Vocabulary: selection criteria (M.

McCarthy, 1990)
Frequency Range Learners needs Learnability

occurrences

text-types

text-samples

students defence temperature data drill

171 129 104 96 53

11 12 8 6 4

45 49 30 30 4

Range

Spelling difficulties Phonological difficulties Syntactic difficulties Semantic difficulties false friends Culture-specific

Learnability

Task: why might the following words be difficult for a learner? Refer to the 6 points from the previous slide.

curate marvellous let borrow

throw tell questionable responsibility

How is the vocabulary composed?

A word must consist of at least one potentially freestanding morpheme (McCarthy, 1990) roots bound morphemes derived words compounds Consider: wastepaper-basket make-believe jack-in-a-box

How many morphemes are there in each of these words?

hundred freeze-dry singer troublemaker imposing mismatch irregularity impossible finger complexity feature workforce pathfinder

Some irregularities
electric reduce dry perfect (adj.) electricity reduction dried perfect (v)

Separate the words below into morphemes that compose them: redemption plentiful dismayed disappoint include ridden

Group 1: change these nouns to adjectives: malice finance office space

Group 2: change these verbs to nouns: record contest protest increase Group 3: change these verbs to a noun expressing doer or agent create invigilate donate liberate

Task : What do the words in each group have in common in terms of changes in spelling, stress, or pronunciation when they change from one word-class to another?

Implications for teaching

Presenting words that are alike in structure such as:

derived adjectives ending in al, irregular verbs that follow a set pattern /I/, //, //

Creating and understanding derived and compound forms word-building exercise

List the following affixes in order of priority for teaching purposes

-ly to make adverbs, as in quickly, nicely re- as in re-do, re-write un- as in unclear, untidy ill- as in ill-tempered, ill-conceived -ing to make nouns, as in smoking (is prohibited), reading (helps you learn) de- as in demist, derail

Exercise in compound nouns (Soars and Soars, 1986)

Make as many compounds as you can with these words the second word.

cup/glasses/book/bottle/card/paper/machine
What do you have in your hands for these sports? tennis/golf/fishing/squash/hockey/baseball What do you use to clean or wash the following? your teeth/shoes/clothes/dishes

Multi-word units
Idioms verb + the + object to be + prepositional phrase to be + as + adjective + as + noun Binomials back to front wine and dine in and out sick and tired Trinomials cool, calm, and collected morning, noon, and night hook, line, and sinker

Multi-word units
Fixed expressions gambits: first of all, lets face it, links: that reminds me, another thing responders: I guessed as much, you must be joking closers: nice talking to you, Id better go now

Rank the following sentences in order of difficulty for teaching

1. 2.

3.

4. 5. 6.

He drinks like a fish. Please dont make a scene about it. Women have made their voices heard in recent years in more and more areas of life. That examination was kids stuff. Ive been playing football since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. Hi! Long time no see! How are you?

Collocation
She has a beige car. *She has a blond car *She has beige hair. She has blond hair.
problem amount large shame man

great
big major

Task 1
a laugh
take make have do

a smoke

an experience

a trip

Task 2
Here are some examples of sentences written by learners of English. Identify any odd or unacceptable collocations and suggest alternatives: 1. His books commanded criticism from many people. 2. There was a high difference between the two teams. 3. I am doing this exam because I want to achieve a step in my career. 4. He had been found guilty of some slight crimes. 5. She won many competitions, forming fame in the process. 6. I was very grateful, because he had rescued my life.

strong and weak collocational pairs

The study of planning appeals for similar centres in the past, most of which were rejected, suggests that the future is more hopeful for developersNow that the Secretary of State for the Environment has said that applications should be approved unless there are good reasons against them, many more should succeed.

Variations of same collocational pairs

1.

They rejected my appeal. The rejection of his appeal was a great shock. My application succeeded. She made a successful application. Getting our application approved took ages. You have to submit your application for approval.

2.

Application: (collocates) submit; approve; reject; succeed

Task 3
Pick out typical collocations of the noun phone. He went into a caf and asked if he could use the phone. He dialled Sandras number and waited. Any second now, two hundred miles away, in Sandras flat, her phone, perched on its little mahogany table, would ring with, he hoped, a tone of urgency reflecting his panic. But would she answer it? Or, worse still, had she disconnected it, as she sometimes did when she was working? After what seemed like an eternity it purred into life and began its regulated chirping.

Sense relations
Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations: The plan application scheme proposal was rejected. approved. submitted. accepted.

Synonymy
Consider: are any two words ever truly synonymous in a language?
1.

Two words may be close in meaning and yet not collocate with the same items:
a) The baby began/started to cry as soon as they had left. b) *I couldnt begin my car; the battery was flat. c) *Before the world started, only God existed.

