Vocabulary Acqusition Through Reading

7/30/2019 Vocabulary Acqusition Through Reading

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Masaryk University

Faculty of Arts

Department of Englishand American Studies

English Language and Literature

Navot Laufer

Vocabulary Acquisition Through ReadingBachelors Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: James Edward Thomas M.A

2011


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I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently,

using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

..Authors signature


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Acknowledgement

I would like to thank all my former students in The Czech Republic, Japan and

Israel for inspiring me to write this thesis. I would especially like to thank those of them

who showed me that it is possible to learn a second language and reinforced in me the

belief that critical and independent thought is at the heart of the human spirit.

I would also like to thank my instructor, James Edward Tomas and Niki Fotov

for their assistance and kind advice along the long and winding road of writing this

thesis.

Most of all I would like to thank my partner for life, Lenka Votov, and my son

Samuel, for tolerating me during the last two years.


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Table of Contents

Introduction

Part One - What is involved in knowing a word

What is a word

Function words

Content words

Lemma

Polysemy

Delexiclaised verbs

Word families

Collocation

Interlanguage

Chunking

What is involved in knowing a word

Part TwoVocabulary Acquisition

Learning strategies

Acquisition versus learning

Noticing

Inferrencing

Breadth of vocabulary versus depth of vocabulary

Reading as a source of vocabulary for acquisition

The ObservationHypothesis - Experiment cycle


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Graded Readers

Text from Jojos Story, Chapter OneOnly Me

Part 3Classroom applications

General Comments

Work sheet 1word patterns

Work sheet 2inferring meaning

Work sheet 3collocation

Works cited


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Introduction

The aim of this thesis is to develop classroom procedures which would provide

secondary school students at lower levels (elementary, pre- intermediate) with skills for

effective vocabulary learning. More precisely, it would focus on the ability to acquire

vocabulary through reading.

Awareness of the complexity of vocabulary, its value to students as well as the

important role of reading as a means of increasing vocabulary knowledge has grown in

EFL in recent years. However, course books for elementary level students still lack

training students to notice vocabulary in texts. This is unfortunate because most students

are exposed to everyday English on TV, radio, newspapers and popular culture. The

idea for this thesis was stimulated by two people at a secondary school I used to teach at

in Mohlnice. The first was the headmaster, a teacher of German, who told me that

students must be drilleed in order to imprint the grammar in their mind and after this has

been achieved everything is plain sailing. For him language was no more than

grammar and the ability to use the language to communicate outside the classroom was

irrelevant. The second person who inspired me was a student who was unable to create a

simple question in the Present Perfect tense. Her handbag, which she had brought with

her into class, had the phrase Emily. Have you seen this girl? printed on it in large

golden letters. It seemed to me that the headmaster did not know what to teach and the

student did not know how to study. I was not surprised later when a placement test

taken by all students at school showed that during their 3 years of English studies, the

average student did not improve his or her English at all. Clearly, something is wrong;

something must be done differently.


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In my thesis I suggest classroom procedures which aim at training students to

infer the meaning of unknown words as well as to notice collocations and patterns in a

text. There are two goals to this: in the short term to increase students knowledge of

vocabulary, while in the long term it is to train the students to do these by themselves.

Both would thus increase their ability to use English in their future lives for work,

studies travel and so on. First, however, some definitions and concepts must be

considered.


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Part Onewhat is involved in knowing a word

What is a word?

The concept ofwordis not simple to define. The Cobuild Intermediate

Dictionary defines a word as a single unit of language in writing or speech. In English,

a word has a space on either of it side when it is written. This however, is not always

true. There are cases when a single unit of language is not separated from other single

units by spaces. I shall elaborate this further when I discuses multi word units and

Lexemes or Lemmas.

When a lower level student encounters the sentence there was a man standing

right over there they may be quite confused: The first word there caries very little

meaning, if any. This is demonstrated by its redundancy:A man was standing. On the

other hand the second there has a full meaning demonstrated by the changing of

meaning of the sentence if we replaced it with here: there was a man standing right

over here. This demonstrates that a word may or may not carry meaning. A word,

therefore, performs a certain function within an utterance which may be of carrying

information, or part of it, but it could also perform various other functions with or

without meaning.

Function words

The words there, was, a and others such as have, on, at and so on, perform a

certain function within the sentence rather than simply signaling meaning. The function

they perform is referred to as grammar. There are approximately 270 function word

types (176 word families) [which] account for 4344% of running words in most texts

(Johnson and Hofland, 1989; Francis and Kuera, 1982 in Nation 2001: 206).


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Content words

Content words are those words which carry information or part of it. The great

majority are nouns, along with the smaller groups of verbs, adjectives and adverbs.

Content words are often presented to students in lists which are removed from any

communicative context, that is, their relationship to the context in which the words will

(one would hope) sooner or later be encountered is not directly shown (Oxford and

Crookall 1990: 10). This manner of teaching vocabulary is problematic because, as

Oxford and Crookall (1990: 12) hold even if learners are able to memorize the L2-Ll

pairs in a list, they might not be able to use the new words in any communicative way

without further assistance. Moreover, if students (as lower level students often do)

learn them in isolation, they are likely to know only its most common meaning and thus

be confused when they encounter it in context with a different meaning (see discussion

of polysemy). Furthermore, as we shall see, it is incorrect to assume that meaning is

transferred by independent words.

If a language is a means of conveying information and the aim of teaching a

foreign language at school is to enable students to communicate through the foreign

language, it follows that content words have a more fundamental role than function

words. This should be reflected in the syllabus and methodology, that is, contents words

should receive more attention than function words. Unfortunately, my experience at

state schools and other English courses in The Czceh Republic is that function words,

that is grammar, remains the focus of the syllabus.

Lemma

Stubbs (2002: 27) defines lemmas as abstract classes of word forms which are

not directly observable. For example, verbs occur in different inflectional forms: the


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lemma TAKE is realized in text by the word forms [its realizations:] take, takes, took;

takingand taken. Similarly, the lemma of the noun RABBIT is realized by the word-

forms rabbit, rabbits, rabbits andrabbits (Stubbs 2002: 25)

When we say that a student has a vocabulary of 2,000 words we mean that the

student knows 2000 lemmas (Stubbs 2002: 26).

Nation (2001: 7) argues that lying behind the use of lemmas [] is the idea of

learning burden [] the learning burden of an item is the amount of effort required to

learn it. Normally, it is enough that the student knows what is referred to by the lemma

and can apply the relevant grammatical rules, for them to recognize the word form in a

text. For example, a student who knows the lemma HOUSE to mean dum is not likely to

have problems when they encounter the word-form houses in a text.

However, this is not as simple as it may seem a first. In the sentence they housed

the homeless person for over a year, house is a verb. In my own experience teaching

low level students at a secondary school in the Czech Republic, If a student is not aware

that HOUSE may be a verb as well as a noun they are likely to be confused.

Furthermore,stand, stoodand standingare all realizations of the lemma STAND

and students are likely to recognize them in a text. But as the verb to standis irregular,

we cannot automatically assume that a student would recognize it in all contexts

because of its irregular past participle. Thus, with irregular verbs and nouns, it is not

enough to know the head form of the lemma and the relevant grammar. Students need to

be taught the past tensestoodas if they were learning a new word.

The conclusion is that though lemmas or lexemes help by reducing the amount

of information students must remember, there are many cases when this is not enough

and there is a need to teach each word-form independently.


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Polysemy words with more than one meaning

Only rarely do words have a single meaning; polysemy multiple meaningis

the norm (Aitchinson 2003: 154). Stubbs (2002:13) explains:

Words do not have fixed meanings which are recorded, once and for all, in

dictionaries. They acquire, or change, meaning according to the social and

linguistic context in which are used. Understanding language in use depends

on a balance between inference and convention.

