Teaching vocabulary

'The fact is that while without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.'

Linguistics in Language Teaching Wilkins

Do you agree with Wilkins? Why?/Why not?

Teaching vocabulary
Discuss each question below for one minute only. Make a short note of your conclusions.

How important is vocabulary for a learner? Does its

importance vary with level?

Is translation a good way to teach/learn vocabulary? Should students be allowed to use dictionaries in class? If

so, what kind of dictionary should they use?

Teaching vocabulary
1. Why would these words be a problem for French students? Sympathetic/sensible/library/to pretend/confident 2. What's the opposite of 'strong'? What's the opposite of 'strong accent'? What's the opposite of 'strong cheese'? 3. What problems do you have if you try to put the following in order? Slim / skinny / underweight / emaciated / slender / sylphlike / scrawny 4. If you taught these two groups of verbs, what else might you need to teach in each case? a) to rely, to depend, to insist, to apply b) to swim, to light, to sleep, to take 5. Make sentences with the verbs below. What different grammatical constructions are used after these verbs? He warned .../He suggested .../He insisted ... 6. What's wrong with these? How do you they're wrong? rancid fish/a strong smoker/to make a photograph 7. What problems are presented to the learner by the following: photograph, photography, photographic pear, heart, pearl, fear

Teaching vocabulary
Fill in the gaps with a suitable word from the list at the end.
We

know the words meaning or __________ and whether it has more than one of these. We know the sounds that form the word, i.e. its __________. We know where the __________ falls in the word (if it has more than one syllable) and whether this changes depending on the word class it belongs to. We know the __________ of the word so that we can write it correctly and recognise it when we read it. We know what kind of word class it belongs to and how to use it correctly within a sentence, i.e. we are aware of its __________. We know the __________ of the word so that we know whether it is appropriate to use it only in formal or informal situations. We know, for example, whether the word is derogatory or complimentary, humorous or poetic, normally applied only to certain types of people or thing, etc., i.e. we know its __________. We know what other words it is often used in combination with and which would sound odd with it, i.e. its ___________.

register grammatical features concept collocations spelling

stress

connotations pronunciation

Teaching vocabulary
Ways of showing the meaning of a word or eliciting a word

realia visuals/drawing on the board mime/gesture a brief definition an example of a situation where we would use the word using hyponyms (e.g. for vehicle, car, truck, motorbike, bus; for using antonyms or synonyms

cutlery, knife, fork, spoon)

Teaching vocabulary
What is the most economical way for showing the meaning for the following words?

to stir a paper clip democracy to make a fuss a tool a plastic surgeon single (i.e. not married)

enormous to despise celery to get away with stationery jealous to pass away cosy