EAP Vocabulary: trial, error, enlightenment?

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EAP Vocabulary trial, error, enlightenment?

• Marti Sevier
• English Bridge Program
• Simon Fraser University
• Vancouver, B.C.

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EAP Vocabulary trial, error, enlightenment?

• The English Bridge Program
• Selecting vocabulary
• Introducing vocabulary
• Recycling vocabulary threading through
• Testing vocabulary
• Enlightenment through errors

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The English Bridge Program
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The English Bridge Program
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The independent research project

• AS research the paper produce annotated
  bibliography, in 2 drafts
• AW write the paper, in 3 drafts
• ACC power point presentation

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IELTS
Academic Skills
Academic Culture Communication
AcademicWriting
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The Problem of Selection the Academic Word List

• Former approach let students select academic
  vocabulary to study via the AWL
• New approach
• Instructor selection
• Integration of vocabulary

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Vocabulary program aims

• Select academic vocabulary most relevant to
  course material and students needs
• Develop tasks and practices to introduce, recycle
  and test vocabulary
• Integrate vocabulary activities among 3 courses

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Selection the Web Vocabulary Profiler and Web
Frequency Indexer
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Error 1 the pre-test
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Tasks to introduce vocabulary--1

• Use them in written work for AS. (Highlight the
  words.)
• Write them on cards.
• Choose 3 or 4 and write a short story using them.
• Highlight the words when you see them in your
  reading.
• Try hard to remember their meaning.
• Look up other forms of the word.
• Memorize them for vocabulary quizzes.

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Tasks to introduce vocabulary--2

• Choose 5 words and write vocabulary questions and
  answers on a card, e.g.
• What are 3 definitions of _____?
• Give 3 word family members (and their parts of
  speech) of _______.
• Where might you see a __________? (e.g.
  appendix)
• True or False If you (e.g. facilitate) a
  process, you slow it down.
• What are 3 collocates of ( e.g. ethnic)?
• Looking at the list, choose 3 words and show how
  they are related.

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Tasks to introduce vocabulary3

• 1.Try to learn words in groups. Which word or its
  family member might fit under the following IELTS
  topic headings? Look at the examples and add more
  words.

Education Science Technology Business Social issues The arts
Provide instruction Interpret the data Selling consumer products Ensuring access to technology for everyone Conduct a symphony
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Tasks to introduce vocabulary3

• Focus on collocation. Look up words on the
  concordancer, choosing 30 lines and the
  University word list corpus. Click on Option 2,
  Collocates table, based on frequency.
• Learn word family members. Using the
  concordancer, click Keywords contains to give
  you help. (Be careful, though!)
• ? tense, tension, tensed, Tennessee (X)

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Tasks to introduce vocabulary3

• 4. Make notes on what you find.
• Example

Word Part/s of speech Common collocates Word family members
Access noun to, buy , provide accessed, accessible
verb mail, information
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Tasks to introduce vocabulary--4

• For each word
• Find the main academic definitions and the common
  word family members and their parts of speech.
• Use the word or a family member in a sentence
  related to your IRP topic OR an academic reading
  topic that we have covered on this course. Be
  sure to use collocation correctly.
• Example

Word Definition Family members parts of speech Sentence
scope range, extent, capacity NA Ten years ago no one could have predicted the scope of the HIV problem.
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Recycling vocabulary in class

• Oral summary / recounting tasks
• Students teach students
• Teacher talk, questions
• GroupLex and quizzes
• Lab tasks

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Recycling vocabulary a lab task

• Choose 5 words from the Weeks 4 5 list.
• Paste in 10 concordance lines for each word. Can
  you draw any conclusions about collocates for
  these 5 words?
• Make notes.

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Recycling vocabulary outside class

• Highlight vocabulary in written work
• Use the AWL Highlighter in research

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Recycling vocabulary the IELTS Interview--1

• Question and answer
• The individual long turn a topic related to the
  interviewee
• Discussion expansion of the topic to invite
  comparison, speculation, explanation

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Recycling vocabulary the IELTS Interview--2

TOPIC WORD CHUNK
The natural world (environment) degrade environmental degradation
ecology ecological disaster/awareness
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Recycling vocabulary the IELTS Interview--3
EXPLAIN significant a gift that had great significance for me was Coming to Canada was a significant decision because
COMPARE gender In terms of gender in the workplace, I would say that in many ways women are catching up to men
SPECULATE trend I think space tourism will be an important trend by 2050
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Recycling vocabulary the IELTS Interview--4
 
                   
       Brainstorm some IELTS interview topics.
Put the topic in the circle and add relevant
vocabulary, in chunks where possible. Use the
diagrams to practice the interview.
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Testing Vocabulary--1

• Vocabulary Quiz 2
• Answer 15 of the following questions. You will be
  assessed for spelling at all times!
• 1. Give three word family members and parts of
  speech of the word defect.
• 2. Fill in the blank.
• They _______________ all their spare time to
  their children.
• 3. Write two different definitions of scenario.
• 4. True or False? Compute means to work
  something out.
• 5. What colour is carbon usually?
• 6. What are three collocations of ethnic?
• 7. Give three word family members and their
  parts of speech of the word reside.

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Testing Vocabulary--2

• Choose 10 vocabulary words from the list. Using
  correct word form, spelling, collocation and
  appropriate definition, write a sentence using
  one of the IELTS topic headings OR your IRP
  topic. You are encouraged to use as many
  different topic headings as you can.
• Each sentence will be worth two marks based on
  the criteria above. You may use your notes but
  not a dictionary. Refer to the examples below.

IELTS/IRP topic Word Sentence
IRP Harm reduction approach In Vancouver, a harm reduction approach attempts to help substance abusers.
IRP Herbal medicine supplement Many herbalists recommend the use of supplements because the daily diet is inadequate.
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Testing Vocabulary--3
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Error repair future plans

• Pre-test
• Motivation
• Integration

• Simplify multiple choice?
• Enforcement strategies
• Plan more IELTS preparation tasks link
  vocabulary more closely to readings

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www.sfu.ca/mseviermsevier_at_sfu.ca