In isolation, many individual words are ambiguous or indeterminate in

meaning, but this hardly ever troubles us in practice because the phrases in

which they occur are not ambiguous.

Stubbs (2002: 15) demonstrates this with the example of BANK which has two

senses: the place where you keep money:building or abstract institution; and an area of

sloping, raised ground often the raised ground around a stretch of water. He refers to

these as the money bank and the ground bank senses.

While it is possible to invent sentences and to imagine circumstances, where

bankis ambiguous, in the vast majority of cases, any potential ambiguity

was ruled out due to words within a short spam to left or right. Many

occurrences were in fixed phrases which signaled unambiguously the

money or ground sense:

Bank account, bank balance, bank robbery

Canal bank, river bank

In addition, the words usually co-occurred, within a few words to the left or

right, with other words which clearly signaled one or the other:

Cashier, deposit, financial, money, overdraft, pay, steal


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Cave, cod, fish, float, headland, sailing, sea, water

Polysemy is particularly problematic for lower level students for two reasons.

Firstly, as students vocabulary is extremely limited, they are not likely to recognize the

various contextual clues.

The second reason is the persistent misguided belief that a word has a single

distinct meaning and therefore one L1 equivalent. Although the question What does

.. mean? seems a simple and natural question, it is often unhelpful.

The typical answer, X Means Y is, I believe, even more unhelpful and even

destructive. For the purpose of this discussion I will distinguish betweenfaulty

classroom meaning, and contextual meaning(my terms).Faulty classroom meaningis

the most common translation, often the first entry in the dictionary; contextual meaning

is the information carried by the word in the specific context. For example the first of

many entries forstandin the Anglicko-esk esko-Anglick studijni slovnik

dictionary isstt. In the example a man was standing faulty classroom meaningand

contextual meaningcorrelate. Hence was standingwould be explained (translated) as

staland the students are likely to take the word stand to mean the dictionary meaning.

These students would then be confused by other usages of the wordstand; for example,

when they try to understand the expression cant stand someone / thing, ora stand-up

artist. Such expressions would then be perplexing to a lower level student who has

encountered stand only as defined by the dictionary.

Though it is true that we could not possibly list all the various meanings of

STAND when asked; it is equally true that we cannot claim it means only a position in

which your body is upright and your legs are straight, and the weight of your body is

supported by your feet (Cobuild Intermediate dictionary).


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Raising students awareness of polysemy is outside the scope of this bachelor

thesis. Nevertheless, as the discussion above illustrates it is an important issue which, I

believe, should be confronted already in the early stages of learning.

Delexicalized verbs

Many verbs in English are delexicalized; by themselves these verbs convey very

little meaning. Stubbs (2002: 32) recounts searching

the lemma pair TAKE a in a corpus of over two million words. There were

over 400 examples, but in only about 10 per cent of these did TAKE have a

literal meaning of grasp with the hand or transport. The most common

use by far is in combinations such as

Take a close look at; took an interest in; take a deep breath.

where TAKE is delexicalized and where almost all the meaning is carried by

the noun.

Following Stubbs statistics, for about 90 per cent of the usages of TAKE its

meaning depends on context. Delexicalized verbs pose a special challenge because

many of them are those verbs that students encounter very early, at a stage in the

development of their knowledge of English where translation is still unavoidable. As

with polysemy, telling students that delexicalized verb x means y is unhelpful.

Furthermore, unlike polysemy, doing so is misinforming the students because, as Stubbs

illustrates, in most cases the verb has almost no meaning.

Delexicalized verbs tend to appear in certain patterns, collocations and phrases,

which if mastered, would prove invaluable to students. Martinez (in Lewis, 1997: 147)

argues that course books often explain the use of theget-passivepatter as a colloquial

alternative to become. If so, he argues, then *Hurry up and become dressed, *I became


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drunk on the weekendwould be possible. On the other hand it got cloudy[] it started

to rain [] he got wet [] he got sick [] he called in sick and his boss got mad []

he got firedare collocational and cannot be dismissed as an alternative. Martinez states

that it boggles the mind that all course books give [the] highly generativeget-pattern

such little attention.

Martinez (in Lewis, 1997: 148) demonstrates that a better approach to the problem

of teaching delexicalized verbs is to make students aware of the patterns in which the

delexicalized verb appears. Worksheet 1 demonstrates how this could be done through

reading.

Word families

A word family is a word along with its derivations derived by adding prefixes

and suffixes, for example, legal, illegal, legislation; care, careful, careless, caretaker.

Nation (2001: 264) argues that word families are an effective method of increasing

students vocabulary. If a student has learned the prefix ir- andknows the word rational

they are likely to be able to infer the meaning ofirrationaland thus increase his or her

knowledge of vocabulary and understand a more complex text.

There are, however, a number of problems with this assumption. First, if the

stem word, as in the case ofcare, is a delexicalized verb or a polysemous word, the

student might choose the wrong meaning of the stem and wrongly infer the meaning of

the derivative. An example is care in the sentenceplease be careful when you go out

tonight. A student who knows CAREonly as the act of constantly providing what a

person [] needs to keep them in good condition or to make them well (Cobuild

Intermediate Dictionary); and the suffixfulas possessing a certain quality, he or she

is likely to understand carefulas caring(a person who is affectionate, helpful and


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sympathetic (Cobuild Intermediate Dictionary)). The student is, therefore, likely to

translate the above sentence as prosim, bud peclivy instead ofprosim, opatruji

se.As this example illustrates, a narrow knowledge of the stem can be hazardous.

Depth of vocabulary will be discussed further in Part Two of this thesis.

A further problem is that some prefixes and suffixes are used with a narrow

range of words and although some perform the same function we cannot exchange

them. We say an unlawful actand an illegal actbut not * an illawful act or * unlegal

act. Consequently, knowledge of the meaning of the stem and the prefix or suffix does

not guarantee correct usage of the word (in terms of form although it is correct in terms

of meaning).

Nation (2001: 256) suggests a procedure for inferring the meaning of unknown

words in which he uses morphology (prefixes, stems and suffixes) to verify that the

word was inferred correctly. My own experience with low level students at secondary

school in The Czech Republic is that this is an overwhelming task. For this reason I

prefer to raise students awareness of stems and word families by asking them to think

of similar words in either English or Czech, and introducing the word family of the

subject word. This strategy is, of course, not foolproof and there are many instances in

which this strategy would lead to confusion and misunderstandings; nevertheless, it is

an optional strategy which has proved beneficial to students.

In worksheet 2 in the Part Three of this thesis I do not use either of these

strategies as the text contains few suitable words.


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Multi word units

Collocation

When a lower level student says sentences such as *Icook tea we correct them

and tell them that we make tea. Collocations are those combinations of words which

occur naturally with greater than random frequency (Lewis, 1997: 25) Nation (2001: 56)

notes that

Collocations differ greatly in size (the number of words involved in the

sequence), in type (function words collocating with content words (lookwith at),

content words collocating with content words (unitedwithstates) in closeness of the

collocates (express their own opinion), and in the possible range of collocates(commit

withmurder, a crime, hara kiri, suicide)

Pawley and Syder (1983, in Nation 2001: 56) argue that knowledge of

collocation is the reason for our proficiency in our mother tongue because we have

stored large numbers of memorized sequences[and] instead of constructing these each

time we need to say something, we frequently draw on these ready made sequence.

Nattinger (1980: 341) holds that language production consists of piecing together the

ready-made units appropriate for a particular situation and ... comprehension relies on

knowing which of these patterns to predict in these situations.

Lewis (1997: 25) cautions that collections are linguistic and not thematic. He

illustrates this with drive and car. Though they are clearly related, we are unlikely to

sayI drove the car to work today. More naturally would be to simply say I drove to

work today.

