Jay-jay Wong's List: ESL/EFL vocabulary teaching and learning

• One way to see the overall task of vocabulary learning is through the distinction between knowing a word and using a word. In other words, the purpose of vocabulary learning should include both remembering words and the ability to use them automatically in a wide range of language contexts when the need arises (McCarthy, 1984).
• Another way to view vocabulary learning is to see it as a process of related sub-tasks. When learners first encounter a new word, they might guess its meaning and usage from available clues. Some learners might proceed to look it up in the dictionary. Others might take down notes along the margins, between the lines, or on separate vocabulary notebooks. Some learners will repeat the new word a number of times until they are comfortable with it. Others will go beyond simple rote repetition to commit the word to memory. Some would even try to use the word actively. Each of these task stages demands metacognitive judgment, choice, and deployment of cognitive strategies for vocabulary learning. And each strategy a learner uses will determine to a large extent how and how well a new word is learned.

  • In addition, ESL/EFL teachers when teaching vocabualry or key words from the context, they should also invite students to use new words verbally in order engaging students to speak up new words in their ways. In that way, students will have more chances to acquire new words' knowledge and usage instead of memorizing words and then forgetting them after taking vocabulary quizzes.

  • most ESL/EFL students use note-taking about the definitions of vocabulary instead of using words in spoken language; thus, those students rarely come to interpret vocabulary whether in texts or oral language.
• Ample evidence suggests that children learn a large proportion of their L1 vocabulary incidentally from reading and listening (Nagy, Anderson, & Herman, 1987; Nagy & Herman, 1987; Nagy, Herman, & Anderson, 1985). Nagy, Anderson, and Herman (1987, p. 262) estimated an average vocabulary growth of 1,000 words a year for the children in their study. A well-quoted study of adults by Saragi, Nation, and Meister (1978) showed an average of 76% mastery of the 90 tested "nadsat" words of Russian origin.
• Moreover, some EFL/ESL studies suggest that learners are often unable to guess the meaning of an unknown word from a text (Bensoussan & Laufer, 1984; Haynes, 1993; Kelly, 1990; Schatz & Baldwin, 1986).
• They also observed that words which appeared over eight times in text were more likely to be learned than words that were repeated less. Results so far seem to vary considerably. However, researchers do seem to have come to the conclusion that the number of exposures needed for the mastery of a new word hinges on many other factors such as the salience of the word in context (Brown, 1993), the richness of contextual clues, the learner's interest and the size and quality of his/her existing repertoire of vocabulary (Laufer & Hadar, 1997; Nation & Hwang, 1995).

  • if words appear more times in the same text, ESL/EFL can recoganize and learn these words quicker than words that apprear less than those do. Therefore, even without a teacher teaching words directly or indirectly, students are able to have higher chance to reaching accurate the meaning of words by guessing them while reading the text dependently.
• Recent years have witnessed a surge of interest in dictionary research in L2 contexts (e.g., Hulstijn, 1993; Knight, 1994; Laufer & Hadar, 1997; Laufer & Hill, 2000; Laufer & Kimmel, 1997). Knight (1994), for example, discovered that while incidental vocabulary learning through contextual guessing did take place, those who used a dictionary as well as guessed through context not only learned more words immediately after reading but also remembered more after two weeks. She also found that low verbal ability participants benefited more from the dictionary than high verbal ability participants who, in turn, benefited more from contextual guessing. Another interesting thing Knight found was that high verbal ability students would look up a word even if they had successfully guessed its meaning, a finding in line with Hulstijn (1993).

  • I thought dictionaries can be worked so well during class discussion because both the teacher and students engaging interactive verbal explanation; however, if the teacher simply asks students to look up words in dictionaries dependent, students still cannot use words on their own. Therefore, verbal language practicing is a crucial vocabulary activity before, during, after reading a text.
• Results suggested that the mix of definition plus example in the dictionary entry was the most successful, and that the use of the dictionary in all conditions tested was more conducive to the successful production of new words in sentences.

  • well, it is the best way to give students vocabulary quizzes.
• Research is sorely needed to determine how different types of note-taking strategies can influence vocabulary acquisition.

  • not enough research can prove note-taking enhance students' vocabulary learning....pity! As ELL, I do think note-taking improve my vocabulary learning and it will work even better if I learn to use words in my oral English language.

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