Peculiarities of Teaching FL Vocabulary.
Lecture № 8.
1. The importance of TV in FLT.
2. The program requirements to TV at school.
3. Aims and Content of TV.
4. Difficulties in TV. Methodological typology.
5.Procedure of work with Voc.
6. Methods of semantization.
7.Types of ex-s for TV.
8. The problem of voc. errors and mistakes. Control of Voc.
The problem of TV is one of the main in FLT. It cannot be neglected, the status of V. was different in dif. times of FLT. During Grammar-Translation method the main focus was paid to grammar and translation, so V. was tuned up to Gr. Besides V. was taught in the form of lists of isolated words to be memorized. During the period of the Direct method V. was taught on the bases of direct association between the words and notions. Things became dif. when Audio-lingual method appeared. Words were used and taught in Gr. structures. Specialists considered that V. was the easiest aspect, so required less attention. V. was strictly limited and learnt in structures. Voc. suffered such neglect till 1950-60-s. Nowadays with lines of Communicative Cognitive approach the main aim of TV to develop lexical habits for S, R, W, L as a form of communication. Рубинштейн С.В. defined a habit as an automotive component of conscious activity. From psychophisiological point of view habits are automotive , dynamic stereotypeswhich appear as a result of repetition. Lexical hahit includes 2 components : Word Formation and Word Usage. Acc. to W. Rivers there are 3 edges of a pie in learning a word.
Form (sound, spelling, morphological)
Word
Meaning
Usage
Considerable attention has always been paid to the problem of Voc. selection, Voc. minimum. The number of words that pupil should acquire at school depends on the program requirements which are determined by the state documents. It is admitted that V. must be carefully selected acc. to the principles of selecting linguistic materials, the conditions of teaching and learning.
The first selection of V.was made by Ян Амос Каменский in the 17th c. He chose 8000 words for his Latin Text Book ‘Orbis Pictus’. He thought that this stock of words is enough for getting acquinted with the world.His V. was too numerous and it consisted of special words which are not frequently used in life. The problem of Voc. selection became exceedingly important at the end of 19th c. H. Palmer and M. West made a great contribution. Their leading principle was the ability of words to agree with other words. The linguistic material for their V. was taken from Bible, which was not quite suitable for teaching purposes. M. West in 1960 published his general service list of English words (1200w) which he divided into 2 groups: 1 form or structural w-s ( words that we talk with); 2 content w-s ( words that we talk about).
The first attempt to select V. on scientific principles was made by Л.В. Щерба. The lexical minimum was meant for receptive and reproductive knowledge. It was too specious and numerous, it didn’t include phraseology. Another attempt was made by Рахманов and his colleagues. They distinguish 3 types of V: 1) Active V. (1000)for reproductive usage ;2) Passive V.(3000) for receptive usage ; 3) Potential V. (free and individual). By Potential V. we understand the knowledge of Word Formation ( suffixes, prefixes, conversion, power of guessing). Potential V. is open and dynamic, it suggests how well you know WF and intonation. We can definitely say what is our Active and Passive V, but we don’t know our Potential V.
The leading principle for selection of lexical minimum is 1) the pr-l of combinability- the ability to agree with other words; 2) the ability to be semantically valuable; 3) the ability to be of polysemantic value; 4) the pr-l of frequency of use.
Methodological typology.
Dif. words require dif. treatment. There were some attempts to create some methodological typology of words e.g. Charles Frees in his book ‘The Structure of English’ distinguished 4 types of words acc. to their functions in the sentence and combinability: 1) Form words e.g. will, shall, do, did, does, etc. 2) Words-substitutes e.g. he, she, one, etc. 3) Content words denoting things, constitute the bulk of the Voc.;4) Gramatically distributive words e.g. some, any, etc.
The first 2 types of words are most difficult for its active acquisition acc. to Ch. Frees.
Meanings and notions are dialectical units but meanings in dif. languages do not always coincide. From this point of view Шатилов distinguish 4 types of words: 1) words the meanings of which in both languages completely coincide. 2) words in which the additional meaning has some connotations. 3) words in which only the main meaning coincide; 4) words which differ in their meaning.
Гезз Н.И. , Ляховицкий suggest their own classification.
1) Cognates- international words and borrowings similar in form and in meaning in both languages e.g. demonstration, revolution, constitution, literature, hospital, hotel,etc.
2) Derivatives and compound words the elements of which are known to the pupils e.g. flower-bed, forget-me-not, schoolboy,etc.
3) Words which are similar in meaning but different in form e.g. a bed, a pen, a door, etc.
4) Words -realias which have no equivalent in native language e.g. lunch, brunch, omnibus, sheriff, Big Ben, etc.