Synonymy
2. Words may have different syntactic behaviour. leave and depart may refer to the same event but with different syntactic restrictions: a) The plane leave/departs from Gatwick not Heathrow. b) We left the house at six. c) *We departed the house at six.

Synonymy
3. Words may belong to different contexts and situations technical/non-technical, speech/writing, formal/informal.

4. Words may be separated by geographical distribution British/American

5. Some words have been superseded by more modern words wireless = radio, aerodrome = airport, for example.

Task 4
Are the following pairs of items exact synonyms which can be interchanged in all contexts? If possible, create example sentences where the words cannot be interchanged. hurry/hasten consider/regard injure/damage pavement/sidewalk exit/way out spud/potato confess/admit

Antonymy
Consider: gradable and ungradable antonyms

Consider: different opposites in different contexts light bag heavy bag light wind strong wind light colours dark colours
rough rough rough rough rough sea calm sea texture smooth texture area quiet area person gentle person calculation precise calculation

Task 5
What are the possible opposites of the words hard and high in these phrases? Which has the most contextual variation? high marks hard exam high opinion hard chair high building hard journey high price hard work high temperature hard person high winds hard drugs

Hyponymy
The relationship of inclusion, organises words into taxonomies, or hierarchical treetype diagrams vehicle van
hatchback

car
saloon

lorry
sedan etc.

etc.

Task 6
Construct hyponymy-trees like the one for car for the following words: tomato hammer bench

Taxonomy-like relationships between words

Walk
stroll amble trudge plod etc.

season spring summer autumn winter

Homonymy
Words that occur in different contexts with different meanings.
Im just off to the bank to deposit a cheque. The bank was steep and overgrown. I know I can bank on her.

homonyms words with the same form but different meanings homophones and homographs

Task 6
How many meanings do the following words have? cap face row /rU/ club bed match

Polysemy
They met at the foot of the mountain. He hurt his foot. Theres a diagram at the foot of the page. Shes head of the department. Ill meet you at the head of the valley. Have you hurt your head?

Task 7
Which of the following sentences can be translated using the L2 word meaning the rear part of the human body? She sat at the back of the class. My back aches from all that work. The index is in the back of the book. Im tired, I want to go back. The back of the chair is broken. The back of your jacket is stained. Open the back of the camera to put the film in.

Teaching vocabulary
How many words can you recall that fit these patterns? sa_________tion dis________ion pro________ion en________ment

Orthographic and phonological shape

How quickly can you call up other English words with similar spelling patterns? pail pale comb loan phone

Word-association
Give the first word that associates in your mind with each of these words: grass Monday big herring sneeze chair

Word-association
Stimulus Salt Butterfly Red Left Butterfly Bright Salt Response pepper moth blue right net red water

Organising vocabulary
Topic Meaning Collocation Form

Pre-teaching
Form and meaning
1. 2. 3. 4. Definition Illustration/exemplification Synonymy hyponymy

Presenting vocabulary

Types of stimuli

Written stimulus with pronunciation practice Visual stimulus (real objects, pictures)

Consider: memorisation techniques keyword technique formal and semantic links between words vocabulary in context learner autonomy

Presenting vocabulary
How easy or difficult is it to present the following words using pictures? accident fascinating greenhouse painful chimney bumper

Task 8
1.

(keyword: tycoon)
T: JR in Dallas. Hes a tycoon. Yes. Hes very rich. Hes got a lot of money. Hes got a lot of influence and a lot of power

2.

(keyword: alter)
T: What do you think we might be able to substitute? S: Change. T: Yeah, change, good.

Task 8
1.

T: Can you tell me what detached means (points to picture)

S1: What detached mean? T: Detached, yes S1: What is what T: It meansask me.. it means alone, not joined together. S1: Siprate T: Now they are togetherdetached, together (mime) S1: Siprate, no? T: Separate. Separate, absolutely, separate?

Task 8
T: And were going to see this. Wherewhat is this place where you go to listen to music or watch S1: Cinema, cinema T: Actors S2: Not cinema T: Cinema is for film S1: Mm S2: film T: But this is live people on stage acting S2: party T: Yes, no S3: Not party T: Its not a party, its a S3: (Arabic for theatre) T: Theatre S3 Theatre T: yes

Metaphor
Argument is war He made a vicious attack on my position. My defences were down. She wont retreat from her position. They bombarded me with objections. I came under fire from all directions.

Metaphor
Love is madness Im crazy about you. He drives me insane. Hes gone all ga-ga since he met her. Love is physical upheaval Hes head-over-heels in love with her. Im walking on air when Im with him. She makes me feel ten feet tall.

Life is a journey/movement through space. Shes reached the end of the road. The turning point At a cross road The road less travelled Emotion is a physical experience My heart aches for him. A pain in the neck.

What words/phrases do you associate with these metaphors in English?