Vocabulary in Language Teaching

Joe Barcroft

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317394495
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Lingue e linguistica
• Subtopic: Linguistica

This module focuses on the pivotal role of vocabulary in language acquisition, communication, and instruction. It first reviews the nature of vocabulary knowledge, the mental lexicon, and different contexts of vocabulary learning. It then explains how we acquire vocabulary and refine vocabulary knowledge over time. The primary emphasis is on how language instructors can promote evidence-based vocabulary instruction in the classroom. To this effect, the module highlights some telling research on the effects of specific tasks (such as sentence writing and copying target words) and different ways of presenting target words (such as having multiple talkers instead of a single talker produce the target words) and outlines an effective approach to vocabulary instruction, one that emphasizes multiple presentations of target vocabulary, specificity in the relationship between task type and learning outcomes, and the gradual build-up of language-specific vocabulary knowledge over time. A sample lesson based on this approach is also provided.

Please visit the series companion website for more information: http://routledgetextbooks.com/textbooks/9781315679594/

Vocabulary in Language Teaching

Joe Barcroft
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS

Overview

In this module you will explore the following topics:

• the central role of vocabulary knowledge in language and communication
• the nature of vocabulary and the mental lexicon
• form, meaning, and mapping as three key components of vocabulary knowledge
• contexts of vocabulary learning
• how we learn vocabulary and refine our lexical knowledge over time
• some telling input- and task-based effects on L2 word learning
• principles for promoting vocabulary learning in an effective manner
• integrating effective vocabulary instruction within communicative language teaching

As many language teachers, advanced second language (L2) learners, and bilinguals can attest, vocabulary is at the center of language and our ability to communicate successfully. Non-native grammatical structures sometimes lead to “unnatural-sounding” utterances that impede communication, but non-native word choices can cause complete communication breakdowns, leading to pivotal misunderstandings or no understanding at all. Consider, for example, a Spanish-speaking learner of L2 English who attempts to say the target sentence I’ll wait for you. Non-native grammatical structures may lead to sentences like *I wait for you or *I’ll wait you or even *I you wait, depending on the proficiency of the learner. With these sentences, the intended message is still likely to be understood by the listener, regardless of how unnatural and incorrect they may sound. A non-native word choice, such as substituting hope for wait in the sentence above (e.g., I’ll hope for you), can lead to greater breakdown in communication, however. This alternative sentence is completely grammatical but is likely to require additional interaction (and negotiation of meaning) if its intended meaning is to be understood.

Given this general state of affairs as a backdrop, the present module addresses key issues related to vocabulary in language teaching. The module is divided into three main sections. The first section discusses the nature of vocabulary knowledge and the mental lexicon. The second section focuses on how we learn vocabulary, including different contexts of vocabulary learning and the effects of different tasks and ways of presenting target vocabulary in the input. Finally, the third section highlights key implications for contemporary language instruction, taking into account ten principles of effective vocabulary instruction and providing a sample lesson.

Vocabulary and the Mental Lexicon: A Network of Knowledge

The vocabulary or lexicon of an individual refers to all of the words, word parts (e.g., prefixes, suffixes), and lexical phrases (e.g., fixed strings of words such as The thing of it is …) that she or he has acquired at any given point in time. It exists as a vast network in the individual’s mind/brain. Within the network, every lexical item (word, word part, or lexical phrase) is connected to other lexical items in a manner that reflects statistical properties that dictate how lexical items should and should not be used. One example of these statistical properties is our capacity for collocation, which refers to how individual words and groups of words tend to appear next to one another (or co-occur) in a given language. In English, for example, we say save time but do not say *store time, and make the bed but not *do the bed or *set the bed. Our ability to know which words co-occur in this manner is based on extensive exposure to language over long periods of time. It comes from being exposed to and processing these same patterns of word co-occurrence (and lack thereof) in the input—samples of target language to which we are exposed—over hours, days, weeks, and years. Furthermore, for fluent language users, knowledge of collocation is implicit, meaning that it lies outside of a speaker’s conscious awareness. Fluent speakers of English do not consciously think about saying save time (instead of *store time or otherwise); they simply say it, based on previously acquired knowledge that is implicit and unconscious in nature. Similarly, if fluent speakers of English hear the phrase *store time, they intuit immediately that this phrase is not acceptable in English with no need for any conscious reflection as to why that is the case.

