Peter Watkins è un insegnante di inglese, educatore, nonchè redattore di pubblicazioni dedicate principalmente ai metodi di insegnamento della lingua, all’apprendimento degli insegnanti, e alla produzione di materiale didattico. Attualmente gestisce un MA e programma di Linguistica Applicata nonchè TESOL presso l’Università di Portsmouth, UK.
Tra le sue principali pubblicazioni troviamo: Learning to Teach English (Delta Publishing, second edition 2014, first edition 2005),Cambridge English Teacher: Vocabulary and Pronunciation (Cambridge University Press, 2012), The CELTA Course Trainee Book and The CELTA Course Trainer’s Manual (both co-authored with Scott Thornbury,Cambridge University Press, 2007).

Per noi ha redatto un articolo sull’apprendimento del vocabolario inglese e sulle metodologie più efficaci di insegnamento di quest’ultimo.

Buona lettura

“The fact is that while without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.”

Wilkins, 1972, p.111.

What vocabulary is and why it is important

Words and phrases are central to language learning – at least, that is true if we accept the argument for communicative teaching methodologies because, as Wilkins says (above), communication depends on knowing vocabulary. Without vocabulary, nothing is possible. Let me illustrate the importance of vocabulary with a simple example: imagine travelling to a country where the language is unfamiliar to you for a short break. You can take either a phrase book or a book of grammar rules. Which would you choose?

I imagine, like most people, you would take the phrase book because it is likely to help you much more in the short term as you try to communicate in the new language. The choice recognizes that vocabulary is essential to communication.

So, vocabulary is hugely important but we should clarify what we actually mean by vocabulary. Vocabulary is more than just single words. While the term obviously does cover single words, it also includes collocations (words that often occur together, such as the verb take with the noun photo – take a photo), set phrases (See you later) and sentence stems (I was wondering if…). As Nation and Meara (2010, p.35) say:

“There are some groups of words, like good morning and at the end of the day, which seem to be used like single words. Some of the groups may be items that have not been analysed into parts but are just learned, stored and used as complete units.”

Deciding which vocabulary to teach

So, words and phrases are essential to communication and need to be taught, but which words should we teach? There are literally millions of words to choose from and no teacher, or course, can hope to present more than a tiny fraction of all the possibilities.

One criterion often used for selecting vocabulary is that of frequency. It seems to make sense to teach the words that are most common and get used most. Although frequency lists are not new, modern technology means that they are now more easily available and more reliable. According to O’Keefe, McCarthy and Carter (2007, cited in O’Keefe, 2012), the most frequent 2000 words of English cover over 80% of all English text. So, frequency is a logical place to start planning vocabulary teaching because knowing lots of common words will make both comprehension and production easier for learners.

Teachers could also base their teaching of vocabulary on what they perceive their learners needs to be and teach the words that they think will be useful to them. It could be assumed that this will be linked to general frequency (above), but considering learners’ needs is a way of fine-tuning the frequency criterion. Also, the teacher might well choose to teach the words that the learners ask about and show interest in. If a student asks the word for a particular item of clothing, for example, the teacher could supply this word and then four or five more clothing related words and phrases, on the basis that these too may be useful.

Teachers may also be tempted to base their teaching on what words can easily be taught. Particularly in early stages of learning there may be a benefit to teaching words that can be easily understood and give the learners a feeling of confidence, rather than teaching complex items (however useful they may be) which cause confusion.

A very common criterion by which vocabulary is selected for teaching is classroom expedience – that is to say, what is useful for a particular lesson or lessons generally. It may be that a teacher, for example, wants the learners to do some reading practice and identifies an interesting text. However, that text may contain several items of vocabulary that the learners won’t know but which are necessary if the learners are to get a reasonable level of understanding of the text. The teacher may therefore choose to teach these items before the learners read. In this case, vocabulary is taught because it allows the lesson to proceed successfully, rather than the words necessarily being common or useful. Also, in the very early stages of learning, teachers may feel that a certain amount of classroom language (pairs, groups, course book, write, read, listen, speak and so on) is necessary just to allow other lessons to proceed smoothly.

All of these are good reasons for choosing to teach particular sets of vocabulary.

 

Teaching vocabulary

Once we have decided which words and phrases to teach, we need to think of the most appropriate ways to explain them to the class. In deciding how to teach the words, we need to remember that the nature of vocabulary teaching can change. For example, a whole lesson may be spent on teaching vocabulary, with the teacher making sure that there are plenty of opportunities for learners to practise and experiment with what is being presented. On the other hand, vocabulary is also sometimes taught very rapidly, in response to a question from a learner, with the teacher giving a simple, brief explanation.

In either case, learners are unlikely to learn a new word if they see (or hear) it just one time. Instead, learners will require

“…multiple exposures to new items and to see them in a variety of contexts as this will help aid memorisation and guide them to how the words are actually used.” (Watkins, 2014, p.37).

In other words, learners need to see, hear or use new words several times before they are likely to learn them.

So, how can we make sure that learners see words over and over again? There are many language games that can be used that will help with this. Here is an adaptation of a children’s game, which is usually fun and motivating for all kinds of language learners, including teenagers.

Noughts and crosses (Tic tac toe)

Draw a traditional noughts and crosses board and check that learners understand the usual rules. Demonstrate if necessary.

Next, put words and phrases that you have recently taught into the squares. Here is an example from a class that I am currently teaching (at approximately B2 level on the CEFR scale).

Divide the class into pairs. Each pair will play against each other, one being ‘noughts’ and the other ‘crosses’. They take it in turns to nominate a square and they win the square if they can give an explanation of the word or phrase, or use it in a meaningful way. They must try to win the game, creating a line of three, in the usual way. If you prefer you could do this as a class activity, by dividing the class into halves and having one group play against the other. This is a simple and fun way of ensuring that the chosen vocabulary is recycled.

Word bags

Word bags are another simple way of ensuring that vocabulary is recycled and used in future lessons. As you teach new words and phrases, write each one on a slip of paper and put it in a bag or big envelope. After a few lessons when you have collected a number of words, you can start using them in different activities. These activities can be a purposeful and fun way to start or end a lesson and they ensure that learners are reminded of the words that they have seen before.

Below are just a few ideas of how you could use the bag, taken from Watkins (2013).

• Begin a lesson by asking the learners to guess which words from the previous lesson you have put into the bag.
• Take five or six words at random from the bag, check the meanings and ask the learners to use these words in a short narrative that they write with a partner.
• Give the learners some nouns from the bag. Brainstorm adjectives and/or verbs that collocate with each one.

As you get used to using word bags, you will no doubt think of many, many creative ways of exploiting them.

Conclusion

Learning vocabulary is absolutely vital to success in language learning. Teachers need to ensure that their learners are in a vocabulary rich environment, with new words and phrases being presented regularly. However, in order to give learners the best chance of learning the new vocabulary, teachers need to ensure that new words and phrases are recycled regularly.

References

Nation, P. and Meara, P. (2010). Vocabulary. In N. Schmitt (Ed.), An Introduction to Applied Linguistics (pp.34-52). Abingdon: Hodder Education.

O’Keefe, A. (2012). Vocabulary instruction. In A. Burns, & J.C. Richards (Eds.), The Cambridge Guide to Pedagogy and Practice in Second Language Teaching (pp.236-245). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Watkins, P. (2013). By teachers, for teachers. English Teaching Professional, 84.

Watkins, P. (2014). Learning to Teach English (2^nd ed.). Peaslake: Delta Publishing.

Wilkins, D. (1972). Linguistics in Language Teaching. London: Edward Arnold.