NAME: Lorena Pruna

CARRIER: Lingüística in English

THEME: Semantics and teaching vocabulary

Vocabulary teaching is an important and difficult part of

language acquisition and teaching, The appearance of

different semantic theories has helped people to know the

words better than ever before and thus are put forward to

the words acquisition and learning.

It can be suggested that semantic mapping can

be used as an efficient methodology for teaching

vocabulary, a technique which is effective for

learners.

INTRODUCTION

A LARGE BODY OF LITERATURE ON VOCABULARY

Lexical knowledge is representedin the learner's mind, what is involved in the form-meaning mapping process, and whatstages a word goes through before it becomes an integrated part of the learner's lexicon.

Today that vocabulary acquisition is at least as important as syntax acquisition

A MODEL OF ADULT L2 VOCABULARY ACQUISITION

three-stage model of adult vocabulary acquisition

lexical association stage, adult learners recognize an orthographic or phonologicalform, or both, as a word. They understand the word's meaning within an existing semantic structure.

Stage One Word Association Stage

from a processing perspective, this stage may be called L1 lemma mediation stage. From a representational perspective, this stage may be called the hybrid-entry stage because a L2 entry at this stage contains a combination of L2 form information and L1 meaning and syntax information.

STAGE TWO L1 LEMMA MEDIATION STAGE

When lexical knowledge specific to a L2 word is integrated in its entry and L1 information is discarded. As a result, a L2 word can be used with not only more automaticity, but also more idiomaticity, with little influence from its L1 translation.

Stage Three Full Integration Stage

One of the issues that has received the most attention is how the two languages of a bilingual speaker are connected to each other and to conceptual representations.

The linguistic usage of advanced second-language learners is influenced by their mother tongue in a much more subtle fashion than the frequency of erroneous usages clearly traceable to their native language.

THE SEMANTIC TRANSFER HYPOTHESIS

According to the semantic transfer hypothesis, the semantic content residing in L2 words is transferred from their LI translations.

It is easier to identify a shared semantic element in a same-translation pair than in a different-translation pair due to their greater semantic overlap.

STUDY PURPOSES

* it was intended to extend the author's findings (Jiang, 2002)

* provide confirmation for the same-translation effect by using a design

* to explore the pedagogical implications of the findings.

If semantic transfer is asteady state of semantic representation in L2learners, it has clear implications for teaching vocabularyin a L2.

To investigate the effect of semantic mapping as an instructional strategy for teaching vocabulary.

* Thus, the participants' reaction time in semantic judgment offers a reliable and objective indication ofthe degree of semantic overlap between two words.

* A person's reaction time in making a semantic judgment is affected by the degree of semantic overlap between two words.

METHOD

Participants: The participants in the study included 15 Korean- English bilinguals, 5 females and 10 males, and 15 English native speakers.

Materials: A randomized list of these 260 English words was then given to three Korean-English bilingual speakers who were asked to provide the first Korean translation that came to mind for each English word.

LEXICAL COMPETENCAEN D SEMANTIC AUTONOMY

Lexical competence has hence become a multidimensional construct rather than a monolithic concept.

Autonomy is important because idiomatic, accurate, and fluent expression of one's ideas in another language cannot be achieved until one has developed a semantic system.

Thus, semantic autonomy should be considered in defining and measuring lexical competence.

LI AS A MEANS OF SEMANTIZATION

Is related to the use of the L1 as a means of helpinglearners understand the meaning of new words,or semantization.

A wide range of semantization strategies:

Strategies intralingual: involve the use of linguistic means of the target language such as synonyms, definitions, or linguisticContexts

Estrategies interlingüística: Utilizethe LI in the form of a bilingual dictionary, cognates, or L1 translation equivalents, often associated with word lists.

Estrategies extralingüística: Make use of pictures, objects, physical contexts, and other multimedia aids.

OVERCOMING SEMANTIC FOSSILIZATION

L2 learners can benefit tremendously from a variety of vocabulary instruction techniques that help draw their attention to the semantic differences between a L2 word and its LI translation and between two L2 words.

The issue of how to help learners overcome the continued L1 semantic involvement and facilitate the transition from the second to the third stage of vocabulary acquisition.

CONCLUSION

* Vocabulary is a complicated process which

requires careful planning by teachers and active participation by

students. Learners need tasks

and strategies to help them organize their mental lexicon

* Vocabulary should be given a high priority in

teaching English as a foreign language since it is the corner stone

of communication.

* Vocabulary should be taught in contexts and integrated with the

other language skills. Teaching vocabulary in isolation or via

wordlists is fruitless.