Prof. Ahmed Shafik Elkhatib
23/03/2007, 05:50 PM
VOCABULARY IS GOOD FOR YOUR
COMMUNICATIVE HEALTH!
The paper falls into three sections. Section I is concerned with a discussion of the importance of teaching vocabulary. Section II gives a definition of three ways of facilitating students’ vocabulary development in terms of learning words, learning about words, and learning sensitivity to words. Finally, Section III offers some sample exercises and activities which help students improve their vocabularies.
I. THE IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING VOCABULARY
A. Many Egyptian students' vocabulary is limited.
A vocabulary test of the most frequent one thousand English words[1] was administered to four Egyptian students[2]. Results were 80, 65, 34, and 24%. The word country was unknown to one student!
B. A(n) (unfair) comparison with American students:
Some studies indicate that an American child at the beginning of grade 1 should start with 3,000 words, but the Child Study Committee of the International Kindergarten Union[3] has placed the number at 2,000 words, adding that many children of high intelligence enter school with a vocabulary development one or two years ahead of their less privileged fellows.
A study by B. R. Buckingham and E. W. Dolch[4] of probable vocabulary development states that at the end of grade 8 a child is expected to have a vocabulary of 10,000 words.
Norman Lewis[5] estimates that the average college sophomore knows approximately 200,000 words.
C. Vocabulary development is often left almost
entirely to students.
Egyptian students receive very little formal training in vocabulary, usually as part of a reading comprehension course, using textbooks such as:
- Wanda Maureen Miller and Sharon Steeber de Orozco, Reading Faster and Understanding More, which includes a vocabulary pretest and posttest, words in context, and Personal Vocabulary List.
- E. Margaret, et al. Reader's Choice, which has sections on word study in terms of context clues, dictionary usage, as well as stems and affixes.
An American report informs us that at the college level “too little attention is given to vocabulary development.”[6]
D. Vocabulary is the most / second most serious
problem facing students.
In interviews with Egyptian college freshman students majoring in English[7], they often cited lack of vocabulary as the most serious or at least the second most serious problem facing them in expressing themselves both in writing and in speaking.
E. Lexical errors are often more serious than
grammatical ones.
Some researchers, e.g. Gerhard Nickel, hold that errors in grammar do not hinder communication as seriously as errors in lexical choice.[8] Nickel states that
if … grammatical errors are judged to be more serious [than
Lexical ones], one would have to give up the claim that
the communication aspect is the most important thing about
language learning, because obviously communication is based
more on lexical than on grammatical items.
Based on personal observation, which future research may support or refute, I claim that many English native speakers tend to correct nonnative speakers' grammatical errors mentally or even verbally, but face a more serious situation when confronted by unpredictable word choice.
II. FACILITATING STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT
According to Mina Shaughnessy[9], three kinds of teaching are involved in trying to help students develop their vocabularies. These are:
A. Learning words:
Learning words may be defined as assimilating specific word into one’s active vocabulary.
Words should be learned in context, not before context. In other words, new words should be introduced in sentences or paragraphs. Then students themselves should use the new words in order to make them part of their active (vs. recognition) vocabulary through use and
repetition.
B. Learning about words:
By learning about words is meant acquiring information about words as physical, grammatical, and semantic entities that makes their analysis possible.
C. Learning sensitivity to words:
This means becoming aware of the process by which exact choices are made in writing.
III. SOME SAMPLE EXERCISES AND ACTIVITIES
A. Learning Words:
1. Following is an abridgement of a lesson designed to familiarize students with some nouns that name people with different occupations.[10] The lesson starts with some explanations and directions. Students are instructed to carefully read sentences with certain boldface words, watching for clues which will help them guess intelligently at the meaning of the boldfaced word. Then from a list of an equal number of brief definitions, students are asked to select one which they think is nearest in meaning to the boldfaced word and place its number in the blank opposite the sentence. Students are also required to check the accuracy of their choice by looking up the word in the dictionary.
Definitions and Synonyms[11]
a. a specialist in diseases
b. a doctor who treats mental illness
c. a student of the factors of heredity
d. a student of the races of mankind
The Words in Sentences:
a. The ethnologist can answer your question regarding the differences between the Caucasian and Mongolian races.
a. ------
b. The pathologists, by discovering the causes of many diseases, have played a large part in eradicating epidemics.
b. ------
c. We have the word of the geneticist that twin births often skip a generation in a family, then recur.
c. ------
d. A child of ten who shows pleasure in killing very likely needs the services of a psychiatrist.
d. ------
2. Following the introduction of definitions and synonyms, and the use of the new words in sentences, the words may be used again in a paragraph, and students are asked to place the number of the appropriate definition above each italicized word.