Car and drive are related to each other thematically along with engine, traffic

lights, congestion, petrol and many other words which are often introduced to students

under the topic oftransportation. Such topical arrangement can be affective in


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increasing students vocabulary (the student may be able to name many related nouns

and verbs) but does not guarantee proper use and in the long run does not foster fluency

nor proficiency (Oxford and Crookall, 1990: 14).

Fluency and proficiency are more likely fostered by collocational arrangement.

For example carthe car broke down on the highway, lose control of the car, have a

car accident, step out of the car, flag down passing cars, take the car to the garage;

drivego for a drive, drive too fast, drink and drive, driving license (along with other

usages of drive not related to the topic of transportation: drive someone crazy, drive the

last nail)

A further example isfire andsmokein Chapter I of Jojos Story, the text I use to

demonstrate my suggestions in Part Three of this bachelor thesis. Although smoke is

caused by fire; in the text they do not collocate:

There was abigfirethere and now theres justsmoke.There issmoke now, butsmoke

is quiet. Thefires were noisy, but thefires have stopped. It rained yesterday, and after

the rain there were no morefires. Justsmoke.

A person talking about a fire is likely to mention smoke as well, butfiresmoke

is not a ready-made units appropriate for a particular situation (Nattinger 1980: 341);

whilststart a fire, put out a fire orwhite smoke, thick smoke, go up in smoke are.

Interlanguage

Bialystok and Smith (1985: 116) define Interlanguage as the systematic

language performance [] by second-language learners who have not achieved

sufficient levels of analysis of linguistic knowledge or control of processing to be

identified completely with native speakers.


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Laufer (1998: 267) points out that In speaking or writing, learners stretch their

Interlanguage to meet communicative goals. Liu and Shaw (2001: 181) argue that

The paucity of compounds in the learners writing may on the one hand be

related to the lack of collocational knowledge. A high proportion of the

compounds used in the non-native corpora require collocational knowledge,

e.g.,film-makingandfilm-maker (make a film), hay-making (make hay),

decision-making (make a decision). On the other hand, even if the learners

have the collocational knowledge, they may not have learned how to make

compounds out of collocations or may not have controlled the process

actively.

Thus, Liu and Shaw as well as Laufer support Lewiss (1997: 171) argument that

many errors result from students trying to say something for which they do not have

the linguistic resources [] the temptation is to correct [and] treat [the problem] as a

grammatical error. The real problem was a defect in the students vocabulary.

A written work by an elementary level student at a secondary school exemplifies

this (collocational problems are in bold)

The transporter 3 is a third addition of action movie. The name of the

main person is Frank Martin. He is a professional driver. The story takes

place in Paris and Ukraine. To the Ukraine he comes because ofdeadly

enemy. In the story are fighting action scenes and scenes with cars.

According to meits a very good film.

Another example from the website of a language agency in Olomouc illustrates

that even advanced learners who have mastered grammar still suffer from lack of

collocational knowledge (collocational problems are in bold):


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Welcome to the Web presentation of the AMADEUS language agency.

We have been working in our line of business for more than 19 years and

during that time we have gained a wealth of experience and, in particular, a

lot ofcontented clients.

As we want to update our services, we are now starting running our new

Web pages with up-to-date information.

Chunking

Ellis (2001: 24) defines chunks as a unit of memory organization, formed by

bringing together a set of already formed chunks [sound or letter sequences] in memory

and welding them together into a larger unit.

The Cobuild Intermediate dictionary defines a word as a single unit of language

[] with spaces on both sides. The following example illustrates that this is not so

clear cut: Does right over there have the same meaning as right, overand there? If we

translate right over there into Czech (as most students at a lower level would do), we

getpesn tam, where, than, did the third word disappear? If these were single separate

units, we could change them without influencing the others: *here over there, *left

above there, *right over now which are impossible as well as right over here, left over

there, wrong over there, etc which are possible but convey a completely different

meaning. It is therefore reasonable to assume that right over there is a multi word unit

or chunk.

As Stubbs illustrates (2002: 32), many common words in English convey little or

no meaning by themselves; they acquire meaning from words they collocate with.

Ellis (2001: 26) explains that


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From a functional perspective, the role of language is to communicate

meanings, and the learner wants to acquire the label-meaning relations. []

At some level of analysis, the patterns refer to meaning. It doesnt happen at

the lower levels: t doesnt mean anything, nor does th, but the does,

and the dog does better, and how do you do? does very well, thank you.

In these cases the learners goal is satisfied, and the fact that this chunk

activates some meaning representations makes this sequence itself more

salient in the input stream. When the learner comes upon these chunks

again, they tend to stand out as units

The main advantage of chunking is reduced processing time [] instead of

having to refer to a rule or a pattern to comprehend or produce a chunk; it is treated as a

basic existing unit (Nation, 2001: 320). Reducing processing time give students a

ready made [piece of] language which they can use without overburdening themselves

and at the same produce language which is more akin to the native speaker use.

One classroom implication of chunking is that there is neither an absolute need

to analyze the grammatical structure of language items students encounter, nor is there a

need to explain all the lexis in the texts or chunk. It is enough that students are made

aware of its meaning and the fact that they are likely to meet it again. This is often used

in modern textbooks when teaching so-called functions: the function of offering e.g.

Would you like some is usually taught before the relevant grammar (module verbs and

conditional clauses). However, as Lewis (1997: 26) illustrates, many texts, for example

newspaper and magazine articles and none-fiction literature consist of little except

collocations combined with each other. Thus, chunking could be applied to teaching a

much wider range of language rather than merely to Functions.


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In Part Three of this paper I suggest procedures for vocabulary teaching through

reading to low level students based on these implications.

What is involved in knowing a word

The extended discussion above established that knowing a word involves much

more than simply knowing what it refers to. The following table, taken from Nation

(2001: 26), summarizes therefore, what it means to know a word. If we assume that

students know a word they should be able to answer at least most, if not all questions

about it.

Form Spoken Receptive What does the word sound like?

productive How is the word pronounced?

Written Receptive What does the word look like?

productive Who is the word written and

spelled?

Word parts Receptive What parts are recognizable in this

word?

productive What word parts are needed toexpress the meaning?

Meani

ng

Form and

meaning

Receptive What meaning does this word form

signal?

productive What word form can be used to

express this meaning?

Concept and

reference

Receptive What is included in the concept?

productive What items can the concept refer

to?

association Receptive What other words does this make

us think of?

productive What other words could we useinstead of this one?

Use Grammatical

functions

Receptive In what patterns does the word

occur?

productive In what patterns must we use this

word?

Collocation Receptive What words or types of words

occur with this one?

productive What words or types of words must

we use with this one?

Constraints on

use (register,

frequency)

Receptive Where, when and how often would

we expect to meet this word?

productive Where, when and how often can we


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use this word?

As the table illustrates, knowing what is referred to by a word is not enough and

certainly does not ensure proper use. The various and wide range of information

included in knowing a word suggests teachers may teach their students not as many

words as possible but rather as much as possible about certain words. Hence, teachers

should consider asking What do you know about the word X? instead of the common

Do you know the word X?

In the next part of this thesis I discuss a number of important concepts which are

relevant to learning vocabulary through reading.


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Part Two - Vocabulary acquisition

Learning strategies

OMalley and Chamot define learning strategies as special ways of processing

information that enhance comprehension, learning, or retention of the information

(1995:1). Wong Fillmore (1985) suggests [learning] strategies include analytical

skills [such as] pattern recognition, induction, categorization, generalization, inference,

and the like (OMalley and Chamot, 1995:11).

Macaro (2006: 321) states that

Despite some setbacks [ ] and some reservations [], learner

strategy instruction (or training) appears to be effective in promoting

successful learning if it is carried out over lengthy periods of time and if

it includes a focus on metacognition. For example [] how

interventions appeared successful in enhancing vocabulary acquisition

[] and in enhancing reading skills [] Other strategy instruction

studies have claimed to improve general approaches and attitudes to

language learning [...].

