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Vocabulary projects conducted by EMB

Projects Participants Expected Outcomes

Vocabulary Study

Focus Group wordlists for KS1, KS2, KS3 & KS4

Seed Project on the effective L/T of vocabulary

Seed school & Network schools

effective pedagogies to make good use of

the wordlists

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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

Vocabulary Study

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Vocabulary Study

EMB collaborative project with CUHK to develop wordlists for schools’/teachers’ reference

To strengthen the vocabulary components of the English Language curriculum

Proposed vocabulary targets set for each KS

Aims of the study

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Sources of the wordlists for HK schools

Topics andFunctions

in CGs

Approvedtextbooks

Frequency-Based

wordlists

Draft wordlists

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Vocabulary Study

General Service List (GSL) - West, 1953 Academic Wordlist (AWL) - Coxhead,

2000 British National Corpus (BNC)

References of the frequency-based wordlists

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Vocabulary targets

Key Stage Stage TargetCumulative

Target

KS1

KS2

KS3

KS4

1000 1000

1000 2000

1500 3500

1500 5000

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Developing English vocabulary

Vocabulary base(primary)

Vocabulary expansion and academic vocabulary

(secondary)

Specialist/technical vocabulary

(post-secondary)

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Wordlists

In alphabetical order

By category

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Features of Hong Kong student writing

Repetition of key words (need for lexical substitution)

The need for lexical enrichment (adjectives and adverbs)

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Lexical substitution: “ piano”

“I had learnt piano for five years. My mother encouraged me to take piano examinations until I was ten. Sometimes I was tired of touching the piano… After a bad experience, I never learned piano any more. I do not dare to play the piano even now.”

Too many pianos?

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Too many pianos?

“I had learnt piano for five years. My mother encouraged me to take _______ examinations until I was ten. Sometimes I was tired of touching the ________… After a bad experience, I never learned ____________ any more. I do not dare to play the ___________ even now.”

Grade 3

keyboardthe instrument

horrible thing

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Lexical expansion of a first draft

“Every Sunday we visit the home of my grandparents. They live in an apartment in a housing estate in Shatin. My grandmother cooks lunch. After lunch we walk in the park.”

What activities can you design to enrich the above text?

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Lexical expansion of a first draft

“Every Sunday we visit the (adj.) home of my (adj.) grandparents. They live in an (adj.) apartment in a (adj.) housing estate in Shatin. My grandmother (adv.) cooks lunch. After lunch we walk (adv.) in the park.”

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Sizevs.

Quality

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Pre-requisites for vocabulary building

Two Strands:

TopicStrand

CollocationStrand

focus on sizefocus on

word combinations

paradigmaticapproach

syntagmaticapproach

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Paradigmatic approach (topic strand)

Deliberate organization of words into hierarchies

Develops associative networks Encourages efficient vocabulary learning Paradigms are fixed (but ‘open’) Other associations are more personal (e.g.

acoustic, visual, ‘linkword’)

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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

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FLAT

LIVING ROOM BEDROOMS KITCHEN BATHROOM

fridge cooker

saucepan

frying pan

Example One:

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Vehicles

car train bicycle

handlebar wheel saddle

tyre

spoke

Example Two:

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Teaching the names of the superordinates

Musical instrument

piano trumpet flute

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What is the missing word?

?

ruler pencil rubber

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?

hammer screwdriver pliers

What is the missing word?

How many superordinates could teachers introduce at the primary level?

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Focus on vocabulary size?

“In my neighbourhood there is a library, a hospital, a swimming pool, a health centre, a cinema, a police station, a railway station and a bus station.”

Good vocabulary, but how are learners supposed to USE these words?

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More ideas on expanding pupils’ vocabulary

Exploring the familiar words:

- different parts of speech (e.g. ‘shoulder’

as the noun and the verb)

- other meanings of a word (e.g. ‘head’ as

a body part, the school head)

- metaphorical use of a word (e.g. moving) Using specific words (e.g. shout, whisper)

Can you think of other words?

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Syntagmatic approach (collocation strand) E.g. Topic: transport

Car – drive – fast – wet – road

Brakes – skid – collide - accident Develops associative networks Word combinations are the key to productive

use of English Focus on multi-word units (e.g. ‘See you

later.’, ‘Have a good trip!’) Collocations (e.g. ‘go shopping’, ‘have a

shower’, ‘play football’)

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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

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PEOPLE ACTIONS OBJECTS PLACE

Doctor examine patients health centre

railway station

park

library

From receptive to productive

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Teaching implications Raising pupils’ awareness of how words

are related:

Knowledge of word formation and word association

Giving definitions and details Using the name of the superordinate (e.g. flat) Using the names of the member (e.g. living

room, bedroom, kitchen)

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Vocabulary building skills recommended in CG

Word formation

Affixation (e.g. unhappy, careless) Compounding (e.g. foot+ball=football) Conversion (e.g. cook a meal, a cook) Derivation (e.g. excite, exciting,

excited, excitement)

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Vocabulary building skills recommended in CG

Word association Synonyms (e.g. happy, glad) Antonyms (e.g. bright, dark) Homonyms (e.g. catch a bus, catch a cold) Collocation (e.g. make a wish, watch TV) Lexical sets (e.g. furniture – table, chair,

desk, cupboard)

*please refer to CG (CDC, 2004): pp. 168-171

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The use of mini-activities / games in vocabulary learning and teaching

Adding fun elements Designed to integrate newly acquired

words into the learner’s mental lexicon The mini-activities / games should be

incorporated into meaningful tasks

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Incorporating mini-activities / games into meaningful tasks Exemplar 4 – “Buying Things” (Primary 1-3) Use noun / noun phrases to

- identify items to buy in a shopping centre, e.g. rain boots,

waterproof watch

- identify shops in a shopping centre, e.g. toy shop, clothes shop Read a story about a boy called Charlie, who went shopping with

his family, and learn or revise the names of the shopping items in context…

Task: design a poster for an imaginary shopping centre, with information on the types of shops, the products available and the prices

*please refer to CG (CDC, 2004): pp. E20-23 for details of the exemplar

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Examples of classroommini-activities / games

Word hunt Odd one out Pelmanism (locating pairs) Go fishing Hangman Analogies Word slap Pass the sentence

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Odd One Out

Analogies

e.g. trousers robot jeans T-shirt

e.g. - easy is to simple as hard is to ________ - top is to bottom as front is to ________ - fruit shop is to banana as bookshop is to ________

Can you suggest some more items for the analogies?

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Word Slap

Players take turns, clockwise, to shout out

a different word from a pre-selected lexical set (e.g. things in a bookshop) on every fourth beat.

Players who either repeat a word already used, or break the rhythm – or say nothing – are ‘out’.

One – two – three – pencil!

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Ideas on vocabulary learning and teaching

Input from various sources Present and practise in context Repetitive exposure overtime in multiple

and varied contexts Work on vocabulary building skills and

strategies Print-rich environment Bridging from receptive to productive Have fun!

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Useful Links Online

Games for children and resources for teachers and parents: PBS Kidshttp://pbskids.org/lions/games/ FunBrain Kids Centerhttp://www.funbrain.com/words.html

Games as well as Tool Box for creating word games : Wordgameshttp://www.eastoftheweb.com/cgi-bin/top_scores.pl?game=wordsearch Interactive Wordplayshttp://www.wordplays.com/p/index

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THANK YOU!THANK YOU!