English vocabulary in the secondary classroom

1. English vocabulary in the secondary classroom Arthur McNeill The Chinese University of Hong Kong

2. How can ‘vocabulary skills’ lead to vocabulary growth?

3. A new English vocabulary curriculum for HK schools EDB/CUHK collaborative project

4. Growing interest in students’ vocabulary • Recent evidence of inadequate vocabulary of HK university entrants. • Most 2004 entrants to CUHK knew between 2000 and 3000 English words only. • International research suggests that students need at least 5000 words to cope with university study in English.

5. Strong support for setting (and raising) lexical targets • New EDB collaborative project with CUHK to develop a vocabulary syllabus for schools. • To strengthen the vocabulary components of the NSS curriculum. • Proposed vocabulary targets set for each KS.

6. Vocabulary now occupies a more important position in assessment • Latest IELTS performance band descriptors for Writing and Speaking have identified Vocabulary as one of the four ‘strands’. • Will standards-related assessment in HK follow the same direction?

7. How is English vocabulary acquired during secondary education? • Native English speaking students acquire about 3000 words per year at secondary school. • Hong Kong secondary pupils acquire about 300 words per year.

8. English vocabulary development

9. Curriculum guides stress the importance of vocabulary • Synonyms • Antonyms • Collocation • Register • Idiom • Formulaic language • ALL recommended in official curriculum guidelines

10. Quality, YES. Quantity, NO. • Curriculum guidelines stop short of identifying lexical targets. • Main concerns about inadequate vocabulary come from the tertiary sector. • Students enter university with around 3000 English words, which is inadequate for successful study.

11. Proposed Vocabulary Targets

12. Proposed Vocabulary Targets

13. Vocabulary as Output Lexical Richness

14. What is lexical richness? • Quality of vocabulary content of learner output • Difficult to define • Different approaches to defining LR are provoking heated debate among scholars (see references on handout)

15. Does lexical richness matter? • Judges are influenced by lexical content, even when they are not asked to focus on vocabulary. • High correlations between lexical richness and other measures of second language proficiency.

16. Issues in LR debate • Assumptions about “lexical coverage” • The most frequent 2000 words of English account for about 80% of most texts, so low L2 vocabulary targets were set for learners

17. Vocabulary size and text coverage

18. Impact of first 2000 words plus AWL (570 ‘academic’ words)

19. Indicators of lexical richness • amount of “low frequency” words in the text • type/token ratio • range of vocabulary • command of different semantic fields

20. What vocabulary skills are involved? • avoiding repetition of words (e.g. by lexical and pronominal substitution) • knowing how to combine words (e.g. collocation; compounding)

21. Features of Hong Kong student writing • Repetition of key words (need for lexical substitution • The under-use of superordination • The need for lexical enrichment (adjectives and adverbs)

22. What vocabulary skills help learners with lexical richness? • Synonymy • Giving definitions • Knowing the name of the superordinate • Knowing the name of the member (e.g. “item”, “piece”, “article”, etc.) • Using metaphor (e.g. using known words in a metaphorical sense)

23. Text written by a local 16-year old under exam conditions Many students strive for academic exellency, but what is the motivation behind their hardwork? In this essay, I am going to explore the different aspects of learning, and analyse the pros and cons of each motivating factor. The hunger for knowledge and wisdom can motivate students to learn. They hope to widen their horizons through reading, watching educational programs, travelling and other ways. To them, the world is a fascinating place, full of wonders and mysteries to unravel. Their love of learning motivates them to seek knowledge in all areas, from science and mathematics to arts.

29. Teaching implications • Encourage self-management of vocabulary learning by students • Websites which offer frequency-based words in mini-contexts can provide some short-cuts to incidental (random) vocabulary growth. • Process writing can develop awareness of lexical richness.

30. Useful websites • Tom Cobb (University of Quebec at Montreal): www.lextutor.ca • Paul Nation (University of Wellington): www.vuw.ac.nz/lals/staff/paul-nation/nation.aspx • Some articles, references, wordlists: www.cuhk.edu.hk/eltu/ENG5600.arthurp.htm

31. A typical English teacher’s vocabulary dilemma: Quality v. Size

32. Pre-requisites for a vocabulary building

33. Topic Strand (paradigmatic) • Deliberate organization of words into hierarchies. • Develops associative networks. • Encourages efficient vocabulary learning.

