Vocabulary BuildingBY: KUNAL SINGHAL & KRISHNENDRA DUBEY

Roadmap of Presentation• Definition of vocabulary• Types of Vocabulary• Role of context in vocabulary• Steps in learning vocabulary• Research findings about

vocabulary

What is Vocabulary

• “Vocabulary is commonly defined as "all the words known and used by a particular person". Knowing a word, however, is not as simple as merely being able to recognize or use it.”

• A person's vocabulary is the set of words within a language that are familiar to that person. A vocabulary usually develops with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge.

• vocabulary is the glue that holds stories, ideas, and content together…making comprehension accessible for one and all.”

Conti…..

• “Words are the starting point. Without words, no one can talk about people, places, or things, about actions, relations, or states.”

• Therefore acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the largest challenges in learning a language.

Types of Vocabulary• Reading vocabularyA literate person's vocabulary is all the words he or she can recognize when reading. This is generally the largest type of vocabulary simply because a reader tends to be exposed to more words by reading than by listening.

• Listening vocabularyA person's listening vocabulary is all the words he or she can recognize when listening to speech. People may still understand words they were not exposed to before using cues such as tone, gestures, the topic of discussion and the social context of the conversation.

Conti….• Speaking vocabularyA person's speaking vocabulary is all the words he or she uses in speech. It is likely to be a subset of the listening vocabulary.

• Writing vocabularyWords are used in various forms of writing from formal essays to Twitter feeds. Many written words do not commonly appear in speech. Writers generally use a limited set of words when communicating: for example if there are a number of synonyms, a writer will have his own

preference as to which of them to use. he is unlikely to use technical vocabulary relating to a subject in

which he has no knowledge or interest.

Role of ContextDirective Context

• Gives clues, hints, synonyms to determine an approximate word meaning in the context.

Non-Directive Context• Mentions the word without giving any clues to determine word

meaning.Mis-Directive Context

• Gives clues that lead readers to false word meaning construction.

Steps in learning vocabulary

Step One: presenting new words

Using visual imagesUsing gestures

and actions

Showing lexical relationsWords in context

Guessing/predicting

Other techniques

Step Two: helping yourself,

remember new words

Using review games

Using memorizing games & activities

Learning with friends

Step Three:

By making the new words of your own

Vocabulary record system

Personalizing the new words

Research findings about Vocabulary• “Word knowledge is essential for comprehension”

“Davis, 1944”• “Oral interactions and wide reading in a variety of text types is to be

encouraged and supported ““Nagy & Herman, 1987”

• “Learning new concepts requires active involvement rather than passive definition memorization” “Stahl, 1986”

Conti….• “Multiple exposures to a word is necessary to learn it well –

conceptual, contextual, & definitional” “Miller, 1996”

• “Writing definitions from dictionaries is not a recommended practice”

“Miller, 1996”• “Relate new words to students’ prior knowledge and to other related

words when possible ““U.S. Dept of Education, 1987”

• “Use direct instruction to teach “Tier 2” and passage or selection critical words”

“Snow, Burns & Griffin, 1998”

Conclusion• Word learning is definitely a complicated process that deserves

attention.

• There are a variety of opportunities to connect words, analyze structure, understand multiple meanings, and discover words in a variety of contexts.

• The goal for one should be to build independent learning strategies that will reciprocate into reading comprehension.

Thankyou