Старший
викладач кафедри іноземних мов Бартіш Г.В.
Львівський
інститут банківської справи
Університету
банківської справи
Національного
банку України
VOCABULARY TEACHING PROCESS
Ideas
are stored in our memory mapped onto meaning and form and make mental lexicon.
Words in mental lexicon create lexical networks. Once activated a lexical item
stimulates other associated lexical items and this causes activation of a
bigger network.
Word
clusters are mental groups that play an important role in mental lexicon. The
first type represents one central word that expresses the "global
meaning" of the words with the meaningful link, to the "centre".
The general ideas of "suffering in the bod/1 can be expressed
with a number of words like "pain”, "ache", "agony",
"to be sore", "to sting", etc. The second type represents
one's individual associations in the form of a mind-map. All these semantic
features are stored in the mental lexicon and are typical of the native
speaker's word competence.
Ample
mental lexicon'is an important condition for achieving lexical competence. In order to do this, one has to know bov to
express the denoted meaning and should develop an individual system of verbal
associations and build semantic fields of words. It is necessary to know, the
social conventions of using the word and the stylistic colouring. Grammar usage
of the word is essential as well as possible collocations. Finally, it's
necessary to comprehend the "connotative meaning" of the word, i.e.
to understand what the word means "here and now" in the situation.
The
process of vocabulary acquisition
has certain “laws” of its own. The
first encounter with the word is sometimes more important than its frequency in
exercises. That is why it is essential to prepare the learners for the encounter
with the new word. Development of vocabulary in mind depends on the complexity
of the concepts that are expressed with the help of words. E.g. the words with
a concrete meaning are acquired easier and sooner than abstract ones. The
storage of words in memory depends on the depth of meaning processing. The
deeper learners get the meaning of the words in examples and associations, the
stronger memory traces will be. In a motivating activity the word is remembered
the best. They are more important than continuous repetitions.
The
phases of teaching vocabulary can be
broken down into three phases such
as preactivity (exploring
vocabulary forms, exploring vocabulary meaning (synonyms, antonyms, polysemy),
exploring potential vocabulary use); while-activity
(deriving words, using vocabulary, communicating the message) and post-activity (reflecting on task
fulfillment, focusing on vocabulary use, integrating vocabulary with teaching
communicative skills (reading, listening, writing and speaking)).
Teaching
and learning words is organized with vocabulary
exercises. The activities can include Meaning
interpretation (with the use of Pictures, Gestures, Context, Synonyms,
Antonyms, Enumeration, Descriptions, Guessing, Translation); Word reinforcement (Translation,
Associations, Rating, Recalling, Combination, Transformation, Completion); Communicative use (Pictures,
Circumstances, Context, Imaging, Drama, Storytelling, Games); Mnemonic exercises (Paired associates,
Rhyme, Rhythm, Motion, Placing words in the imagined space, Imagination).
Eliciting the words from memory is one of
the key ways to reinforce the vocabulary in mind. One of the ways is to elicit
the form of words. The task can be to build
the "word squares", in which words can be read both "down"
and "across" and "palindromes", in which the words can be
read both "forwards" and "backwards”. Eliciting from meaning
and form can be organized with a number tasks. (E.g. Guess the words ending in "ick": not well, sound of a
watch, locking sound, piece of wood, not thin, baked block of clay, a blow with
afoot, select, fast...). Eliciting from image can be trained by asking
students to imagine and describe the given items without naming them. Eliciting
from context can take the form of the lexical cloze which is filling the gaps
in a meaningful text with an appropriate word.
Another
frequent lexical activity is lexical
mind-map which is the result of
lexical associations with a keyword. Lexical items can be as well practiced
placing words in a table, as in: Give the
food that has the taste as shown in the table:
|
Spicy |
Bitter |
Salty |
Sweet |
Sour |
Creamy |
Crunchy |
Greasy |