ELT Voices- International Journal for Teachers of English Volume (5), Issue (4), 53-65 (2015)

ISSN Number: 2230-9136

(http://www.eltvoices.in)

Modification of Words and Vocabulary Learning Techniques

1 H. Naseema Parveen,

2 S. Esther Cynthia,

3 Dr. A.S. Mohamed Rafee

1 Research Scholar / B T Asst. in English, PUMM School, Kalmelkuppam, Vellore District, Tamilnadu, India

2 Research Scholar / Asst. Prof. of English, C. Abdul Hakeem College of Engg. & Tech., Melvisharam, Vellore District,

Tamilnadu, India 3 HOD, P.G & Research/Department of English, Mazharul Uloom College, Ambur, Tamilnadu, India

Corresponding email address danielcynthia50@gmail.com

Article reference:

Parveen, H., Cynthia, S. & Rafee, A. (2015). Modification of Words and Vocabulary Learning Techniques. ELT Voices, 5 (4),

53-65.

Abstract: This article explores the modification and significance of a word and a series of changes it undergoes in the form

and meaning thereby originating into new words termed vocabulary. This modification or change occurs when there is an

addition of a unit of a word or morpheme. The process it undergoes in the formation of a new vocabulary, its need and sig-

nificance are clearly stated. Its implication in learning a language and a few recommendations are also discussed with the

help of a few activities. The activities were experimented on rural and semi – urban students who were pursuing engi-

neering courses at tertiary level. These activities helped them in comprehending the meaning and definition of vocabulary

which was wrongly construed by them as high sounding or tough words. They were also able to use the modified words in

different contexts thus developing their communicative competence thereby enhancing their level of confidence.

Index Terms: Modification, Formation, Vocabulary, Activities, Communicative Competence and Confidence.

1. Introduction

This paper focuses on how words play a predominant role in the process of communication and their impact on the listeners

mind. The modified version of a word in its form and meaning when used in different contexts is known as vocabulary. The

emergence of new words from a single root word is like the branches of a tree that are spread in different directions. The

process it undergoes in building a new word enlightens the mind of the learner in perceiving the knowledge of words. This

is very essential for the learners of vocabulary who are aspiring to communicate effectively and confidently. Word

knowledge is not the end of learning a word but its usage in the right context makes the learner an effective communicator.

This in turn develops the fluency rate and confidence of the learners.

“All the words I use in my stories can be found in the dictionary —

it’s just a matter of arranging them into the right sentences”. - Somerset Maugham

2. Literature Review

Vocabulary is a word that undergoes a change in its form by means of inflections to give an appropriate and accurate

meaning to the sentence. The change that it undergoes is called transformation. Transformation creates or gives rise to new

words. These new words when used in different contexts give different meanings. This is called vocabulary.

Parveen, Cynthia & Rafee (2015)

According to Nation (1990), from the late 1980s, vocabulary was an area that had drawn researchers’ interest within the

mainstream of L2 acquisition. Researchers realized that many learners’ difficulties, both receptive and productive, result

from an inadequate vocabulary, and even when they are at higher levels of language competence and performance, they

still feel in need of learning vocabulary. Nation considers it important that learners and teachers know,

“Learning from meaning-focused input is fragile because there are only small gains with each meeting with a new word,

learning is dependent on the quality of reading and listening skills, and learning is affected by background knowledge.

Because of this, large quantities of input are needed for this strand to work well. (p. 2)”

Gu and Johnson (1996) point out that most research on vocabulary learning strategies has focused on various methods

of vocabulary presentation, and their effects on retention. Hatch & Brown (1995), however, discover that vocabulary is

central to language and is of great significance to language learners. Words are the building blocks of a language since

they label objects, actions, ideas without which people cannot convey the intended meaning. The prominent role of vo-

cabulary knowledge in second or foreign language learning has been recently recognized by theorists and researchers in

the field. Accordingly, numerous types of approaches, techniques, exercises and practice have been introduced into the

field to teach vocabulary.