For a language learner, when it comes to vocabulary, the goal is to acquire the vast network of implicit knowledge described above, and in order to do so, there is no getting around attending to large amounts of input over long periods of time while attempting to communicate in the target language in question. Before going further into the process of vocabulary acquisition and how to facilitate it, let us first consider some additional details about the nature of vocabulary and vocabulary knowledge.

Words and Other Types of Lexical Items

A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in a language. Morphemes that can stand alone as words are free morphemes, such as desk, smart, and run, whereas morphemes that must combine with other morphemes are bound morphemes, such as – ly, – ness, and – ing. Like free morphemes, bound morphemes convey meaning, as in the case of – ing, which indicates that an action is ongoing: when the bound morpheme – ing combines with the free morpheme talk to form talking, it conveys that the act of talking is in progress. From this perspective, word may be defined as an element of language formed either by a single free morpheme or some combination of free morphemes (key-board, fire-fly, frog-man), bound morphemes (dis-gruntle; note that gruntle is not a word in English), or both free and bound morphemes (happi-ness, care-less-ly, un-forgetable). Some words, such as the English word do in the context of question formation (as in Do you like the party?) and the Spanish word a as an object marker (A Juan lo saluda María. ‘María greets Juan.’), do not convey meaning in the same sense that other words do. The information (“meaning”) that these words convey is more grammatical in nature, but they still conform to the morpheme-based definition of a word provided here. In addition, words such as the and of may depend on other words but can be interpreted as conveying meaning (such as the meaning “definite, specific”). Function words of this nature also have at least one free morpheme (one each in the case of the and of) and, as such, still constitute individual words.

The field of morphology focuses on how words are formed, either as part of inflectional paradigms (inflectional morphology) or as part of word-formation processes that lead to new words with new meanings (derivational morphology). Inflectional morphology concerns verbal paradigms (e.g., habl-o ‘I speak’/habl-é ‘I spoke’/habl-aba ‘I was speaking’ in Spanish), paradigms related to case, such as the case of pronouns (e.g., mē ‘me’ as direct object/mihi ‘to me’ as indirect object in Latin), and other types of inflectional paradigms. Derivational morphology, on the other hand, concerns the formation of new words by adding and combining morphemes, such as adding un and able to the word speak in order to produce the new word unspeakable. In the case of unspeakable, speak is the root, or the base word that is modified, and un and able are affixes, elements that can be placed at the beginning, end, or in the middle of a word in order to alter the word’s meaning. When placed at the beginning of a word, an affix is a prefix, such as when re (meaning “again”) is added to think to form rethink (meaning “think again”). When placed at the end of a word, an affix is a suffix, such as when less ‘without’ is added to limit to form limitless (meaning “without limit”). When placed in the middle of a word, an affix is an infix, such as when ít is used in Spanish to express affection when changing names such as Edgar and Óscar to Edgítar and Osquítar and when changing the noun azúcar ‘sugar’ to azuquítar to express the idea of smallness, affection, or both.

Besides individual words, lexical items include combinations of verbs, nouns, and adjectives with prepositions that function as a unit. One example is phrasal verbs in English, such as to put up with, to get around, to move about, to bump into, and so forth. An extremely large amount of language also consists of other types of (multiword) lexical phrases, or various types of strings of words that can vary greatly in length but are fixed with regard to their form. Some examples in English are for that matter, on the one hand … on the other hand …, by the way, that being said, I’d like to order …, the more/less … the more/less …, out of bounds, around the corner, in the background, blowing in the wind, well then …, allow me to …, and have a seat. Changing even one word in phrases such as these typically leads to an unacceptable phrase. For example, changing allow to let in the phrase allow me to leads to the unacceptable phrase *let me to, as can be seen clearly in the difference between the sentences Allow me to help you versus *Let me to help you. Other types of multiword lexical items include idioms and sayings. Idioms are series of words that often have a figurative (i.e., non-literal) meaning, such as more common English idioms like raining cats and dogs (meaning that it is raining heavily) and to break the ice (meaning to get some type of social exchange started) and less common (but nevertheless amusing) ones like wilder than a peach orchard boar (meaning running wild or out of control). Sayings, another type of lexical item, are adages and pieces of advice that typically are very fixed in terms of the exact words used to produce them. Some examples in English include If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, The early bird gets the worm, and B...

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