Vocabulary

3 Developing diction in Second speech communication Acquisition From Theories to the Classroom Jeff G. Mehring Abstract This paper examines the theories behind lexicon achievement in piece language larn in order to spew these theories into perform in a class. breeding phrase is an on-going performance which requires systematic repeating to uphold assimilators get wind, especi totallyy low setting style. Students screw retain the language they scram holdful and relevant to their subject weigh by larn diction by context, cooperative learning, and using technology.Results from an serve research project allow be reported. Introduction Until recently phrase had been widely overlooked in the ESL/EFL classroom. Maiguashca (1993) express that t severallying or poring over grammar is ground on a set of rules with a coherent complex body part which pupils follow or remember, sightly the same is not true of lexicon (p. 91). Within the digest few years, ve rbiage has be make do viewed as an heavy aspect in cooperate language learning, in fact, many cogitate just as important as the main skills of reading, writing, contestationening, and speaking. body politic (as cited in Nation and Waring, 1997) explained, Vocabulary neckledge enables language use, language use enables the increase of mental lexicon haveledge, knowledge of the world enables the increase of wording knowledge and language use and so on (p. 6). This contextualized approach to learning vocabulary result dish up savants increase their vocabulary though authoritative interaction. In this paper, I depart examine the theories behind vocabulary bring forthment and some results when they were launch into practice during my student t from severally oneing. Theoretical ConceptsBuilding vocabulary is extremely important for success in undergrad or graduate studies. Nation and Waring (1997) reported that 5-year-old native face speakers stemma school will ca-ca a vocabulary of some 4,000 to 5,000 pronounce families, adding about 1,000 denomination families a year until graduating from university with a vocabulary of al closely 20,000 explicate families (p. 7). Bauer and Nation (as cited in Nation and Waring) defined a word family as the demonstrate word, its inflected forms, and a small tally of regular derived forms (p. 7).This means that students much(prenominal) as those in the English Foundations com erecter program (EFP) at Hawaii Pacific University (HPU) require an enormous challenge in front of them, considering that their preliminary schooling was in their L1, not English. If atomic number 53 uses Nation and Warings statement that native speakers take hold a vocabulary of around 20,000 word families at the measure of university graduation, non-native speakers, before finishing EFP 1310, an advanced- take class in the EFP, and submission the undergraduate program, would have to increase their vocabulary from betwix t 5,000 to 15,000 word families, depending on their previous English language studies.The good sunrise(prenominal)s is that according to Jamieson (as cited in Nation and Waring), once ESL students code a school where English is the uncomplicated language, their vocabulary grows at the same rate as native speakers, around 1,000 word families a year however, the initial gap never closes (p. 7). judgment where ESL students atomic number 18 head start from will help in providing the vocabulary necessary in order for them to improve and catch up. Learning vocabulary is an ongoing process that takes beat and practice. Nakata (2006) acknowledged that vocabulary eruditeness requires continual repetition in order for effective vocabulary learning (p. 9). Vocabulary acquisition is not something a student depose spend time learning or memorizing, like grammar, and be successful. Acquisition requires the assimilator to be disciplined, spending time from each one day change by reve rsaling on haggling he/she does not know in order for 4 learners to remember tallschool frequence linguistic communication and put them into their long confines memory, Nation and Waring verbalize that learners need to encounter the word multiple times in authentic speaking, reading, and writing context at the students enamor aim (p. 8).Developing lessons which allow the student to encounter rising actors line multiple times, allowing them to put the new lyric poem into his/her long term memory can be time consuming. Developing word lists from the context of the lesson can reduce the work load, enabling the student to encounter the word multiple times through reading, listening, and speaking. Learning new vocabulary through context also helps the student understand the words correct usage and prevents students from making sentences from lexicon definition such as, There is a large cleavage between the rich and poor in America.Learning new oral communication from a wor d list is much different from learning them in the context of a sentence or story. Yongqi Gu (2003) stated that learning new talking to through context is only mavin step students may use, and that students should work go forth meta-cognitively and learn new talking to within the context of where they appear. (p. 14). To help the student learn the important lyric poem from the context of a lesson a teacher needs to sharpen on low context rowing, which necessitates a hour distinction high frequency and low frequency words.Nation (2005) defined high frequency words as words that hand quite oft in the language, such as the, a, man, and woman. High frequency words occur so regularly in daily conversation that if students understand these words, they atomic number 18 able to write and speak in comprehensible English. Low frequency words, as described by Nation, be words that deal to a greater extent with academic studies, words that appear through break all academic texts an d marks, just now not very often in day to day speech, such as formulate, index, and modify (p. 48).This helps ease the burden a teacher has when attempt to understand what words