Teaching Vocabulary Flashcards
What is a lexical item? What can we know about a lexical item?
Grammatical items contain words such as pronouns or determiners. Lexical items, on the other hand, include nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. In other words, they are content words. They are also an “open set” words are added, lost, or changed.
What learners need to know about lexical items:
1: Written and spoken form, most common meaning
2: Grammar, collocational links, connotations, appropriateness of use, relationships to other items in English or their L1
How much (%) of the vocabulary of a given text does the reader need to know in order to be reasonably sure of understanding it?
Many people think that 80-85% is enough to roughly understand a text. However, research (Schmitt 2008) has shown that 95-98% of the vocabulary of a text is necessary to understand it properly.
How many times (approximately) does a learner need to re-encounter a new item in order to be sure of remembering it?
Researchers (Zahar et al., 2001) claim that 6 to 16 re-encounters with a word are necessary.
What are important criteria for the selection of the vocabulary to teach a class?
The most important criterion is usefulness for the learners themselves. An item might be useful because it is: frequent, important for a student’s present situation or culture, easy to learn, or just fun or interesting. Activities such as “word/expression of the day” or “show and tell” provide alternatives to reading texts or vocabulary lists.
What is ‘expanding rehearsal’?
ccording to Baddeley, the best learning takes place when a student remembers a word but needs a slight effort to do so. Expanded rehearsal suggests to review a words soon after it has been learned and then make longer and longer pauses (a day, week, month etc.). At some point, the word becomes part of their permanent vocabulary.
