1. Activating vocabulary Martin McMorrow ESOL Learning Advisor, Massey University, Albany MANATESOL November 2010

2. Part 1 : Vocabulary fundamentals Part 2 : 10 activities

4. Size: a solid core vocabulary of at least a few thousand words, multi-word units etc Survival strategies: to infer meanings of unknown items from context & to paraphrase to fill in lexical gaps Ability to grow: to select vocabulary, identify key features of form and meaning, memorise and find opportunities for meaningful use

5. The first target is building that basic core vocabulary Ironically, perhaps, in the case of this news report http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10567789 Without it, authentic texts are mostly inaccessible

6. Language a massive barrier for new NZ immigrants Language difficulties have been identified as one of the main issues preventing non Western families adjusting to culture and getting ahead in New Zealand. Research released today by the Families Commission, in collaboration with the NZ Federation of Ethnic Councils, found many conflicts identified among the 39 immigrant parents and children interviewed were about trust and differing opinions. Findings suggested inter generational conflicts, which occurred when young people reached adolescence, could be worsened by the process of cultural transition. However, outside the family it was found that personal wellbeing in New Zealand was improved and the increased opportunities were noted. On the negative side, language barriers were found to be one of the biggest challenges and some talked about cultural discrimination and a lack of work opportunities. Many said they were struggling to find work despite qualifications and that the situation led to income issues and distress http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10567789

7. Range 0 (Beginner): 76 words - 28 % of the article a, about, also, among, an, and, as, at, be, because, been, being, between, but, by, could, do, else, for, from, get, getting, had, have, having, her, here, his, how, however, i, if, in, into, is, it, keeping, many, more, most, my, not, nothing, of, on, one, or, outside, said, same, seen, she, should, so, some, that, the, their, themselves, then, there, they, this, to, towards, us, was, we, were, when, which, while, will, with, would, Vocabulary analysis of this text Free vocabulary analysis tools: Range (download): http://tinyurl.com/paulnation Word Classifier (download): http://tinyurl.com/wordclassifier Text checker (online): http://tinyurl.com/oxford3000

8. Range 1 (pre-intermediate): 103 words - 37 % of the article accepted, actively, address, backgrounds, based, beliefs, better, biggest, bills, came, change, changes, children, coming, communities, differing, difficult, difficulties, directed, existing, families, family, father, felt, find, findings, found, further, generally, government, greater, groups, happened, healthy, home, important, included, increased, information, interviewed, involved, job, language, led, level, life, like, local, long, main, man, members, middle, mother, needed, new, once, organisations, parents, part, pay, people, personal, placed, possibility, problems, process, programmes, providing, reached, relationships, report, research, role, saw, services, side, social, society, son, stay, suggested, supported, supporting, talk, talked, term, thinking, time, today, training, trying, used, values, want, way, welcomed, well, wellbeing, woman, work, young, Vocabulary analysis of this text

9. Range 2 (intermediate): 41 word(s) - 15 % acceptance, african, ahead, commission, councils, cultural, culture, despite, discuss, eastern, encouragement, entry, fit, identified, identify, improved, income, issues, lack, maintained, maintaining, neighbourhood, noted, occurred, opinions, opportunities, permitting, policy, preventing, seeking, separated, situation, strengths, struggling, traditions, treat, treated, trust, western, wider, worsened, Range 3 & 4 (upper-intermediate):39 word(s) - 14 % adjusted, adjusting, alienated, asian, assisted, barrier, barriers, challenges, comments, comprehensive, conflicts, federation, foundation, ignorance, integration, massive, negative, participants, participation, qualifications, released, shift, survey, temporary, terrorists, visas, zealand, adolescence, discrimination, distress, immigrant, immigrants, inter, interventions, migrant, muslim, overseas, transition, veil, Vocabulary analysis of this text

10. Range 5 (advanced): 5 word(s) = 2 % collaboration, enhancement, ethnic, facilitate, facilitated, Outsiders (advanced & compound words): 11 word(s) = 4 % acculturation, couldn't, culture's, didn't, don't, generational, grounding, hasn't, non, nz, pre, Vocabulary analysis of this text Less than 80% of these words are likely to be understood by a pre-int level learner, leaving over 50 unfamiliar words in this one article. You need to recognise over 95% of words to read effectively even with the aid of a dictionary... Otherwise, it looks like this .....