The fact that some students seem to use learning strategies does not

automatically imply that these strategies could be taught to other students and that the

instruction may prove beneficial. However, assuming that learning habits can be

influenced by teachers, at least with young students, the habits which are formed should

be effective learning strategies.

Nation (2001: 223) agrees with Macaro that learners need to spend a total of at

least four or five hours per strategy spread over several weeks [] it is certainly not


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sufficient to demonstrate and explain a strategy to learners and then leave the rest to

them. Rather than mere teaching, this is learner strategy instruction (or training)

Macaro (2006: 321)

One may ask whether it is possible to add strategy training to an already

crowded (if not overcrowded) syllabus. If we consider the goal of teaching English is to

enhance the students independence in the real world; then their ability to read and

understand various real world English texts, that is, their skill at inferring meaning of

unfamiliar words (as well as using these texts to improve their English further), is of

vital importance and worth the time devoted to it. A further justification is that time

devoted to such skills in the early stages of learning is likely to pay itself back later

on. Lastly, as Flaitz, Feyten, Fox and Mukherjee (1995: 9) show,

a manageable means of integrating strategy training into the language

learning curriculum can be developed and successfully implemented.

In the absence of an opportunity for the presentation and practice of

well-defined language learning strategies, the achievement of students

may still be enhanced by the development of a more general strategic

awareness. [] A little bit may indeed go a long way.

Studying English as a topic was often included in textbooks for school leaving

exams in the Czech Republic (old maturita). However, learner training, I believe, is best

incorporated into normal teaching and not focused on as a separated topic. The

procedures I suggest in the third part of this thesis may be used with almost any reading

text during a course. The strategies, or strategy clusters which will be discussed are

inferring word meaning and noticing collocations in a text.


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Acquisition versus learning

Krashen makes a distinction between explicit linguistic knowledge (learning)

and implicit linguistic knowledge (acquisition).Acquisition and learningare two

separate language processes: Acquisition is described by Krashen as occurring in

spontaneous language context, is subconscious, and leads to conversational fluency.

Learningon the other hand, is equated with conscious knowledge of the rules of

language derived from formal and traditional instruction in grammar. [] in Krashens

view, learningdoes not lead to acquisition, because the sole function oflearningis to

act as a monitor or editor of the learners output. Therefore, the inescapable conclusion

of Krashens model is that conscious use of learning strategies will make little

contribution to the development of language competence (OMalley and Chamot, 1990:

10).

A crucial (and certainly unpleasant) implication of Krashens distinction

between acquisition and learningis that not all and perhaps very little of what is

formally done in class is beneficial to students. This is because learningdoes not lead

to acquisition, because the sole function oflearningis to act as a monitor or editor of

the learners output (OMalley and Chamot, 1990: 10). Every teacher, I believe, has

experienced the discouraging situation when students continue to use language

incorrectly even though they have been corrected many times. As I have mentioned in

my introduction, a comparison test I gave to all students at the secondary school in

Mohelnice revealed that during three years of formal instruction in English the average

student hardly improved at all. Furthermore, the test found no significant difference

between groups which received four weekly hours of instruction and those which

received only three weekly hours.


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Oxford and Crookall (1990: 23) challenge Krashens model:

[Krashen] concedes that it is indeed possible to make small

gains in vocabulary knowledge through large amounts of special

vocabulary learning effort, but says that this is not worth the time

involved and that better results can come through massive reading

alone []

However, though learners might be able to infer the meaning of a word read in

context, this does not guarantee that the word is completely learned or known.

Receptive comprehension of a new word is fostered by massive reading, but the

capability to produce that word is by no means ensured by this [massive reading]

technique.

Many teachers would testify that it is not rare to meet students who understand

almost everything said to them even in natural rapid speech but are hardly able to

produce a sentence. Oxford and Crookall (1990: 26) argue that

vocabulary learning by osmosis [massive reading] is neither adequate

nor efficient for the typical student. Likewise, production practice

through speaking and writing can only operate when relevant schemata

already exist and are ripe for action and expansion. Therefore, L2

practice must be supplemented by a range of additional techniques for

vocabulary learning.

Hence there is a need for direct vocabulary teaching which would activate the

acquired vocabulary. The question which arises from this discussion is how and under

which conditions a language item which was acquired could be activated and

knowledge become proficiency.


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Noticing

Before something can be learned it most be noticed, that is, giving attention to

[it as] an item. This means that learners need to notice the word, [and] be aware of it as

a useful language item (Nation 2001: 63). A learner may encounter a word, a phrase, a

new meaning or usage of a word a number of times but is not likely to learn it unless he

or she has realized that this word or expression is new to him and is of importance and

worth learning. This may explain the low efficiency of memorizing word lists; where

often the student has not met the word in context and has not chosen it as a valuable

item. Noticing involves decontextualisation [which] occurs when learners give

attention to a language item as a part of the language rather than as a part of a message

(Nation 2001: 64). Decontextualisation does not mean that the noticed word is taught

without a sentence context, and the target word may be taught, as a starting point, in the

context in which the student met it.

Lewis (1997: 52) when discussing the similarities and differences between his

Lexical Approachand KrashensNatural Approach, remarks that

If Krashen is right, then all formal instruction is pointless, or even

impedes acquisition. While this is more often the case than many

teachers admit, it is not always so. Teaching helps, precisely when it

encourages the transition from input to intake [] Exercises and

Activities which help the learner observe or notice the L2 more

accurately ensure quicker and more carefully-formulated hypotheses

about L2, and so aid acquisition which is based on a constantly repeated

Observe-hypotheses-Experiment cycle.

While discussing Noticing, Nation (2001: 72) argues that


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If words occur in important parts of the written input to a task they are

likely to be noticed. The chances of a word being noticed can be

increased by pre-teaching, highlighting the word in the text, by using

underlining, italics or bold letters, and glossing the word.

Thus teachers can foster vocabulary development not by formal instruction but

by helping their students notice information about already known words (as well as

new words). The student I have mentioned in my introduction did not notice the words

on her handbag. It was my responsibility, as a teacher, to help her notice them.

Inferrencing dealing with unfamiliar words in a text

A major hurdle lower level students must overcome and one they are likely to

face for a long time is that of new unfamiliar words. The discussion of polysemy in the

first part of this thesis illustrates that this is true not only to new words but also to

unknown meaning or unfamiliar usages of words the student has already met. Nasaji

(2006: 389) defines inferring as

The connections that people establish when they try to interpret texts

[...]. Inferring occurs at all levels of the reading comprehension

process, ranging from integrating the text with background knowledge

[...], to connecting the different parts of the text together [...], to

linking known to unknown elements in the text in order to arrive at a

coherent structure of the information in the text []

Aichinson (2003: 91) argues that word meaning is probably learned [inferred]

by noticing the words which come alongside [it]. For example, the relatively new word

WIMP which came into use in the early 20th century, Most people discovered its

meaning of feeble, timid or ineffectual person because of its neighbours, as inpale-


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faced wimp, craven wimps, pathetic wimps [and] a wimp and a crowd(Aitchinson,

2003: 91).

Furthermore, the discussion of polysemy above illustrates that contextual clues

to the meaning of a word are abundant:

in the vast majority of cases, any potential ambiguity was ruled out

due to words within a short spam to left or right [] the words usually

co-occurred, within a few words to the left or right, with other words

which clearly signaled [its meaning] (Stubbs, 2002: 15)

Inferring is not taking wild guessesat the meaning of unknown words or

difficult texts, as Nasaji (2006: 389) elaborates

In a study with university students, de Bot et al. (1997) found that

when attempting to infer word meaning from context, L2 readers used

knowledge sources ranging from knowledge of grammar,

morphology, phonology, and knowledge of the world, to knowledge

of punctuation, word association, and cognates. Analyzing the lexical

inferring strategies of Danish learners of English, Haastrup (1991)

found that learners used different strategies ranging from those related

to the internal structure of the word (such as analysis of the

phonological and orthographic structure of the word) to those

involving the use of top-down contextual and sentence-level clues.

