Professional Documents
Culture Documents
LXICO
NECESARIO PARA LA SOCIALIZACIN, LA INFORMACIN Y LA EXPRESIN
DE ACTITUDES. TIPOLOGA DE ACTIVIDADES LIGADAS A LA ENSEANZA Y
EL APRENDIZAJE DEL LXICO EN LA CLASE DE LENGUA EXTRANJERA.
In this unit we will study how we can order vocabulary (lexical fields) and
how vocabulary is organised (semantic features), then we will see some vocabulary
needed to express some common communicative functions (socialization,
information and attitude expression and finally techniques used in learning and
teaching vocabulary.
Without vocabulary, structures and function havent got any sense. We can
see the importance of vocabulary when we dont find the words we need to
express something. However, many teachers spend more time in teaching
grammar than in teaching vocabulary.
Firstly, I am going to start talking about the semantic structure. There are
several ways of oraganizing lexemes. We can try to group them into fields of
meaning, or studying the types of paradigmatic relationships existing between
them, or analyzing lexical items into a series of semantic features or components.
Talking about semantic or lexical fields we can say that lexemes can be
organised into a system, in which these lexemes interrelate, and define each other
in specific ways, For example, the various lexemes for parts of the body (head,
neck, shoulders, etc.) It has been argued that the whole of a languages
vocabulary is structured into fields; but there is in fact a great deal of variations as
we move from one part of the language to another. There would be little difficulty
gathering together all the English lexemes for body parts, for example; but it
would be very difficult to do the same job for noise or sociology.
There have been many philosophical and linguistic attempts to classify the
concepts or words in a language. In recent times, the most influential and popular
work has been the Thesaurus of Peter Mark Roget (1779-1869), fir published by
Longman in 1852. Roget divided the vocabulary into six main areas: abstract
relations, space, matter, intellect, volition and affections. Each area was given a
detailed and exhaustive subclassification, producing 1.000 Semitic categories in
all. The first three classes cover the external world. Abstract relations deals with
such ideas as number, order and time; Space is concerned with movements,
shapes, and sizes. Matter covers the physical world and humankinds perception of
it by means of the five senses. The last three classes deal with the internal world of
human beings. Intellect studies the human mind. Volition deals with the human
will. Affections, whose original tittle is emotion, religion and morality, deals with
the human heart and soul. There is a progression from abstract concepts through
the material universe, to mankind itself, culminating in what Roget saw as
humanitys highest achievements: morality and religion.
Oral: One path through the thesaurus is the following:
affections
Thesauri of this kind have now been produced for several languages, and
prove to be a useful adjunct to many practical linguistic activities, such as
professional writing, translating, and setting or solving crosswords. For the
semanticist, however, their value is limited, as they contain no information about
the sense relationships between individual lexemes, and items that come from
different regional, social, or professional varieties are juxtaposed without comment.
To study the structure of a semantic field, more precise means of plotting the sense
relations between lexemes need to be used.
In this point we have to talk about sense relationships too. The organization
of the lexemes of a language is based on our intuitions that groups of lexemes are
related in sense. The relationships between lexemes can be analyzed under two
main headings:
For language learners, there is a further type of sense relation but most
learners find this useful to make a conscious effort to link words between a foreign
language and their own.
The second main point of the theme refers to the necessary lexicon for
socialization, information and expressing attitudes. In verbal
communication, six main categories within the functions of language can be
distinguished:
Each one of these categories, and each one of the functions, can be carried
out separately in speech acts. Often, however, two or more functions will combine
in the same speech act. Moreover, a person can search for information and at the
same time express surprise (emotional attitude).
1. Socialization vocabulary.
* Introductions:
Hello I am Jim. Hello, Jim./ Nice to meet you.
How do you do? My name is James How do you do, James?
b) Complimenting and congratulating:
* complimenting: responses
What a marvellous meal! Im glad you liked it.
That was one of the best book Ive ever read Its nice of you to say
so.
* congratulating: responses
Well done! thanks a lot.
May we congratulate you on... Its very kind of you.
C) Offering and thanking:
* offering:
Would you like another helping? Yes, please, No, thank you.
* thanking:
thanks a lot. Youre welcome/ Not at all.
I regret that
e) Expressing condolences:
Probably one of the most important reasons we use language for is to give
someone some piece of information which we think they do not know. Questions
and statements are the structures we typically use to convey or ask for
information. They do not need, however, the use of a specific vocabulary, with the
exception, perhaps of interrogative pronouns. Where we do need to teach our
pupils specific vocabulary is when we consider peoples reactions to information,
for instance opinion, agreement, interruption and so on.
a) Opinion:
* asking for an opinion: What do you think about/ What are your
feelings about , What your attitude is to..
* giving an opinion: in my opinion, as I see it, My own view of the
matter is that...
