Vocabulary learning can be overlooked in an English for Academic Purposes course for international students. This presentation suggests why there needs to be time for vocabulary learning, and suggests ways to include this in the class and encourage it through self-study.

1. TEACHING AND LEARNING
V0CABULARY
SOFELS CPD, 17TH OCT (J YEO)

2. WHY TEACH VOCABULARY?
• “Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary
nothing can be conveyed”
- Wilkins, 1972 (cited in Thornbury, 2002)
• “Language consists of grammaticalised lexis, not lexicalized grammar”
- Lewis (1993)

3. HOW MANY WORDS DOES A NATIVE SPEAKER KNOW?
Active Passive
an office secretary ? ?
a university lecturer ? ?
Crystal (1995: 123) used a dictionary test to assess the active and passive vocabularies of several native
English speakers:
Crystal, 1995 (cited by the Hong Kong institute of Education, n.d.)

4. HOW MANY WORDS DOES A NATIVE SPEAKER KNOW?
Active Passive
an office secretary 31,500 38,300
a university lecturer 56,250 76,250
Crystal (1995: 123) used a dictionary test to assess the active and passive vocabularies of several native
English speakers:
Crystal, 1995 (cited by the Hong Kong institute of Education, n.d.)

5. HOW MANY WORDS DOES AN EAP STUDENT NEED?
• “…a minimum of 10,000 words (not counting inflectional or suffixation
distinctions) gives an L2 reader a reasonable chance at understanding an
academic text, though not reading fluently” (Grabe, 2008: p271)
• Nation (1990) estimated that a learner needs between 5-16 exposures to
learn a word from context (cited in Grabe, 2008).

6. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR LEARNING?
• “…a good percentage of word learning needs to occur by extensive exposure
to print and learning words from context. Explicit vocabulary instruction will
never include 10,00 words” (Grabe, 2008: p272)
• “Students need to become collectors of words” (Grabe, 2008: p279)
• “Our ‘mental lexicon’ is highly organised and efficient” (Gairns & Redman,
1986)

7. WHAT TO TEACH?

8. KEEPING A RECORD:
Word cards: For individual or group review?

9. KEEPING A RECORD:
How could this student improve their vocabulary record?

10. HOW TO REVIEW VOCABULARY?
Make a word cloud
(e.g. on Wordle)
How many collocations
related to production can
you find?

11. HOW TO REVIEW VOCABULARY?
• Make a quiz: Family vocabulary flashcards
• Students teach each other new words:
From reading
From listening

12. HOW TO REVIEW VOCABULARY?
• Use a clip (BBC Bitesize organises clips by subject – e.g business)
• How many words or collocations related to production can you note from this
clip: Production methods
• Students create a mind map:

13. WHAT DO YOU THINK?
What can we do to encourage
students to improve their
vocabulary knowledge:
• Inside the classroom
• As self-study

14. REFERENCES
• Gairns, R. & Redman, S. (1986). Working with words. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press
• Grabe, W. (2008). Reading in a second language. Moving from theory to
practice. Cambridge Books Online
• Hong Kong Institute of Education (n.d.). Lecture notes. Available at:
http://engres.ied.edu.hk/vocabulary/vocabulary2-3.html
• Lewis, M. (1993). The Lexical Approach. Hove: Language Teaching Publications
• Thornbury, S. (2002). How to teach vocabulary. Harlow: Pearson Education.