How to Put Words to Work1

7/30/2019 How to Put Words to Work1

1/13

to put words

oo

workIntegratingne w knowledge into oldDecision-makingasksProductiontasksGames

Integratingnew

knowledgeinto old

Decision-making tasks

Traditionally, the presentation of new language items would swlftly !efollowed by the prictice of these tems.This practicewould typically take-the form of somi of kind of oral repetition, such as a drill. This notion ofmechanical practice underlies the popular belief that 'practice makesperfect'.However,as we saw n Chapter 2, simply repeatingnewly learnedwords is no guarantee hat they will move from the short-term memorystore nto permanentmemory.New knowledge i.e. new words - needs obe integraied nto existingknowledge i.e. the learners'existingnetwork ofword associations, r what we called he mental lexicon. As we alsosaw nthe discussionon memory, there is a greater ikelihood of the word beingintegratednto this network f many'deep'decisions avebeenmadeaboutit. In other words, to ensure ong-term retention and recall, words need tobe'put to work'.They need o be placedn workingm9m9ry, andsubjectedto diff.rent operations.Such operationsmight include: being taken apartand put back togetheragain,being compared, ombined,matched,sorted,visualisedand relshuffled,aswell asbeing repeatedly iled awayand recalled(since he more often a word is recalled,he easier ecallbecomes)'n thischapterwe will look at ^ rangeof activity tJpes designed o do just that'They might bestbe thought of as ntegration activities, ather than'practiceactivitiestor 'reinforcement activities', since both these latter terms haveassociationswith a more mechanical, ess cognitive, approach o languageteaching.There are many different kinds of tasks that teacherscan set learners norder to help move words into long-term memory.Some of these askswillrequire more brain work than others. That is to say, hey will be morecognitivelydemanding.Tasks n which learnersmake decisionsaboutwords."n b. divided into the following types,roughly arranged n an order fromleastcognitivelydemandingto most demanding:' identifying. selecting' matching

93


2/13

Howto Teach ocabulary

' sortrng. ranking and sequencingThe more of these ask types that can be performed on a set of words thebetter. In other words,-an identification task could be followed by amatching task,which in turn could be followed by a ranking task.

Idend$ng words simply means inding them where they may otherwisebe'hidden',suchas n texts.W Here, for example,are some identification tasks relating to the texti ' Fearof Ftying (on page 42). Give the learners he text and ask hem to:

' Count the number of timesplane(s)and train(s) occur n the text.' Find four words connectedw\thflying in the text.' Find five phrasalverbs n the text.' Find eight comparativeadjectivesn the text.' Underline all the words ending in -ing in the text.Ask them to readthe text, then turn it over,and then ask:' 'Did the following words occur in the text?'

busy crowded fast dangerousuncomfortabledirty convenient inconvenientnoisy. 'Now checkthe text to see f you were right.'

Listening out for particularwords in a spokenor recorded ext is alsoa formof identiflcation activity.Below is a selectionof identification tasksbasedonthis text:ffi OK, that's Mr Brown. He's wearing a iacket and trousers, no tie, and7 he's talking to the woman with the long dark hair - she's wea,ringablack dress.Now Mrs Brovrn s over there. she's wearinga skilt and ablouse, and she's talking to a tau man with fair hair. And thelr son,Richard ... Xgs, here he is, he's over in the corner.He's wearingieansand a T-shirt - he's the onewith very shorbhair.

(fromDoff A andJonesC, Languagen lJse BeginnerWorkbook),UP). List all the clothes tems that you hear.' Raiseyour hand when you heara clothes tem'' Put these tems in the order that you hear them:

blouse ti e skirt jeans jacket T-shirt dress. Tick the items that you hear:

blouse shoes tie shorts skirt socks jeansT-shirt dress trousers suit shirt

trousersjacket ha t

. Listen for clotheswords and write them in the correctcolumn:

94


3/13

6 . How o outwordso work

Identification is also he processearnersapply in tasks n which they haveto unscrambleanagrams suchas utis,snaje, ti - for suit,eans, ie), ot whenthey have to search or words in a'word soup', such as the following (alsoftom Languagen Ue):

Selecting tasksare cognitivelymore complex han identification tasks,sincethey involve both recognisingwords and making choices amongst them.This may ake he form of choosing he'odd one out', as n this task(again,basedon the lexicalset ofclothes):

95

What aretheseclothes n English?The answers real l in the wordsquare.