Here is an example:
The press made much of the idea that “scientists stick
together” when a noted geneticist and a noted psychologist
were instrumental in saving Jonathan Jones, an ethnologist
on trial for murder. Their own version of the story was that
they had become interested in the case of Jonathan Jones
through a friend, a psychiatrist, who had been called in to
examine the defendant.
3. In subsequent exercises, students are asked to provide the name of the field in which the person is engaged.
E.g., geneticist ---------
psychologist ------------
4. Then students write sentences using the words they supply, e.g. "Psychology is the science dealing with the mind and
the mental processes.”
5. A final exercise is intended to test the students’ knowledge of the words introduced in the lesson. Students are asked to write the noun which designates the person described:
a. a doctor dealing with mentally disturbed patients a. ------
b. an expert in the field of heredity b. ------ c. A student of the races of mankind c. ------
d. A specialist in causes and nature of disease d. ------
6. Here are some sample exercises quoted from some of the most recent books concerned with vocabulary development.
Judith Nadell, Beth Johnson, and Paul Langan[12] ask students to write the letter of the meaning closest to that of each boldfaced (here underlined) word. Students are directed to use the other words (the context) to help them figure out the word’s meaning.
Example: agreement • After fighting for hours, the little girl made an agreement to share their toys. • Len is angry because Anita broke their agreement to take turns doing the dishes. ----Agreement means a. fight b. question c. promise
After students learn words in context, they are given a chance to match words with definitions. Following is an example from R. Kent Smith, Beth Johnson, and Carole Mohr[13].
Example: Definitions of the words are provided. Students are required to print each word next to its definition. They are advised that if they look closely at each word in context, they will be able to figure out its meaning.
------------ A feeling of anger and helplessness that comes from bad luck, defeat, or failure; disappointment
[In the space students are expected to write the word FRUSTRATION.]
Donald J. Goodman, Sherrie L. Nist, and Carole Mohr[14] offer students “Sentence Check” exercises, in which they ask students to complete each item with the correct word from a box. Students are supposed to use the answer lines provided and to use each word once.
Example: a. delete b. impartial c. integrity, etc.
------------ When my brother and I argued, my mother remained ------. She didn’t want to favor either of us.
------------ Computers make it easy to ------ unwanted information from a report without having to type the report all over again.
------------ Mark Twain once joked that he had even more ------ than George Washington. “Washington could not lie,” he said. “I can, but I won’t.”, etc.
In subsequent exercises,[15] students complete each item with two words from the box, and then read a selection and fill in each blank with a word from the box. Context clues will help students figure out which word goes in which blank.
Example: “… I truly believed that if I pressed charges against that man for attacking me, he would have a trial with a jury that would be ------ enough to fairly consider all the evidence, which would be brought out by reasonable questioning. , etc.[16]
7. Students should be encouraged to keep a personal vocabulary notebook in which they enter new words, the pronunciation, the meaning, the sentence or phrase in which they were found, and their source. Students may be asked to add a certain number of words a week (say 30 words) from their reading assignments or from their work
in other courses. They may share vocabulary items, discuss them, and develop good definitions.
8. As the dictionary is one of the most important tools in understanding words, students should learn how to use their dictionaries with the greatest possible efficiency and fruitfulness. They should also be encouraged to use English-English dictionaries rather than English Arabic ones, which they tend to overuse.
Here is a sample exercise[17] to help students make use of their
dictionaries:
From your reading (texts, other books, magazines, newspapers) find ten words which are new to you, then do the following:
a. Give the etymology of any two words. Do not use abbreviations.
i. WORD -------------------- ETYMOLOGY
ii. WORD -------------------- ETYMOLOGY
b. Use two other words in sentences, showing that you
understand the meaning.
i. WORD ------------------- SENTENCE
ii. WORD ------------------- SENTENCE
c. For two other words, give one or more synonyms each.
i. WORD -------------------- SYNONYM
ii. WORD -------------------- SYNONYM
d. For two other words, copy the sentence (or the pertinent part), then copy the dictionary definition which applies to the word as used in this context.
i. WORD --------------------------------------------------------------
SENTENCE ------------------------------------------------------
DEFINITION ----------------------------------------------------
ii. WORD --------------------------------------------------------------
SENTENCE ------------------------------------------------------
DEFINITION ----------------------------------------------------
Students then can continue to make new words their own by making consulting the dictionary a habit. If students fail to understand the meaning of a word from context or structure, they should look it up in their dictionary, then make it their own by using it. In time, students come to enjoy looking up words with a degree of curiosity and interest. They can easily continue their pursuit of an ever-growing vocabulary by making use of the vocabulary notebook. The mere fact of having one place in which to keep a listing of their new words will make it easier for students to know how fast their vocabulary is growing. The following format is suggested:[18]
WORD: category DEFINITION: a class division of things or ideas
SENTENCE: All animals are included in one or the other of two categories—vertebrates and invertebrates.
