Teaching Advanced Vocabulary
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For beginning language learners, building vocabulary breadth (how many words they know) has been shown to be the single most important factor in accelerating and maximizing proficiency gains. But as learners progress into advanced levels of proficiency, they encounter more and more diverse contexts, and the depth of their vocabulary knowledge is tested. It’s at these levels that, even as learners continue to expand the breadth of their vocabulary knowledge, they should develop active strategies for expanding the depth of their knowledge about the words they’ve already “learned”. In this webinar, we will explore the five things every language teacher should know about building lexical proficiency in advanced language learners.
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Teaching Advanced Vocabulary
- 1. Why Words Matter (pt. 2) Why Words Matter Five things you should know about teaching vocabulary to advanced language learners https://www.flickr.com/photos/aldon/3264710286
- 2. Why Words Matter (pt. 2) Feel free to ask questions at any time. We will address them during our Q&A session at the end!
- 3. Why Words Matter (pt. 2) Five things you should know… 1. Vocabulary knowledge is multi-dimensional 2. Polysemy is the primary driver of vocabulary depth 3. Collocational restrictions are particularly challenging, even for advanced learners 4. Specificity (not academic or technical vocabulary) is the primary driver of advanced vocabulary breadth 5. Reading is for practice not for acquisition (so flip the lesson, flip the classroom)
- 4. Why Words Matter (pt. 2) Thing #1 | Vocabulary knowledge is multi-dimensional https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hypercube.svg This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:3D_print_in_process_(9437659715).jpg This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic
- 5. Why Words Matter (pt. 2) Thing #1 | Vocabulary knowledge is multi-dimensional B R E A D T H D E P T H How many words do you know? What do you know about each of those words?
- 6. Why Words Matter (pt. 2) What does it mean to “know” a word? 1. Basic meaning sense 2. Spelling 3. Pronunciation 4. Part of speech 5. Morphology 6. Extended meaning senses 7. Expressions & Idioms 8. Collocational restrictions
- 7. Why Words Matter (pt. 2) break1 | breɪk | verb (past broke | brōk | ; past participle broken | ˈbrōkən | ) 1. [I/T] separate or cause to separate into two or more pieces: [I] the branch broke with a loud snap | [T] she dropped the cup and it broke into pieces | he broke his leg in two places. 2. [I/T] become or cause to become inoperative: [I] the machine is broken | [T] she's broken the tape recorder. 3. [T] fail to observe: break the law; break a promise; break an agreement | the government has promised to prosecute employers who break the law | he has broken our agreement 4. [T] interrupt or suspend a state or process: break the silence, break and electric circuit, break someone’s concentration | smoking is a difficult habit to break 5. [T] exceed or surpass: break a record | the movie broke all previous box-office records | she broke her own record in the 100 meter sprint 6. [T] destroy emotional strength or spirit: break someone’s heart, break someone’s will, break a wild horse. 7. [I] suddenly change: we’ll leave when the weather breaks | her voice broke with emotion 8. [I/T] suddenly become or or cause to become known: [I] panic set in when the news of the market crash broke [T] she gently broke the news of his father’s death What does it mean to “know” a word?
