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Teaching Vocabulary To Advanced Students: A Lexical Approach

This document summarizes an article about teaching vocabulary to advanced students using a lexical approach. It discusses the needs of advanced students to broaden their vocabulary. It also outlines several aspects of vocabulary that should be taught, including boundaries of meaning, polysemy, homonymy, synonymy, style and register. The document recommends techniques for teaching vocabulary based on memory and usage, including grouping words and using imagery. It advocates using authentic materials and having students notice collocations and deal with meaning through context and dictionaries. The conclusion states that vocabulary teaching should be systematic and help students apply words in different fields.

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David Van Kalvin Marpaung
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50 views

Teaching Vocabulary To Advanced Students: A Lexical Approach

This document summarizes an article about teaching vocabulary to advanced students using a lexical approach. It discusses the needs of advanced students to broaden their vocabulary. It also outlines several aspects of vocabulary that should be taught, including boundaries of meaning, polysemy, homonymy, synonymy, style and register. The document recommends techniques for teaching vocabulary based on memory and usage, including grouping words and using imagery. It advocates using authentic materials and having students notice collocations and deal with meaning through context and dictionaries. The conclusion states that vocabulary teaching should be systematic and help students apply words in different fields.

Uploaded by

David Van Kalvin Marpaung
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© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Extensive Reading I

Teaching Vocabulary To Advanced


Students: A Lexical Approach
by Solange Moras, Sao Carlos, Brazil, July 2001

Power Point by:


David Marpaung
0805120894
introduction
ADVANCED STUDENTS

THEIR NEEDS

Advanced student need to broaden their vocabulary to express themselves


more clearly and appropriately in a wide range of situations.  
body
THE TEACHING OF VOCABULARY 
Lewis (1993) argue that vocabulary should be at the centre of
language teaching, because ‘language consists of
grammaticalised lexis, not lexicalised grammar’.

Gairns and Redman (1986) have categorized several


aspects of lexis that need to be taken into account
when teaching vocabulary.
• Boundaries between conceptual meaning:

not only what lexis refers to, but also where


the boundaries are that separate it from
words of related meaning (e.g. cup, mug,
bowl).
• Polysemy: 

distinguishing between the various meaning of a


single word form with several but closely
related meanings (head: of a person, of a pin,
of an organisation).
• Homonymy:

distinguishing between the various meaning of a


single word form which has several meanings
which are NOT closely related ( e.g. a file: used
to put papers in or a tool).
• Homophyny:

understanding words that have the same


pronunciation but different spellings and
meanings (e.g. flour, flower).
•  Synonymy:

distinguishing between the different shades of


meaning that synonymous words have (e.g.
extend, increase, expand).
• Affective meaning:

distinguishing between the attitudinal and


emotional factors (denotation and
connotation), which depend on the speakers
attitude or the situation. Socio-cultural
associations of lexical items is another
important factor.
• Style, register, dialect:

Being able to distinguish between different


levels of formality, the effect of different
contexts and topics, as well as differences in
geographical variation.
• Translation:

awareness of certain differences and similarities


between the native and the foreign language
(e.g. false cognates).
• Chunks of language:

multi-word verbs, idioms, strong and weak


collocations, lexical phrases.
• Grammar of vocabulary

learning the rules that enable students to build


up different forms of the word or even
different words from that word (e.g. sleep,
slept, sleeping; able, unable; disability).
• Pronunciation:

ability to recognise and reproduce items in


speech. 
We must use teaching techniques
that can help realise this global concept of
what it means to know a lexical item
MEMORY AND STORAGE SYSTEMS

It seems that learning new items involve storing


them first in our short-term memory, and
afterwards in long-term memory. We do not
control this process consciously but there
seems to be some important clues to
consider.  
Oxford (1990) suggests memory strategies to aid
learning, and these can be divided into:
1.creating mental linkages: grouping, associating,
placing new words into a context;
2.applying images and sounds: using imagery,
semantic mapping, using keywords and
representing sounds in memory;
3.reviewing well, in a structured way;
4.employing action: physical response or sensation,
using mechanical techniques.
DEALING WITH MEANING 

Therefore guided discovery, contextual


guesswork and using dictionaries should be
the main ways to deal with discovering
meaning. 
USING LANGUAGE

we need to refine their understanding of the


item, exploring boundaries between
conceptual meaning, polysemy, synonymy,
style, register, possible collocations, etc., so
that students are able to use the item
accurately.  
THE LEXICAL APPROACH

it is essential to make students aware of chunks,


giving them opportunities to identify, organise
and record these.
Identifying chunks is not always easy, and at
least in the beginning, students need a lot of
guidance. 
RATIONALE OF THE LESSON 

Lexical Approach has much to offer in the area


of vocabulary teaching, and therefore we have
tried to plan a lesson that is based on its main
concepts, specially exploring the use of
collocations.  
CHOICE OF MATERIAL
use authentic material to expose our students to
rich, contextualised, naturally-occurring
language.  
NOTICING COLLOCATIONS AND DEALING WITH
MEANING 
dictionaries are a vital tool for Advanced learners, and
so is contextual guesswork, which we are going to
encourage before they look the words up.
We are also going to ask students to notice examples
given in the dictionary, observing and recording
other possible collocations of the words, as
suggested by Lewis. 
GROUP WORK        

Working in groups help fostering learning


independence, and specially in vocabulary
work, learners can exchange knowledge,
asking others to explain unknown items.
CHOICE OF TASK 

students are given opportunities to use the


language they are learning in a realistic context.
The completion of the final task for homework will
also help to reinforce and revise the vocabulary
learnt, giving students a better chance to store
the items in their long-term memory
CONCLUSION
• Vocabulary, as the way of the students to
know English completely should be coupled
and followed with the skills of teachers in
teaching it.
• Because the vocabulary is not just guess the
word but also how students can apply it to all
fields.
• Teaching vocabulary to the advanced learners
is not really quiet hard to do if we practice it
by all kinds of steps and strategies that have
been explained at the previous page.
• They will help the teacher how to teach
vocabulary systematically and efficiently. And
the other hand, they will make the students
do the lesson easily.
References
• Allen, V. (1983) Techniques in teaching vocabulary. OUP.
• Gairns, R. Redman, S.(1986)  Working with words. CUP.
• Hill, J. (1999) ‘Collocational competence’ English Teaching
Professional, 11, pp. 3-6.
• Lewis, M. (1993) The lexical approach. LTP.
• Lewis, M. (1997) Implementing the lexical approach. LTP
• Oxford, R.(1990) Language learning strategies. Newbury
House.
• Richards, J. (1985) The context of language teaching. CUP.
• Scrivener, J. (1994) Learning teaching. Heinemann.
• Thornbury, S. (1998) ‘The lexical approach: a journey without
maps’. MET, 7 (4), pp. 7-13
• Willis, J. (1996) A framework for task-based learning.
Longman. 

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