B. Learning about Words
1. This requires a study of AFFIXATION, especially how
prefixes and suffixes are added to words in order to shift grammatical class or to change meaning. Showing students that words can be broken down into smaller units (STEMS and AFFIXES) increases their control over words.
Examples:
It is useful and comforting for students to learn that verbs in English are formed by a few suffixes, mainly -en, -ate, -ize and that adverbs are formed mainly by -ly, and –wise.
2. Students should be encouraged to practice word class shifts in phrases and sentences.
Examples[19]:
audible (adj.); --------- (noun)
a. The sound is not audible.
The --------- is poor.
b. suffocate (verb); --------- (noun)
He will suffocate.
He will die of ------------.
c. anarchy (noun); --------- (adj.)
His thoughts suggest anarchy.
His thoughts are ------------.
d. resemble (verb); ------------ (noun)
He resembles his father.
There is a ------------ between him and his father.
3. Students may also practice filling in all possible blanks in a grid, and writing sentences for each word:
Example:
noun verb adjective adverb
initiation initiate initial initially
courage
believe
envious
psychologically
4. Students may also experiment with the "Master Word" approach of the University of Minnesota, which is based upon the premise that 60% of English vocabulary is derived from Greek and Latin. Essentially, the program calls for the teaching of a list of twenty prefixes and fourteen roots which pertain to over 14,000 words in Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. Reports from this program suggest that vocabularies of students rapidly improved.
C. Learning sensitivity to words:
Although the process by which experienced writers generate choices is not observable, students can experience the process through some exercises such as the following:
1. Substitution practice:
Words from a thesaurus entry are substituted for underlined words in passages or student compositions and the students describe the shifts in meaning (both denotative and connotative) resulting from each substitution.
Alternatively, words from student writing are circled and students asked to provide as many options for each word as they can think of. The student writers, in turn, defend their choice by showing how the various options shift from their intended meaning.
2. Examination of first drafts:
Students should be alerted to the fact that the process of creating precision in writing is characterized by "littering the page with so many deletion marks and emendations as to make some manuscripts indecipherable.”[20]
Students may scrutinize manuscripts written by the teacher himself / herself or by professional writers if these are available. Such scrutiny is instructive, since it reproduces for the student a map of the writer's debates in choosing his / her words, and encourages students to ponder over their words.
In conference or on the students' pieces of writing, the teacher can raise questions about certain words and search with them for better ones. Hopefully, students will develop the habit of raising their own questions and initiating their own debates.
3. Reading:
It is only when students observe themselves as readers and envisage the writer that is behind what they are reading that they understand their own situation as writes. As readers, students should be guided to shift their perspective and try to figure out the writer's intent and to decide why he / she used a certain word instead of another, moved in a certain direction rather than another, or chose to expand one point and not another.
In conclusion, let’s consider this quote from Shaughnessy.[21]
Reading in this way, the student begins to sense that the
meaning of what he reads or writes resides not in the page
nor in the reader but in the encounter between the two.
This insight makes him a more careful writer and a more
critical reader. As a writer, he must think about the kinds
of responses his words are likely to arouse; as a reader, his
growing critical stance encourages him to raise questions
about what he reads, to infer the author's intent, and even
to argue with him. And of course these same critical skills
can be turned upon himself when he writes.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A Programmed Course in Language Skills Development, Stanford, Ct.: MIND, Inc.
Brown, Marion March. Learning Words in Context (San Francisco: Chandler Publishing Company, 1961).
Deighton, Lee C. Vocabulary Development in the Classroom (New York: Teachers College Press, 1959).
Elkhatib, Ahmed Shafik Abdelwahab. Case Studies of Four Egyptian College Freshman Writers Majoring in English, (Ed.D. Dissertation, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1984).
Goodman, Donald J., Sherrie L. Nist, and Carole Mohr. Building Vocabulary Skills (Marlton, New Jersey: Townsend Press, Second Edition, 1997).
------------. Advanced Vocabulary Skills (Marlton, New Jersey: Townsend Press, Second Edition, 1997).
Johnson, Beth and Susan Gamer. Advanced Word Power (Marlton, New Jersey: Townsend Press, 1999).