- 8. Why Words Matter (pt. 2) What does it mean to “know” a word? 1. Spelling 2. Pronunciation 3. Part of speech 4. Morphology 5. Basic meaning sense 6. Extended meaning senses 7. Expressions & idioms 8. Collocational restrictions
- 9. Why Words Matter (pt. 2) break1 | breɪk | verb (past broke | brōk | ; past participle broken | ˈbrōkən | ) 1. [I/T] separate or cause to separate into two or more pieces: [I] the branch broke with a loud snap | [T] she dropped the cup and it broke into pieces | he broke his leg in two places. 2. [I/T] become or cause to become inoperative: [I] the machine is broken | [T] she's broken the tape recorder. 3. [T] fail to observe: break the law; break a promise; break an agreement | the government has promised to prosecute employers who break the law | he has broken our agreement 4. [T] interrupt or suspend a state or process: break the silence, break and electric circuit, break someone’s concentration | smoking is a difficult habit to break 5. [T] exceed or surpass: break a record | the movie broke all previous box-office records | she broke her own record in the 100 meter sprint 6. [T] destroy emotional strength or spirit: break someone’s heart, break someone’s will, break a wild horse. 7. [I] suddenly change: we’ll leave when the weather breaks | her voice broke with emotion 8. [I/T] suddenly become or or cause to become known: [I] panic set in when the news of the market crash broke [T] she gently broke the news of his father’s death Thing #2 | Polysemy is the primary driver of vocabulary depth
- 10. Why Words Matter (pt. 2) Expressions and idioms 1. break a leg! good luck! 2. break the ice to begin a conversation in a way that puts people who don’t know each other at ease 3. break the mold to do something in a completely new and distinctive way 4. break of day dawn; sunrise 5. break a strike to bring an end to a workers’ strike 6. break the bank to be or become too expensive to sustain 7. break bread to share a meal with someone 8. break cover to suddenly emerge from a physical or metaphorical hiding place 9. break even to earn enough money to pay for expenses, but without making a profit 10. break ranks to behave in a way that is different from the group of which one is a member 11. break the back of to overwhelm or defeat an adversary or a problem
- 11. Why Words Matter (pt. 2) High-frequency words are more polysemous than low-frequency words Frequency rank Base form Meaning senses 495 break 37 415 cut 45 4,563 classify 2 4,570 curiosity 3 Curiosity /ˌkjʊərɪˈɒsɪtɪ/ noun (pl) -ties 1. an eager desire to know; inquisitiveness 2. the quality of being curious; strangeness 3. something strange or fascinating
- 12. Why Words Matter (pt. 2) Which is more USEFUL? axe saw knife scissors lawn mower cut ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ slice ✔ dice ✔ snip ✔ Generic vs. Specific
- 13. Why Words Matter (pt. 2) Layers of meaning cut slice dice snip Extended meaning senses
- 14. Why Words Matter (pt. 2) Evidence from text analysis Friday, July 6, 2001 SEOUL, South Korea – A helicopter slammed into an electricity tower and plunged into the sea yesterday, killing eight people, including the head of South Korea’s third-largest steel company, police said. Four people were injured. Kim Johng-jin, chairman of Dongkuk Steel Mill Co., was among those killed when the S-76 Sikorsky helicopter carrying 12 people crashed in driving rain. The helicopter crashed near Chinhae around 11:40 a.m. It took off from Kimhae International Airport on the south coast and was on its way to a shipyard run by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Maritime Engineering Co. The national Yonhap news agency quoted pilot Kang Ik-soo, who survived, as saying that he lost control of the Daewoo-owned craft when it was hit by a sudden gale amid thick clouds. Multiple Meaning Senses Semantic Specificity Multi-word Expressions Practical implications
- 15. Why Words Matter (pt. 2) Break a law Break someone’s heart Violate a statute Thing #3 | Collocational restrictions are particularly challenging for advanced learners Hurt someone’s feelings Break a statute Break someone’s feelings Weak excuse Weak coffee Feeble coffee Feeble excuse
- 16. Why Words Matter (pt. 2) Evidence from text analysis Friday, July 6, 2001 SEOUL, South Korea – A helicopter slammed into an electricity tower and plunged into the sea yesterday, killing eight people, including the head of South Korea’s third-largest steel company, police said. Four people were injured. Kim Johng-jin, chairman of Dongkuk Steel Mill Co., was among those killed when the S-76 Sikorsky helicopter carrying 12 people crashed in driving rain. The helicopter crashed near Chinhae around 11:40 a.m. It took off from Kimhae International Airport on the south coast and was on its way to a shipyard run by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Maritime Engineering Co. The national Yonhap news agency quoted pilot Kang Ik-soo, who survived, as saying that he lost control of the Daewoo-owned craft when it was hit by a sudden gale amid thick clouds. Multiple Meaning Senses Semantic Specificity Multi-word Expressions Thing #4 | Specificity is the primary driver of advanced vocabulary breadth
- 17. Why Words Matter (pt. 2) Thing #5 |Reading is for practice, not for acquisition 1. Identify and teach the vocabulary first, not at the end of the chapter. 2. Make vocabulary learning, the only homework. 3. Use the classroom to build fluency through practice, analysis, and cultural mini-lessons
- 18. Why Words Matter (pt. 2) Five things you should know… 1. Vocabulary knowledge is multi-dimensional 2. Polysemy is the primary driver of vocabulary depth 3. Collocational restrictions are particularly challenging for advanced learners 4. Specificity (not academic or technical vocabulary) is the primary driver of advanced vocabulary breadth 5. Reading is for practice not for acquisition (so flip the lesson, flip the classroom)
- 19. Why Words Matter (pt. 2) Questions ???
