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Teaching Vocabulary

The aim of this unit

  • To take a view on the “vocabulary-in-mind” phenomenon

  • To make you think about the process of vocabulary learning

  • To reflect upon the activities for teaching vocabulary

What do you have to do in this unit?

  • Warming-up discussion

  • Input reading

  • Exploratory tasks

  • Self-assessment questions (SAQ)

  • Observation tasks

  • Micro-teaching task

  • Integrated task

Input reading 1

Warming up discussion 1.1

Mark the following statements as “true” T “false” F or “debatable” D. You will get input reading on these and other issues later in this module.

Statements

T F D

  1. Vocabulary is more important in communication than grammar

  1. Vocabulary is stored in our memory as separate units

  1. Vocabulary is stored in our memory as collocations

  1. Vocabulary is stored in our memory as networks

  1. Recalling a word always means activating many words in memory

  1. One word of the same language means the same for different people

  1. Any meaning can be expressed by a word in any language

Mental lexicon

Mental lexicon is “vocabulary in mind". It consists of the smallest independent meaningful units of speech. These units of speech are called words. The words have word-forms and meanings assigned to them. Words in mental lexicon create lexical networks. Once activated a lexical item stimulates other associated lexical items and this causes activation of a bigger network. To access mental lexicon an idea has to be mapped onto meaning and form that are stored in our memory (Aitchison, J. 1994. Words in the Mind. Blackwell. Garman, M. 1990. Psycholinguistics. CUP).

Exploratory task 1.1

Explore your own mental lexicon associated with the word “money”. Share the results in the group.

M oney

Mental lexicon performs the functions of word storage, retrieval, comprehension and use (After Carter, R., and M.McCarthy. 1988. Vocabulary and Language Teaching. Longman). Storage of words in mental lexicon is the result of a person’s cognitive processes in real world situations. As a result of cognitive processes, the words form up the situation sets (associated with a particular situation, objects, phenomena or processes), semantic sets (associated with a concept) and collocation sets (associated with other words by habitual everyday use).

SAQ 1.1

Match the following vocabulary units with the types of “vocabulary sets”

Vocabulary units

Vocabulary sets

  1. Custom-built car

  1. Situation set

  2. Semantic set

  3. Collocation set

  1. Rust-proof paint

  1. Far-reaching consequences

  1. Drought-affected regions

  1. The worst-flood ever

  1. Wintry showers

  1. Beggarly pay

Retrieval of words from memory is done through the activation of mental lexicon. Activation is caused by attempts to map an idea onto the words in memory. Sometimes meaning can’t be mapped onto the words and this causes the "tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon" when the meaning needs to be expressed but the form can't be retrieved from memory.

Exploratory task 1.2

Retrieve the following words from your memory (all the words are quite common) by meaning and by form. Reflect on the procedure. What helps you retrieve words, meaning or form associations?

Retrieval by meaning

Retrieval by

form

Give a word!

  1. Hand tool for striking

m…er

  1. For nourishment

oo…

  1. In the entranceway

or

  1. Inferior income

oo…

  1. Liquid food

ou…

  1. To eat on

bl…

  1. Expensive with wheels

ar…

Word comprehension can run into a problem because of the vague lexical meaning, allusions and references, symbolic, metaphorical and idiomatic use of words. One of the means to overcome lexical ambiguity is getting the cues from the context, background knowledge, social culture and the situation setting.

Exploratory task 1.3

Interpret the meaning of the following vocabulary items and comment on the clues that helped you do the task

Vocabulary items

Interpretation of meaning

  1. Lobby at the entrance to Parliament

  1. Parliamentary lobby

  1. Full board

  1. On board

  1. Take-off time

  1. Take-off weight

  1. Take-off price

Word use can be hampered by the absence of the necessary word in processing memory or in the mental storage. In this case language users resort to lexical strategies such as circumlocution (putting the idea in a different way), word coinage (creating a non-existent word) and derivation (forming a word from the one that is known to the language user). Another strategy is using the gestures and mimic.

Exploratory task 1.4