CALL Vocabulary Lesson

1
CALL Vocabulary Lesson

• Mariah Schuemann Thomas Burgert

2
The Setting

• American university undergraduates
• English for Academic Purposes (EAP)

3
The Course

• Linked-course with lower-division Sociology-
  Communication Mass Media
• Pilot course integrates advanced ESL in CALL
  environment with an examination into the
  political aspects of news content and how news
  coverage tends to favour the most powerful class
  or groups in society.

4
The Course

• EAP students attend Sociology lectures with
  native-speaker students twice a week
• Twice a week students attend EAP/CALL course for
  integrated language lesson and sociology
  discussion from lecture syllabus
• Students use in-class computers to locate
  internet media samples related to the discussion
  topic compose sentences on word processor

5
Lesson Background

• What is current topic in sociology lecture? How
  the media softens or sensationalizes news events
  how politicians frame issues (Lakoff, 2004)
• What language feature is discussed in this
  lesson? Vocabulary Euphemisms
• What computer skills/software will learners use?
  Internet search engine, Web news sources, Web
  dictionary, Word

6
Lesson Background

• What informs our lesson? i.e, what theories of
  vocabulary learning strategies guide our lesson?
• Discover meaning teacher prompts word/phrase
  orally accompanied with visual or contextual
  support
• Learners must have adequate background knowledge
• Context must be rich with utilizable clues

7
Lesson Background

• Consolidate meaning after initial discovery of a
  word, group work promotes active processing of
  information
• Social context enhances motivation of
  participants
• Schmitt McCarthy (1997)

8
Lesson BackgroundEuphemisms

• English fluency cannot be achieved without a
  basic command of euphemisms
• Many euphemisms are semantically opaque
• Listeners and readers must decode euphemisms in
  daily discourse, e.g., workplace, buisiness,
  media
• Alkire (2002)

9
Lesson BackgroundThe Semantics of Power

• Types of metaphors
• Euphemism downplaying ones own aggression
• Dysphemism exaggerating the bad qualities of
  ones opponents
• Mystification the use of jargon to conceal
  certain activities
• Bolinger (1980)

10
How is CALL used?

• Internet (context) learners locate target
  words/phrases through Google news search
• On-line dictionary/thesaurus to supplement
  discovery process
• Word processing learners create sentences using
  target word/phrase (consolidation)

11
Large group (teacher models)

• Open internet look up target word(s)/phrases in
  Merriam-Webster http//www.m-w.com/
• Compare your knowledge of the target words to the
  dictionary definitions (each word of the
  compound)
• Search term in Google News how many hits?
• Open an article highlight term
• Open Word doc save as

12
Large Group

• Record article info in Word doc (source,
  headline, URL)
• Read term in context
• Discuss meaning in group how does euphemistic
  meaning differ from literal meaning? How does
  literal meaning affect our understanding of the
  issue(s) euphemism refers to.
• Collectively create new sentences with target
  word/phrase in Word

13
References

• Alkire, S. (2002). Introducing euphemisms to
  language learners. The Internet TESL Journal,
  Vol. VIII, No. 5, May 2002 http//iteslj.org/Lesso
  ns/Alkire-euphemisms.html Retrieved on 10/02/05.
• Bolinger, D. (1980). Language The loaded weapon.
  London Longman.
• Lakoff, George. (2004). Dont think like an
  elephant Know your values and frame the debate.
  White River Junction, VT Chelsea Green.
• Schmitt, N. McCarthy, M. (1997). Vocabulary
  Description, acquisition and pedagogy. Cambridge,
  UK Cambridge University Press.