* asking without giving your opinion: I dont know what to think
about, I have no particular views on, I have no strong feelings about...
d) Clarification:
* Clarifying: , I mean.../..., in other words...
* asking for clarification: sorry?, Pardon?, Could you repeat that?,
What do you mean by..?
The last thing we will see in this point is the vocabulary needed to express
attitudes, where we have to distinguish in the next functions:
a) Volition:
* willingness: I am ready to paint your home/I will do anything for you
* wish: I wish you every happiness in your wedding dayWould you
like?
*Intention: I intent to see you tomorrow/ I am going to see her
tomorrow.
* Insistence: I insist on overcome the issue.
b) Liking and disliking:
*Likes: I like, I love, I enjoy, I am fond of, I am keen on
* Diskikes: I dont like, I dislike, I hate, I detest , I cant stand, I am fed
up with
* Indifference: I dont mind
* Preference: I prefer reading
i) Emotive emphasis:
* Interjections: Whoops, mm, gosh, whoah
* Exclamations: What a man!, How extraordinary!
*repetition: He is very very silly.
* Emphasizers: Shes an absolute beginner.
As we can see there are many lexical items that our pupils must be able to
use in order to acquire a basic communicative competence.
To finish we will see the third main point in the theme, the techniques
used in learning and teaching vocabulary.
Now we will point out the most common techniques to introduce the new
vocabulary. The first thing we will see is how we must introduce the new
vocabulary.
The first step is introducing the new vocabulary, the main thing here is the
meaning. To explain the meaning there are several techniques and these are:
c) The use of records with sounds that they can associate with the object
before they listen to the word in English for instance the transports like a car, train,
motorbike, etc.
d) The use of mime, action and gesture: With gestures the teacher can
explain a lot of words, action verbs such as drink, eat, walk as well as adjectives
like happy, sad or deictic words such as from, to there...
e) Translation: when other techniques are not useful to explain any difficult
word, the teacher can use the translation into the mother tongue. However,
translation cannot be the main technique if we dont want our pupils to continue to
use Spanish as a framework on which to attach English items.
The second step in teaching vocabulary is that our pupils remember them,
and if we want our pupils to remember the vocabulary we will have to practice it
and there are three main ways of practising it:
1. Labelling: our pupils are given a picture and have to write the names of
the objects in the picture.
2. I spy: a pupil think in an object that the rest of the class can see and
he/she gives a clue that is the first vowel. The rest of the class try to guess the
word. The phrase they use is: I spy with my little eye something beginning with B.
Is it a book?
3. spot the difference: our pupils are put into pairs. Each member has a
slightly different picture. Without showing it to one another they have to discover
the differences.
4. Describe and draw: This activity is similar to the last one, one member of
the pair has a drawing and the other one a blank piece of paper. The pupil with the
picture must tell his partner what to draw.
5. Picture dominoes and picture rummy: this games are based on the
associations our pupils may establish between the objects appearing in cards. In
dominoes they do it with pairs of cards, while in rummy they do it with threes,
fours.
6.Kims game: we show our pupils a picture or a tray with object on it, or
series of different flash cards or magazine pictures. They have two minutes to
memorize as man as they can, and afterwards they will have to say or write what
they saw. And we can transform this game into Chinese whispers if only one child
sees the tray and then whispers the objects into his partners ear. The process goes
on and we see the similarities and differences between the initial and the final list.
7. I spy: A pupil thinks about an object that the rest of the class can see and
he or she says: I spy with my little eye something beginning with... and the first
letter of the object and the rest of the class try to guess it.
1. Word thermometers: these are useful for indicating degree. For example
place these words in the correct place on the thermometer: always, sometimes,
usually, never, rarely. (dibujar un termometro).
2. Series: this game uses lexical fields. Our pupils must write as many words
as they know in one field. We can use these words in Word Bingo. Our pupil write
ten words relating to one lexical field. We call out words connected with this lexical
field. The firs pupil who crosses out all the words on his page is the winner.
3. Spiders: we draw a spider in the blackboard with a topic or a word and
they have to write in the legs all the words they can think of connected with this
word.
4. Odd man out: the teacher says four or five words but one of them isnt
related to the rest and they have to guess it.
5. Categories: we use jumbled words which must be categorised into lexical
fields.
1. Cloze test: the pupil must write the words that there arent write in the
text because they are necessary.
2. Matching antonyms.
3. Matching words with their definition.
Bibliography
Alburquerque. R et al. En el aula de Ingles. Longman. London, 1990
Gairns R& Redman S Working with words. CUP. 1986.
Wallance M Teaching Vocabulary Heinemann 1982
Propuesta de Secuencia. Lenguas Extranjersa. Mec. Escuela Espaola. Madrid.
1992.
Picture dictionaries.
Abbs B Picture Workbook Longman 1986
Oxford Childrens Picture Dictionary OUP. 1981