Seminar paper prepared  by Chinchu C David

TECHNIQUES OF PRESENTING VOCABULARY

                            AND

VOCABULARY EXPANSION TECHNIQUES

INTRODUCTION:

“Without Vocabulary Nothing Can Be Conveyed
Without Grammar Very     Little Can Be Conveyed”            
                                 - David Wilkims

The English Language is Very Rich in it’s Vocabulary. It is so because it has borrowed words from many languages. It is interesting to know that “word” in english is “Ved” in Sanscrit, “waurd” in Gothic, “wort” in German and  verbum in Latin.

     A Person’s Vocabulary is Set of Words With in a Language that are Familiar to that Person.A vocabulary usually develops with age and serves as a useful and fundumental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge.

   In this paper we are going to look at english vocabulary studies in terms of ‘lexis’, ‘morphology’, and ‘semantics’ or broadly speaking ‘Lexicology’. This lexical level of language studies is different from Grammar,but it is closely related to other levels of language studies.

MATTER:

Vocabulary is commonly defined As   “ All the
Words known and used by a particular person”.

TYPES OF VOCABULARY:

We know that there are four types of vocabulary included in this session.It is the common factors or most important factors of classification of vocabulary.It is also listed below……..

There are four types of  Vocabulary

Ø Listening vocabulary

Ø Speaking vocabulary

Ø Reading vocabulary

Ø Writing vocabulary

Reading Vocabulary as we know that a literate person’s Reading Vocabulary is all the Words He or She can Recognize when Reading. This is generally the largest type of Vocabulary

In the case of Listening Vocabulary ,a person’s listening Vocabulary is all the Words He or She can Recognize when Listening to Speech people may still understand Words they were not exposed to before using cues such as  Tone, Gestures in the context of communication.

A person’s Speaking Vocabulary is all the Words He or She  uses in Speech .it is likely to be a subset of the Listening Vocabulary.

Words are used in various forms of Writing from to informal .Many  Written  words do not commonly appear in Speech. Writers generally use a limited set of Words  when Communicating  for example……

§  .He is  unlikely to use  technical vocabulary relating to a subject in which He has no Knowledge or interest.

§  .If there are a number of Synonyms, a writer will have his own preferance as  to as to which of them to use.

PRODUCTIVE AND RECEPTIVE VOCABULARY:

   Vocabulary can be classified as  Receptive & Productive  Vocabulary

Words that are generally understood  when heard or read or seen constitute a person’s Receptive  Vocabulary. Means words we understand  when others use it.It is also known as Receive Vocabulary.Example A  Young child may not yet be able to speak, Write, or Sign , He or she may be able to follow simple commands &appear to understand a good portion of language which they exposed .in this case of child’s Receptive Vocabulary is likely ten’s  ,if not hundreds of words but his or her active vocabulary is zero. When the child learn to speak or sign the vocabulary begins to increase.It is possible for the productive vocabulary to be larger than the Receptive vocabulary.Productive vocabulary is known as Achieve vocabulary.It helps to understand how to pronouns ,or  write a word has been used to correctly or accurately reflect the intended message of the utterance.

WORD FORMATION:

In linguistics , word formation is the creation of new words.Word formation is sometimes contrasted with semantic changes, which is the change in a single word meaning.

TYPES  OF WORD FORMATION

v Morphological word formation

There are two sub catogaries; words created by deviation and words created by conversion.

v Derivation (Linguistics)

Derivation is the process of  forming new  words from existing  ones  by adding  Affixes to them . Like Shamelessness in cases in which there is a one –two –one correspondence between affixes and syntactical catogaries

v Conversion.(Word formation)

Also known as zero-affixation ,conversion involving forming a new word from an existing identical one.Doubt,turn, release are used as nouns as well as verbs.

v Blending (Blend word)

 A blend is a word  formed by a joining parts of two or more older words . example ‘smog, which comes from ‘smoke’ and ‘fog’ brunch which comes from ‘break fast’ and ‘lunch.

Ø Clipping ; (sub category of blending)

Also known as ‘truncation’ or shortening ’, clipping is the process which consist of the word reduce of the word to one of its parts example fax (facsimile)flu (influence)  Bot  (robot)

Ø Composition (compounding)

By joining two ore more  words a compound word is formed compounding take place between any two ore more of the word clauses namely nouns , verbs,  adverbs, adjectives. Example , words ;noun+ noun ,noun +verb  ,  compound words ; headache , sunrise.

