Vocabulary projects conducted by EMB

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Vocabulary projects conducted by EMB

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Growing interest in students vocabulary
Vocabulary Study

• 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

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Vocabulary Study
Aims of the 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

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Sources of the wordlists for HK schools
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Vocabulary Study
References of the frequency-based wordlists

• General Service List (GSL) - West, 1953
• Academic Wordlist (AWL) - Coxhead, 2000
• British National Corpus (BNC)

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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
Too many pianos?

• 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.

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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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Sizevs.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. footballfootball)
• 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 learners 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 classroommini-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
e.g. trousers robot jeans T-shirt

Analogies
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
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?

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?
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One two three pencil!
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 alread
y used, or break the rhythm or say nothing
are out.
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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?
  gamewordsearch
  
• Interactive Wordplays
• http//www.wordplays.com/p/index

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THANK YOU!