英语词汇教学论文

英语词汇教学刍议

[摘 要] 英国著名语言学家大卫·威尔金斯曾经说过，“没有语法，人们不能表达很多东西；而没有词汇，人们则无法表达任何东西。”这句话表明了词汇教学在英语教学中占有极其重要的位置。本文从词汇的概念及词汇教学的重要性入手，主要阐述词汇教学的主要内容并举例说明如何进行词汇教学。

[关键词] 词汇教学 词汇 习惯搭配 词缀 词源

ⅰ. the definition of vocabulary and the importance of lexical teaching

to begin with, we must make sure what vocabulary is. vocabulary can be roughly defined as “the total number of words that make up a language”. it can be also stated in a more professional way as “a set of lexemes, including single words, compound words and idioms.” therefore, a new vocabulary item may be more than a single word. for instance, radio station, news window and sister-in-law, which are made up of two or three words but express a single idea. also, there are multi-word idioms like call it a deal, where the meaning of the phrase cannot be deduced from an analysis of the component words.

pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary are the three essential factors that contribute a language, among them vocabulary is the most important and basic unit of a language. without vocabulary, there wouldn’t be any language. we may take english language as a soaring skyscraper and vocabulary items as bricks, and then we may safely come to a conclusion that the skyscraper can not be built high

without a large vocabulary. a very famous british linguist named david wilkins once said, “without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.” this statement manifests that vocabulary is of great significance in learning english. also, as english teachers, we are quite aware of the importance of vocabulary teaching.

we could not talk about vocabulary teaching nowadays without mentioning michael lewis, whose controversial and thought-provoking ideas have been shaking the english language teaching world since its publication. once he said “language consists of grammaticalized lexis, not lexicalized grammar.” his most important contribution was to highlight the importance of vocabulary as being basic to communication. i do agree that if learners do not recognize the meaning of keywords they will be unable to participate in a conversation, even if they know the morphology and syntax. on the other hand, grammar is equally important in both learning and teaching english as a foreign language, and therefore, it is not the case to substitute grammar teaching with vocabulary teaching, but that both should be presented in teaching english as a foreign language.

ⅱ. what should be presented in lexical teaching

the study of vocabulary consists of many different aspects, including words, phrases, collocations, and so on. lexical teaching is not a lonely island. it should be linked with the study of phonetics, grammar, sentence structure and text; and practiced in listening, speaking, reading, writing and translation. when we are teaching vocabulary, we ought to make sure what needs to be taught.

presenting forms of new vocabulary items

when presenting new vocabulary items to students, we must make them know what a word sounds like (its pronunciation) and what it looks like (its spelling). we may assign the students to read new items after us or records, then ask them to read aloud in class and check their pronunciation if any mistake occurs. after this, we may give them a certain period of time to memorize all the new items, and then ask some of them to do dictation on the blackboard and check their works. when teaching vocabulary items, we need to make sure that both two aspects are accurately presented and learned.

presenting grammar of new vocabulary items

the grammar of a new item should be taught if it is not obviously covered by general grammatical rules. an item may have an unpredictable change of form in certain grammatical contexts or may have some idiosyncratic way of connecting with other words in sentences. it is of importance to provide students with this information in the meantime when we teach the base form. for instance, when teaching a new verb, we may also give its past tense and past participle, if it is irregular (teach, taught, taught; write, wrote, written), and we may note whether it is transitive or intransitive. similarly, when teaching a noun, we may present its plural form if irregular (criterion, criteria; mouse, mice), or draw their attention to the fact that it has no plural at all (water, information, advice).

presenting collocations of new vocabulary items

the typical collocations of particular items are another factor that makes a particular combination sound “right” or “wrong” in a given context. so it is another piece of information about a new item which is worth teaching. when presenting words like conclusion and decision, for example, we may note that we usually draw or come to the one, but make or take the other. similarly, we usually throw a ball but toss a coin; we commit a crime and issue a challenge.

