Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Beyhan KESKNZ
Methodology Assignment
MSc in Teaching English
Languages Studies Unit, Aston University
May 1994
CONTENTS PAGE
Section 1
Introduction
A. Subjects
B. Materials
C. Instruments
D. Procedure
Section 6:2 Results
Section 7
Conclusion
Appendices
This study investigated the possibility of helping the students outside class hours to expand and
retain vocabulary through self study strategies.
Two groups of students ages between 18-20, were selected depending on their mid-term test scores
administered in the Spring 1994.
A pre-test and post-test, each consisting of 40 questions of vocabulary taught in the Collins Cobuild
English Course book2 were prepared and administered by the testing office to determine the degree of
success in each group.
The analyses of the two measures indicated that the students in GP1 did better than the students in
GP2. Pre-test and post-test findings are handled and implication of this are discussed.
Section 1
Introduction
1. The reason why vocabulary was neglected during the period 1940-1970 was that it had been
emphasized too much in language classrooms during the years before that time.
2. In the 1950's people began to notice that vocabulary learning in not simply a matter of learning
that a certain word in one language means the same as a word in another language.
The belief that one could master the language by learning a certain number of
words in L2 along with the meanings of those words in L1 was wrong. Knowing a
word involves knowing how to use the word syntactically, semantically, and
paradigmatically (Carter 1987 p.181). Some people preferred to teach grammar
rather than teaching vocabulary which, they thought, would be too time consuming.
Section 2:2 Reason for the present emphasis on vocabulary
The idea that meaning operates across sentence boundaries is getting popular
support among language teachers. Overemphasis on grammar in the language
classrooms proved to be unsuccessful as Allen (1983) states:
" Through research the scholars are finding that lexical problems frequently interfere with
communication; communication breaks down when people do not use the right words ".
Allen goes on arguing that in the best classes, neither grammar nor vocabulary is
neglected. There is thus no conflict between developing a firm command of
grammar and learning the most essential words. Allen (1983) also mentions some
questions in his book Techniques in Teaching Vocabulary, OUP (pp 1-6).
These questions are important in that they summarise the key problem points in the
language teaching field in terms of vocabulary:
1. Which English words do students need most to learn?
2. How can we make those words seem important to
students?
3. How can so many needed words be taught during the
short time our students have for English?
4. What can we do when a few members of the class
already know words that the others need to learn?
5. Why are some words easier than others to learn?
6. Which aids to vocabulary teaching are available?
7. How can we encourage students to take more
MEANING
WORD USE
WORDS
Meaning in context
Sense relations
WORD INFORMATION
WORD GRAMMAR
Parts of speech
Prefixes and suffixes
Spelling and pronunciation
Nouns: countable and
uncountable, etc.
Verb complementation,
phrasal verbs, etc.
Adjectives and adverbs:
position, etc.
be conveyed."
SCARF
CLOTHES
HAT
SKIRT
COAT
SHIRT
Variation 1 : Limit association in some way. For example, write only adjectives
that can apply to the central noun so "clothes" might get words like: black, old, smart, warm, beautiful.
Variation 2 : A central adjective can be associated with nouns, for example, "warm" could be linked
with: day, food, hand, personality. Or a verb can be associated with adverbs, for example, "speak" can
lead to: angrily, softly, clearly, convincingly, sadly.
Gairns & Redman (1990) suggest another technique:
Personal Category Sheets
Learners can store new vocabulary as it arises on appropriate category sheets which they can keep on
separate pages. These sheets could have headings such
as topic areas or situations, these headings being selected by the student himself. As he acquires new
vocabulary, he can add to the sheets and cross-reference them where necessary the information given on
these sheets (i.e. meaning, perhaps translation, part of speech, and an example) should be
comprehensive as suggested below:
murder (n) + (v) / ......./ =
to kill sb. by plan or intention against the law
One big advantage of this technique is that Learners can rearrange these by topic,
word-class, etc.
Wallace (1988 p.61) mentions three techniques for storing and memorizing
vocabulary, which also reflect Individualisation and self-management in language
learning.
1. the use of vocabulary cards : The most basic form of vocabulary card has the
target word/ phrase on one side and the translation or explanation on the
other. (later to be arranged by topic)
2. Meaning bridge - Wallace describes this as on attempt to make some sort of
meaning bridge between the target word and its L1 translation.
For example Turkish word "drt" is pronounced something like "dirt",
five rhymes with hive and four rhymes with door
3. At the elementary level learners can be encouraged to make their own
picture dictionaries, using drawings instead of L1 translations.
A means of making the learners think actively about what he is trying to
remember, instead of the mindless repetition which often passes for vocabulary
learning.
Rubin & Thompson (1982 p.49) warn that a memory technique that helps one
person may not help another. They suggest some options :
1- Put the foreign language words in one column and their translations in
another column. Study the list from beginning to end; then study it
backwards.
2- Put the words and their definitions on individual cards or slips of paper; then
study them in varying order.
3- Study the words and their definitions in isolation; then study them in the
context of sentences.
4- Say the words aloud as you study them.
5- Write words over and over again.
6- Tape record the words and their definitions; then listen to the tapes several
times.
7- Underline with a colored pencil the words that cause you the most trouble so
you can give them extra attention.
8- Group words by subject matter-for example fruits, vegetables, professionsand study them together.
9- Associate words with pictures or similar sounding words in your native
language.
10- Associate words with situations- for example, medicines with illnesses.
Rubin & Thompson's list offers a variety of options allowing for individual
differences. The more systems a learner makes use of and the greater exposure to
target items, the easier it will be to retrieve from a variety of sources (Gains &
Redman 1990). As guides, our job is to show learners how to be systematic
whatever system they adopt.