students understand however, low frequency words are the to a greater extent difficult aspect for teachers to teach and learners to understand. Creating vocabulary lists from the students textbooks and evinceing these words through context in the lesson should help them to retain and use the new vocabulary. It will also carry through that students learn vocabulary better when they find the items to be reclaimable and are able to put the new words into use more than often while they study.Vocabulary, like other aspects of language learning, can be facilitated when do through cooperative learning. Yongqi Gu (2003) re razeed out that vocabulary acquisition is a very learner-centered bodily process with the effectiveness of the learners strategies depending on his/her attitude and motivation towards n ew vocabulary acquisition (p. 2). This is true because the main motivational learning factor must come from the student, only when learning vocabulary in a cooperative learning environment it allows students to learn from peers closest to them.Murphey and Arao (2001) chiefed out that students felt more relaxed and conditioned more from peers since they saw that making mistakes is acceptable, having goals is good, and learning English can be fun (p. 2). So, even though vocabulary acquisition is a learner-centered activity in regards to studying and being disciplined to set goals, when done in collaboration with peers students may enjoy the activity more, learning more vocabulary in the end.Understanding that vocabulary learning is an ongoing process, that learning new vocabulary through context, and learning new vocabulary can be done cooperatively are what guided the classroom practices below. Vocabulary Development in Classroom Practices Context The course in which vocabulary dev elopment in line with the above theoretical concepts was implemented was EFP 1310 College Listening Skills, an advanced course in listening and note-taking. It stressed comprehension of classroom discussions and chaffers, as well(p) as a variety of other media establishations.The class was taught by cardinal instructors Dr. Hanh Nguyen as the lead teacher and myself as a student teacher. unneurotic we worked to develop the students vocabulary in class. In this class there were 5 eighteen students, eleven females and seven males. Of the eleven females, seven were Taiwanese, one Belarusian, one Japanese, one Chinese, and one Indonesian. Of the seven males, triplet were Korean, two Japanese, one Taiwanese, and one Serbian. matchless male student was repeating this class for the sulphur time.For two of the males and threesome of the females, this was their archetypical English language class at a university. The average number of years spent studying English in the students h ome country was 6. 2 years and in the US, just over one month. explained that Test Your Word Level is satisfactory for the web from Paul Nation and Batia Laufers word levels tests, develop for learners with vocabularies of different sizes and types, with the 1,000 to 10,000 most snitch English words (p. 2). At the 1,000 word level, the items are multiplechoice and based on either pictures or short sentences.Learners check their answers and move on to a second test at a higher level, (80% or higher to move up), or moved down to a set out level, depending on their score. Assessing the students vocabulary level in the beginning of the semester was unavoidable to set a starting point. It also helped students understand where they were and where they needful to go in order to do well in undergraduate studies. every last(predicate) of the students assessed in the EFP 1310 class scored in the 2,000 level except three students who were assessed at the 3,000 level.This means that thei r vocabulary level was between 2,000 and 5,000 word families, whereas their native-speaking counterparts would have around 15,000 word families. The second activity required students to learn three new words each hebdomad. The first time this class was taught each week students were required to write three new words in a ledger along with a definition for each word and three instance sentences using the word in context. They could pick these words from three sources the close level up from the website where they had their level assessed, words from their textbook, and words from the AWL provided by the teacher.The website informed the students at what level they were assessed then the students picked words from the level above that, studied them, and hopefully did better on the exam at the end of the semester. For example, students who were assessed at the 2,000 level would then study words from the 3,000 level to improve their vocabulary. If they did not want to do this, they co uld choose vocabulary words from the new vocabulary parting listed at the beginning of each chapter of the textbook.Their last choice, if they did not wish to do the other two, was the AWL provided by the teachers. This list was prepared by examining the rallys in the text- Vocabulary Development Activities As mentioned earlier, Nation and Waring stated that learners need to encounter a word numerous times in order to use it properly. Building vocabulary is an ongoing process, and I mean good progress was made during the semester. The biggest obstacles encountered were the limited time and the number of words students had to learn in order to be well-prepared for undergraduate studies.Students now soundless the importance of a large vocabulary and the amount of work they needed to put forth in halting it. In order to build the students vocabulary, and help close the vocabulary gap as much as possible, we carried out the following steps (a) Students assessed their present vocab ulary level, a starting point had to be determined so progresses could be assessed, (b) students learned three new words each week, getting the students god and changing their attitude on learning vocabulary, (c) the teachers created an academic word list (AWL) xtracted from the lectures