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Vocabulary projects conducted by EMB

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General Service List (GSL) - West, 1953. Academic Wordlist (AWL) - Coxhead, 2000 ... In alphabetical order. By category. 9. Features of Hong Kong student writing ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Vocabulary projects conducted by EMB


1
Vocabulary projects conducted by EMB

2
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

3
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

4
Sources of the wordlists for HK schools
5
Vocabulary Study
References of the frequency-based wordlists
  • General Service List (GSL) - West, 1953
  • Academic Wordlist (AWL) - Coxhead, 2000
  • British National Corpus (BNC)

6
Vocabulary targets
1000 1000 1000 2000 1500 3500 1500
5000
7
Developing English vocabulary
8
Wordlists
  • In alphabetical order
  • By category

9
Features of Hong Kong student writing
  • Repetition of key words (need for lexical
    substitution)
  • The need for lexical enrichment (adjectives and
    adverbs)

10
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.

11
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
12
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?
13
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.

14
Sizevs.Quality
15
Pre-requisites for vocabulary building
16
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)

17
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

18
Example One
19
Example Two
20
Teaching the names of the superordinates
21
What is the missing word?
22
What is the missing word?
How many superordinates could teachers introduce
at the primary level?
23
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?
24
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?
25
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)

26
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

27
From receptive to productive
28
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)

29
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)

30
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
31
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

32
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
33
Examples of classroommini-activities / games
  • Word hunt
  • Odd one out
  • Pelmanism (locating pairs)
  • Go fishing
  • Hangman
  • Analogies
  • Word slap
  • Pass the sentence

34
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?
35
Word Slap
?
?
?
?

?
?
?
?
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.
36
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!

37
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

38
THANK YOU!
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