For example, in the sentence I suspect that many children would learn

arithmetic, and learn it better, if it were illegal(Holt, 1989: 45) there are three low

frequency words which are essential to understanding it. However, a student who is

skilful at inferring meaning would probably be able to inference their meaning. If he or


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she analyses illegalby separating the prefix ilfrom the stem legal, he or she is likely to

recognizes legal (as it is also used in Czech) and thus infer the word correctly. The word

arithmetic is the object of the verb learn thus the student may conclude that it is a

certain school subject or a skill of some kind. The choice of a school subject may be

supported by understanding illegal. Furthermore, although it is spelt and pronounced

very differently in Czech; if a student is aware of similarities and differences in other

words which are common to both languages, he or she would not find arithmetic

difficult to infer. The last wordsuspectmay seem more difficult. However, he or she

may realise from the context in the sentence thatsuspectintroduces an argument similar

toI think that; or recognise it as a chunk similar toI believe that. These would lead

him or her to what Nisaji (2006: 393) calls partially successful inferring.

The example illustrates that a deeper knowledge of vocabulary facilitates

inference and therefore stands a better chance to become an acquisition. Wesche and

Paribakht (1999: 176, in Nasaji, 2006: 389) argue that "much if not most lexical

development in both L1 and L2 appears to occur as learners attempt to comprehend new

words they hear or read in context". Teachers, however, should not assume that their

students would naturally apply such reasoning without guidance.

The skill of inferring meaning is of special importance to lower level students

who are at the beginning of their studies because; as opposed to more advanced

students, they need to increase their vocabulary rapidly. Furthermore, students at

beginner level come across new and unfamiliar words very often.

Breadth of vocabulary versus depth of vocabulary

(Nasaji 2006: 391) argues that


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Studies investigating the role of vocabulary knowledge in reading have

found that while measures of size of vocabulary knowledge are strongly

related to the reader's understanding of texts (Laufer, 1997; Qian, 1998,

1999), measures examining aspects of depth of vocabulary knowledge

make a stronger contribution to reading performance than those that

simply measure a single definition of a word.

Depth of vocabulary knowledge [] has been used to refer to the

quality of lexical knowledge, or how well the learner knows a word

(Meara, 1996; Read, 1993, 2000, in Nasaji, 2006: 391).

The conclusion reached by Nasaji is that in order to be able to successfully

derive word meanings from context, L2 learners need a good depth of vocabulary

knowledge (Nisaji 2006: 397).

And that

One way of achieving this goal would be to establish a thorough

vocabulary learning program that integrates extensive exposure to

language and learning vocabulary from context with direct and

systematic vocabulary instruction, particularly in the early stages of

L2 acquisition (see Paribakht & Wesche, 1997; Zimmerman, 1997).

(in Nasaji, 2006: 398)

Thus in order to foster their ability to communicate in the real world, as well as

help students gain more vocabulary and improve their language skills generally;

teachers need not teach as many words as possible; instead, teachers should teach more

about certain words.

The exact choice of words is outside the scope of this thesis; nevertheless,

focusing on high frequency content words with special attention given to de-lexicalized


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verbs would be a reasonable choice. Nation (2001: 9) argues that when we look at texts

our learners may have to read and conversations that are like ones that they may be

involved in, we find that a relatively small amount of well-chosen vocabulary can allow

learners to do a lot. The 2000 most frequent words comprise 80% of spoken English

(Nation 2001:15). Consequently, teaching these 2000 words enable students, albeit not

with great detail or accuracy, to communicate in most everyday situations.

Nations (2001: 26) table What is evolved in knowing a wordabove illustrates

what knowing a wordmay refer to. It lists various aspects of knowing a word and

therefore information about words teachers should teach their students. If a student can

say that word X means Y (in Czech) their knowledge of the word is very partial. For

example, a student may know what the word refers to but not whether it is formal or

not; a student may know whether a word is formal or not but be unaware of its

collocations and patterns it appears in. Only when a student can answer most or all

questions in the table, we may regard the word as known.

Reading as a source of vocabulary for acquisition

Nation (2001: 155) argues that There is no reason to doubt [] that learners

incidentally gain small amounts of vocabulary knowledge from each meaning focused

reading of an appropriate text. This small gain in vocabulary knowledge need not be

learning of previously unknown words; it could be gaining additional knowledge about

words the students already know.

Nation (2001: 149) differentiates between extensive and intensive reading.

Extensive reading involves large quantities of reading while intensive reading involves

the close deliberate study of short texts, [ accompanied by] a lot of attention to the


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vocabulary, grammar and discourse of the text. Intensive reading is therefore more

suitable to lower level classroom work.

Referring to the controversy ofacquisition versus learningNation claims that

Direct teaching can add to incidental learning of the same words and can raise learners

awareness of particular words so that they notice them when they meet them while

reading (2001: 157). He suggests two general activities which could be done after

reading:

1. Meaning focused activities such as matching definitions, synonyms orcontextually appropriate translations into L1.

2. Form focused activities such as matching collocations.

The ObservationHypothesis - Experiment cycle

Lewis (1993:167) argues that the PresentPracticeProduce paradigm entails

the assumptions that what you meet you master and the belief that error represents

failure. However, as every teacher would testify, the situation in which students repeat a

mistake and teachers respond (either to themselves or to the students) with but we have

already done this so many times is not uncommon and proves that the assumption of

what you meet you master is unsound and does not work in practice.

As an alternative Lewis (1993: 168) suggests a cyclical paradigm of Observation

HypothesisExperiment.

The Observation stage involves noticingof language items such as collocations,

phrases, other patterns or structures; theHypothesis stage (when vocabulary is

concerned) involves inferencingorguessing the meaning, as well as formulating

hypothesis concerning patterns and collocations in which the specific language item is

used. The last stage,Experiment, involves testing theHypothesis and Observingthe


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reaction or feedback. This may also be done, I believe, through intensive reading

activities as suggested by Nation (2001: 157). If students are trained to observe

language in a text, they may be able to test theirHypothesis with a text as well. In Part

Three of this thesis I demonstrate how this could be done.

Thus the ObservationHypothesisExperiment paradigm brings together all

the issues discussed above.

A major different between the ObservationHypothesisExperiment paradigm

and the PresentPracticeProduce paradigm is the role error:

A process view of learning values the confidence-building

aspects of successful performance, but [also] recognizes the

contribution of unsuccessful performance, providing it produces well-

chosen appropriate feedback from the teacher (Lewis, 1993: 168).

Graded readers

Graded readers are complete books [] that have been prepared so that they

stay within a strictly limited vocabulary (Nation, 2001: 162). These may be books for

native speakers which have been simplified, or original literature written especially for

this purpose.

Using graded readers has a number of advantages: firstly, as they are complete

books, fiction or non-fiction, they are likely to be more interesting then the short

simplified articles in common course books which can be quite boring or unsuitable for

the students for various reasons; secondly, because they are simplified they allow even

low level students to experience success which is highly motivating.

Both Lewis (1997: 52) and Nation (2001: 72) agree that teachers can and should

encourage noticing by indicating items. While a word which has been given attention


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in a course stands a better chance of being noticed than another which has not received

any attention; it is not certain that a word which has been written on the whiteboard or

appeared in a vocabulary exercise would be noticed and students become aware of it as

a useful language item. Two factors affecting noticing are motivation and interest

(Nation 2001: 63). Therefore graded readers can create interest and motivation which in

turn encourage noticing and hence acquisition.

For these reasons I base part 3 of this bachelor thesis on a reader and a topic

which is unlikely to leave students indifferent.