Moreover, Nation (2001) makes clear that vocabulary learning strategies are one part of language learning strategies

which in turn are part of general learning strategies. As well, Oxford (1990) observes that language learning strategies

encourage greater overall self-direction for learners. Self-directed learners are independent learners who are able to as-

sume responsibility for their own learning and gradually gaining confidence, involvement and proficiency. Thus, stu-

dents need training in the vocabulary learning strategies they need most. Research has shown that many learners do use

more strategies to learn vocabulary, especially when compared to such integrated tasks such as listening and speaking.

Yet Schmitt (1997) claims that they are mostly inclined to use basic vocabulary learning strategies. This in turn makes

strategy instruction an essential part of any foreign or second language program. However, a greater knowledge of vo-

cabulary learning strategies could be very useful in supporting teachers to plan their lessons more effectively and give

guidance to students in adopting successful strategies.

Medani (as cited in McCarthy, 1990) did research on the vocabulary learning strategies of both good and poor Arabic

learners of English. He has found out that there is considerable variation in what successful learners did and in what

underachievers did. Successful learners seem to use a wider variety of strategies than the under-achievers. For instance,

the under-achieving learners seemed to practice new words considerably less than good learners. Successful learners

practiced the new words when they had an opportunity (i.e. writing compositions). What’s more, they asked questions

to confirm their knowledge, and tested themselves by going through word lists.

Traditional way of teaching vocabulary using word list that constitutes definitions, L1 meanings, sentences, synonyms

and antonyms has been criticized (kang 1995, Yuan and Lin, 2001). Many scholars have suggested various vocabulary

teaching techniques or instructional strategies such as affliction, collocation and connotation, polysemous words, words

in context, guessing words from context, teaching culture, translation, songs, and dictionary skills to help the students in

learning vocabulary (Nation 1990; Sokmen 1997; Lewis 1993; Kang 1995; Channel 1981; Chia 1996; Huang1997;

Vanniarajan 1997; Parry 1991). Lee1987 employed polysemous vocabulary to make them understand that words often

have multiple meanings in different contexts. She claimed that by effectively teaching polysemous words vocabulary

could be broaden both in quantity and quality without increasing their vocabulary learning burden.

Hsieh (1996) investigated the effect of group work on vocabulary learning. The researcher presented new words to her

ELT Voices-Volume (5), Issue (4), (2015) 55

subject by using word definitions, prefixes, suffixes and roots, word association and semantic mapping. She concluded

in her research that group work is a good instructional strategy and encouraged students to be actively involved in vo-

cabulary learning. Again Hsieh (1999) investigated the effects of pre-reading vocabulary instruction and cultural back-

ground knowledge activation on Taiwanese learners and reading comprehension.

A number of researchers agree that there is very little research carried out in the field of vocabulary learning (e.g., Folse,

2004; Hunt & Beglar, 2005) and that the most effective means of vocabulary learning is still unclear (e.g., de Groot,

2006). In recent years, applied linguists have strongly advocated vocabulary teaching because of the important role it

plays in language learning (Qian, 1999; Zareva, Schwanenflugel & Nikolova, 2005). Vocabulary is necessary for com-

munication and in expressing meaning through the productive and receptive skills. There are many techniques em-

ployed by teachers in teaching vocabulary and they can improve their learners’ knowledge of vocabulary by helping

them in building a large number of words to choose from anytime they want to convey their intended message in dif-

ferent contexts.

Without an extensive knowledge of vocabulary and strategies for learning new words, learners may feel disappointed

and lose their confidence (Nation, 2001). Therefore, it is necessary to familiarize learners with a number of useful

strategies to expand their vocabulary learning and to teach them how they can make use of these strategies. The present

article will introduce two different strategies of teaching vocabulary items to English language learners and provide the

results of a study concerning the use of flash cards and word lists.

