Grammar

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Vocabulary projects conducted by EMB

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Growing interest in students’ vocabulary
Recent evidence of inadequate vocabulary of HK university entrants
Most 2004 entrants to CUHK knew between 2000 and 3000 English words only
International research suggests that students need at least 5000 words to cope with university study in English
Vocabulary Study
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Vocabulary Study
EMB collaborative project with CUHK to develop wordlists for schools’/teachers’ reference
To strengthen the vocabulary components of the English Language curriculum
Proposed vocabulary targets set for each KS
Aims of the study


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Sources of the wordlists
for HK schools
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Vocabulary Study
General Service List (GSL) - West, 1953
Academic Wordlist (AWL) - Coxhead, 2000
British National Corpus (BNC)
References of the frequency-based wordlists

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Vocabulary targets
1000 1000

1000 2000

1500 3500

1500 5000
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Developing English vocabulary
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Wordlists
In alphabetical order

By category
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Features of Hong Kong student writing
Repetition of key words (need for lexical substitution)

The need for lexical enrichment (adjectives and adverbs)
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Lexical substitution: “ piano”
“I had learnt piano for five years. My mother encouraged me to take piano examinations until I was ten. Sometimes I was tired of touching the piano… After a bad experience, I never learned piano any more. I do not dare to play the piano even now.”
Too many pianos?
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Too many pianos?
“I had learnt piano for five years. My mother encouraged me to take _______ examinations until I was ten. Sometimes I was tired of touching the ________… After a bad experience, I never learned ____________ any more. I do not dare to play the ___________ even now.”
Grade 3
keyboard
the instrument
horrible thing
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Lexical expansion of a first draft
“Every Sunday we visit the home of my grandparents. They live in an apartment in a housing estate in Shatin. My grandmother cooks lunch. After lunch we walk in the park.”
What activities can you design to enrich the above text?
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Lexical expansion of a first draft
“Every Sunday we visit the (adj.) home of my (adj.) grandparents. They live in an (adj.) apartment in a (adj.) housing estate in Shatin. My grandmother (adv.) cooks lunch. After lunch we walk (adv.) in the park.”
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Size
vs.
Quality
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Pre-requisites for
vocabulary building
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Paradigmatic approach (topic strand)

Deliberate organization of words into hierarchies
Develops associative networks
Encourages efficient vocabulary learning
Paradigms are fixed (but ‘open’)
Other associations are more personal (e.g. acoustic, visual, ‘linkword’)
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Assumptions about
paradigmatic arrangement


Allows for efficient vocabulary growth because the system is ‘open’ and allows for additions
Associated with receptive vocabulary knowledge in particular
Retrieval of words operates through the ‘cohort’ principle
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Example One:
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Example Two:
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Teaching the names of the superordinates
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What is the missing word?
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What is the missing word?
How many superordinates could teachers introduce at the primary level?
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Focus on vocabulary size?
“In my neighbourhood there is a library, a hospital, a swimming pool, a health centre, a cinema, a police station, a railway station and a bus station.”
Good vocabulary, but how are learners supposed to USE these words?
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More ideas on expanding
pupils’ vocabulary

Exploring the familiar words:
- different parts of speech (e.g. ‘shoulder’
as the noun and the verb)
- other meanings of a word (e.g. ‘head’ as
a body part, the school head)
- metaphorical use of a word (e.g. moving)
Using specific words (e.g. shout, whisper)

Can you think of other words?
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Syntagmatic approach
(collocation strand)
E.g. Topic: transport
Car – drive – fast – wet – road
Brakes – skid – collide - accident
Develops associative networks
Word combinations are the key to productive use of English
Focus on multi-word units (e.g. ‘See you later.’, ‘Have a good trip!’)
Collocations (e.g. ‘go shopping’, ‘have a shower’, ‘play football’)
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Assumptions about
syntagmatic arrangement
Associated with productive vocabulary because it is based on the words which tend to occur together in sentences
The associations are based on collocations rather than semantic categories
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From receptive to productive
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Teaching implications
Raising pupils’ awareness of how words are related:


Knowledge of word formation and word association
Giving definitions and details
Using the name of the superordinate (e.g. flat)
Using the names of the member (e.g. living room, bedroom, kitchen)
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Vocabulary building skills recommended in CG
Word formation

Affixation (e.g. unhappy, careless)
Compounding (e.g. foot+ball=football)
Conversion (e.g. cook a meal, a cook)
Derivation (e.g. excite, exciting, excited, excitement)

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Vocabulary building skills recommended in CG
Word association
Synonyms (e.g. happy, glad)
Antonyms (e.g. bright, dark)
Homonyms (e.g. catch a bus, catch a cold)
Collocation (e.g. make a wish, watch TV)
Lexical sets (e.g. furniture – table, chair, desk, cupboard)


*please refer to CG (CDC, 2004): pp. 168-171
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The use of mini-activities / games in vocabulary learning and teaching


Adding fun elements
Designed to integrate newly acquired words into the learner’s mental lexicon
The mini-activities / games should be incorporated into meaningful tasks
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Incorporating mini-activities / games into meaningful tasks

Exemplar 4 – “Buying Things” (Primary 1-3)
Use noun / noun phrases to
- identify items to buy in a shopping centre, e.g. rain boots,
waterproof watch
- identify shops in a shopping centre, e.g. toy shop, clothes shop
Read a story about a boy called Charlie, who went shopping with his family, and learn or revise the names of the shopping items in context…
Task: design a poster for an imaginary shopping centre, with information on the types of shops, the products available and the prices

*please refer to CG (CDC, 2004): pp. E20-23 for details of the exemplar
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Examples of classroom
mini-activities / games


Word hunt
Odd one out
Pelmanism (locating pairs)
Go fishing
Hangman
Analogies
Word slap
Pass the sentence
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Odd One Out

Analogies

e.g. trousers robot jeans T-shirt

e.g. - easy is to simple as hard is to ________
- top is to bottom as front is to ________
- fruit shop is to banana as
bookshop is to ________
Can you suggest some more items for the analogies?
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Word Slap


Players take turns, clockwise, to shout out a different word from a pre-selected lexical set (e.g. things in a bookshop) on every fourth beat.
Players who either repeat a word already used, or break the rhythm – or say nothing – are ‘out’.
One – two – three – pencil!
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
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
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
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Ideas on vocabulary
learning and teaching
Input from various sources
Present and practise in context
Repetitive exposure overtime in multiple and varied contexts
Work on vocabulary building skills and strategies
Print-rich environment
Bridging from receptive to productive
Have fun!

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Useful Links Online

Games for children and resources for
teachers and parents:
PBS Kids
http://pbskids.org/lions/games/
FunBrain Kids Center
http://www.funbrain.com/words.html

Games as well as Tool Box for creating word games :
Wordgames
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/cgi-bin/top_scores.pl?game=wordsearch
Interactive Wordplays
http://www.wordplays.com/p/index

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THANK YOU!