Hinweis der Redaktion
- Thanks, Lauren, and good afternoon everyone! So, as Lauren said, my name is Paul Tucker. I’m the Director of Advanced Concepts Development at Transparent Language and I have a long history as both a language teacher, having taught English as a Foreign Language to 4th through 7th graders in Israeli public schools, and as a language learner, having learned the local language as an adult living and working in seven different countries throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa during my career as a teacher and a field linguist. I have masters degrees in Applied and Theoretical linguistics, and I’m currently working on a PhD focusing on vocabulary acquisition. So, let’s get started with today’s webinar…. Why Words Matter: Five things you should know about teaching vocabulary to advanced language learners (*)
- But before we jump in, there’s a small housekeeping detail that I want to make sure you’re all familiar with. Even though your microphones will remain muted throughout the webinar, please feel free to ask questions at any time during or after the presentation by typing into the text field located under the Questions tab, as you can see in this illustration. One of my colleagues will be monitoring those questions as they accumulate, and I’ll do my best to address then during the Q&A session at the end. (*)
- So, starting off with a quick preview of what we’ll be covering in today’s session… five things you should know about teaching vocabulary to Advanced language learners include the fact that (*) Vocabulary knowledge is multi-dimensional – which means that it has breadth, and depth, and width. Lexical proficiency isn’t just a matter of knowing more words. (*) One of those dimensions is DEPTH, and Polysemy, or multiple meaning senses, is the primary driver of vocabulary depth. (*) Collocational restrictions are particularly challenging, even for advanced learners (*) Specificity (not academic or technical vocabulary) is the primary driver of advanced vocabulary breadth (*) Reading is for practice not for acquisition (so flip the lesson, flip the classroom)
- So, let’s begin with Thing #1: Vocabulary knowledge is multidimensional. Building vocabulary knowledge can be compared to (*) the 3-D printing process, where layer upon layer is added to create a multi-dimensional object that has width, depth, and height. In vocabulary studies, this multi-dimensionality typically conflated to… (*)
- BREADTH (or how many words you know) and (*) DEPTH (what you actually know about each of those words). As we saw in the first installment of this series, Five things you should know about teaching vocabulary to beginning language learners, breadth should be the primary focus of the beginning language learner… specifically, learning the 2,000 most frequently occurring words. But this is a very shallow, as it were, two-dimensional knowledge. The answer to the question, “What does a beginning language learner know about each of those 2,000 words?”, is “Very little.” Which is perfectly appropriate, because breadth, not depth, is the primary job of the beginning language learner. But not so for the advanced learner, where, along with ever growing breadth, DEPTH becomes hugely important, and it is our job as teachers to help them understand that vocabulary knowledge is a multi-dimensional construct. Which, then, raises the fairly obvious question … (*)
- What does it mean to “know” a word? A number of lists have been proposed in the literature, with 7 or 8 key elements that are generally agreed upon, including (*) Basic meaning sense (*) Spelling (*) Pronunciation (*) Part of speech (*) Morphology (*) Extended meaning senses (*) Expressions & idioms (*) Collocational restrictions Now, to see what this looks like on a very practical level… (*)
- We don’t have to go any further than the dictionary for a common, high-frequency word like the verb break. As one of the 500 most frequently occurring words in English, this verb should be learned very early by beginning learners. But what does it mean for a beginning learner to “know” the word break? … Well (*) the first thing is the spelling and the pronunciation (*) then the part of speech followed by the most commonly occurring morphological variants, such as (*) the past tense or (*) the past participle; (*) and the primary meaning sense, which is usually the word's most concrete and generic meaning. (*)
