Teaching vocabulary

Words are learnt in associations.

Pupils learn vocabulary with their teacher at classes and on their own. They do in their own pace.

To take into consideration: learners’ age, life experience, linguistic confidence, level of language proficiency, needs and interests.

A lexical/vocabulary item – 1) an individual word with its meaning; 2) word combinations: collocations, fixed expression, idioms.

To know a word means to know its meaning in the context, its usage.

To teach words belonging to certain parts of speech, word formation, spelling, pronunciation, position in a sentence.

Stages of teaching vocabulary:

1) presentation of a new vocabulary item and its meaning (oral contextualized presentation by the teacher; visual presentation with the help of objects, pictures, gestures, maps, actions; supplying antonyms and synonyms; non translational – the word in a sentence/text where the meaning is clear – to guess the meaning; translation – especially if abstract nouns);

2) checking comprehension + tentative use of newly introduced items with the help of tests: matching (with pictures, synonyms, definitions, associations), grouping words according to the same characteristics, grading (to put in some order), multiple choice, collocation grid, odd man out, gap filling, sentence completion, paraphrasing, mind map – to form the subskill through understanding, selecting, grouping and combining words;

3) communicative practice – active use of vocabulary through creative activities: making dialogues, story telling, describing pictures, …

Active vocabulary minimum – production in speaking and writing

Passive vocabulary minimum – recognition in reading and listening

Teaching listening

Listening is a receptive skill which involves understanding an oral input.

Reasons for listening:

- listening for general information

- listening for specific information

- listening for enjoyment

- listening for curiosity

- listening for pronunciation practice

Objects of teaching = Listening subskills:

- listening for gist: Get the main idea of what is being said without focusing on specific details;

- listening for specific information

- extensive listening – for a long period – for pleasure

- listening for detailed understanding: e.g. directions – listening intensively to understand all information

- listening for implications

Listening can be:

1) formal / informal

2) face to face / via channel

3) one sided / multisided (conversation)

What is necessary for listening:

Predicting – anticipatory mechanisms – to predict what is going to come next on the level of a word, sentence, text; ability to contextualize the information

Linguistic knowledge: deals with recognition of sound, intonation, stress, grammar, lexis, knowledge of formal / informal styles

Cognition: short-term memory and long term ability of coding-decoding information

Paralinguistic features – gestures, body language, noise, music, environment clues

Personal motivation

DIFFICULTIES while listening:

A linguistic problems:

- on phonetic level: misunderstanding of words due to mixing sounds, due to reduction /elision; misunderstanding of word combinations due to strange linkage or clusters; misunderstanding of an utterance due to strange rhythm and intonation, differences in stresses;

- on grammatical level: confusion of shortened forms, shortened words with full; large amount of analytic forms; grammatical homonymy

- on lexical level: recognition of homophones, paronyms, opposites, words used in a figurative meaning, a large amount of structural words, use of fillers (hm, like, sort of, well), words of different level of formality, repetitions, rephrasing, false starts, self-correction;

B Non-linguistic: lack of confidence, control over the speed of speech (250/min), absence of a purpose for listening; poor understanding of speakers’ intention; absence of relevant socio-cultural knowledge; inability to differentiate speakers, inability to focus on and extract key information; tiredness; distracted by external noise

Ways to overcome these difficulties: to give supports (visual, oral), to adjust a text, to play the recording several times, to make pauses.

There are 3 stages of teaching listening:

1) pre-listening: to prepare pupils for listening, to activate their previous experience and knowledge. Exercises guide pupils to the meaning, ask them to predict and get ready: Read smth additional before listening; Discuss the subject; Describe the pictures; Answer the questions (not more than 3); Matching (to predict the content) + grammar or vocabulary exercises

2) while listening: to develop the skill of accessing meaning from spoken language. Activities aimed at listening for gist, for specific information, to restore missing information: putting pictures in order, completing tables/charts/grids/sentences, drawing a picture, doing some actions/movements, note-taking, labeling, gap-filling, true-false, multiple choice, spotting mistakes

3) post listening: to check pupils’ understanding: putting pictures in order, matching them to the text, true-false, extending the list of ideas, extending notes to full responses, identifying relations between speakers, decision-making, role plays, simulations, dictation, writing compositions/letters/essays, answering questions, summary.

Listening skills are always integrated with other skills.