11. Language a coodle nurgle for new NZ immigrants Language difficulties have been diggled as one of the main nurgles happling non Western families rungering to culture and getting ahead in New Zealand. Research margled today by the Families Macklehoo in dorredation with the NZ Mandition of Tullen Councils found many apprinds rustered among the 39 immigrant parents and children interviewed were about trust and differing opinions. Fluggings rundled rambustuous apprinds which rappled when young people reached bandlebunt could be happoled by the hooly of baggled opplition.

12. By intermediate level, authentic texts begin to become accessible – 94% of the words in this article are in the Oxford 3000 word list (a reasonable target level for intermediate learners) But even recognizing 94% of words is a struggle – Paul Nation considers 98% coverage a threshold level for fluent reading. For intermediate students, there would be 30 or more unknown words in the article – words which tend to be crucial for basic understanding and also tend to cluster, making it difficult to infer meaning from context – eg: Despite the comments, the report said most blodgers didn’t discuss nolation and umpetence, but a lack of oberance was seen as barrier for indolation into New Zealand society.

13. It’s a big part of our teaching role to help our students to build that basic foundation of ‘general service’ vocabulary as well as more specific words and expressions they need for their particular tasks (eg travel / study / business etc) But size isn’t everything – learners don’t only need to know more words, but to know more about the words in their core vocabulary

14. Complete knowledge of a word or phrase is multi-faceted FORM POSITION Nation, I.S.P. (1990). Teaching and Learning Vocabulary. Boston: Heinle (p. 31) FUNCTION MEANING

15. Complete knowledge of a word or phrase is multi-faceted Spoken Written Patterns Collocations FORM POSITION Nation, I.S.P. (1990). Teaching and Learning Vocabulary. Boston: Heinle (p. 31) How does it sound? How is it pronounced? How does it look? How is it written and spelled? In what patterns does it occur ? In what patterns must we use it? What words can be expected before /after it? What words must we use before /after it?

16. Complete knowledge of a word or phrase is multi-faceted Frequency Appropriateness Concept Associations FUNCTION MEANING Nation, I.S.P. (1990). Teaching and Learning Vocabulary. Boston: Heinle (p. 31) How common is it? How often should it be used? Where should we expect to meet it? Where should we use it? What does it mean? What word(s) should I use to express this meaning? What other words does it make us think of? What other words could we use instead of this?

20. How do we develop this deep and intimate knowledge of words? The expression ‘if it’s worth doing at all, it’s worth doing well’ is the foundation of good vocabulary learning practice Multiple meaningful encounters with key vocabulary allows us to beat the ‘forgetting curve’

21. Source: Gu Yongqi, P. (2005). Vocabulary learning strategies in the Chinese EFL context. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish International (p. 23) The Forgetting Curve (Ebbinghaus, 1913) How much we recall Time since encounter with words 100 % 80 % 60 % 40 % 20 % 0 20mins 1 hr 8 hrs 24 hrs 6 days

22. So, we should aim to model activities for activation and review of vocabulary during our lessons ... ... And encourage our learners to do the same between lessons and in their own ongoing learning ... In particular, we need to build in review/activation stages at beginnings and ends of lessons and weeks

23. Activity 1: Can of Words

24. Activity 1: Can of Words Cut up coloured paper into strips During the lesson, write some key words on one side and definitions / examples on the other Drop in the box – each day one student picks out ‘the word of the day’ and makes a mini-poster Students can also take home 3 blank strips and add interesting new words as a homework task Start lessons by having students dip into the box and test each other.

25. Activity 2: Finger Writing

26. Activity 2: Finger Writing At the end of the lesson, have a student pick a word out the can They ‘write’ it on your back with their finger and you have to guess it Then get two students to demonstrate Finally, have all the class in pairs picking out words from the can and finger writing Repeat frequently

27. Activity 3: Kam’s Game

28. Activity 3: Kam’s Game Take a picture during the evening based on the theme of the day’s lesson Show the class (eg on laptop or printed out and projected) and have them try and remember everything they see Keep your photos and use later for revision Turn off the image and see how many things they can say (or write) Get the students to take similar pictures for homework and try it out on their partners