36. Teach the names of the superordinates

37. What is the missing word?

39. Encourage the development of associations • Paradigms are fixed (but ‘open’) • Other associations are more personal (e.g. accoustic, visual, ‘linkword’)

40. Assumptions about paradigmatic arrangement • Allows for efficient vocabulary growth because the system is ‘open’ and allows for additions • Associated with Receptive vocabulary knowledge in particular • Retrieval of words operates through the “cohort” principle

41. Syntagmatic arrangement Topic: transport Car – drive – fast – wet – road Brakes – skid – collide - accident

42. Assumptions about syntagmatic arrangement • Associated with Productive vocabulary because it is based on the words which tend to occur together in sentences. • The associations are based on collocations rather than semantic categories

43. Word Associations in L1 and L2 • Same or different?

44. QUEEN 44 0.45 KONG 18 0.19 CROWN 4 0.04 PIN 3 0.03 CHARLES 2 0.02 COLE 2 0.02 GEORGE 2 0.02 MAKER 2 0.02 THRONE 2 0.02 BEE 1 0.01 CARD 1 0.01 CARDS 1 0.01 CASTLE 1 0.01 CHAIR 1 0.01 CHESS 1 0.01 CHRIST 1 0.01 COUNTRY 1 0.01 CROSS 1 0.01 DAY 1 0.01 JUDGE 1 0.01 LOUIS 1 0.01 ME 1 0.01 MONARCHY 1 0.01 ORDER 1 0.01 ROAD 1 0.01 SIZE 1 0.01 SNOW 1 0.01 Associates with “king”

45. GIRL 78 0.78 CHILD 2 0.02 FRIEND 2 0.02 MAN 2 0.02 SCOUT 2 0.02 YOUTH 2 0.02 BARRY 1 0.01 BOYFRIEND 1 0.01 CAP 1 0.01 HEN 1 0.01 HOOD 1 0.01 MALE 1 0.01 RAMBLING 1 0.01 SCHOOL 1 0.01 SHIP 1 0.01 SON 1 0.01 VIGOUR 1 0.01 YOUNG 1 0.01 Associations with “boy”

46. WHEEL 9 0.09 DRIVER 5 0.05 BUS 4 0.04 DRIVE 4 0.04 LORRY 4 0.04 MORRIS 4 0.04 PARK 4 0.04 PETROL 3 0.03 RED 3 0.03 TRAFFIC 3 0.03 VEHICLE 3 0.03 AUSTIN 2 0.02 AUTO 2 0.02 BIKE 2 0.02 CRASH 2 0.02 ENGINE 2 0.02 MOTOR 2 0.02 RIDE 2 0.02 TRIP 2 0.02 VAN 2 0.02 WASH 2 0.02 ANTIQUE 1 0.01 BICYCLE 1 0.01 BLUE 1 0.01 Associations with “car”

47. CHAIR 36 0.36 CLOTH 13 0.13 TOP 9 0.09 TENNIS 5 0.05 MAT 4 0.04 BOOK 3 0.03 FOOD 3 0.03 FLAT 2 0.02 LAMP 2 0.02 SALT 2 0.02 BASE 1 0.01 BROWN 1 0.01 CHAIRS 1 0.01 DINNER 1 0.01 EAT 1 0.01 EATING 1 0.01 FAT 1 0.01 KNIFE 1 0.01 Associations with “table”

48. FOOD 15 0.16 RESTAURANT 7 0.07 MEAL 6 0.06 YELLOW 6 0.06 CHINK 4 0.04 EYES 4 0.04 LAUNDRY 4 0.04 MAO 4 0.04 RED 3 0.03 WHITE 3 0.03 CHEQUERS 2 0.02 CHOPSTICKS 2 0.02 MAN 2 0.02 ORIENTAL 2 0.02 PEOPLE 2 0.02 CHINA 1 0.01 CHINKS 1 0.01 CHOP-SUEY 1 0.01 CHOPS 1 0.01 CHOW 1 0.01 COMMIE 1 0.01 COMMUNIST 1 0.01 CURRY 1 0.01 JUNK 1 0.01 LANGUAGE 1 0.01 LANTERN 1 0.01 Associations for “?”

49. Patterns of L1 and L2 word association • In L1, HF words tend to have close and stable associations, which suggests that large vocabularies are stored in well organised networks. • In L2, words tend to be less systematically organised, at least at lower levels of L2 proficiency

50. Collocation Strand (syntagmatic) • Word combinations are the key to productive use of English. • Focus on multi-word units. • Collocations: “Go shopping” “have a shower” “play football” • Multi-word units: “See you later” “Have a good trip!”