Helping Students To Learn the Vocabulary That We Teach Them
Introduction
If
only students could use all the vocabulary1 that we taught them! This paper attempts to explore ways in which we can encourage our
students to systematically and effectively record lexis that we have taught
them in class. Then it asks how we can help learners to transfer this record
into their long-term memories so that each item is added to the repertoire of
words and phrases that they can understand and, when necessary, use. There
will be a description of a system of keeping a class record of vocabulary and
ideas for activating this. We
will also note some recent research and theory that supports suggested
methods. However there are
several areas of vocabulary teaching that will not be covered by this paper,
such as how and what lexis to actually teach in the classroom, and how to
encourage students to acquire further incidental vocabulary through extensive
reading and listening.
The report is organised as follows:
1. Theory of Vocabulary Memorisation
2. Recording and Storing Lexis
a. Format
b. Which lexical items to include
c. What information to include about each lexical item
d. Organisation
e. Teacher's role
f. Vocabox
3. Memorising Recorded Lexis
a. Recycling
b. Rote learning
c. Personalisation
d. Mnemonic techniques
4. Conclusion
Theory
of Vocabulary Memorisation
There
has been a great deal of research into how we remember and much of this
informs our decisions about how we should encourage our students to record and
memorise lexis. The following is
a summary of some principles that have arisen from this research2.
a.
Organised
material is easier to learn than seemingly random lists.
b.
The
deeper the mental processing that learners engage in when learning a new
lexical item, the more likely they are to remember it.3 By deep processing we mean that the learner works out the meaning of
the item by referring to their existing knowledge or they work on
personalising the meaning. Research
shows that if there is elaboration on the meaning, for example encountering
the item in different contexts, subsequent retrieval is enhanced. Shallower processing is more sensory than semantic, remembering by
seeing or hearing the item only, not fully engaging with the meaning. This means the learner meets the item in only one context and research
suggests this is much more forgettable in the long term.
c.
New
lexis should be integrated into language already known by the learners.
d.
Word
pairs (i.e. an English word with its L1 translation) facilitate rapid learning
but the memorisation is likely to be short-lived because of the shallow level
of word knowledge as discussed in b. above.
e.
In
order to be able to use a word appropriately and accurately a student needs to
know much more about it than just its meaning. Ideally they should learn its spelling, pronunciation, grammatical
behaviour, associations, collocations, frequency and register. As it is unreasonable to expect every word to be presented as such a
complete package, it is important that students are made aware of particular
irregularities or potential difficulties attached to lexical items and that
they can add to their records as their knowledge of the item expands.
f.
The
academics disagree about how many times we need to meet a word before we are
comfortable and confident enough to use it ourselves, or to take
“ownership” of it. The figure
ranges from five to sixteen. Whichever
it is, we can see from this the importance and value of recycling lexis.
The timing of this recycling also appears to have an effect. Gairns and
Redman4 point out that 80% of the information we
forget is lost within the twenty-four hours of initial learning. The ideal therefore is to employ a system of “expanding rehearsal”.
This is a programme for reviewing where the intervals become longer
between each review. Although a
strictly-timed system would probably be too cumbersome and time-consuming in
the real world, the value of reviewing the next day does seem manageable and
highly desirable.
g.
It
seems that the very act of recalling a word makes it easier to recall again at
a later date. This is known as
the ‘retrieval practice effect’.
h.
Some
research suggests that the brain stores vocabulary in semantic groups.
i.
We
know students have individual learning styles and that these dictate the
optimum vocabulary learning method for each of them. Some people remember by visual means, others auditory or
kinesthetic. For most learners, visuals seem to enhance both retention and recall,
but other stimuli, such as touch, may also be employed effectively by some
students.
j. The
ease of learning new lexis may also be influenced by the student’s mother
tongue. Those speaking an L1
which has many similarities to English (e.g. Latin-based European languages)
often learn by translating to a seemingly obvious equivalent, whereas if the
L1 is completely different, students are more likely to focus on the actual
concept . 5
k. Some
words are said to be more difficult to learn than others.6
l. We
can recall words which rhyme fairly easily. Other strong aids to recall are providing the first few letters, giving
opposites, giving translations and giving near synonyms.