According to Seal (1991), there are two types of vocabulary activities: planned and unplanned. In unplanned vocabulary

teaching activities, learners ask for the meaning of words and teachers try to make the meaning clear by using different

strategies such as body language, antonyms, synonyms, pictures, etc. The goal of the teacher is to try to make the

meaning clear for the students. Then the teacher asks questions regarding the problematic words in order to make sure

that the learners have understood their meaning.

Oxford and Scarcella (1994) have divided vocabulary learning activities into three categories: 1) decontextualized, 2)

partially contextualized, and 3) fully contextualized. Decontextualized activities are those vocabulary items which are

removed from the context in which they first appear in and are presented in situations free from any communicative

values (e.g., word lists, flash cards, dictionary look-up). Partially contextualized activities are often termed as intention-

al or planned vocabulary learning or teaching (e.g., word grouping, word association, word elaboration, physical re-

sponse). Finally, fully contextualized activities are supposed to play an important role in vocabulary teaching since they

provide students some opportunities to practice authentic communication such as reading stories, plays, magazines,

newspapers, or letters; listening to the radio; watching TV; participating in conversations; or writing messages with the

purpose of communication in real-life situation.

The researcher is of the view that the strategies and techniques should help the students in communicating fluently and

effectively. In order to put them in practice, words learnt have to be revived every now and then with or without knowing

their meanings. The deliberate usage of learnt words in any context would help in the retention of words. The redundant

use of words in any context to a certain extent (till he/she is comfortable in using it confidently and meaningfully) would

instill confidence and enhance the vocabulary of the learner consciously or unconsciously.

The technique of using the words redundantly and irrelevantly using L1 and L2 to a certain extent till they get ac-

quainted with the words in any context would help them in retention of words and their confident usage in the right

contexts. To see the effectiveness of this technique experiments were conducted on the students of engineering college

Parveen, Cynthia & Rafee (2015)

(non- native speakers of English) who hail from rural and semi- urban background and got a positive output. The tech-

niques used on the students are based on task based approach and were designed by the researcher after conducting a

survey on the environmental and family background of the students and grading their level of comprehension and com-

munication by means of a pilot study.

3. Methodology

3.1. Techniques for Retention and Confident Usage of Vocabulary

Before the start of each activity pre-test was administered to both control and experimental group. Later these two groups

were taught using different methods by two different teachers. During the activity the samples interest, anxiety, motivation

and confidence level were observed and recorded to analyze the effectiveness of the strategies implemented on them.

3.2. Conventional Methods

In the conventional method students were dealt with the activities like ‘word drill’. In this activity students were divided in

to two groups. Each group is provided with a list of words. Later, one group was instructed to read the words aloud and the

other to read its meanings. This process of reading the words and their meaning aloud went on until the list of words got

over. The second groups were asked to exchange the list and continue the same process till they were familiar with all the

words and their meanings. Finally, the teacher conducted quiz and awarded the marks. The group that scored high was the

winner.

In the second activity “Frame Sentences” a text passage highlighting few words in bold letters was distributed to the stu-

dents. They were asked to comprehend the passage and frame sentences using the words highlighted in bold letters. One

representative from each group was called out to present the words in sentences and awarded marks accordingly.

3.3. Modified Techniques

The experiment was conducted on 80 semi urban and rural engineering students who are non-native speakers of English. In

order to test their English proficiency pilot study was conducted on the first year engineering students. Based on the marks

they were divided under 3 categories namely - future achievers [0 - 35%] mediocre [36 - 60%] and advanced learners [61 -

85%]. Out of 100 students [46+53+01], 46 students fell under the category of future achievers; 53 students fell under me-

diocre category and 01 student came under advanced learners. The research scholar selected the mediocre category for ex-

perimentation.

In order to divide the students into two equal groups the researcher decided to take 60 students for the experimental study

by randomly selecting 6 students from future achievers group; 53 from mediocre group and 1 from advanced group. Later,

they were divided into two groups’ experimental and controlled group. 30 students were taught vocabulary through con-

ventional methods on controlled group and 30 were taught vocabulary through modified techniques on the experimental

group.