               As we know that there are many techniques for presenting  vocabulary  infront of the students. Presentation of vocabulary can be done by using reacia,  pictures,name,action ation  and gestures, contrast ,enumeration,explanation or translation. The  presentation of different techniques made the  students much  interested to studies at all. The techniques of presenting realia refers to the use of real objects in the class room. These objects make the meaning  of the word clear.(eg,an Apple, A Pencil, A ball etc..) the teacher may also use classroom environment; a desk a chair , a board. This approach is widely used  with begginer  classes.

                  The techniques of using pictures can be a very useful tool in language teaching ,sence it is used in different ways there are pictures black board drawings, wall pictures, charts, photos from magazines etc…

                             Mime action and gestures techniques are useful for the explanation of actions and  grammar itemes.such concepts as jumping, running or the words from ,in,under etc….are items easy to through performing those actions.

                                Another techniques is interest,it usually shows the similarities and the differences between persones ideas, or thing.when using interest we can ask learners to fined antonymo,or synonyms of words. This teachniques is best used with the learners who already have some vocabulary knowledge.

In the ‘ENUMERATION’ Technique which was described by ‘CAROLINE BRANDT’. Words can be explained  by  ‘ENUMERATING’  or Listing various items.

Example ;VEGETABLES –Potatoes –carrot –cucumber-

                   CLOTHES- BOOTS- JACKET- JEANS.

   she also describe the EXPLANATION Technique.

CLASSROOM TECHNIQUES:

v USING OBJECTS

q  Labels: pasting labels on objects

q Magazine pictures that illustrate words in  Dialogue ,   black board sketches  etc….

q  Props: objects that can be   shown in the class

q Classroom Objects:  calender &  clocks

q  Slides: for   conveying the cultural differences of ordinary words.

               HOUSE IN A VILLAGE

                IN A CLASSROOM

                 IN GNGLAND       (these dwelling places are different in different geographical regions and climates.)

v USING GESTURES& SYMBOLS

v Descriptive objectives:  tall, thin ,happy, dumb, lame.

v Prepositions of place on, in, over, into, under.

v Active verbs :go, jump, throw,

v Symbols for Morning &Noon

v USING KNOWN VOCABULARY

§  Synonyms: probe 0  investigate

The same ideas expressed by two or more different words or phrases& one of these may be familiar to the Reader.

§  Antonyms

§   Synonyms &  Antonyms in sentence contexts.

   Ravana was a cruel man

Ashok was a kind &Noble man.

v USING WORD CATOGARIES

Names of catogaries can be taught verbally if students known some names of items that belong to a particular  catogary.

STATIONARY-pen, pencil, ink, paper

COSMETICS- cream, oil,  powder

FURNITURE-  table,  chair,  sofa.

q  A number of selected words can be introduced under a particular catogary

     A FARM- farm, Farmer, plough, harvest,  Nest,  Sow,  Reap

     MEALS (FOOD)-  Breakfast,  Lunch,  Supper .

DEFINITIONS&  PARAPHRASES

§  PARASITE: Animal or plant living on or in another and getting it’s food from it.

v USING MOTHER TONGUE

 Direct use of mother tongue

We have mentioned already that the prime consideration for the teacher must be to provide as much practice in the use of the target language as possible:The use of mother tongue in teaching new words is the best way to provide this.A lot of practice time will be wasted in avoiding mother tongue because it is of more importance for pupils to practice using the new words in different contexts.Then these words can be assimilated easily and are available for active use.

v VERBAL CONTEXT

Verbal context refers to the text or speech surrounding an expansion (word,sentence or speech).

Example-  EXPENSIVE-A cotton shirt  costs fifteen rupees, a silk shirt costs fifty  rupees.  Here  cotton shirt is cheaper but the silk shirt is expensive.

Glass bangles are cheaper but gold bangles are expensive.

v FINDING MEANINGS FROM CONTEXT

This is guess the meanings from the context.The most common way of finding meaning from the context is by inference.

v EXPERIENCE/ FAMILIARITY

        Means familiarity to the words.    

 Take the word ‘OBE’ Let us say , that students have never heard this word before, look at these sentances

q He used to be    ‘OBE ‘ player in the town.

q He never liked to play the clarinet After, he started playing the ‘OBE’.

     From these  Sentence  we can guess that the meaning of OBE  can be either a game or musical instrument. the second sentence makes the meaning of ‘OBE’  to be only a  musical instrument.

v SEMANTIC GROUPING

 The presentation by semantic grouping enables the learner to master vocabulary better than the presentation of individual items.Association of words by their meaning in vocabulary learning is an important factor.Words are easily learnt if they are organised into semantic grouping.When we learn our language we associate words and sentances with thought, ideas, actions and events. The best strategy for vocabulary teaching is to present words in a semantically organised group. Eg; shore,ocean island.