29. Activity 4: Pelmanism

30. Activity 4: Pelmanism Select 12 collocations around a similar theme (eg verb+noun for shopping, adjective+noun for furniture) Make a grid of 12 squares on two pieces of paper. Write one word on each card (eg ‘swipe’ one and ‘your card’ on another. You should have 24 cards with one word on each Give a whole class demo: Shuffle and turn the cards face down on the table. Players take it in turns to flip two cards. If they make a pair, you keep it and have another turn. Students play in pairs/groups. At the end they can also put pairs in order (eg a sequence of actions, or list from most to least important) or ask ‘When did you last ...?’ etc

31. Activity 5: Mime Source: State Library of New South Wales. [Flickr Commons]

32. Activity 5: Mime Select 3 words or expressions from a lesson, or from the week, or from the can of words Mime it and see if the students can guess. If they can’t, give clues (e.g. it begins with ...) Have the students do the same in groups of three

33. Activity 6: Post-it Pat!

34. Activity 6: Post-it Pat! Cut some post-it notes into strips Take the class somewhere (eg to the staff room, or even to your car Together stick labels on 12 – 15 things Take them off and see if the students can put them back and describe the use of each thing Give out strips, get students to label some other place and bring the photo to class

35. Activity 7: Mnemonic Mnumbers Source: The Field Museum [Flickr Commons]

36. Activity 7: Mnemonic Mnumbers Thanks to Ken Cage, Massey SLC Manager for this idea Model the technique by choosing a rhyme word and visual image for each number from one to ten For example, 1 (fun), 2 (shoe), 3 (tree) etc Select 10 key words that need to be remembered Link each word to a number and image. So, if the first word is ‘creche’, you both visualise toddlers in a creche having fun At the end, go through from one to ten remembering the words. Repeat next day and week Have the learners use the technique for another set of words

37. Activity 8: Quizlet.com Online Games

38. Activity 8: Quizlet.com Online Games You (and/or the learners) select some relevant sets of vocabulary flashcards on this site The learners go through the sequences (familiarise, learn, test) for each set Learners can also try one or more of the games for each set of flashcards. You can register for free and make your own sets of flashcards for your class – this would be a great supplement to regular tests http://quizlet.com/user/Roisine/ British Council Central is another good source of interactive vocabulary games

39. Activity 9: eslnews.org.nz

40. Activity 9: eslnews.org.nz Students could listen to and read the weekly esl news produced by Pat Syme as a weekly homework task As a follow-up, they could retell the news in groups, answer your questions – it would also be an ideal basis for dictogloss Have them find examples of collocations and phrases (eg pass a law / set up an agency / make it difficult) You could also play ‘lexical chairs’ – you read out the story, one team shouts ‘pause’ and then the other team has to say what the next word is

41. Activity 10: Regular, personalised testing http://tinyurl.com/learningenglishgames

42. Activity 10: Regular, Personalised testing Students give you a list of 10 words they want to be tested on at the end of the week – each word should have an empty line underneath Next to the line under each word, you write a letter indicating a type of word knowledge – eg C for collocation, M for meaning, WB for word-building, S for sentence Give the students their paper and they have to write answers showing the specific type of knowledge required – easy to mark and good at increasing ‘word consciousness’, motivation and learner autonomy Idea from Paul Nation – IATEFL forum 2010

43. Summary Explore your shared environment for names of things, processes, feelings, actions etc Build up a shared collection of useful general service and personally important words and expressions Consolidate new vocabulary at the end of lessons, between lessons and at the beginning of the next lesson – whether that’s online or through cards etc Explore appropriate opportunities for tactile, visual, kinaesthetic experiences with vocabulary

44. Selected Resources http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk http://www.britishcouncil.org/central.htm Sets of job-related vocabulary http://www.teflclips.com/ Creative online grammar & vocabulary games English teaching articles and materials Detailed materials based on embedded YouTube clips http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish A wide range of language and skills exercises

45. Selected Resources http://www.macmillandictionary.com/ Two good online dictionaries http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ http://tinyurl.com/Oxford3000 List of 3000 basic words http://tinyurl.com/vocabularyanalyser Vocabulary analyser download http://www.academicvocabularyexercises.com Exercises based on the Academic Word List

46. Selected Resources http://www.academicenglishgenerator.com http://martinmcmorrow.podomatic.com My website for academic English My podcast for international students in NZ My quizlet flashcards http://delicious.com/Free_Online_English_Practice My collection of free online listening practice links http://quizlet.com/user/Roisine/