Barbara A. Pijan = Dec-2011

1Vocabulary for IELP TutorsDec-2011

Vocabulary Skills for IELP Tutors

IELP Vocabulary

Dec-2011 Vocabulary for IELP Tutors 2

Key to Successfor University Reading

IELP Vocabulary

Dec-2011 Vocabulary for IELP Tutors

1. Why?

2. Which words?

3. What tools?

4. How can Tutors help?

3

1. Why?

READING = the key to university success.

VOCABULARY = the key to reading.

4Vocabulary for IELP TutorsDec-2011

1. Why?

To understand a Reading Passage:

Comprehension = Minimum

90-95% KNOWN words

Vocabulary for IELP Tutors

90-

95%

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1. Why?

Target Comprehension =

• 95% of the running words in an average text

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2. What Words?

The Lexicon

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2. What Words?

• Webster’s 3rd Intl – 114,000 word families

• Printed school English

– 88,000 word families

• To read without interruption from unknown vocabulary – 17-20,000 word families

= ** college fluency **

Vocabulary for IELP Tutors

Receptive Vocab

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2. What Words?

Native Speaker youth

add +/- 1,000 new word families each year

(until they leave school)

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• The average US kindergartener knows:

6000 word families

• Educated NS know:

20,000 word families

Chinese Vocabulary

For comparison:• Basic vocab 520 characters

[Chinese 101-103]

• Written proficiency begins 1500 characters [Chinese 301-303]

• Full literacy = 3500+ char• Masters degree = 7000 char• Total characters = 11,000• Total words = approx 84,000

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Data from www.pdx.edu/wll/courses-chinese + en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_language

2. What Words?

Academic Word List • 570 “university”

headwords

General Service List • 2248 most common

“normal” wordsVocabulary for IELP TutorsDec-2011 11

2. What Words?If Ss learn 2000 GSL only • then 1 of 5 words

will be unknownIf Ss add 570 AWL• then approx 1 of

10 words will be unknown

Vocabulary for IELP Tutors

+ AWL+ GSL

90+% text = known

Dec-2011 12

2. What Words?Text type and text coverage

from : Learning Vocabulary in Another Language, p. 17

LISTS CONVERSATION

FICTION NEWSPAPER ACADEMIC TEXT

1st 1000 GSL 84.3% 82.3% 75.6% 73.5%

2nd 1000 GSL 6.0% 5.1% 4.7% 4.6%

AWL 1.9% 1.7% 3.9% 8.5%

Other (technical) 7.8% 10.9% 15.7% 13.3%

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2. What Words?

AWL sublist Coverage of the Academic Corpus (%)Pages per repetition in the Academic

Corpus

1 (60 families) 3.6% Once every 4 pages

2 (60 families) 1.8% Once every 8 pages

3 (60 families) 1.2% 12

4 (60 families) 0.9% 15

5 (60 families) 0.8% 19

6 (60 families) 0.6% 24

7 (60 families) 0.5% 30

8 (60 families) 0.3% 49

9 (60 families) 0.2% 67

10 (30 families) 0.1% 82

Vocabulary for IELP Tutors

Ave. 400 words per page

http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/resources/academicwordlist/thesublists.aspx

Dec-2011 14

3. Which tools?

Tools and Skills:• Translating• Dictionaries• Encounters!• Word-lists• Graded readers• Constant Testing

IELP Vocabulary for IELP TutorsDec-2011 15

Paul Nation

3. Which tools?

• Collocations• Corpus-based Dictionaries• Frequency• Register

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Student’s word knowledge:

4. Tutor Help?

17Vocabulary for IELP TutorsDec-2011

• List-study = OK • Tutor’s talk = role-

modelingBut…• Context-guessing =

doesn’t work!

4. Tutor’s Help?

Context Guess ?• No, not unless 95% = known!

Study List ? • Yes = by collocation• Yes = by morphology (AWL)• No = by semantic group

Casual talking ? • No, must Read for University Register

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Which methods work?

4. Tutor’s Help?

Students should use:– Study Lists + frequent Quiz– Margin notes– Translations – Multiple Encounters– Learner Dictionaries– Internet self-study

19Vocabulary for IELP TutorsDec-2011

4. Tutor’s Help?

• Dictionary Skills– ESSENTIAL– in Constant Use while the

2000 + 570 are being learned

• Collocations– Learner Dictionaries required– Need Frequency rank

20Dec-2011 Vocabulary for IELP Tutors

IELP Proficiency Test?

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Word List IELP Proposed Academic Vocabulary Proficiency Exit - Tests

GSL 0001-1000 Exit test = level-I?

GSL 1001-2284 Comprehensive test 0001-2284 = exit level-2?

AWL Sub-lists 1-3 Exit test = level-3?

AWL Sub-lists 4-6 Exit test = Academic Track L-4?

AWL Sub-lists 7-8 Exit test = Academic Track L-5?

AWL Sub-lists 9-10 Exit test = Graduate Track L-6? (most likely, Sublists 9-10 will remain as a self-study directive)

ReferencesBauman, J. (1995). General service list.

http://jbauman.com/aboutgsl.html

Coxhead, A. (2000). A new academic word list. TESOL Quarterly, 34, 213-238.

Folse, K. (2004). Vocabulary myths: applying second language research to classroom teaching. Univ. of Michigan Press.

Nation, I.S.P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge Univ. Press.

Nation, I.S.P. [consultant] (2010). Real reading. Longman Publishers.

Zimmerman, C. (2008). Word knowledge: a vocabulary teachers handbook. Oxford Univ. Press.

Vocabulary for IELP TutorsDec-2011 22

Barbara Anne Pijan