VOCABULARY EXPANSION TECHNIQUES:

There are three ways  in which Vocabulary is built to relation with vocabulary.

Wide reading is recommended as the best single way of increasing one’s vocabulary.Direct vocabulary instruction means selecting appropriate words to be taught and, then teaching association of meaning by various techniques- the direct approach is one in which lists of words containing words are studied deliberately for development of word power.The best illustration for this is the word power exercises that appear in the readers digest.Incidental instruction to build combination of wide reading and direct instruction.

        Reading vocabulary becomes permanent vocabulary only if it is trasferred to writing, speaking and thinking vocabularies.students ‘attention’ can be diverted to notice the author’s choice of words for accuracy of meaning and also to the power of words in appealing to the various sense.

    Learning at a lower level encode the words in memory on the basis of acoustic and orthographic similarities rather than by association of meaning.But learners of a higher level appear to encide vocabulary in memory primarily on the basis of meaning. Learners should be encouraged to build their own list of technical words. The study of multiple meaning is rewarding and teachers should encourage the students to use the same word for several  things. A word’s meaning depends on it’s context because isolated words mean diferent things for diferent individuals.

EASY WAYS TO IMPROVE AND EXPAND VOCABULARY:

v READ, READ &READ

    Read especially Novels& Literary works

v KEEP A DICTIONARY

    Use whatever versions prefer in print , software, or online.When uncover a new word, look it up in the dictionary to get both it’s pronunciation and it’s meaning.Next to go the treasures and find similar words and phrases and their opposites (synonyms and antonyms)

v LEARN A WORD A DAY

Using a word a- day calender or wedsite or developing learners own list of words to learn-  is a great technique many people use to learn new words.

v PLAY SOME GAMES

    Word games that challenge &help to discover new meanings &new words are a great and fun tool in the quest expanding vocabulary, examples includes..

v Crossword puzzle

v Word jumble

v ENGAGE IN CONVERSATION

    Simple talking  with other people can help to learn anddiscover new words.As with reading ,once we hear a new word, remember to jot it down so that we can study  it later and then slowly add the new word to vocabulary.

v USE FLASH CARDS

Use flash cards to expand vocabulary.

v RECOLLECTION

v A picture showing a number of objects or a tray  containing a number of objects say twenty is shiwn to the students for a limited time, say one minute and the picture or tray is withdrawn or covered.

v SYNONYMS AND ANTONYM CARDS

In this game  cards with two words which are synonyms  and cards with two words which are antonyms are prepared. The player looking at a card speaks one word, the other players are to give it’s synonyms /antonym as the case may be.

CONCLUSION:

In conclusion teaching vocabulary and expansion of vocabulary  are important. As we know that the presentation techniques are the best way to understanding vocabulary.In teaching vocabulary it is important to implimnt appropriate techniques and teaching aids.The teacher is responsible for  choosing best techniques for  students.Several teaching techniques includes the use of relia or pictures, mime , action and gesture techniques , the enumeration technique, interaction with words  , the traslation techniques.

                                                         Expanding vocabulary is achievable.It can improve our communication skills and develop reading and writing ability. It does not matter at what stage of our carer , education and personal growth. 

                                                 

 

      

                                         

 

 

PROBLEMS IN TEACHING ENGLISH AND THE SOLUTIONS

INTRODUCTION:

Language being the vehicle for communication of ideas, is a set of symbols which functions sufficiently to meet the communicative needs of man.since the people of different groups and tribes followed different patterns of symbols, namely Languages; which as the means of communication varry in their form from people to understand express and make others understand their  Language patterns among these different groups gave rise to the teaching and learning of their Language patterns.

                            Teaching English Language overseas in an incredible and recording experience.An experience that also comes with challenges along with the rewards.

               Softskills are part of communication skills.It comprises of the skills which an individual uses to  inform, to persuade ,to explain, to present, to understand.An English as turned as universal Language, it’s presence  and value in the world has expanded.Enormoursly  in the past decades.Many money earning activities such as BPO,Medical transcription and IT could to the importance and relevance of English in every walk of life.

                                            No one would deny nowadays that the general field of Language teaching as a scientific and academic discipline and, more particularly English Language Teaching as a part of  it stand out for their strong dynamism and continuous evolution and development.

CONTENT:

CONVENTIONAL LANGUAGE TEACHING:

  In the past students were introduced to English only in their sixth standard.students learned English just as another subject like Physics And Mathematics and got varry little opportunity to using of with in the school as well as outside of the school.