and the textbook, developing vocabulary that the students would learn in the context of the lectures and use in the class discussions that followed, and (d) the students assessed their vocabulary at the end of the semester to see if they made any progress. To see their progress would motivate the students to continue the learning process. To begin with, the students needed to assess their present vocabulary level. To do this, students visited http//www. lextutor. a and took a vocabulary test to determine their present level. Sevier (2004) 6 book, pulling out the academic words, and putting them on a piece of paper to be given to the students. Some of the words on this list were the same as the word s from the new vocabulary section of the textbook. Getting the students to learn three new words each week posed the most difficult task. Students did not have these lists checked every week, but at the mid-term and final exams, so a few students speedily created these books just before this time period.At first it was proposalned to have each student post his/her three new words on WebCT so they could be checked more regularly and other classmates could learn from other students words. After this plan was put to a choose in class, the students decided to place their vocabulary words in a notebook and turn the notebook in before the mid-term and final exams. Learning from mistakes, we feel that it would have been better to check their vocabulary notebooks weekly, or have students post their new words on WebCT to help them acquire more low-context vocabulary, thus creating an even better activity for the class.To overcome these weaknesses, when I had the opportunity to teach the class once again in the following semester (now as the restore teacher), students were required to post their three new words on WebCT kinda of in a journal. They could choose the words from the same areas described above, but each week instead of writing them in a journal they needed to post them on WebCT for the teacher and classmates to see. The first reason was because the previous semester some students did not keep their journal regularly, only making the journal the day before it was due.The second reason was so classmates could learn from each other, near peer role modeling, and the teacher could use the words students were poster as part of the vocabulary section of the test. Students seemed to have taken a stronger interest in learning new vocabulary by transferring words they need to learn into a vocabulary journal or news bulletin cards to help them study. Whether this process is successful or not will be seen at the end of the semester when the students take the vo cabulary exam again to see their progress. The third activity was to provide lists of words for the AWL that appeared in the lectures in the textbook.Since EFP 1310 is an advanced course in the EFP program, and after this course most students enter undergraduate studies, the AWL is the appropriate list for this class. If it were a disdain level class, lower levels of vocabulary would have been used. By pulling out the contextualized vocabulary from each lesson, we were hoping not only to increase the students vocabulary but also make the lectures more comprehensible. I helped with scanning and running each lecture through twine a software program developed by Nation (2005).This program allowed me to create a contextualized AWL specifically for our class, cogitate on the vocabulary from the given lectures. Nation and Waring (1997) developed three levels of vocabulary lists level 1 is the first 1,000 word families, level 2 is the second 1,000 word families, and level 3 is the unive rsity word list (UWL) or AWL (p. 14). RANGE is used to create word lists based on frequency and is useful for seeing what low frequency words are contained in a paper, technical information note, or a text aimed at contrary readers.It creates three ready-made base lists. Figure 1 shows an example of a lecture that was run through RANGE. The first includes the most frequent 1,000 words of English. The second includes the next 1,000 most frequent words, and the third includes words not in the first 2,000 words of English but which are frequent in upper secondary school and university texts from a wide begin of subjects. All three base lists include the base forms of words and derived forms thus, the first 1,000 words consist of around 4,000 forms or types. 7 Figure 1.An example of RANGE analysis output (see the Appendix for the sample text of this analysis) skirts Table 1 Three Base Lists Created from RANGE Software Program Types pitch in base list one Type a all also and bank pr oduction line employees freewheel 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Freq 9 2 1 3 2 13 2 F1 9 2 1 3 2 13 2 Types found in base list two Type competition critical attenuate give out rush Range 1 1 1 1 1 Freq 1 1 1 3 1 F1 1 1 1 3 1 Types found in base list three Type scratch community factors financing investigate obtain project range require Range 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Freq 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 F1 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 11 After scanning each lecture and running it through the program, we pulled out only the level 3 words, the AWL, and put them into a word document. Before each lecture, the teacher printed out the appropriate AWL and gave it to the students to prepare them for the lecture. This practice was inspired by the notion that new words are best learned in context, or as Sternberg claimed, Vocabulary using context is the most effective, or even a relatively effective, way of teaching that vocabulary (p. 89).Since students had the chance to study and understand the vocabulary before listening to the lectur e, we aimed to help them to concentrate on the matter of the lecture and hear the vocabulary being used in context. Extracting the high context vocabulary from the lectures was a great way to focus on the content words from the lessons