This article is for students and teachers.
How do you record vocabulary at the moment? I see hundreds of students do it like this:
English Word L1 Translation
English Word L1 Translation
English Word L1 Translation
The fact is, this method doesn’t give you enough information about a word. You need more!
Think about these questions:
- What does this word actually mean?
- How do I pronounce it?
- What kind of word (Noun / Adjective / Verb etc.) is it?
- Does it belong in a word family?
- Are there any words that connect (collocate) with this word? And words that don’t?
- Can I use this word in a sentence that’s useful to me / my goals?
Students often try to take too much new vocabulary and it ends up being lost because it isn’t memorable. Ideally, you should try to learn ten words a day. No more. And if you cover the words in enough detail, then you will remember them, and you will be able to use them effectively.
Let’s look at an example:
You read a text and find a new word: INTEREST
1. You need to find a meaning in English that you can understand. Here’s one:
“The feeling when you want to know or find out more about something”
2. How many sounds? Where is the stress?
/’ɪntrəst/ – so the word has two sounds, not three. The stress is on the first sound, and there is a weak (lazy) sound before “st”.
If you don’t know these symbols, you could also write “in-trest”
3. INTEREST is a noun.
4. Interesting (adjective) – something that makes you feel interested. Disinterested / Uninterested (Opposites) Interest (verb) – something can interest you. Example: Rugby interests me.
5. Interested + in –> I am interested in reading. NOT interested about / for. Interesting + NO PREPOSITION / OBJECT.
6. I thought that yesterday’s lesson was really interesting.
I’m interested in finding out more about vocabulary notebooks.
Now I really know this word, and I can use it in many different situations correctly. Here’s what that looks like when you put it together:
Interest /’ɪntrəst/ or In-trest (noun) – The feeling when you want to know or find out more about something Interest (verb) Interesting (adj) – something that makes you feel interested (adj) Interested+in à I am interested in reading. Ex: I thought that yesterday’s lesson was really interesting. |
Putting this together
Now you need to start thinking about recording vocabulary by subject. Maybe INTEREST would go well with vocabulary about free time / likes and dislikes. Recording it with other words from a similar subject helps you make connections and will help you organise your learning a bit better. Have a go!
For Teachers
Try introducing this idea to students and doing a few examples with them. Get them working together, sharing words that they have made “Lexical Notebook Entries” about. Set a few as homework and gradually work it in to classes as expectation. Use it in tests too! It is time-consuming, but it will help cut down on errors and confusion, as well as helping set realistic goals for lexis learning.
Have a look at Teaching Collocation (Michael Lewis, 2000) for more information.
Simon
Reblogged this on ENGLISH LANGUAGE REVIEW .