Bahasa Inggris Kelas 7

Teaching Vocabulary

Paul Nation
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

Biography:
Paul Nation teaches in the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Victoria
University of Wellington, New Zealand. He has taught in Indonesia, Thailand, the United
States, Finland, and Japan. His specialist interests are language teaching methodology and
vocabulary learning.

Introduction:

Deliberately teaching vocabulary is one of the least efficient ways of developing
learners= vocabulary knowledge but nonetheless it is an important part of a well-balanced
vocabulary programme.

The main problem with vocabulary teaching is that only a few words and a small
part of what is required to know a word can be dealt with at any one time. This limitation
also applies to incidental learning from listening or reading, but it is much easier to arrange
for large amounts of independent listening and reading than it is to arrange for large
amounts of teaching. Teaching can effectively deal with only a small amount of
information about a word at a time. The more complex the information is, the more likely
the learners are to misinterpret it.

Table 1: Ways of quickly giving attention to words


1

Quickly give the meaning by (a) using an L1 translation, (b) using a known L2
synonym or a simple definition in the L2, (c) showing an object or picture, (d) giving
quick demonstration, (e) drawing a simple picture or diagram, (f) breaking the word
into parts and giving the meaning of the parts and the whole word (the word part
strategy), (g) giving several example sentences with the word in context to show the
meaning, (h) commenting on the underlying meaning of the word and other
referents.
2

Draw attention to the form of the word by (a) showing how the spelling of the word is
like the spelling of known words, (b) giving the stress pattern of the word and its
pronunciation, (c) showing the prefix, stem and suffix that make up the word, (d)
getting the learners to repeat the pronunciation of the word, (e) writing the word on
the board, (f) pointing out any spelling irregularity in the word.
3

Draw attention to the use of the word by (a) quickly showing the grammatical pattern
the word fits into (countable/uncountable, transitive/intransitive, etc), (b) giving a

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​procedural text

ProcedurAL TEXT

Some text here about the topic of discussion

Using the dictionary: When a useful word occurs in a reading text, the teacher trains
learners in the strategy of using a dictionary.
Guessing from context.

Whenever a guessable word occurs in a reading text the
teacher trains the learners in the guessing from context strategy.

Word form
Spelling dictation

The teacher says words or phrases and the learners write them.
Pronunciation

The teacher writes words on the board and the learners
pronounce them getting feedback from the teacher. Each learner picks
what word to say.
Word parts

The teacher writes words on the board and the learners cut
them into parts and give the meanings of the parts.

Word use
Suggest collocates

The learners work together in pairs or small groups to list collocates
for a given word.
Word detectives

A learner reports on a word he or she has found in their reading. They
talk about the meaning, spelling, pronunciation, word parts,
etymology, collocates and grammar of the word.

Choosing the words
1

As words come up in class, one learner (the class secretary) has the job of noting
them for future attention.
2

The teacher chooses words that have appeared in work in the last week or two.
3

The teacher chooses words that the learners need to know.

Let us look at two examples to see how learning burden can be worked out. The
purpose of working out learning burden is to find what aspects will be difficult when
learning a particular word and thus where the teacher can give useful help.

Let us take the word friend as an example. We will look at it from the point of view
of a native speaker of Thai. Friend has a few pronunciation difficulties for a Thai, namely
the /r/ sound and the two consonant clusters /fr/ and /nd/, but they may not be so much of a
problem by the time this word is learned. The spelling of the word is not wholly predictable.
If the learners heard the word they would want to write it as frend, so the ie part needs some
attention (ie representing /e/ is an irregular spelling in English). It does not have any
prefixes or suffixes, but it may be worth giving attention to friendly. Friend is not a loan
word in Thai, so learning is needed here. Thai has a word that is roughly similar in meaning
to friend (puean). Thais however use other words for friend too, but this need not be a
concern at this point. Friend has the collocates good (a good friend), close (a close friend),
old (an old friend), family (He=s a friend of the family). Friend is a regular countable noun.
It cannot be used as a verb. It has no restrictions on its use. That is, it is not a rude word or
a formal word, and is not restricted to a particular dialect of English. Thus we can see the
learning burden of friend lies largely in its spelling, the form-meaning connection (Thais
have to learn that friend means Apuean@), and in its collocations.

High frequency vocabulary needs to be met across all four strands of a course -
meaning-focused input, meaning-focused output, language-focused learning, and fluency
development. Some low frequency vocabulary may not need to become part of the
learners= output and so it is not important for it to be part of the meaning-focused output
strand. Table 5 lists various ways of getting learners to meet the same vocabulary again and
again.

The direct teaching approach suggested in this article is based on the following guidelines.

1

If the word is a high frequency word or one that will be of continuing importance
for the learners, a) give it attention, preferably focussing on its learning burden, b)
make sure the learners will come back to it again. If the word is a low frequency
word, pass over it without comment or give some brief attention to it focussing on
what is needed in that instance.
2

Direct teaching should be clear and simple. Rely on repeated meetings to develop
an understanding of the complexities of a word. Don=t try to deal with the
complexities by intensive teaching.

The deliberate teaching of vocabulary is only one part of the language -focused
learning strand of a course. The amount of time spent on it needs to be balanced against the
other types of language-focused learning such as intensive reading, deliberate learning, and
strategy training, and needs to be balanced against the other three strands of
meaning-focused input, meaning-focused output, and fluency development. Table 6 tries
to show this wider perspective, indicating the small amount of time that should be given to
vocabulary teaching.

Table 6. The proportion of time in a course that should be given to vocabulary teaching

Meaning-focused input

Meaning-focused output

Language-focused learning

pronunciation
vocabulary

strategy development
intensive reading
word card learning
vocabulary teaching
grammar
discourse

Fluency development

Vocabulary learning, both within and outside the domain of reading has been a key part of
English education in many Asian contexts where it has been traditionally stressed. There is
a need for more student centered approaches that improve both the retention and usage in a

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