The below mentioned activities were experimented on experimental groups. The activities are as follows.

3.3.1. Material Design:

Non-technical vocabulary 30 words were taken as target words. For each activity 15 words were assigned. The words

which are of use in day-to-day activities were selected from Corpus of Contemporary American English [COCA].

3.3.2. Activity No: 1 PAIR AND GUESS

Objective: To make them learn the non-technical words very comfortably and playfully helping them in longer retention

and appropriate usage.

Tools used: 15 Non-Technical Words, LCD Projector and Flash Cards.

Time: 2 periods of 50 minutes duration.

ELT Voices-Volume (5), Issue (4), (2015) 57

Procedure:

At the initial stage, experimental group students were divided into three groups of five members. They were given five

words with a wide range of meanings written on the flash cards. They were asked to match the meanings by guessing. Later

they were asked to plot a story or an incident based on the given words not caring for their exact meaning. They were in-

structed to use all the given words as the maximum usage of words equals to maximum marks. Fifteen minutes were allot-

ted to prepare and present. In the next stage, the researcher discussed the words and gave them the right meanings through

slide presentation. They were asked to check the meaning and usage of the words written in the story that was plotted by

them in groups. Simultaneously, they were also asked to correct the same and present. In the third stage, they were asked to

give the feedback on the difference and difficulties faced in presenting both the times. Their feed backs were noted. Later

they were suggested to use the learnt words relevantly or irrelevantly in the context of their own until they get acquainted

with the words. After giving some exposure to the learnt words by using them irrelevantly in the context they were in-

structed to use the words in the right context to gain confidence. In the last stage, they were asked to use them appropriately

and accurately i.e. without any syntactic errors.

This step by step process helped the students not only in retention but also in the rightful and confident usage of words in

the right contexts.

3.3.3. Activity No: 2 SENSE OUT OF NONSENSE

Objective:

To teach sentence formation

To identify the words based on parts of speech

To help them use the words learnt in different contexts.

Tools used: 15 non- Technical Words, Text Passages, Activity Papers and Colour Sketch Pens.

Time: 2 periods of 50 minutes duration.

Procedure

In this activity the researcher distributed different text passages to the students and asked them to underline the parts of

speech and even the phrases with different colour sketch pens. Then, she supplied an activity paper and instructed to pick

out the parts of speech and write under the relevant heading. A sample activity sheet is given below in the table no. 1

Table no: 1

Noun

(1)

Adjective/

Adjectival

Phrase

(2)

Pronoun /

Relative

Pronoun

(3)

Verb

(4)

Adverb /

Adverbial

Phrase

(5)

Preposition/

Prepositional

Phrase

(6)

Conjunc-

tion/ Rela-

tive

Clause

(7)

Interjection

(8)

Protection Colour she Accept exclusively of Because -

Later, the researcher gave them eight digit numbers randomly from 1 to 8 to each group for e.g. 75148263 and asked them

to arrange the words as per the number given to them and try to make as many sentences as possible based on the sentence

pattern, if necessary they can change the tense form. They are given liberty to use articles and other things to make the sen-

tence sensible. But they should stick to the words given to them. The group which came out with sensible sentences was

awarded scores accordingly.

E.g. Because Exclusively Protection Accept Colour of She [75148263]

She exclusively accepted the colour because of protection.

Parveen, Cynthia & Rafee (2015)

To make it more interesting the researcher conducted quiz and marks were awarded based on their performance. This activ-

ity helped the students to locate the words properly by identifying parts of speech and to use them appropriately in various

contexts with the help of inflections.

Table no. 2 below and a bar chart give a clear picture on the comparative study of both experimental and controlled groups

based on the percentage of marks using Mann-Whitney Test.