Graded readers can fit into a course in many ways. Nation (2001: 163)

elaborates:

[Graded readers] can be a means of vocabulary expansion; [] because

vocabulary is controlled, it is possible for elementary learners to read

books where 95% of the vocabulary is already familiar. They can thus

learn remaining words through guessing from context [] under

conditions which do not place a heavy learning burden on them. They

can be a means of establishing previously met vocabulary, learners can

enrich their knowledge of known vocabulary [increasing their depth of

vocabulary]

Jojos Story by Antoinette Moses, published by Cambridge University Press

(2000) is a Level 2 (800 lexemes) in the Cambridge English Readers series. It tells the

story of a 10 year old boy who is the sole survivor of a village which was burnt down in

ethnic clashes or war. The very simplified language of the book seems natural as the

war is seen through the eyes of a child. The story is quite disturbing and does not make

easy reading. These create interest, motivation and the involvement needed to foster

learning.


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The following is Chapter One of Jojos Story.

Chapter 1 Only me, Jojo

Its dark again. So its evening. Its the third evening.No, Im wrong. its the forthevening.

ItsTuesday..Wednesday .. Thursday. Yes, its Thursday. Why do I count thedays? Why do I say its Thursday? There arent any more days. Theres just time. Timewhen its dark, and time when its light.

Everything is dead, so why not days, too? Yes, no more days. no more Tuesdays.

Theres only now.And theres only me. Why? Why arent I dead, too?Thats a stupid question, Jojo, I say to myself. You know why you arent dead.

You arent dead because you werent in the house. You were in the fields when the men

came. But thats not my question. I want to know why I was in the fields. Why wasnt Iin the house with my family?

There are no answers to questions like that, Jojo, I tell myself. I have to talk to

myself because there isnt anyone else. I think there are mice here. I can hear them atnight. You cant talk to mice. But there arent any otherpeople. There is only me. Jojo.

I know this because I listen. I listen all day and all night. I hide in our stable,

where the horse lived. And I hear nothing. Just the mice. The village is quiet. There is

smoke now, but smoke is quiet. The fires were noisy, but the fires have stopped. It

rained yesterday, and after the rain there were no more fires. Just smoke.

Of course, Im not the only thing alive here. As well as the mice, theres a dogsomewhere in the village. I can hear it. And there are rats and flies. But I think Im theonly person here. All the others are dead.

Everyone in the village is dead. Theres only me now and I dont know what todo.

Im not in our house. I went into our house after the men went away. So I sawmy family. All of them on the floor. All the blood on the floor, too. They were all dead.

My mother, my father, my sister, my brother. My family.

Jojo, dont think about that, I say to myself. Dont think about the blood. Dontthink about those things. But I cant stop thinking about them. My mother had noclothes on. Ive never seen my mother without clothes. Perhaps I will go into the housetomorrow and put some clothes on my mother. She must be cold without clothes. But I

am afraid that the men are going to come back.Perhaps they are looking for me. Perhaps they will come back for me. Perhaps I

want them to find me. Then I can be dead, too. I dont want to be the only one alive.Come on, Jojo, I say to myself. You are the man of the family now. You must

be a big boy. You must be strong.

Its difficult tobe strong when youre ten. And I am only just ten. My birthdaywas last month. In July.

I got a bicycle for my birthday. It was white. It was wonderful bicycle. I cycled

to school on it every day.

There isnt a school here any more. There was a big fire there and now theresjust smoke. I dont know where my bicycle is. But I dont want it any more.


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I dont understand whythe men came to our village. Its not a very rich village.We dont have very much. Were not like thepeople in the big towns. My brother wentto live in the town. He told us about the cars and the shops and all the things there.

Why didnt my brother stay in the town? Why did he come back here? Why didhe die? He was always laughing. He was always so nice to everyone. He wanted to be a

teacher. He went to the town to study. My father said that my brother was a good son.He worked hard. He wasnt going to be a poor farmer like my father. I said I was goingto study hard, too, and my father laughed. His big laugh. The laugh that made his

tummy go up and down. I like thathe said. thats good. Ill have two sons to lookafter me when Im old

I going to study too said my sister.Just find a rich husband said my father.I dont want a rich husband, my sister told me. Im going to be a teacher like

our brother. You see, Jojo, our father doesnt know, but there are lots of womenteachers in the town. Our brother told me

But my sister cant be a teacher now. Shes dead on the floor. There was blood

on her legs. I pulled down her skirt. It wasnt nice like that. My sister was always verynice. She was kind, too. Why did the men hurt her? She never hurt anyone.

Sometimes I want to die now, too. But sometimes I dont. I dont want to die.I sit at the back of the stable. The stable is where our horse slept at night. But the

men took away all the horses. I heard them. Im happy that our horse is alive. She was agood horse. I gave her nuts. She liked eating nuts.

Im very hungry, but I dont want to look for food. Im afraid one of the menwill come back and see me.

Ill stay here and be very quiet. Then no-one will find me.Its darknow. I can hear the mice. Or perhaps theyre rats. Im not afraid of

them. They are probably hungry. Im so hungry I cant sleep.Dont think about food. Think about something else. Then Ill forget how

hungry I am. Perhaps Ill talk to my mother. Or my brother or my sister. I like to thinkabout them. Perhaps thats whyIm alive. So one day I can tellpeople about them. ImJojo, Ill say. Im alone now, but once I had a family.My grandmother said that when people die, they go away very slowly. After they die,

they stay in the air so you can say goodbye to them. you mustnt be afraid ofghosts,she told me. ghosts are good. You can talk to them and they will help you.

I think that there are lots of ghosts here. I think that my grandmother was right.

Im going to tell them that Im here. This is Jojo, Ill say. Im not dead and Iwont let the men find me. Ill stay here and Ill talk to youso you wont feel so sad.

Maybe the ghosts will help me.Theres a sound outside the stable. Theres something there. Something biggerthan a mouse. I dont know what it is. And now I can hear another sound. A biggersound, like a lorry. It is a lorry. A lorry is coming here to the village. The men are

coming here.

Illbe very quiet. Perhaps they wont find me.

In the reminder of this thesis I apply the concepts and implications of ideas

discussed in Parts One and Two using the First and Second Chapters of JoJos Story.


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Part Threeclassrooms applications

General Comments

The procedures presented here are based on the theory and implications

discussed in Parts One and Two of this thesis. They are by far not exhaustive and there

are countless other ways in which the text could be used in order to extend students

knowledge of vocabulary.

The target students are elementary students, for whom I expect much of the

vocabulary would be unfamiliar and therefore some of the tasks may be quite

challenging, and pre-intermediate students who, I expect, would have met most words

before but would have a limited knowledge of these words.

The procedures suggested here serve to illustrate possible application of the

theoretical part of this bachelor thesis (Parts One and Two). Although I recognize their

important role of design in the methodology, I do not include pictures or images in the

worksheets. I leave that to those who are more graphically gifted than I.

Worksheet One presents a procedure which illustrates how students can be

encouraged to notice words with similar meaning and contrast different patterns in

which they are used. I used the verbs SAY and TELL but a similar procedure could be

repeated with THINK and KNOW, LISTEN and HEAR, COME and GO.

Worksheet Two presents a procedure, based on Nation (2001: 256), of inferring the

meaning of unfamiliar words. At elementary and pre-intermediate levels this is a

challenging task; nevertheless, if done in groups and class discussions, it is manageable.

The discussion and explanation of parts of speech is simplified for the sake of

clarity to students who may not be familiar with this metalanguage.


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Based on Nations (2001: 259) suggestion to award points to the students for

their guesses, I add here a scale of points teachers might choose to award their student

as a means of feedback on their inferring skills:

5 points for a correct guess.

4 points for a guess with a similar meaning (car / lorry).

4 points for finding the right clues / good reasoning / logical thinking.

3 points for a partially correct guess.

3 points for using intuition.

2 points an incorrect guess.