5) Collocation and idioms, different in the construction e.g. Black and blue-синяк, black stocky- learned woman, once in a blue moon-редко, black list-черный лист, to be in blackout-быть в отключке, grey matter-мозги, yellowman-трус.
6) Words which are called descriptive cognates( ложные друзья переводчика) e.g. wallpaper- обои , pocket-карман, artist- художник,etc.
7) Words with a wide scope of meanings in the foreign and in native languages e.g. education,etc.
8) Words with a less scope of meanings in the foreign language e.g. hand and arm,etc.
The rational approach to the problem of TV is to take into consideration the character of words, the difficulties they preserve in terms of their meaning, form and usage.
Acc. to school program for an ordinary school (beginning with 5th form) the Active V. is distributed in this way: 5- 350w, 6-550, 7-700, 8-800, 9-850-900, 10- 1000.
Nowadays V. is arranged and selected acc. to a topical principle on the one hand and concentric approach on the other. Special texts on certain topics help to enlarge the V. The topical approach is often criticized as not quite adequate. Topical -( on the base of topic, theme), situational approach - ( on the base of great number of situations).
Stages of work on V.
We distinguish 3 main stages of work, in dif. literature they are called differently. In British lit-re PPP (presentation, practice, production).
Our specialists suggests:
1. Introduction and primary consolidation
2. Consolidation using ex-s
3. Retention in speech activities.
Ways of Semantization.
Words can be introduced and explained before reading , while reading, independently at homework. There are 2 dif. ways of conveying the meaning of words:1) direct (non-translational) ;2) translational. Within the groups of direct ways we single out the following: a) verbal (synonyms, antonyms, definition , context, etymology of word, word-building elements) b) non-verbal(mimes, gestures). Within the groups of translational ways we distinguish 2 groups: a) translation-proper the meanings are coincide b) translation- interpretation.
American specialists Hunt and Beglar discuss 3 main approaches to V. Teaching and Learning: 1st appr-ch - incidental or indirect learning; 2nd – direct or explicit learning; 3rd – independent strategy development.
V. strategies:
1. guessing from the context.
The procedure is as follows: 1 you determine what part of speech it is 2. you look at the immediate context and try to simplify it if necessary 3. you guess the meaning of the word and check it.
2.the use of dif. dictionaries: bilingual, electronic, monolingual, phraseological , picture dic-ries, dic-ry of synonyms, antonyms,etc.
Brainstorming
fruit
Tree leaf
root
Tips for TV for teacher:
- you will get better results if the words you teach have clear easily comprehensible meaning
- if the items of the words can be linked with each other ( through meaning or association)
- words are better learned if they learned briefly (in the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the lesson)
- pupils usually remember the words better if they have personal or emotive significance for them.
A strategy for one may be useless for another. We must have individual approach. The placing of words in a list is of a certain importance. At the beginning of the list and ay the end there is a tendency to be remembered better.
Ex-s for TV
There are 2 types of ex-s: 1) Language ex-s or training which focus on the form and the meaning of the word. They have 2 aims: a) retention of words ; b) to establish memory bond. Some specialists consider that words should be repeated 5-7 times in order to promote learning. Some psychologists say that mere repetition of isolated words is no use but in combination with other words.
Lang-ge ex-s are subdivided into imitation ex-s, substitution ex-s, transformation ex-s, ex-s on completion, extension ex-s.
1) Speech ex-s . Not all speech ex-s of communicative character.
Communicative ex-s include problem-solving tasks, role play, projects, writing a story, making a dialogue, summery, essay, compositions, poems.
TVoc. may be planned or no. Much of TV is unplanned.
Lexical errors and mistakesmay be causedby interference . Inter interference L1-L2 e.g. artist, complexion, magazine, pocket – graphic and sound identity. Intra interference L1-L1 e.g. lie-lay, accept –except, low-law, rise- raise , come-go – semantic and graphic identity.
Control of V.
The best way to control V. – the correctness of the speech. Dif. ways of control: quiz, dictations( picture, explanatory, visual, prevented and controlled dic-s), testing techniques ( underline the odd word, A+B, translate, fill the gaps, finish the sentence, etc).
Literature:
1. Лекции по методике.
2. Гез Н.И., Ляховицкий М.В. и др. – Методика обучения иностранным языкам в средней школе. М., Высшая школа, 1982.
3. Глава I. Методика как теория обучения ИЯ. § 4. Методы исследования. Стр. 11-17.
4. Глава II. Связь методики со смежными науками. Стр. 21-43.
5. Rogova G.V. Methods of teaching English. L. 1975. Chapter I. Pp. 5-9.
6. Гальскова Н.Д. – Современная методика обучения ИЯ. Москва, 2000, стр. 37-48. Лингвистические основы обучения ИЯ.