4. Result & Findings

4.1. Findings and Inference

From the above data (table no.2) and bar chart it is given to understand that in the pre-tests both the groups were at the

same level and scored less than 40% as their English proficiency level was similar and they were not acquainted with the

words and their usage.

In the first activity, experimental group students (17) secured more than 60%, 11 students secured between 41-60% and 2

students secured less than 40%. This was due to the step by step process of the modified technique giving more exposure to

words and the liberty to use as they like in the context until they get familiarized with the words and using them aptly after

acquiring the knowledge of the words. Whereas in the traditional method, all the 30 students secured less than 40% as they

were not much exposed to words they were only recalling the words by repeating and reading aloud.

In the second activity, 3 students from experimental group scored above 60%, 19 students secured between 41-60% and 8

students secured less than 40% in the post tests. It was because they were given some creative activity where they have to

think and identify the parts of speech by referring dictionary, if necessary and structuring the sentence by placing and

transforming words to fit in the right place in the right context. In the traditional method 17 students scored less than 40%, 11

students secured between 41-60% and 2 students scored above 60%. The reason was that they were not able to frame them

properly in the sentences as they had problem in the changing the form of the words and placing them in the right order.

From this it is given to understand that experimental group students were given multiple exposures to words when compared

to controlled group students. The performance of experimental group students was better than controlled group students as

the modified techniques used on them proved to be of great help in understanding the word and using them in the right context

which not only gained their confidence but also helped them in longer retention.

5. Conclusion

A word undergoes a change when it is used in different contexts. This change is essential to coin new words and their

meanings. Otherwise, the word becomes static in nature and would have a limited meaning. This modification gives rise

to plethora of words and meanings their changes according to the usage in the context. This process of modification of

words not only enriches the vocabulary but also helps to form a grammatically correct sentence structure. The modified

techniques used in this study for retention and confident usage of words helped the students to communicate better with

their peers and superiors. This in turn gave them the confidence to face the job interview intrepidly. The teacher before de-

signing a task must consider the level of comprehension and the educational background of the students to design a task.

Moreover, students must be taken into confidence in preparing the material and selection of words. This would make

learning simple, easy and effective.

ELT Voices-Volume (5), Issue (4), (2015) 59

References

Ellis, Rod, Language Teaching Research, Vol. 4, No. 3, 193-220 (2000)

DOI: 10.1177/136216880000400302

Gorman, W., Heller, L.G. (1964), Psychological Significance of Words, Psychoanal, Rev.,51A:5-14.

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Researchers Edwards, Corony and Willis, Exploring Task in English Language Teaching, Jane. Palgrave Macmillan publi-

cation.

Yule, George, The study of Second Language, Words and words formation process. Cambridge University Press.

Websites

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Task-based_language_learning (15 oct 2011)

Nielsen, Brian, A Review of Research into Vocabulary Learning and Acquisition, [online] Available:

http://www.kushiro-ct.ac.jp/library/kiyo/kiyo36/Brian.pdf (21 Nov 2011)

Lehr, Fran, “A Focus on Vocabulary, [online] Available:

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http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/rfl/april2010/articles/coxhead.pdf

Parveen, Cynthia & Rafee (2015)

Table no. 2

COMPARISON BETWEEN THE PERCENTAGE OF MARKS

IN PRE & POST TESTS USING MANN-WHITNEY TEST

TEST GROUPS

LESS

THAN

40%

41

TO

60 %

ABOVE

60%

Mann-Whitn

ey test

P-VALUE SIG

PRE1

EXPERIMENTAL 30 NIL NIL

1.734 0.83 NS

CONTROL 30 NIL NIL

POST1

EXPERIMENTAL 2 11 17 3.61 0 S**

CONTROL 7 20 3

PRE2

EXPERIMENTAL 29 1 NIL

1.937 0.053 NS

CONTROL 30 NIL NIL

POST2 EXPERIMENTAL 8 19 3

2.827 0.005 S*

CONTROL 17 11 2

ELT Voices-Volume (5), Issue (4), (2015) 61

Bar chart