“Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” David Wilkins.
Speakers need vocabulary in order to express their ideas. So do learners of English. A typical student starting an Advanced course is more likely to have significant problems in the area of vocabulary (e.g. with collocations and chunks) than with grammar.
Some facts and figures:
How many words are there in the English language? Nobody knows for sure… it is sometimes hard to decide what counts as a word. However, some say that there are about 2 million words, which makes English the richest language in vocabulary.
Yet, the Oxford Dictionary has catalogued around 500.000 words (1,000,000 words including scientific words).
An average educated person knows about 20,000 words and uses about 2,000 words in a week.
An intermediate student of a foreign language knows up to 2,500 words (the most frequent words). With this number you’re able to understand 80% of what you read or hear.
Knowing a word means knowing:
- Its meaning: concepts and associations with other words
- Its form: spoken (pronuciation) or written (spelling)
- Its position: grammar patterns and collocations
- Its function: appropriateness and frequency (how common a specific word or expression is)
But, why do learners usually have problems learning and using vocabulary?
Firstly, let’s think about two very important terms to take into account when learning vocabulary:
- Comprehension (understanding the meaning of new words and storage of those words)
- Production (adequate use of vocabulary, retrieval of newly learnt vocabulary)
These are different skills and require different attention and methodology. Let’s see what they’re about in more detail:
The majority of experts believe that comprehension should precede production:
* When you come across a new word, the first thing you do is try to understand its meaning. However, you don’t have to understand every single word to get the meaning of a passage or a conversation.
* You know that a word may have several meanings but you don’t need to know them all, the general meaning is enough for a start.
* When you read or listen to a conversation, you should avoid using the dictionary until the very end. Instead, try to use strategies to understand the word (guessing from context, from the preceding text, type of word, word formation, intonation and stress, etc.). If you use a dictionary, do it for learning purposes, that is, to learn the meaning of a word that is useful and commong within your level of English.
* And obviously, try to store the new word or expression, keep it in your memory (and also in a vocabulary notebook!). There are several strategies you can try:
Associate new words with others related, for example:
- pairs: dusk and down
- semantic associations – synonyms (still – adj. calm, silent, quiet, placid, tranquil), antonyms (still – adj. agitated, moving, stirred), families (aim, to aim, aimless, aim at/for) , categories (poultry – chicken, turkey, swan, goose, duck)
- collocations: pitch dark, deep sleep, bright red
- Lexical phrases: of course, you’ve got to be kidding, it’s worth mentioning that…
- pictures or images
- situations: shopping – prize, cashier, how much?, cash, credit card, try on, exchange, size, etc.
Mind-mapping – is the perfect tool for collecting and associating words; read about and/or watch this video; and here you have another example of how to mindmap vocab
Being strategic is also about learning the most common words first (high-frequency words). Some learner’s dictionaries highlight the frequency of words.
Some students like to use different ways of memorizing. If you do this, avoid long lists of unrelated vocabulary.
Try not to store and learn vocabulary only through translation, in fact, try to avoid translating unless the word or expression is idiomatic or metaphoric (to be broke = estar aruinado, nothing to do with having a broken leg, for instance).
New vocabulary is better learnt with examples. Whenever you record a new word or expression, you should include a sentence exemplifying the use or uses of that specific word, obviously in English. Relate examples to your personal experience and context for better learning.
When you write examples you are also learning its grammatical function and correct position in a sentence. For example: “lash” – transitive verb. To hit something with a very stong forcde. The wind was still strong, and the rain lashed against the roof. We could hear the branches lashing the side of the house. It’s lashing rain!
Immediate production: Practical use of vocabulary.
- IMPORTANT: learning a word in isolation does not enable you to use it adequately.
- Experts say that learners need to encounter (use) a new word between 7 and 10 times to truly acquire it.
- Writing examples (see previous point) is a good way of immediate production.
- You might sometimes make associations through similarities with your own language.
- Use new words and expressions in context (written or spoken) without any worries to make mistakes, just use new vocabulary from the very beginning. Participate in class and do your homework.
- Text books include useful vocabulary exercises linked to reading, listening and speaking activities. This allows active and communicative learning.
- It is very important that you repeat and revise old material regularly.
A vocabulary notebook:
You may enter 5 new words a day in the following way:
Write the new word or expression on a first column, its definition on a second one and an example sentence on the next one. You can add another column or linked lines to add related vocabulary (synonyms, families, etc)
If you can enter 5 new words in your notebook that’ll mean 35 new words a week, 150 a month and 1800 new words a year!!
Try to get a handy type of notebook, so you can carry it around in your bag or pocket to have a look at it whenever you’re bored while waiting for the bus, or something like that.
Another version: use cue cards, or flash cards. Each card may contain a group of related vocabulary with examples. Do not forget to include pronunciation as well.
PLEASE, SHARE YOUR STRATEGIES WITH US, POST IN YOUR OWN TIPS, WHAT WORKS FOR YOU MAY WORK AND HELP SOMEONE ELSE.
Cheers,
Sonia
INDEPENDENT LEARNING // I'm working on another site now. Take a look at strategiclearnersofenglish.wordpress.com 