- So that’s 5 out of the 8 things on our list of what it means to know a word Spelling Pronunciation Part of speech and Morphology Basic meaning sense Seems like quite a lot, doesn’t it? And yet, we’ve only scratched the surface of what there is to know about the verb break. The real DEPTH comes in the last three dimensions on this list (*) – Extended Meaning Senses, Expressions and idioms, and Collocational restrictions. So let’s take a closer look at each of these… (*)
- Some dictionaries list as many as (*) 37 different meaning senses for the verb break.. It turns out that in addition to the basic, concrete meaning of breaking an object like a branch, or a cup, you can also metaphorically break someone’s heart, break a promise, break the law, or even break a $20 bill. These, and many more meaning senses of the verb break are all known to native speakers of English, and not just the most educated among us. These extended meaning senses , in turn, become the basis for most of the idioms and expressions in which a given word occurs … (*)
- a selection of which are also listed near the end of most dictionary entries. And again, as you can see, almost all of these expressions and idioms are based on extended meaning senses which are usually derived from metaphorical extension of the primary (usually concrete) meaning sense. So, in the end, polysemy often accounts for more than 95% of what you’ll find in a typical dictionary entry, which is why we say that polysemy is the primary driver of vocabulary depth. And this is especially true for the most frequently occurring words in a language (*)
- …as we’ve already seen with the verb break, (*) which is the 495th most frequently occurring word in American English and has something like 37 different meaning senses, depending on which dictionary you consult (*) or the verb cut , which is the 415th most frequently occurring word in American English and has something like 45 different meaning senses, again depending on which dictionary you consult. While low-frequency words, such as the (*) verb classify or the noun curiosity list only two or three meanings respectively. (*) Curiosity is - an eager desire to know … inquisitiveness; the quality of being curious… strangeness; something that is strange or fascinating. That’s it. So why is this? What is driving this inverse relationship between the frequency with which a word occurs, and the number of meaning senses it has? …. And does it matter? … Or is it just an interesting factoid? Well, it actually does matter and it has important implications for how we approach the teaching of vocabulary to advanced learners. So let’s take a deeper look at what’s behind this phenomenon and then talk about some helpful learning strategies that you can share with your students. (*)
- As we saw in part I of this series, the most useful words for beginning language learners to learn are the most frequently occurring words. …. Words like. (*) cut … and the reason they occur with a higher frequency than their synonyms is that the fact that their meaning is fairly generic (or non-specific) allows them to occur in a much wider range of contexts than their more specific synonyms. You can only snip something with a pair of scissors or shears. SNIP is a very specific verb, describing a very specific action, using a very specific kind of instrument. But you can cut something with an axe, with a saw, a knife, a pair of scissors, or even with a lawn mower. In fact there are literally dozens of instruments that you can use with the generic verb cut. Swords, and scythes, and scalpels... and the list just goes on and on. So, while the specificity of the verbs like slice, dice, and snip limits their uses to a much narrower range of contexts, the lack of specificity in generic verbs like cut is exactly what allows them to occur in such a wide variety of contexts, causing them, therefore, to occur more frequently than their more specific synonyms, …. But this is also the very thing that makes these high-frequency words so susceptible to taking on a wide range of different meaning senses, which, in turn, adds a particular kind of complexity for the advanced language learner (*).