S H I R T O SJ A C K E T HA T C J N J OT R O U E RI D A M W A TE X T P U N SO D R E S S JS K I R T U PS U S U I T )

ILn ll ' ll ' ll t lt tl-ltUE


4/13

How to Teach ocabulary

,ffi' Chooseheodd oneout n each roup:socks jeansskirt ti esuit shorts

'l23

trousersb louseT-shirt

T-shirtdresstrainersNote that with this kind of aciviry. thereWhat is important is that learnersareabletheir answer. t is the coqnitive work that

is no 'r!ght'answer necessarily.to justify their choice,whatevercounts - not getting the rightanotheropen-ended electionask,with a personarisedlement:

answef.Here is

Another useful selecting ask that can be applied to anyvocabulary essonis:: - * ^11* Lhoose frve (.or en or twenty) words from this lesson o learn.Thinkof how you will demonst'ate in the nextclass that you have earnedthem.

The samekind of taskcan be appliedto any ext that the learnershavereador listened o' And, as a.wayof recyclingvocaburarytems from previouslessons,earnerscan select-words"frotri their notlbook, to test' theirclassmatest the beginningof each esson.

96

I Work n pairs.Chooseive wordsto describeourself.Useadictionaryf necessary.

Think f otherwords oucanuse.honest,riendly...Discussourchoice f wordswithyourpanner.I thinkI'rn usuallyoptirTtistic.And I'*t alaays politelDoes elshe greewithyou?

2 Thinkof threepeople ouadmire erymuch. hey anbepol ticiantmusicians,portspersonalitiestc.or people ouknowpersonally.hooseheperson ouadmiremostandthinkof threeadjectivesodescribehisperson.Then hoosehe second ndthirdperson ouadmire ndthinkof threemoread.jectivesfor each ersono explainwhy.

from Greenall S, RewardP re n e med a e, MacmiTlanHeinemann


5/13

6 . How o putwords o work

A matching task nvolves irst recognisingwords and then pairing themwith - for example a visual representation,a translation, a synonym' anantonym,a definition, or a collocate.As an exampleof this last type, here sa verb-noun matching task:

ly.erht

Pelmanism is a memory gamewhich involvesnothing but matching.wordpairs (or picture-word matches)are printed on indMdual cards*f,i.h"r.lacedface_own in a random distribution. Players ake turns to pick up acard and then search or its partner. If they iorrectly locate the partner

liry.ofy llr Suesswork, ut,.as-thegameprogresses, y'rememberingwhereindividual cardsare ocated), they keep the !air, and"haveanother-turn. If

97

WORD PAIRRACEIn fiveminutes,write asmanycorrect airsofverb+nounphrasesspossible.

from Oxenden C andLatham-KoenigC,Englisb FileIntennediate, OUP


6/13


not, they lay the cards face down where they found them, and the nextplayet has a"turn. The player with the -ort p"irc at the end of the game sthe winner. Typical pairs might be:. antonyms (tall - short, tbick - thin, dark - Iight, etc.)' British and American equivalents bill - check,harmacy drugstore,ift -elevator, tc.),or. collocations wide + autake, tark+ nakedrfast+ asleep, tc.)lgrting activities require learnersto sort words into different categories.The categoriesfan either_begiven,or guessed.Here is an example]of th"former (from Thornbury S, High igh Pre In terme iate,Heinemann)

Word field: characteristics2 put theseadjectives nto two groups - positive and negative.

emotional friendly good-humoured outgoingconfident ambitious rude self-centredoffensive kind selfish nice,R Here is an activity in which learners at a fairly advancedevel) decide' 1 the categorieshemselves:

Put thesewords into four groupsof three words each.Then, think ofa title for each group.goal net piece club racket shoot board greencourt hole pitch referee check serve tee move

Now; can you add extrawords to eachgrouplFinally, ranking and sequencing activities equire earners o put the wordsinto somekind of order.This may involve arrangingthe words on a cline:for examplg,adverbsof frequency (akuays,soietimes, never,occasionally,often,etc). Or learnersmay be asked o rank items according o preference:F. Imagine you have ust moved into a completely empry flat. You canlfford lo buy one pieceof furniture a week.Put ihe following items inthe order in which you would buv them:

fridge be d desk dining able sofawardrobe chair dishwasher bookcase cookerwashingmachine chest f drawersNour,compareyour list with anotherstudentand explainyour order. fyou were sharing he flat together,would you agree?f not, makea newlist that you both agreeabout.

Here is an exampleof a ranking activiry (from MorganJ and Rinvolucri M,Vocabulary,9up) that can be adapted o differenf levelsby changing theselectedwords:98


7/13

6 . Howto put words o worK

Ordering items chronologically s anotherway of getting students o makejudgementsaboutwords.For example:K Put the following words in the order n which they typically happen n' your countryl

graduate get married be born ge t divorced get engageddie retire leave ome have hildren re-marry startschoolAny sequence f activities- from starting a c r to bufng a home - lendsitself to the same reatment.Here, for example,s a task that focuseson thelanguage of at travel (from Garton-Sprenger J and Greenall S, FlyingColours , Heinemann):

99

D/13 Classifying nowledgeIntermediate o Advanced20-30minutes

lN CLASS I Put the srudentsn threes nd ask hem o rank the following ypesof skill&nowledge(a)for their usefulnessn everyday ife; (b) in termsofthe valueofqualificationshar might begainedhroughacquiringsuchknowledge.toothcare soilchemisuy surgety psychiany arithmeicmicro-computing hniting geometty plaincookerydarning leaguefootball litaaty ritbisn musicnuclearphysics cordon leucoohay popmusicsewicing mow car ancicntGreek carpsntryroadsafety fUinsintaxforms2 Ask the hreeso come ogether nto ninesandcompare heirrankings.

Vork in pairs.Think about what peopledo when they travel by plane.Put the action$below n the correct column.after the flight

leave he planelandunfastenyour seatbeltgo into the departure oungego to the departuregatefastenyour seatbeltgo through passporrcontrol

check ncollectyour baggagego through passport ontrollisten o the safety nstructionsgo through customsboard he planego into the arrivalshall

Number the actions n the orderpeopledo them.

-J--


8/13

How o Teach ocabulary

Productiontasks

Note that there may notbe a'right answer'ina rank)ngor sequenLing askbut that the exerciseof makinglhe choicesand - evenbetter - comparingthem with a classmate'shoices,s good'brain work'.

The decision-makingtasks we have been looking ^t .arc principallyreceotive: earnersrn-"k. irrdq.mentsabout words' but don't necessarilyorod.r.. them. (Of .o,rrr., thiy can then becomeproductiontasksby theii-pf. expedientof inviting the learners o talk a6out these udgements.)H#.u.r,'t"sks that are prJductive from the outset are those in which thelearnersarerequired o incorporate he newly studied.words.nto some kindof speakingor writing activity.These can be classifiedasbeing of two maintypes:' completion of sentencesnd texts' creation ofsentences nd textsSentenceand text completion tasksare what are more generallyknown asgap-fills They arerrrr"lly writing tasksand thgr 11eoften used n tests seebhuot., 8) as'they"r . ."ry to dJsignand mark.They havemany differentforrriats. ut a basicdistinction "n-b. madebetweenoPenandclosedgap-fills.The open type is one where the learner ills the_gaps.by rawing ontheir mental exicon.(There may be a clue, hough, suchas he first letter ofthe word.) In a closedgap-fil|, on the other hand, the words.areprwided,in the form of a ist at tf,e'beginningof the exercise,or example. t is simplya matter of decidingwhich word goes n which gaP-'Here are som. e"ample nstruciions or openand closedgap-filltasks:

' Complete the text by writing an appropriateword in.each^spag9:,GretaGarbo, he swedish-born ilm ,wasborn in 1905.Shewona scholarship o drama school,where she earnedto _. ln 7924 afilm directoi choseher for a -in a Swedish ilm called" ''. Choose he bestword from the list to completeeachsentence.-Jse

eachword once ... Selectwords rom the list to complete hesesentences.ote that therearemorewordsthan sentences... Choose words from the text you have just read to complete thesesentences..' Choose he bestword to completeeachsentence:

1 When I feel ired,I cant stop-..abd

sneezngyawnmgcoughingweepmgNote that the lastexample s amultiple choice task.These arcvery popularwith designers f vocabularyests seeChapter8) .

100


9/13


In completion tasks, he context is provided,and it is simply a matter ofslotting tire right word in. Sentenceand text creation tasks, however,require"learnerJto reate he contexts or givenwords.Here aresomeq?icaitask nstructions:. IJse each of thesewords to make a sentencewhich clearly shows hemeaningof the word.' ChoosJsixwords from the list andwrite a sentence singeachone.. IJse each of these words to write a true sentenceabout yourself orsomeoneyou know.. Write a short narrative(or dialogue)which includesat least ive wordsfrom the list.

Taskssuch as these ead naturally into speakingactivities- either readingaloud or performing dialogues o the class,or comparing and explainingsentencesn pairs Jr small groups.These activities involve many of thepfocesseshai serve o prornoteretention n long-term memory' such asrehearsal,epetition and explanation.Not all cieation activitiei need start as writing tasks.Here is a speakingtask (also ftom Flying Colours ) which requires earners o cfeatesentencesusingpre-selectedocabulary:

Vork in pairs.Ask andsayhow you feelaboutyour town or village.I love t. It'sal l ight. I can't tandt.rUflhichof the followingadjectivesanyou use o describeour town orvillage?interesting boring annoying depressing frightening marvellousbeautiful peaceful noisy livelyCanyou explainwhy?I find t boringbecausehere's othing o do n theevenings'

The useof questionnairess a goodway of putting vocabulary o work in theform of question-and-answerexchanges.Many areasof vocabulary lendthemselvei to some kind of questionnaireor survey.The samevocabularyitems n the preceding xample ouldbe usedas he basisof a questionnaireor survey.,ffi Students can preparea survey using these examplesas a model:

1 Is your hometown boring or interesting?Why?2 Do you find big cities:depressing,nteresting,lively r noisyl Whytetc.They then ask each other their prepared questions, and report theresults to the class, using full sentences,such as Mario thinks hishometozans interesting ecauset basa lot of historical nonurnents.

1 0 1


10/13

How to Teach ocabularY

Games While the title of this chapter s 'How to put words to work', it would bewrong to suggest hat vocabulary earning has to be all work and no pfay.Langiage pla]', including word gamgs,has a long_history..Children of all..t1tir.rlr".*'to enjoygamerof ihe 'I rpy ...' or 'Hangmari,tyge,,andthereis a long tradition of adult word games,a number of which have beenadapted-for elevision.Most first-languageword gamesl_t_TtftIcomfortablyto th. second-language lassroom.The most useful will be those that areconsistentwith thi principlesof learningoutlinedon pag_es4 and25.Forexample, he more often i word is successfullye-trievedrom me_moryheeasiei it becomes to recall it. Therefore, useful games are those thatencourageearners o recall words and, preferably,at_ peed.Or,.consistentwith thE principle that learners need to make multiple. decisions aboutwords,a usefulgamewould be one like a'dictionary Iace',wherestudentsfirst sort words into alphabeticalorder,then into parts of speech,and theninto lexical sets the fitrt gto.tp to completeall three tasks correctlybeingthe winner.However,sincemany word gamesdeal solelywith isolated rather thancontextualised wordi, and often require only shallow processingon thepart of the learner, hey should be used ydiciously. The time spnt on aiingle de-contextualisedword in a gryneof 'Hangman',.for example,has tobe veighed up against he more productive,contextualisedand cognitivelydeep aitivitiei o,itlined earlier in this chapter.Too ^o_fte1"T:t are used oplug holes n lessonswhich could more usefullybe filled with language-richiakl Nevertheless,he fun factor may help make words more memorable,and, ike it or not, a competitive element often serves o animate even themost ethargicstudents.So,here aresomeword games o try:& Word clap: Studentsstand or sit in a circle,and, ollowing the teacher'slead,maintaina four-beat hythm,clapping heir handson their thighsthree imes (one-two-tht.. ...) and then both hands ogether four!).The game should start slowly, but the pace of the clapping can