Section 4:2 The place of dictionary
Hartman stresses the importance of finding the meaning of a word as an
essential ingredient of dictionary use in Bailer (1989 P.130). He lists some of the
difficulties which pupils experience at every stage: searching for an appropriate
headword, understanding the discourse structure of the entry, identifying the
relevant part of the definition, relating the appropriate sense to a given context, and
paraphrasing the word by merging it with the source text. This indicates that the
learner should be able to overcome such problems if he is to take advantage of
dictionary use.
Hartman also warns that learners will often fail to find the information they seek
if they lack the required constituent skills. Then, students must be taught the proper
use of the dictionary. For example, students can be given some exercises which
require rearranging words in alphabetical order, finding derived forms under
another headword, finding out pronunciation, checking spelling and so on. The
dictionary can also give them useful grammatical information.
Wallace 1988 diagnoses choosing the meaning appropriate to a given context
when several meanings are defined as the major problem in the use of the
dictionary.
70%
30%
Total
100%
If the total score is 70/100 or more, students are eligible to skip the preparatory
program.
The other students are grouped according to the test scores ranging from
beginners to advanced. All groups of the same level are given the same tests
prepared by the testing office during the two semesters each of which is 14
weeks.
Section 5:2 Problem
Fourteen adults chosen randomly have been asked to write down what they have
been doing to enrich their vocabulary acquisition . Half the group said that they
read the dictionary and wrote down the words if they found the words interesting.
Four said they only studied the word in the textbook in lists. One said that he wrote
down the sample sentences in the dictionary and studied those sentences. Two said
that they wrote words on small pieces of paper and read them from time to time.
Discussions with colleagues also revealed that they felt unhappy about the fact that
their students were not doing their best to enrich their vocabulary acquisition. In the
light of these points, I thought, we could help students do better in terms of
vocabulary acquisition by exposing them to some vocabulary acquisition
techniques.
Section 6:1 Method
A. Subjects:
In this study two beginners groups were chosen on the basis of the placement
test given in the Fall 1993. Now the first term was over and the students had just
taken the mid-term test. Depending on the midterm test grades given in the
Spring 1994, 7 students, who had the same grades were selected in each group.
They were adults, aged between 18-20. From now on these groups will be called
GP1 and GP2.
The mid-term test scores for GP1 and GP2 are as follows:
G RAD E S
Mean
GP1 80
80 75 70
65 65 50
69
GP2 85
80 75 70
65 60 50
69
B. Materials :
The words to be learned were chosen according to two criteria. First, they had
already been chosen on the basis of sound research by Collins and the English
Language Research Department at Birmingham University. Willis (1990) argues
that the first part of this project had involved the assembly on computer analysis of
a 7.3 million word corpus (later extended to over 20 million words) of spoken and
written English, which was proposed by John Sinclair.
Second, because it was the main course book on the program the students had to
acquire the vocabulary given at the end of each unit in Collins Cobuild English
Course 2 by Jane & Dave Willis, a lexical-based course book, which came
out of the Cobuild Project.
C. Instruments:
Two 40-item, four choice multiple choice tests, a pre-test and a post-test, were
constructed to test retention. Each item consisted of a sentence requiring the use of
one of the target words which appeared at the end of each unit in Collins Cobuild
English Course 2. The distracters were chosen from among the target vocabulary
and were the same part of speech as the correct answer.
The pre-test comprised of the target vocabulary from Unit 6 to Unit 10
inclusive, the post-test was constructed from Unit 11 to Unit 15 inclusive.
D. Procedure:
The two groups studied the above mentioned units with task-based approach as
usual. Both groups were taught by the same instructor. When the pre-test was given
a week later they had covered the units 6 to 10. GP1 was presented the strategies
for vocabulary acquisition, but GP2 wasn't. When the groups were given the
post-test a week later they had covered the Units 11 to 15 inclusive.
The students were not told the purpose of the tests. They thought they were
usual quizzes.
The subjects chosen from each group did not know that they were chosen. When
the tests were administered in both classes only those subjects' papers were used for
comparison. Both groups were given the pre-test after having studied 5 units from
Collins Cobuild English Course 2 by Jane & Dave Willis, and we got the following
results:
G RAD E S
Mean
GP1 80 70 63 68 58 75 57
67
GP2 85 70 73 78 55 73 63
71
After that, GP1 was given the strategies mentioned in section 4:1 and a month later
the post-test covering the next 5 units from the same book was given to GP1 and
Mean
GP1 90 75 73 78 68 85 68
76
GP2 80 70 60 73 60 85 68
70
Conclusion
Learners learn things better if they are involved in the learning process actively.
As Willis (1990) argues:
The teacher is not the "knower" but merely a guide and we must put some of the responsibility on the
learners shoulders. They should search and find for Themselves and formulate their own rules.
So, the best thing to do seems to train learners to take more responsibility for how
and what they learn, which, as a result, will pave way for the encouragement of
learner autonomy. Learners should be helped to discover what strategy is best for
them, and they should be introduced to these strategies as early as possible. It
seems to be a good idea to introduce dictionary using skills too. Then, they will
have learnt to stand on their own feet.
As guides and facilitators, we should also help them realize their success to
increase motivation, demonstrating that success breeds success.
REFERENCES
ALLEN V. F.
1983
BAILER R. W.
1989
CARTER R.
1987
CARTER R. &
MCCARTHY M.
GAIRNS R.&
REDMAN S.
1988
1990
HARMER J
1991
MC CARTHY M.
1990
Vocabulary, OUP.
RICHARDS J.C.
1989
RUBIN J.&
THOMPSON I.
1982
UR P.& WRIGHT A.
WALLACE M.J.
WIDDOWSON H.G
1992
1988
1986
WILLIS D.
1990
1988