- Think of every word’s semantic space like an empty container to which is added (*) a cognitively basic, usually concrete, base meaning… and to which (*) additional layers of specificity can be added…. (*) or not. So (*) cut is the most generic of our group of cutting verbs, while (*) slice is more specific, (*) dice is more specific still, and (*) snip is the most specific of all. As you can see, the more generic word cut has more (*) empty space in its semantic container, more space that is available, as it were (*) for extended meaning senses. But, again, this is more than just a interesting linguistic phenomenon. Higher rates of polysemy in the most frequently occurring words can present advanced level learners with a hidden stumbling block that can have a negative impact on their reading comprehension. (*)
- Discuss the extended meaning senses of polysemous words highlighted in blue Learning strategy #1: make students aware of the ubiquity of polysemy Learning strategy #2: if a sentence or paragraph isn't making sense to the reader, teach students to actively consider the possibility that the breakdown may be because of a word they glossed over too quickly, thinking that already "know" that word .... when in fact there may be an additional meaning sense that they don't know yet. Teaching strategy #1: When building vocabulary lists, pay special attention to "known" words that are being used in an extended, and possibly unknown, meaning sense.
- Collocational restrictions are particularly challenging, even for advanced learners, and this is because they are not rule-governed, they are highly idiosyncratic, and they usually can’t be explained. For example, why is it that we can break a law, but we can’t (*) break a statute, we can only (*) violate it -- even though statute and law are essentially synonyms of one another? Why is it that we can break someone’s heart, but (*) we can’t break someone’s feelings, we can only (*) hurt them? Or why is it that while we can offer a weak excuse or (*) a feeble excuse; we can only serve weak coffee, (*) not feeble coffee. While idioms and expressions can also be quite challenging for advanced language learners to master, they are often based on a transparent metaphor, that once encountered the first time, isn’t that difficult to understand, or they can be explained on the basis of their historical or etymological origins, Perhaps most importantly, a collocational restriction is based on a negative, not a positive. It’s what you can’t say, not what you can say, so the learner is never going to read or hear it modeled by native speakers. It seems like it should work – but it doesn’t. There was no way to predict it, and there’s usually no way to explain it. It’s just not what native speakers say. And this is something that it can take years for even highly proficient learners to master. While adding DEPTH to the advanced learner’s knowledge of vocabulary by deepening their understanding of polysemy, expessions & idioms, and collocational restrictions are all essential to building their lexical proficiency, this is not to say that continuing to expand the BREADTH of their vocabulary isn’t equally important. And this brings us to Thing #4 (*)
- Specificity, Not academic or technical vocabulary, is the primary driver of advanced vocabulary breadth. And, finally, this brings us to Thing #5… (*)
- Reading – or listening, or conversation -- is for practice not for acquisition (so flip the lesson, and flip the classroom) Orchestra metaphor Procedural knowledge vs. skills development Musician’s skills: hold instrument properly, read music, play notes, etc. Imagine trying to learn how to play an instrument incidentally in orchestra practice Incidental learning doesn’t work Come to practice with procedural knowledge already in place Practice for fluency development requires other musicians / interlocutors Comprehensible input Strategy: flip the lesson, flip the classroom
- So, to quickly review what we’ve covered in today’s session… five things you should know about teaching vocabulary to Advanced language learners include the fact that (*) Vocabulary knowledge is multi-dimensional – which means that it has breadth, and depth, and width. Lexical proficiency isn’t just a matter of knowing more words. (*) One of those dimensions is DEPTH, and Polysemy, or multiple meaning senses is the primary driver of vocabulary depth. (*) Collocational restrictions are particularly challenging for advanced learners. (*) Specificity (not academic or technical vocabulary) is the primary driver of advanced vocabulary breadth (*) Reading is for practice not for acquisition (so flip the lesson, flip the classroom)