gradually ncrease. he idea is to take turns, clockwise, o shout out af,iff.r.rri word from a pre-selected exical set (for example, ruit andvegetables)on every fourth beat. Playerswho eithet repeata wordalriadyused,or break he rhythm - or saynothing - are'out'and thegameresumeswithout them, until only one playeiis left. The teacherfan change he lexical set by shouting out the name of a new set atstrategicpoints: Furniture!Nationalities! obs!etc..#. Categories: Learners work in pairs or small groups. On a piece of' paper]theydrawup a numberof columns'accordingo a modelon theboard, eaih colurtn labelledwith the name of a lexical set: e'g.fruit,transport,clothes, nimals,sports.The teachercalls out a letter of thealphabet e.g.B/), and to i time limit (e.g. hree minutes),students*iit" do*n ar many-ords as hey canbeginningwith that letter in theseparate olumns (banana,berry;bus;bihini, blouse; ear,baf, baseball,bisketbatt...).The groupwith the most (correct)wordswins'

102


11/13

6 . How to put words o work

..w Noughts and crosses:Draw nvo noughts and crossesgrids on theboard:

ffin

One is blank. In the other eachsquare s labelledwith a category,orwith nine differentphrasal erb pirticles (up,on,o.ffi n, back, tc), ornine differentaffixei (un-, non-,'-less,tion,-etc).Piipare a numberofquestions relating to each category. For example (if the class ismonolingual):How do you say'tamburo'n English?Or, Wb-ats theobbositef in.'e Divide ihe class nto two teams:noughts and crosses.ffre object is to take turns choosing a category and answering aquestio; in this categorycorrectlyso as o earn he right to place heirteam'ssymbol in thE .brt"sponding position in the blank grid. Thewinning team is the first to ireate a line of three (noughtsor crosses),either virtically, horizontally,or diagonally.Coffeepot: This is a guessing game. One learner answrsyes/noquestio;s rom the restofthe clasi(or group)aboutaverb that shehasthought of, or that the teacherhaswhisperedto her. I-n t\e questionsthe #ord coffeepotissed n placeof the mysteryverb.So, orcxample,studentsmighl askDo you cffiepot indoors r outdoors?_k.cffiep.ottingeasy r difficult?Canyoi cofeipoiuith your bands? tc. f the verb thatthJ srudJirthas seleciedsyawnthe aniwerswould be:Both ndoors ndoutdoors;t's easy;No, ou ian't, but you might use our hands.. To makethe gameeasieia list of, tay, 'tenty verbscan-beput on the board andthe [erson who is 'it' chooses ne of them' This can alsobe played npalrs.Back to board: This is another guessinggame' but this time thestudent who is 'it' has to guessa word by asking the rest of the classquestions.The student siis facing the class,back to the board; thetlacher writes a recentlystudiedword or phraseor idiom on the board,out of sight of the student.The student asksdifferent studentsyes/noor eitherTorquestions n order to guess he word. For example,.H-4go:is it a verb o7a noun?(A'uerb.) Dittrnar, is it an action?(No.) Karl-Heinz, is t sometbingou do with your rnind?(Y:t.) .. etc.To maketheqame easier, he wJr"dschosencan be limited in somew^y - e.g. allfhrasalverbs;all character djectives,nd so on'