so students would be using them regularly in class, hopefully committing them to long term memory. It also saved the teachers a lot of time by not having to read the lectures and pull the vocabulary out. This allowed more time to focus on presentation of the lessons and vocabulary.The final activity took place at the end of the semester when students revisited the website, http//www. lextutor. ca, and had their vocabulary assessed a second time to see if it had grown. All of the students scored at the same level from the beginning of the semester, except one student who scored higher. The use of the same exam at the end of the semester gave validity to their score since the level of the test did not change. Even though most students scored at the sa me level in the end, I do not believe that the vocabulary learning activities done in class failed.One level contains roughly 4,000 word forms and types, so a student may have tried into the lower end of level 2,000 at the beginning of the semester, and tested at the same level but toward the higher end at the end of the semester. Since the test does not show this in more detail, it is difficult to know if the students have or have not made some progress. expiry Vocabulary acquisition has become an extremely important part of second language acquisition, and teachers cannot rely on students acquiring the needed vocabulary just through interaction with the language.I always understood that vocabulary was important in second language learning, but understanding what words to teach and in what manner have helped me to better plan my lessons so students can acquire the necessary vocabulary. Students need to be taught vocabulary in context so that they can retain the words and use the m more frequently. Learning how the electronic computer can help to develop word lists from the students textbooks has enabled me to focus on the words that were necessary in each lesson. Allowing the students to use the new vocabulary during the course of the lesson should help them retain it in their long term memories.Using a computer program to assess the students present vocabulary level also helped me to see what words needed to be taught to help students progress or catch up. In the end, however vocabulary is presented to the students, like all materials, it must be in appropriate situations, liberal them the chance to use the vocabulary and build upon their language repertoire. 9 References Cobb, T. (1999). The compleat lexical tutor (Version 4. 5) Computer software. University of Quebec at Montreal. Maiguashca, R. U. (1993). Teaching and learning vocabulary in a second language Past, present and future directions.The Canadian Modern phrase Review, 50(1), 83-100. Murphey, T. , & Arao, H. (2001). Reported belief changes through near peer role modeling. TESL-EJ, 5(3). Retrieved June 1, 2006, from http//wwwwriting. berkeley. edu/TESLEJ/ej19/a1. hypertext markup language Nakata, T. (2006). Implementing optimal spaced learning for English vocabulary learning Towards feeler of the low-first method derived from the reactivation theory. The JALT CALL Journal, 2(2), 3-18. Nation, P. , & Waring, R. (1997). Vocabulary size, text coverage and word lists. In N. Schmitt & M. McCarthy (Eds. , Vocabulary Description, acquisition and pedagogy (pp. 6-19). Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press. Retrieved March 3, 2006, from http// www1. harenet. ne. jp/waring/papers/ cup. html Nation, P. (2005). Range and frequency instructions Computer software. Retrieved March 3, 2006, from http//www. vuw. ac. nz/lals/staff/paul -nation/nation. aspx Nation, P. (2005). Teaching vocabulary. Asiatic EFL Journal, 7(3), 47-54. Sevier, M. (2004). The compleat lexical tutor, v. 4. TES L-EJ, 8(3). Retrieved May 26, 2006, from http//wwwwriting. berkeley. edu/TESLEJ/ej31/m2. tml Sternberg, R. J. (1987). Most vocabulary is learned from content. In M. G. McKeown & M. E. Curtis (Eds. ), The spirit of vocabulary acquisition (pp. 89105). Hillsdale, NJ Lawrence Erlbaum. Yongqi Gu, P. (2003). Vocabulary learning in second language Person, task, context and strategies. TESL-EJ, 7(2). Retrieved October 3, 2006, from http//www-writing. berkeley. edu/ TESL-EJ/ej26/a4. html 10 Appendix Sample text for RANGE analysis example Starting Your Own Business When starting your own pipeline, it is important that you put a lot of thought into what you are going to do. 0-85% of all business will fail, so the first point is to start with something you know well. Study what the kind of store you want to open. If it is a retail store, then look around. Do you see someone else change what you plan to sell? How many possible competitors do you see? The next step to plan There are two reason s for business planning. One is that it makes the entrepreneur investigate where he will open his business and what factors could affect his business. Second, a business plan will also help the entrepreneur obtain financing from a bank.All banks will require a business to make sure enough thought and planning have done for(p) into the project before the banks gives any money. Looking at the first point By looking at your possible market from a business persons point of view, you may look with a more critical eye. You dont want to rush into something where you could lose a lot of money. Possible factors that could affect your business range from employees, to possible evolution of the community, to your competition.If there are not a lot of people sprightliness around your business, where will your employees come from? Is the community going to grow where you plan to open your business or is it shrinking? If it is shrinking will that hurt your business? The second point is more for the bank. They like to see that you have thought through many of the possibilities that could affect your business. They want to see that you know what your expenses will be, how well you know your product, and how much money you think you can make selling your product. (Prepared by Jeff G. Mehring, 2005)