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION :                          

The term second language acquisition refers to the process which someone acquires one or more second or foreign languages.Second language acquisition reseaches look at acquisition in naturalistic contexts and in classroom settings.Reseachers are interested in both Product and Process.

                                                  The discipline now known as SLA (second language acquisition) emerged from comparative studies of similarities and differences between language.

   Teaching English  is a challenging ,yet regarding career choice.A ESL (english as a second language )teacher  must learn to constantly adapt the students needs.Many times , this means dealing with a variety of problems in the classroom, many of which are all  too common occurrence.A good teacher  must be recognize these common problems, and work to find solutions.Even a small change in teaching methods can help to create a more productive and  a visual environment for both teacher and the students.

         The teaching of English has always been in different circumstances.This  is so because of the  large population of the  country,bleak  economic conditions , the cultural and social diversities, insufficient men and  meterial etc….

     LET US DISCUSS  SOME OF THESE HERE……………

·        LACK OF CLEAR CUT POLICY

One of the main reason for the poor standard of English is the lack of a clear cut policy. There have been frequent changes in the policy of the government towards the teaching and learning of English.Through English is taught  as a compulsary subject, only the passmark is taken in to consideration.Asthe percentage of low achievers has been ever increasing, the government  has decided not to consider mark in English as essential for admission into a university course.The Educationists and politicians differ on the role and status of English in India.If we are to learn and to aim at good standard in English ,it is high time that the government  takes a strong decision to formulate and implement appropriate policies that promote students learning of English.

·        LACK OF EXPOSURE TO THE LANGUAGE

  Most of the students are exposed to their mothertongues.They do not get adequate opportunities either to listen to or speak in English. They listen  English only in the English class . The teaching of the other subject is mostly in their regional languages as the medium of instruction is in their vernacular languages.It is only in the languages of cities and urban areas that we find english medium schools.

·        NON AVAILABILITY OF SUITABLE TEACHING /LEARNING METERIALS

Many teaching /learning  meterials like good textbook ,workbooks and handbooks for teachers.T.V, Radio ,charts or other useful visual meterials are essential for effective teaching.unfortunately  many teachers and students are not provided with these meterials.Hence, sometimes the teaching and learning becomes more imaginative than practical.

·        LACK OF GOOD TEACHERS IN ENGLISH

Good teachers are found in very small number.Hence not having a good teacher of english is a common experiences of all the students of english.The teachers of  english are either not trained properly or they are the teachers  of other subjects.Even  if they  are trained , they  are  trained by the teachers of english,but not by a native speakers.even the meterials and methodology used in these training  programmes are outdated.As such ,it is the same limited experience that is shared.There is hardly any scope to improve inductive and spontaneous knowledge of the language.

·        DEFECTIVE METHODS

The methodology which is practiced to teach english in schools is not appropriate.The oral work which is the soul of any method in totally neglected.Writing which  is an advanced  skill to be learnt is taught right from the beginning .Students are not given exposure to the use of language.Language is taught by the rules and learnt by the memory.As a result, students fail to achieve any compel the use of language.

·        LACK OF MOTIVATION

At students do not find any immediate need for english, their interest naturally slackness.similarly ,as there is no immediate reward for their acheivement,the interest decreases.The poverty and the insecure sociological conditions also force them to neglect the language.

·        LARGE CLASSES

With our large population do not find any class where students menber is less than 60.As the students in the class are always heterogeneous,there is hardly any time to pay attention to the weak  to creative child.Even the average students do not get enough experience in the use of language.There is no scope for individual attention.This ,certainly hinders the intellectual growth.

·        FAULTY EXAMINATION SYSTEM

Generally,the methodology of teaching is fashioned on the type of evaluation,through it should be happening the other way.our examinations of english encourage the students for rote memory because many times the questions are based on summarizing either a poem or a narration.The language skills are not tasted to any appreciable degree.speech skills are totally  neglected.Teachers also find it very difficult to  motivate the students in the class because the  students always aim at memorizing the notes from  lowstandard guides and reproducing  them in the  examinations.

·        LACK OF INTEREST

Learning english being compelled has merely a hurdle passing.students only concentrate on passing marks.They do not care for learning the language as a tool of communication.

·        PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS

It is a widespread misunderstanding amongest students that english most difficult of all subjects.The result and the failure candidates act as evidence to prove this fact.Hence ,most of the students look at this subject with a predudiced vision and bear the  fear through the year.The psychological depression results in poor performance at the end of the year.

