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Ways of offering students extended rehearsal of vocabulary items

Ways of offering students extended rehearsal of vocabulary items



October 12, 2014

Teaching and studying high-frequency vocabulary has a higher and faster surrender value for learners. The HCT Foundations Programme aims to cover the most common 2000 words of English as defined by the Oxford Word List. Whilst there has been an attempt to map wordlists on to course books, students are ostensibly learning words out of context. Hence, presenting students with wordlists containing 60 items, and equipping them with the materials and skills required to effectively utilize frequency lists is a pedagogical challenge.

An underlying premise behind high frequency lexical lists is that vocabulary learning is facilitated by the periodic recycling of specific lexis in an “expanded rehearsal” process in which words are reviewed on the same day, next day, 7 days later, 28 days later etc., as learners need multiple exposures to a word to be able to use it productively in real time communication. Baddeley (1990) suggests 11 encounters are required to learn a word well enough to use it correctly and spontaneously, whilst Nation (2001) says that 5-16 encounters may be needed. Joe (2010) said that three factors affect long-term vocabulary learning: quality of input or output and frequency, and her research suggests the frequency of encounters with a lexical item is the most important.

E-learning enables educators to provide these multiple encounters with words in a fun, gaming manner which helps students ‘’cope with prodigious amounts of information within an artificially short time” (Folse, 2007). Below is the approach we have been using at Level 1 in ADMC.

ADMC students get a unit list as a printed handout. They develop their own vocabulary companion by adding word definitions and example sentences. The first stage in learning L2 vocabulary is understanding meaning. Students need to collect information about what a word means or does not mean and where it can be used.  Initial L2-L1 translation work and the meaning mapping of the new word against the mother tongue is an extremely effective first step in the process of learning vocabulary. HCT students have access to the Oxford Wordpower Dictionary for Arabic Speakers of English which provides them with much more information than Google Translate, allowing them to identify the most suitable L1 equivalent. Along with the L1-L2 translation, the key headword appears in sentences. These dictionary derived sentences, or the students own sentences, can be added to the paper based word list. They can provide the teacher with a good source of sentences and definitions for recycling games.  Students love recognizing their own work being used to create an example rich lexical environment.

 

Next, we use Web 2.0 Tools or their App versions, such as Spelling City and Quizlet to provide students with exercises, quizzes and games to challenge students to make decisions about a word’s meaning, spelling and grammar. Each tool offers different games, and so whilst it may be laborious to add word lists to two different sites, the variety of task types offered makes worth it. Long unit lists have been subdivided into shorter lists of 20 words or less, making study sessions more manageable. Initially, students work through a set of Quizlet flashcards set so that the English definition or sample sentence appears first. Students try to guess the word and are supported by their L2-L1 paper based unit word list. Next, students go to Spelling City’s ‘Spelling Teach Me’ activity. They listen to the key words being spelt out aloud. They progress to ‘Spelling Test Me’ on this site or Quizlet. Their recognition of the spoken form of a word is enhanced by Spelling City’s ‘Audio Word Match’.

 

In keeping with the principles of “expanded rehearsal”, other games such as ‘Hang Mouse’, ‘Word Unscramble’, ‘Scatter’ (Pelmanism) and ‘Space Race ’can be played at varying intervals. These activities can be done individually or as a whole class and works well in conjunction with an interactive whiteboard. They focus on the meaning, form and sounds and spelling of the targeted high frequency words.

Quizlet also enables teachers to produce both separate unit list and combined unit list tests. Test items types include True/False, Multiple Choice, Matching and Written answers. The beauty of the tests is that they can be reconfigured at the press of a button, providing educators with an endless supply of recycling materials.

Both websites offer sample sentences so that key words can be seen in context or at least co-text, making students aware of their sentence grammar. Spelling City has a ‘Sentence Unscramble’. We are trying to input sentences which give further exposure to the grammar structures presented in the course book corresponding to a particular lexical unit. Hence, syntax work has a dual reinforcement function.

As part 1 of the new listening exam focuses on the spelling of vocabulary items embedded in a sentence, we have created practice material on Respondus that students can access on BB Learn. Targeted words are placed towards to end of a sentence or two sentences so that students have enough material to base word predictions on. They pencil their predictions at the end of the sentence and not in the blanks. They then listen to the sentence recordings, filling in the gap with the dictated word, before rewriting it in BB Learn. Due to the complications of recording material in a studio and uploading them to BB Learn, we have also used Audioboo as a platform for similar word prediction and spelling work. Being device agnostic, students can access Audioboo recordings anywhere. Paper-based multiple-choice unit vocabulary tests are also given to students in order to give them the opportunity to practice SWA-like items.

   

Finally, believing in old fashioned classroom games to motivate students to revise vocabulary, we play time-tested games such as Noughts and Crosses and Football in conjunction with target vocabulary flashcards from Quizlet.  The definition and picture side of the flashcards are projected onto the screen, whilst teams of students try to guess the target word.  When the correct answer is given, the team wins a Noughts or Crosses box, or kicks the ball one pitch division closer to their goal.

A future goal is to run our reading texts through a vocabulary profiler such as Vocabulary Kitchen so that all A1 words occurring in the text are highlighted. Highlighting Level 1 target vocabulary will raise students’ awareness of this lexis in a range of contexts.

Using these activities at regular intervals, we have succeeded in engaging students with vocabulary lists over a period of time, recycling lexis from previous units and getting them closer to the crucial 5-16 encounters with each word.

Bibliography

Baddeley, A. (1990). Human memory: Theory and practice. London: Lawrence Erlbaum

Associates.

Folse, K. (2007). Vocabulary Myths: Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching.

TESOL Quarterly March 2007, Volume 41, No 1.

Joe, A. (2010). The quality and frequency of encounters with vocabulary in an English for

Academic Purposes Programme:  Reading in a Foreign Language April 2010,

Volume 22, No. 1.

Nation, I. S. P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

October 12, 2014
Curriculum & Materials, Teaching & Learning
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Denise Ozdeniz

Denise Ozdeniz

I have been collaborating with teachers and students on a learning and empowerment voyage for 31 years. My special interests are educational technology, vocabulary acquisition, extensive reading and professional development through reflection and classroom based research.
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