The
rest of this paper will look at implications for our vocabulary teaching at
the Bell Schools in the light of the above. Of course we cannot force our students to learn in a particular way,
but we can present them with a range of strategies for them to explore. If we can give reasons for using them based on scientific research,
this may encourage our learners to try them. Even doing some metacognitive work, that is asking students to think in
some detail about how they learn, should make them appreciate that there is
not just a single way to approach the learning of new words.
Recording
and Storing Lexis
Format
Most
students seem to record new vocabulary in a small notebook; in fact many of us
encourage this by providing them at the beginning of the course. Is this the best format though?
Portability
is the notebook’s greatest asset but is there room for students to note
further information about a word rather than simply its translation or a short
definition? Perhaps a bigger book
would be preferable, or if a small one is used, that the various pieces of
information are set out on a double-page spread.
Some
other options to consider are loose-leaf files, index card binders, separate
cards or a computer storage system. The
advantage of these is that the lexical items can be regrouped according to
different criteria and it is easy to add items and further information about
an item already recorded. Separate
cards are convenient for browsing. Wordflo
is a personal organiser for vocabulary, the most useful feature of which are
pages for recording vocabulary in a very systematic method.7 This has been trailed by Richard Denys at the Bell School in Cambridge
where the majority of the students using it felt that it had improved their
vocabulary learning strategies. Even
if the book is not fully incorporated into your course, it is useful for the
teacher to consult it for helpful ideas and pro-formas.
Storing
lexis on the computer will probably become increasingly popular. There is an extremely useful programme called Vocab Book (written by an
ex-Bell teacher – Mark Smith)8
which allows for very flexible and organised storage. Another method is audio recording, but this may be more useful to
support a written method of storage. Certain
types of vocabulary can be learnt by labelling items in the home or sticking
cards on the back of the toilet door, for example.
In
fact, any format students use is certainly better than nothing, as actually
writing the word goes a little way to committing it to the memory.
Which
lexical items to include
We
all know students who write down every word that is on the whiteboard and
nothing that is not. We need to
make students aware of the types of lexical items that are useful for them.
Ideally, we aim to train learners to decide for themselves what is
important to learn, by asking questions such as “Is this word important for you?
We also want to encourage them to write more than single words. It is much more useful for them to learn “tell a joke” than
“joke” so they can actually use the word. Phrases such as “How do you spell that?” are preferable to just
“spell”. Knowledge of chunks
of language, such as strong and semi-fixed collocations, and high frequency
expressions certainly help students produce more natural language than single
words do.9
What
information to include about each lexical item
1. Translation.
The
majority of students write direct translations of the lexical item. Of course, very often this is adequate, but they should be very wary of
differences in meaning and of use. Lewis10
suggests that lexis for productive use should be noted in L1 first followed by
the L2 translation to aid rapid retrieval, but for receptive use the L2 item
needs to be recorded first. This
seems sensible if you could divide vocabulary definitively enough, but in
practice may be impractical.
2. Definition
Writing
an L2 definition instead of a translation gives the student the advantage of
being able to take a “fresher” look at a piece of vocabulary, that is not
just relating it to a word in their own language which may have subtle
differences. This also provides
further communicative practice of expressing meaning and allows students to
note limitations to the meaning, i.e. what it is not
as well as what it is. From
intermediate level students should increasingly be using this method.
3. Collocation
Collocations
can be noted, especially for single words, so students are able to use their
new knowledge in natural-sounding sentences. Diagrams and semantic maps can be drawn to show the relationships
between words.
4. Example
sentences
If
learners can be persuaded to write an example sentence for each item, they
will not only have a note of how the word can be used but will also have
engaged in a deeper processing task of inventing the sentence. The danger however is that their sentences are incorrect and the
teacher does need to check these sentences frequently. The alternative is for the learner to get the examples from the teacher
or a dictionary.
5. Word’s
family
For
single words it is very useful to store other members of its family with it.
If students record the noun for example, it is useful to have other
parts of speech from the same root. Also
other words that can be made from the word using affixes can be noted, e.g.
opposites.
6. Pictures
Pictures
often convey meaning as effectively as words and may enhance memory retention,
especially when learners have to think about how to draw the meaning.
7. Register,
connotation and style.
Notes
on register (e.g. formality), connotation (e.g. positivity) and style (e.g.
journalistic) are invaluable. Even
from low levels students can be encouraged to note information such as
formality.