0 points for not guessing at all.

The third worksheet introduces the concept of collocation and introduced a few

adjective - noun and verb - noun collocations as well as some expressions.

Some of the activities require students to recognize mistakes and correct them. I

am aware that his technique is controversial and many teachers avoid it for fear of

teaching wrong language. Nevertheless, A learner strategy of avoiding mistakes is

always counter-productive. Self evidently, we want students to try out new language

(Lewis, 1993: 168). I feel that this technique is useful for a number of reasons.

Firstly, it could be seen as training for self-correction which is essential because

at a certain point in their studies the student would have to stand on their own feet and

produce correct language without a teacher to help them. In order to do so students need

to notice errors in their language and correct them.

Secondly, the errors the students are asked to recognize and correct are typical to

Czech students and I see this technique as a preemptive measure.

Thirdly, based on Lewiss Observe-hypotheses-Experiment cycle, the task

involving the errors functions as an experiment. By the time the students face this


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task they have encountered the target language and have (hopefully) formulated

hypothesis concerning the patterns in which the target language appears. The text (as

well as the teacher) provides feedback. Whenever possible the student is expected to

find the answers in the text and is therefore referred to it repeatedly.


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Worksheet One - SAY versus TELL

Introduction

Read and listen to the story

Is it a happy/sad/funny story?

Where is the story happening?

Who is Jojo?

What has happened to him?

Analysis

a) Work in pairs. Read and listen to the First Chapter again. Underline all the

occurrences of the word SAY and TELL in the text.

b) How many times does SAYappear in the text?

Copy all the examples like this:

Why do Isay its Thursday?

thats a stupid question Jojo, Isay to myself.

Jojo, dont think about that, Isay to myself.

..

2. a) Look at the examples and try to memorize them for one minute. Then cover them.

b) Work in pairs. Together write down the sentences as you remember them.

c) Check your answers with the sentences youve copied.

3. a) Which of the following words do we use with SAY.

for I to that us myself stories at will him father them my sister

goodbye grandmother can me going to about am he

b) Check your answer with the sentences youve copied


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4. a) listen and read the text again. Pay attention to the word TELL.

b) Work alone. Look at the examples above for two minutes, and then cover the text.

Write the sentences you remember like this:

There are no answers to questions like that, Jojo, I tellmyself.

Our brothertoldme.

So one day I can tellpeople about them.

c) Check your answers in pairs and then with the text.

5. a) which of the following words do we use with TELL



b) Check your answer with the text.

6. One of each of these pairs of sentences uses say/tell correctly. Repair the other one.

Our father told Just find a rich husband to my sister.

Our father said Just find a rich husband to my sister.

I once had a family, Ill say.

I once had a family, Ill tell.

Ill tell people about my family.

Ill say people about my family.

My brother was always telling stories about the big city.


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My brother was always saying stories about the big city

Come on, Jojo, I tell myself

Thats a stupid question, Jojo, I say myself

Jojo says the ghosts not to be sad

Jojo tells the ghosts not to be sad.

Some of the following words combine. Make as many correct combinations with say or

tell as you can.

Example: I said goodbye to my father




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Worksheet Two - Guessing the meaning of unfamiliar words

Introduction

a) Read and listen to the story



Who is Jojo?


b) How much of the text do you understand? Do you understand -

less than 50% / 50% / 60% / 70% / 80% / 90% / more than 90% of the text?

How many words do you not understand?

c). Discuss in pairs and the whole class:

How important is it to understand all the words in a story?

Would you ignore some words? Which?

Which words would you guess and which would you ask / look up in a dictionary?

Analysis

1. a) read the text again and underline words which

You are not sure what they mean

You have met before but do not know what they mean

Words which are completely new to you

b) Work in pairs. Try to guess what these words mean.

2. We often use a pronoun instead of names people and places or objects. We can say

my sisterorshe; the village orit. Write in the brackets the person or object which the

pronoun refers to.


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I (Jojo) dont understand why the men came to our village. Its (the village) not a

very rich village. We (__ ___ _ ___) dont have very much. Were not like the people in

the big towns. My brother went to live in the town. He (______) told us about the cars

and the shops and all the things there.

Why didnt my brother stay in the town? Why did he (_____) come back here

(where?)? Why did he die? He was always laughing. He was always so nice to

everyone. He wanted to be a teacher. He went to the town to study. My father said that

my brother was a good son. He (______) worked hard. He (______) wasnt going to be

a poor farmer like my father. I said I was going to study hard, too, and my father

laughed. His (______) big laugh. The laugh that made his tummy go up and down. I

like that he said. Thats good. Ill have two sons to look after me (______) when Im

old

3. In the following paragraph from Chapter 2 some words have been removed. In pairs,

try to guess what the missing words

The sound ______ the stable door changes and I know what it is. Cluck. cluck

cluck cluck. Its my chicken, whitetail. Whitetail is my favorite chicken. She gives us

lots of _____. Were never going to eat her my father once told me. He understood

that Whitetail was my chicken.

I call to whitetail and she _______ me. She comes into the stable, but she is very afraid.

Maybe the man tried to kill her. _____ take her in my arms and talk to her.

Check your answers with the text (Chapter Two)

4. a) Put the following words into groups

ask, mice, stupid, go, noisy, questions, hear, fire, house


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verbs adjectives nouns

b) Look at the words you do not know, are they verb (an action or state), adjective (a

quality like colour or size) or noun (a person or a thing)?

For example:

She was a good horse.

Noun verb adjective noun

I dont want a rich husbandNoun verb adjective noun

5. Choose one unknown word. Look a sentence where it appears. What part of speech is

it? Is it a verb / adjective / noun?

Example:A lorry is coming.

A lorry is a noun because we say A lorry

6. Look at the sentence with the unknown word. Can you find any clues to the

meaning?

Example:A lorry is coming

A lorry is probably something which can move form place to placebecause is coming

here to the village.


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7. Look at the whole paragraph with the unknown word. Can you find clues?

Example:

Theres a sound outside the stable. Theres something there. Something bigger than a

mouse. I dont know what it is. And now I can hear another sound. A bigger sound, like

a lorry.

A lorry is an object which makes a sound, it is probably something big.

8. Try to guess the meaning of the word

Example: A lorry is a big thing which moves from place to place. It could be a kind of

car or a vehicle.

9. Check your guess.

a) Is your guess the same word part as the unfamiliar word?

Example: we know that a lorry is a noun (point 3) car and vehicle are nouns too.

b) Does it make sense in the sentence? Can you replace the unknown word with your

guess?

Example:

Theres something there. Something bigger than a mouse. I dont know what it is. And

now I can hear another sound. A bigger sound, like a vehicle. It is a vehicle. A vehicle

is coming here to the village. The men are coming here.

9. a) work in pairs. Use the procedure (points 26) to guess the meaning of the other

unfamiliar words in the text.

b) Join another pair and compare your answers.


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c) Work the whole class together. Discuss your conclusions and how you reached them.


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Worksheet Three - Collocation

Introduction

a) Read and listen to the story



Who is Jojo?


Analysis

a) Look at your school mates. Do you sit in a particular order? Is it a typical order?

At break time, do you keep certain groups? After school do you go out together with

everyone or only with some of your classmates?

b) Do you think that words behave similarly?

Do we say fast food or quick food? A quality friend or a good friend?

Words that behave this way, likefast foodora good friendare called collocations.

a) Match words from column A with words from column B. (some words pair with

more than one partner).

a stupid farmer

a rich question

women son

a good village

a poor husband


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teachers

Study sad

Work hard

Feel goodbye

say

go up month

last day

every and down

b) Read the first chapter of the story again and check your answers with the text.

a) Look at the table for one minute and memorize the collocation.

Work in pairs. Without looking at the table, try to recall the collocations.

Using the collocations from Ex. 2 complete the following sentences (the fist letter of

each word is given).