·        MOTHER TONGUE INTERFERENCE

Most of the problems arise due to the interference of mother tongue, in speaking english.both the teachers and students are very fluent taking their own mother tongue,but they  forget the essence of pure language.

·        DIFFERENCE IN ENGLISH

English is pronunced is a very different way from almost all other languages of the world.Every region of the world where english is spoken has a diferent acent when you difference between us english, Queen’s english and the entire sundry english’s of the world.This could lead to confusions.

·        LACK OF PRACTICE

Language could be mastered by practicing all the four skills viz..listening, speaking, reading, writing.The rural surrounding does not allow the learner to practice any of these skills.The lack of audio tools also adds in the problem of lack of practice.

True problem solving is the process of applying a method not known in advanced to a problem that is subject to a specific set of conditions and that the problem solver has not seen before , in order to obtain a satisfactory solutions.

PRINCIPLES FOR TEACHING PROBLEM SOLVING:

·        TEACH WITH IN A SPECIFIC CONTENT

Teach problem solving skills in the context in which they will be used, used in real life problems in explanations, examples, and exams.Do not teach problem solving as an independent abstract skill.

·        HELP STUDENTS UNDERSTAND THE PROBLEMS

In order to solve problems students ned to define the end goal.This step is crucial to sucessful learning of problem solving skills.If you succeed at helping students answer the questions ‘what’? and ‘why’? finding the answer to ‘how’? will be easier.

·        TAKE ENOUGH TIME

When planning a lecture/tutorial, budget enough time for understanding the problem and defining the goal ,both individually and as a class making anddealing with questions from the students and fixing mistakes; and solving entire problems in a single session.

·        ASK QUESTIONS AND MAKE SUGGESTIONS

Ask questions to students and predict ‘what would happen if……’or explain why something happened.This will help them to develop analytical and deductive thinking skills.Also, ask questions and make suggestions about strategies to encourage students to reflect on the problem solving strategies that they use.

·        UNITS AND SYMBOLS

This point included in the wood’s problem solving models.one key aspect in problem solving in teaching students how to select, interpret and use units and symbols.Emphasize the use of units whatever applicable.develop a habit of using appropriate units and symbols at all time.

·        END OF THE SOCIO PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS

Many think english as the most difficult language and many call it necessary to learn.The efforts of the teacher should be in eradicating the socio psychological problems of the students ,by motivating them and giving them some responsibility.

·        MAKE STUDENTS THINK IN ENGLISH

Make is a very firm rule but subtly implied that there will be no other language spoken in class other than english exhort them to think in english.This is a mamooth tasks, and can be achieved only aftersome weaks or probably monts of teaching.

METHODS TO ADOPTED TO IMPROVE SPOKEN SKILLS:

·        GROUP DISCUSSION

Now due to the world wide growing trends english,teachers give more emphasis to communicative approach rather than the lecture mode.Their main goal is to make the students effective communicators in english both inside and the outside of the class.

         To create this environment ,teachers can conduct group discussions where students are supposed to speak only in english.Hence ,they can give their views ideas and thoughts in english,due to which they develop the habit of speaking fluently in english like they do in their mother tongue.

·        DEBATES

Debates too play in an important role in improving the spoken abilities of the students both at school and at higher level. Debates not only make many students to speak boldly  and fluently but also help them to take one stand and be firm and consistent on that.

·        ROLE PLAYS

Role plays are another important task that can improve the basic colloquial english of the learners.In role plays the students assumes themselves as one of the characters and behave and speak accordingly involving in the given character completely.It should help the students now and then to understand and take up the role given to get a grip on the tone of voice.

·        COMPUTER ASSISTED LANGUAGE LEARNING (CALL)

Now a days computer has become a part and parcel of our day to day life.It plays a vital role in the process of teaching and learning.It can be used to learn a foreign language like english. CALL has reduced the burden of the teacher.It is also described as one of the interactive methods that can help a learner according  to their  own ability to learn , which enrich language skills.CALL encourages the self learning too.

CONCLUSION:

To meet challenges in teaching english ,first of all english should not be treated as a subject as it is to be used actively in interacting  with one another throughout the world.Teacher should act as facilitators and should observe how well students organize their thoughts while speaking with their fellow members.Clear pronunciation, not perfect pronunciation, is the goal, students are now facilitated by software to practice pronunciation through phonetics.To achieve the goals  of the language learning today every colage should be provided with language lab, computers, LCD Projectors.

                If provided with the latest language  teaching  tools and with the suport of  technology.One  can teach the languge effectively and  motivate the students towards language learning……………………………………………………