8. Pronunciation
Especially
if a word is for productive use learners need to know the pronunciation and so
should record it. A phonemic
transcription is ideal, but some students and some teachers are not confident
enough with it and some dislike it as it is another script to struggle with.
At the very least, the primary stress should be marked and silent
letters indicated. If students
find it helpful they could note down homophones (e.g. aunt/aren’t) or words
that rhyme with the lexical item either in English or in their L1..
Of
course this is a formidable list if it has to applied to every lexical item,
but where necessary some of this information can be added at a later stage.
This is in fact desirable as it provides recycling opportunities.
Organisation
A
systematically organised vocabulary store is essential if students are to be
able to retrieve lexis on demand, rather than leafing through pages of
randomly-noted words. Also, the
very act of organising lexis helps learning as it involves deeper processing
and may mirror the way it is stored in the brain. There are many different ways to organise it and a mixture of the
following would probably be most useful.
1.
By
topic or theme. Within these,
learners could label pictures or try spatial grouping (e.g. the names of
different parts of the body are arranged on the page to make a picture of the
body). They could also use grids
of, for example, sports, equipment needed, where it is played).
2.
Alphabetically.
3.
According
to functions/situations or speech acts.
4.
By
parts of speech.
5.
Types
of lexical item, e.g. high frequency social phrases.11
6.
According
to whether they are primarily for productive or receptive use.
7.
Subjectively. Words are categorised according to their associations for each learner,
e.g. nice and nasty words.12
Teacher’s
Role
Beyond
introducing the learners to different strategies, the teacher needs to use
some class time for the organisation and reviewing of students’ vocabulary
records. Should teachers collect
vocabulary records to check them? There
are certainly advantages: ensuring accuracy, monitoring diligence and methods
used. However, realistically, we
have to consider how much time a busy teacher could devote to this task and
whether it really encourages independent learning.
Vocabox
So
far we have looked at storage methods for individuals’ personal use, but we
should also consider a system for the whole class. The Vocabox is the ideal low-tech tool for this.
After words have been presented in class, those which the teacher or
class consider useful are written on pieces of coloured paper or card and put
into a box. This box, which could
be a biscuit tin or the top of a photocopy paper box, is kept in the classroom
so everybody always has access to it. The
lexical item could be recorded in this way by the teacher or a nominated
student. While the latter may
sound more pedagogically sound in practice, if written by the teacher the
cards are more likely to be accurate and legible. Each card could contain only the lexical item or some of the other
information about it. This rather
depends on how the cards are to be used (see below), but they are more
flexible if they only show the item. Liz
McMahon and I (teachers at Norwich Bell School)conducted some classroom
research into the Vocabox13 and it is now widely used within our
school and probably others. We
have found it extremely popular with students and teachers, as it is flexible
and accessible.
Finally
it should be noted that whatever system students use, the most important
consideration is that they are storing vocabulary in SOME kind of systematic
way.
Memorising
recorded lexis
So
let us assume that we have encouraged our students to store their vocabulary
in a systematic format. The
problem remains: how to transfer it from that format into the long-term
memory. We have already noted
that the mere act of recording it aids memory and if the learners have engaged
in some kind of deeper processing such as reorganising the lexis or adding
further information to what they already know, this should stimulate further
retention. Unfortunately these
methods are not enough considering the vocabulary load our students need to
acquire.
Recycling
One
of the most important aids to memory retention is recycling. The learner needs to meet the lexical item several more times,
preferably in different contexts. There is a greater probability of this
happening incidentally if learners read and listen extensively. Nation14 said “Real vocabulary learning comes through use,
both receptive use and productive use". Learners form a hypothesis about a lexical item and they can only test
this by using it. If they have
said or written the item with no dire consequences then they will feel more
confident about using it again.
Although
extensive listening and reading is a very effective ongoing process it is a
slow method of recycling vocabulary and somewhat hit-and-miss. So the teacher also needs to help the students to recycle recently
learnt lexis in subsequent lessons. It
is especially important to do this the day after it has been taught as we have
seen how much we forget in the first twenty-four hours after initial learning.
If
you keep a class Vocabox, this is much easier to do, as you have all the
recently-taught lexical items to hand. Here
are some of the many different types of activities for recycling.