presenting meaning of new vocabulary items

to present the meaning of new vocabulary items should be the most significant step in lexical teaching. as we know, a particular word usually has more than one meanings, this indicates we should present not only the most popular meaning but also some other unpopular ones in lexical teaching. for example, ball usually means sphere, it also means formal social gathering for dancing. and foot most often means lowest part of the leg, it also means 12 inches. when presenting the meaning of new words, we may present their synonyms, antonyms, hyponyms and superordinates as well. for example, in english hid has the same or nearly the same meaning as another word conceal. male and big are respectively opposite in meaning to female and small. the words animal and dog are related in such a way that dog refers to a type of animal, and animal is a general term that includes dog and other types of animal. therefore, the specific term, dog, is called a hyponym, and the general term, animal, is called a superordinate.

presenting word formation of new vocabulary items

vocabulary items, no matter one-word or multi-word, can often be broken down into their component “bits”. how these bits are put together exactly is another piece of useful information for language learners. affixes containing prefixes and suffixes play a very important role in vocabulary teaching. for instance, if the learners have already known the meaning of anti-, dis-, eco-, non-, and un-, this will help them guess the meanings of words like anti-body, disagree, ecocide, non-permanent, and unbelievable. similarly, if they know the meaning of -ee, -eer, -er, -ism, and -itis, very likely they may guess right the meanings of such words as interviewee, weaponeer, long marcher, big brotherism, and arthritis. when teaching vocabulary, we may also present etymology---the origin of words, and of their history and changes in their meaning to language learners. for example, the etymology of the modern english noun fish can be traced back to old english fisc. in some cases there is a change in meaning. for instance, the word meat, which now normally means “animal flesh used as food”, comes from the old english word mete which meant “food in general”.

ⅲ. ways to present and test new vocabulary items

once we have chosen what the learners need to know about the items, the next important step is to consider how we can teach them. there are various ways to present new vocabulary items to students; some are very effective and efficient. when teaching new items, we ought to make sure that we know the ways as well as what needs to be taught.

illustration

different people have different ways of learning. it’s called “learning style”, and it’s based on the learners’ senses, such as hearing, seeing, touching, and so on. most learners use one of their senses more than the others. some learn best by reading or looking at pictures, they are called visual learners. when we are teaching words like dog, small, and stapler, we may draw some pictures about the above items or even show them the real objects if possible and tell them what they are. illustration is very useful for more concrete words and for visual learners. it has its limits though, not all items can be drawn.

demonstration

demonstration, including acting and mime, lends itself particularly well to action verbs and it can be fun and memorable. for instance, when teach words like jump, jog, and smile, we may make the same actions if necessary.

definition

make sure that it is clear, check in an advanced dictionary before the lesson if you are not confident. remember to ask questions to check whether the learners have understood properly. for example, when teach word like horse, we may give them a precise description knowing as definition like “a four-legged animal with a flowing mane and tail, used for riding on or to carry loads, pull carts, etc”.

synonyms, antonyms and gradable items

using the words that the learners already know can be effective for getting meaning across. for example, when we teach words like male, superior, and major, we may teach female, inferior and minor as well. similarly, we may present bull, bullock, steer, ox, and cow while teaching word like cattle.

translation

when teach some very abstract words, translation could be a very useful way to get the meaning across, for all the learners are most efficient and confident in their native language.

context

think of a clear context when the word is used and either describe it to the students or give them example sentences to clarify meaning further.

again which way you choose will depend on the item you are presenting. some are more suitable for particular words. some are more suitable for abstract words. often a combination of techniques can be both helpful and memorable.

in order to know how well and how much the learners grasp the vocabulary we presented, we need to take some tests of vocabulary. it is of great significance in lexical teaching. there are various techniques of vocabulary-testing. the following are some common and efficient ways to test vocabulary. such as, multiple-choice, matching, making sentence, dictation, gap-filling, translation, etc.

to sum up, vocabulary is the material that constructs language. it decides the learners’ ability in communication. therefore, lexical teaching is of great significance in english language teaching. as english teachers, we need to be quite aware of that, and do some researches into why and how to teach and test vocabulary.

bibliography:

lewis, michael. the lexical approach: the state of elt and a way forward [m]. hove, uk: language teaching publications

richards, jack c. platt, john. platt, heidi. longman dictionary of language teaching & applied linguistics [m]. beijing: foreign language teaching and research press

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harmer, jeremy. how to teach english [m]. beijing: foreign language teaching and research press

hornby, a s. oxford advanced learner’s english-chinese dictionary [m]. beijing: the commercial press

lu, guoqiang. modern english lexicology [m]. shanghai: shanghai foreign

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