w

103


12/13


104

,p,Pictionary@:Basedon the commercialised ame of the samename'this involvesstudentsguessingwords or phrases rom drawings.Theywork in teams,eachmemberof the team akingturns to be the'artist'.If there are three teams, or example, he three artists'go to the frontof the classwhere he teacher hows hem a word (or phrase) n a card.At a cue, hey quickly return to their group and try to get their groupto correctlyguess he word by drawing it with pen and paper.The firstteam o guess orrectlyearnsa point, and hreenew'artists'have turnwith another word. This is good for reviewing idiomatic expressions'such as greenraith envy, down in the dumps,under he zaeather,n thedark,over hemoon.Atthe end of the game,groupscanuse he picturesas memory prompts in order to recall and write down the expressionsthat cameup in the g me, and then to put them into a sentenceoshowwhat they mean.Word snap:Usingword cards e.g. rom the classword bag or wordbox (seepage 51) - studentswork in small groups,with the aim ofcollectingasmany word'pairs'aspossible.One player'deals'vvowordcards, aCe p, so that everyonecan read hem.The first player o thinkof a way the words are connectedgets to keep the pair, and two morewords are laid down. A connectioncould be: same part of speech;synonyms or antonyms; same lexical set; or, simply, a meaningfulsentenceanbe madeusingboth words. f no connection anbe made,the two cardsare shuffledback nto the pack.The teacherwill need obe availableo decide n the case f connections eing'challenged'.Word race: The class s divided into teams and each eam is given aboard marker pen (or pieceof chalk).The board is divided into asmany sections s hereare eams. he teacher or a specially ppointedstudent)says word in the students'language,nd he first team o getthe correctEnglish ranslation n to the boardearnsapoint.The gamecontinues or as manywords as t is felt necessaryo review.The gameis suitable or a monolingual class, ut a variation of it, which would besuitable for multilingual classes,would be to read out definitions ofwords,or give synonymsor show pictures, ather than give translations.Spellingrace: The board is divided in two halves,and a representativefrom each of two teams standsat the board with a board marker penor chalk.The teachershows he rest of the classa word on a card.Theteams must simultaneously spell (not say) the word to theirrepresentative, ho cannotsee he word. The first team to get the wordon to the board with its correct spellingearnsa point. The gamecontinues with different students taking turns to be the teamrepresentative. his game s more difficult ihan it sounds,especiallyfwords are chosen hat include letters which are frequently confusedsuch as i and e, v and b, and g. Lots of variations of this game^repossible. he word could be displayedas a picture,so that the teamshave o decidewhat the word is before spelling t.

,,

W

,1.\


13/13

Conclusions

Looking ahead


The above is by no means an exhaustive ist of_word games, but isrepresentative f tottt" genericgame tyPes'guessingbeing one of the mostfavoured. Used with discretio-n,prr*ing words to play is a valid andenjoyableway of putting words to work.

In this chapterwe looked at classroom ctivit iesdesigned o integratenewly acquiredwords into the learner'smental lexicon.Ke y principlesunderlyingsuchactivitiesare th e importanceof :r making successiveecisions bout words. productiveaswell as receptive asks. th e judiciousus eof highly engagingactivities uc hasgamesDecision-makingasks nclude he following types:o identif cationr selectingo matchingo sorting. rankingand sequencingProduction asksca n be divided nto those ha t require:. completionof sentences nd texts. creationof sentences nd textsGames hat draw attention to newly learnedwords often encouragerecal l hrough guessing nd categorising.

In Chapter1 we estab lishedhat words both 'contain'other words (ashead ii contained n ahead),and that a word-l ike unit may in factconsistof severalwords (as n head andshouldersor a head starf). lnfact, there seems o be a continuumof 'wordiness"from individualsyl lables, p to what are now commonly al led exical hunks. hisexpandednotion of what a word is - and how it impactson teaching- is the subjectof the next chapter.

ILII

105

Documents

How to Put Words to Work1