A. Eliciting:
1.
This
can be done by the teacher, and the students either call out or write the
words. Eliciting can take the
form of giving a definition, reminding the students of a context where they
met the word, giving an opposite or near synonym, suggesting a rhyme, leading
in to a lexical field (e.g. “It’s not a carrot, but a….?). With a monolingual class perhaps a translation could be the cue.
2.
If
the eliciting is done by students then they are simultaneously practising
expressing meanings and exploring their knowledge of the word more deeply:
part of speech, exactly what it means, maybe other meaning of the word.
a.
This
can involve one student sitting in a “hot seat” with their back to the
board, the teacher writes a word on the board and the rest of the class call
out clues to help him or her guess.
b.
Alternatively
it can be made more competitive by having two or more groups each with a
“hot seat” and they race to get their team member to guess the word.
c.
A
variation on this is to get one member of each group to come to the teacher to
see a lexical item, then they have to elicit from their teams.
d.
Whichever
way, you could say that the “eliciters” can only use pictures or mime or
say one word each to elicit the item for a change.
e.
Eliciting
can also be done in pairs, each student being given a small pile of words to
elicit form their partner. Students often become very involved in this, even outside
classtime.
B.
Contextualisation:
It
is also very important that the students learn to use the words in sentences,
so you need to include some of the following contextualisation activities too.
1.
Students
could be asked to write gapped sentences with chosen lexical items missing for
their classmates to complete.
2.
Or
they write full sentences on overhead transparencies for everyone to comment
on or correct.
3.
Storybuilding
or dialogue-building involving target words or phrases could be done in groups
or the whole class.
4.
You
could encourage students to use the lexis in real communication by assigning
to each of them an item which they must try to use naturally in that lesson or
outside class before the next lesson.
C.
Grouping:
Using
class time to get students to group and regroup words is very valuable.
1.
You
could either give criteria for groups, e.g. stress patterns, topic, parts of
speech, formality, or get them to make their own decisions about groupings and
their classmates can then guess what criteria they used.
2.
Regrouping
could involve drawing or completing spidergrams.
D.
Labelling:
1.
Learners
could label different parts of the classroom with items from the Vocabox.
2.
This
need not be confined to concrete nouns; it becomes more interesting when they
have to find a home for phrases such as “I see what you mean” or “Better
late than never!”.
E.
Phonemic
script:
The
vocabulary in the box could be revised using phonemic script if students know
or are learning it (or learning to refer to charts in dictionaries).
F.
Rummaging:
“Rummaging”
activities can be done with smaller groups: learners look for items in the
box:
·
which
have silent letters,
·
that
they would say but not write,
·
that
they understand but do not know how to use,
·
etc.
Rote-learning
Rote-learning
of vocabulary seems to be very popular with students as it gives a strong
sense of purpose and measurable progress. It generally involves learning word pairs (L2 word with L1
translation). Some research shows
this to be an effective method of learning, but it is doubtful that the lexis
is remembered for very long as there is no deep processing. The question also arises about whether the students can actually use
the memorised item. Only if there
is a direct translation of the word in their own language will this be easy,
even then there may be problems with collocation. If students do want to learn vocabulary in this way it is suggested
that they look at the L2 item and try to remember the L1 translation (or L2
definition or synonym) first and then when they have mastered this to reverse
the process, trying to remember the L2 item.15 If learners are rote-learning with cards they can put the ones that
they know to the back of the pile and those they are not sure of can be
slotted into a place towards the front so they will be revised again quite
soon.
Personalisation
Personalisation
can certainly aid memory retention. Students
may be able, for example to visualise themselves opening a can to remember
“open a can”. Or they can be
encouraged when learning an emotive word, such as “freedom”, to think what
it really means to them.16
Mnemonic
Techniques
Much
has been written about various mnemonic techniques which may work for some
students but seem rather cumbersome and time-consuming. They will be only briefly outlined
here.17
The Keywords Method involves thinking up a word in the L1 which has
some phonological or orthographic similarity to the target L2 word, then the
learner should visualise these two together. In the Loci Method, the learner visualises a place he or she knows
well, a street for example. The
words are then ‘placed’ on the visualised street. To remember the learner must mentally ‘walk’ down the street seeing
the words. For the Peg Method,
the student needs to use a rhyme such, as “one is a bun, two is a shoe”
etc. Then he gives each of his
target words a number, for example “drawing pin” is number one. He must now visualise a bun with a drawing pin in it or a drawing pin
eating a bun. These methods may
be suitable for a small number of students to learn a small number of words
but there are too many limitations for teachers to spend too much time on
them.
