowing A Word Also Means Knowing: 9. Its synonyms and antonyms. 10. Its collocation: associated words (hat, shirt, shoes, pants, socks, etc. ) 11. Its connotation (negative or positive—e. g. , “ignorant” often has a negative connotation) and its denotation-- the opposite of connotation. Denotation is the dictionary meaning of a word. 12. Its translation.

Teaching Vocabulary

The Magic Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity For Processing Information George Miller (1956) (in Psychological Review 63 (2): 343– 355) Means that to be sure student retain new words, they have to encounter them several times within a reasonable period of time —ideally in different ways.

Teach a Word’s Sound • Research suggests that our mental lexicon (a type of dictionary) is arranged according to the sounds of the words. • This means that it is important to practice pronouncing new words with students. If a student is unclear about how a word is pronounced, s/he will have difficulty “storing” it. •

Teach Cognates: Friends and False Friends • Cognates are words that are similar in (two or more) languages (like “important” in English and French). – Cognates make vocabulary learning easier and maintain student confidence. • False cognates are words similar in form that have a different meaning in the two languages; e. g. , “preservatives” in English means chemicals that preserve a product; in French, it means “condoms. ” • What cognates or false cognates can you think of?

“Notice” Key Words in Lessons Noticing is when the teacher stops in a lesson and highlights a word that students may recognize but may not yet know well. • Noticing makes receptive vocabulary active. • Noticing is a way of addressing vocabulary in the while teaching a lesson on another subject. AN APPROACH TO TEACHING VOCABULARY IN ANY CLASS: (1) Teach 3 -5 key words before the lesson (2) Notice 3 -5 words during the lesson (3) review 3 -5 words while wrapping up the lesson.

Classroom Vocabulary Activities

Different Forms of the Same Word Complete the table below with the correct form. If you see an * in a box it means that form does not exist. After you finish, practice pronouncing the different forms with your teacher. ADJECTIVE NOUN VERB ADV develop * behavior human * compete biologically

Parts of Speech (2 activities) 1. Label the Parts of Speech of each word in the sentence below: • Volcanoes that erupt regularly are known as active volcanoes. 2. Match the words below with their parts of speech: • • • Nation Carefully Listen Advice At Adjective Preposition Verb Adverb Noun

Roots and Affixes ROOTS AND AFFIXES • Evolutionary: e = out; vol =turn or develop; tion = state of; ary = adjective. revolve, involve • Primitive: PRIM = first: primary, primer, • Biology: BIO = life; logy = study of, biography, antibiotic • Prehistoric: PRE = before: prepare, previous, prenatal, • Species: SPEC = unique: special, specific, specify Match the prefixes with the words to make opposites: Prefixes Verbs Adjectives dis, il, ir, im, in, mis un appear, believe, do pack, qualify, understand comfortable, correct, honest, legal, patient responsible

Teach Synonyms and Antonyms • Similarities and opposites form conceptual frameworks to organize word knowledge. SYNONYMS: Match the word in column A with its synonym in column B: COLUMN A COLUMN B Amazing Guide Probe Surprising Reasoning Demonstrate Direct Poke Exhibit Thinking ANTONYMS: Find the word that is the OPPOSITE of each word. Similar ≠ __________ Failure ≠ __________ Minor ≠ __________ Unlikely ≠ _________ Modern ≠__________

Teach Multiple Meanings of Words • Many words have more than one meaning. The appropriate meaning often depends on specific contexts where the word appears. • If you were teaching high beginner students how to carry out an experiment in Science, and a student said, “Teacher, what’s “STEP? ” which meanings below would you teach (& how would you teach them? ) stair STEP take a STEP in a process foot STEP Mother just a STEP away STEP up production

Teach Collocations • Complete the Noun Stars with “example words. ” vegetables family pastime Match the adjective to the most appropriate noun ADJECTIVES NOUNS mathematical poet major communication private misunderstanding complete breakthrough prize winning exercises

Some Other Common Ways to Practice Vocabulary • Listen and repeat (work so students can pronounce intelligibly) • Fill in the blank • TPR • Games • Use the word (correctly) in a sentence

ACTIVITY: What Vocabulary Would You Teach and How?