Jojos family were not rich; they were p______ f_____ who did not have very much.

Everyone in the village was like them; it was not a r______ v______. Jojos father

went to the fields e_____ d____ where he w_______ h______ all day long. He hoped

his children would have a better life. He wanted his daughter to find a r________

h______ (but she wanted to be a w_______ t______). Jojos father thought that his

older son was a g_____ s______. He wanted his sons to s______ h____ at school and

university so that they can have good jobs.


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After the men went away Jojo hid in the stable and was afraid to go out look for food.

He asked himself Why am I alive when my family are all dead? But then told himself

it was a s_______ q________. His family were all dead and Jojo thought they f____

s_____ and he wanted to s_____ g_____ to their ghosts.

5. a) Think of other possible collocations for the following words.

Example:

Verbs: ask a question; answer a question

Adjectives: a good question, a difficult question

study __________________________

feel ____________________________

say _____________________________

work ________________________

son

_______________________________

village

____________________________

teachers

___________________________

husband ______________________


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b) Look up these words in a good dictionary to check your answers.

c) Discuss these with the whole class and with your teacher.

6. a) Cross out the words which do not collocate.

I told / said / spoke goodbye to my friends and walked away.

I got angry when the teacher said that I had asked a/ had a stupid / bad / wrong / question.

My sister wanted to find a full / lot / rich / wealthy / husband but instead she married a weak /

sad / poor farmer.

In some countries most teacher are men, but in The Czech Republic lady / wife / woman /

female teacher are the majority.

We live in a / small / great / little / big / miniature village.

Everybody, except his father, says Joe is a good / right / correct / son.

b) Discuss your answers with your teacher.

In the following sentences there are collocational mistakes, can you correct them?

The house burnt down before a month

When he laughs, his tummy goes upwards and downwards.

Jojo cycled to school on all days.

Choose some of the collocation above and write short true sentences about yourself.


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Works cited

Aitchison, Jean. (2003) Words in the Mind: an Introduction to the Mental Lexicon -3rdad.

Malden:Blackwell Publishing.

Amadeus Language Agency website, . 6 June 2010.

Ellis, Nick C. (2001) Constructions, Chunking, and Connectionism: The Emergence of

Second Language Structure. In: Doughty and Long (eds.)Handbook of Second

Language Acquisition. Oxford: Blackwell,

12 November2010.

Holt, John (1989)Learning All the Time. Jackson, TN: Da Capo.

Jeffra Flaitz, Carine Feyten, Sallie Fox and Keya Mukherjee (1995) Raising General

Awareness of Language Learning Strategies: A Little Bit Goes a Long Way.

Hispania78, 337-348.

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Lewis, Michael (1993) The Lexical Approach. Hove: LTP - Language Teaching Publications.

Lewis, Michael (1997)Implementing the Lexical Approach. Hove: LTP - Language Teaching

Publications.

Liu, Eric T. K and Philip M. Shaw (2001) Investigating Learner Vocabulary: A Possible

Approach To Looking At EFL/ESL Learners' Qualitative Knowledge Of the Word.

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9 March 2011.

Laufer, Batia (1998) The Development of Passive and Active Vocabulary in a Second

Language: Same or Different? Applied Linguistic: 19/2 25S-27I.

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Macaro, Ernesto (2006) Strategies for Language Learning and for Language Use: Revising

the Theoretical Framework.The Modern Language Journal 90(3), 320-337.

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2010.

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http://biblioteca.uqroo.mx/hemeroteca/tesol_quartely/1967_2002_fulltext/vol_14_3.pdf#page=57http://biblioteca.uqroo.mx/hemeroteca/tesol_quartely/1967_2002_fulltext/vol_14_3.pdf#page=57http://www.teslcanadajournal.ca/index.php/tesl/article/view/566/397http://www.teslcanadajournal.ca/index.php/tesl/article/view/566/397http://www.teslcanadajournal.ca/index.php/tesl/article/view/566/397http://biblioteca.uqroo.mx/hemeroteca/tesol_quartely/1967_2002_fulltext/vol_14_3.pdf#page=57http://biblioteca.uqroo.mx/hemeroteca/tesol_quartely/1967_2002_fulltext/vol_14_3.pdf#page=57


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Abstract

This Bachelor thesis deals with acquisition of vocabulary through reading. The target

students are low level students at secondary state schools. It aims at two objectives. The first

is to develop methodologically sound classroom procedures for introducing and training

learning strategies. The second aim is to develop classroom procedures which would use these

strategies to acquire vocabulary through reading.

Two assumptions underline this thesis. The first assumption is that teachers teach

because they want their students to be able to use English for affective communication

independently. The second assumption is that even low level students can, if allowed, are able

to think critically and analyze language.

In Part One of the thesis the various and wide range of information included in

knowing a word are discussed. It follows that knowing what is referred to by a word is not

sufficient to ensure proper use. It is subsequently suggested that teachers teach not as many

words as they possibly can but rather as much as possible about certain words.

In Part Two concepts related to vocabulary acquisition are discussed. It begins by

discussing learning strategies and vocabulary acquisition as apposed to learning. Next

noticingand inferring word meaningin a text followed by a discussion ofBreadth of

vocabulary versus depth of vocabulary and graded readers. Finally Lewiss Observe

Hypothesis - Experiment paradigm is discussed and thus bringing together all the various

concepts discussed above.

In the third part of my thesis I apply the issues discussed in Parts One and Two. I

suggest three classroom proceduresthe first worksheet trains student to notice dissimilar

patters in words with similar meaning. The second worksheet trains students to infer the

meaning of unknown words using contextual clues. The third worksheet introduces the


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concept of collocations and trains students to pay attention and notice multi-word-units while

reading.

Tato bakalsk prce se zabv zskvnm slovn zsoby pomoc etby. Clov

studenti jsou studenti sttnch stednch kol s nzkou rovn znalosti jazyka. Prce se

zamuje na dva cle. Prvnm clem je vytvoen metodologicky platnch postup zavdn a

trninku strategi uen pi vuce. Druhm clem je vytvoen vukovch postup, kter

budou tyto strategie vyuvat za elem zskn slovn zsoby pomoc etby.

Tato prce vychz z nsledujcch hypotz.

1. Uitel u, protoe chtj, aby jejich studenti byli samostatn schopni pouvat

anglitinu pro efektivn komunikaci.

2. I studenti s nzkou rovn znalosti jazyka jsou, pokud je jim to umonno, schopni

kritickho mylen a jazykov analzy.

Prvn st prce se zabv a rozmanitost informac, kter jsou obsaeny v

konceptu znt slovo. Znalost toho, co vraz oznauje, nen dostaten pro zajitn

sprvnho pouit vrazu. Autor navrhuje, aby uitel namsto uen maximlnho mnostv

slov radji uili studenty maximum informac o jednotlivch slovech a jejichpouit.

Druh st prce se zabv koncepty spojenmi s osvojovnm si slovn zsoby.

Zan diskuz nad pojmystrategie uena osvojovn si slovn zsoby v kontrastus uenm.

Dle pokrauje diskuz o vmn si a dovozovn vznamu slov v textu. Zabv se dle

slovn zsoby versus hloubkou slovnzsoby a upravenmi texty. Zvr druh sti prce se

zabv Lewisovm paradigmatem Pozorovn HypotzaExperiment a tm ve uveden

koncepty shrnuje.

Tet sti prce aplikuje koncepty probran v prvn a druh sti prce. Navrhuje

vukov postupyprvn pracovn list u studenta, aby si vmal odlinost mezi slovy s


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podobnm vznamem. Druh pracovn list u studenty dovozovat vznam neznmch slov z

kontextu. Tet pracovn list zavd koncept slovnch spojen a u studenty vnovat pozornost

a vmat si vceslovnch spojen pi etb textu.

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Vocabulary Acqusition Through Reading