Conclusion
“Which
method learners use [to memorise words] does not seem to be as crucial as that
they do it” state Hatch and Brown.18 Similarly, where storage methods are concerned, there are principles
for more effective learning outlined above, but they are ideals and may work
better for some students than for others. So, as teachers, what can we do to maximise the quantity and quality of
our students’ learning of lexis taught in the classroom?
1. We
can introduce them to different strategies outlined above, advising them why
some methods seem to be more effective.
2.
We
should encourage them to organise their personal vocabulary storage.
3.
A
classroom lexical storage system such as the Vocabox provides a popular and
effective way to widen students’ vocabulary quite quickly, if it is used
frequently for revision.
4.
We
can provide systematic recycling of lexis that has been introduced in the
class, especially revising language presented the previous day.
5.
We
should encourage deeper involvement with the lexis than straight translation.
6.
We
should encourage our students to note and learn as much information about the
use of an item as possible
7.
We
can also encourage our learners to listen and read extensively outside the
classroom, so they increase the likelihood of ‘bumping into’ lexis they
have already met.
8.
We
should encourage them to use recently-learnt language as soon and as much as
possible within the safe confines of the classroom first.
Footnotes
1.
The
terms vocabulary and lexis are used interchangeably in this paper.
They could refer to single word or longer chunks of language.
2.
See
Schmitt and Schmitt 1995.
3.
See
Schmitt and McCarthy. 1998.
4.
See
Gairns and Redman. 1986.
5.
See
Schmitt and McCarthy 1997.
6.
See
Batia Laufer’s article in Schmitt and McCarthy. 1997.
7.
See
Smith and Smith. 1998.
8.
VocabBook
is available from Sundial Systems Ltd on CD-Rom
9.
For
detailed discussion of “chunking” see Lewis. 1993 and 1997.
10.
See
Lewis. 1998.
11.
Again
Lewis 1998 discusses this at some length.
12.
See
Morgan and Rinvolucri 1986
13.
As
presented at IATEFL Manchester 1998.
14.
See
Nation. 1990.
15.
See
Schmitt and Schmitt. 1995.
16.
See
Holden. 1999.
17.
For
fuller explanations see Holden 1999.
18.
See
Hatch and Brown. 1995.
References:
1.
Gairns,
R and S. Redman. 1986.
Working
With Words. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2.
Hatch,
_ and _ Brown.
1995. Vocabulary,
Semantics and Language Education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
3.
Holden,
W. R. 1999. ‘Learning
to Learn: 15 Vocabulary Acquisition Activities’ Modern
English Teacher 8/2 42-47
4.
Lewis,
M. 1993.
The
Lexical Approach. Hove: Language Teaching Publications
5.
Lewis,
M. 1997.
Implementing
the Lexical Approach. Hove: Language Teaching Publications.
6.
Morgan,
J and
M. Rinvolucri. 1986.
Vocabulary.
Oxford: oxford University Press
7.
Nation,
I. S. P. 1990. Teaching
and Learning Languages. New York: Newbury House.
8.
Schmitt,
N.
and D.
Schmitt.
1995. ‘Vocabulary Notebooks: theoretical underpinnings and practical
suggestions’ English
Language Teaching Journal 49/2: 133-143
9.
Schmitt,
N. and
M. McCarthy. 1997.
Vocabulary: Description, Acquisition and Pedagogy. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press
10.
Schmitt,
N. and
M. McCarthy. 1998.
‘Key Vocabulary Concepts for Language Teachers’ in.
IATEFL 1998 Manchester Conference Reports 18-19
11.
Smith,
S and
J Smith. 1998.
Wordflo:
Your Personal English Organiser. Harlow: Longman
12.
Smith,
M. Available from Sundial Systems
Ltd. Field Cottage, Rectory Lane,
Hethel, NR14 8HD.VocabBook. www.vocabbook.com
©Bell International
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