Nadell, Judith, Beth Johnson, and Paul Langan. Vocabulary Basics (Marlton, New Jersey: Townsend Press, 1998).
Nist, Sherrie L. and Carole Mohr. Improving Vocabulary Skills (Marlton, New Jersey: Townsend Press, Second Edition, 1997).
Petty, Walter T., Curtis P. Herold, and Earline Stoll, The Status of the Knowledge About the Teaching of Vocabulary, (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education, Bureau of Research, 1967).
Shaughnessy, Mina. Errors and Expectations: A Guide for the Teacher of Basic Writing (New York: Oxford university Press, 1977).
Smith, R. Kent, Beth Johnson, and Carole Mohr. (Marlton, New Jersey: Townsend Press, Second Edition, 1998).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] A Programmed Course in Language Skills Development, Stanford, Ct.: MIND, Inc.
[2] The test was administered as part of my doctoral dissertation. See Ahmed Shafik Abdelwahab Elkhatib, Case Studies of Four Egyptian College Freshman Writers Majoring in English (Ed.D. dissertation, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1984), p. 206.
[3] A Study of the Vocabulary of Children Before the First Grade (Washington, D.C.: International Kindergarten Union, 1928).
[4] B. R. Buckingham and E. W. Dolch, A Combined Word List (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1936), p.9.
[5] Norman Lewis, Word Power Made Easy (Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1949), pp. 3-4.
[6] Walter T. Petty, Curtis P. Herold, Earline Stoll, The Status of the Knowledge About the Teaching of Vocabulary, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education, Bureau of Research, 1967.
[7] Elkhatib, Case Studies, pp. 179-182.
[8] Gerhard Nickel, “Aspects of Error Evaluation and Grading,” Errata: Papers in Error Analysis, ed. Jan Svartvik (Lund, Sweden: CWK Gleerup, 1973), p. 27.
[9] Mina Shaughnessy, Errors and Expectations: A Guide for the Teacher of Basic Writing (New York: Oxford university Press, 1977), pp. 211-224.
[10] Marion March Brown, Learning Words in Context (San Francisco: Chandler Publishing Company, 1961), pp. 41-46.
[11] The original example includes 15 items instead of 4. I have reordered the definitions.
[12] Judith Nadell, Beth Johnson, and Paul Langan, Vocabulary Basics (Marlton, NJ: Townsend Press, 1998), p. 8.
[13] R. Kent Smith, Beth Johnson, and Carole Mohr, Groundwork for a Better Vocabulary (Marlton, NJ: Townsend Press, Second Edition, 1998), p. 19.
[14]Donald J. Goodman, Sherrie L. Nist, and Carole Mohr, Building Vocabulary Skills (Marlton, NJ: Townsend Press, Second Edition, 1997), p. 18.
[15] Goodman, Nist, and Mohr, Building, pp. 18-19.
[16] The same kind of exercises is provided in Sherrie L. Nist and Carole Mohr, Improving Vocabulary Skills (Marlton, NJ: Townsend Press, Second Edition, 1997) ; in Donald J. Goodman, Sherrie L. Nist, and Carole Mohr, Advancing Vocabulary Skills (Marlton, NJ: Townsend Press, Second Edition, 1997) as well as in Beth Johnson and Susan Gamer, Advanced Word Power (Marlton, NJ: Townsend Press, Second Edition, 1999
17Brown, Learning, pp. 27-28.
[18]Brown, ibid.
[19] Lee C. Deighton, Vocabulary Development in the Classroom (New York: Teachers College Press), 1959.
[20] Mina Shaughnessy, Errors and Expectations, p. 222.
[21] Ibid. p. 223.
COMMUNICATIVE HEALTH!
The paper falls into three sections. Section I is concerned with a discussion of the importance of teaching vocabulary. Section II gives a definition of three ways of facilitating students’ vocabulary development in terms of learning words, learning about words, and learning sensitivity to words. Finally, Section III offers some sample exercises and activities which help students improve their vocabularies.
I. THE IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING VOCABULARY
A. Many Egyptian students' vocabulary is limited.
A vocabulary test of the most frequent one thousand English words[1] was administered to four Egyptian students[2]. Results were 80, 65, 34, and 24%. The word country was unknown to one student!
B. A(n) (unfair) comparison with American students:
Some studies indicate that an American child at the beginning of grade 1 should start with 3,000 words, but the Child Study Committee of the International Kindergarten Union[3] has placed the number at 2,000 words, adding that many children of high intelligence enter school with a vocabulary development one or two years ahead of their less privileged fellows.
A study by B. R. Buckingham and E. W. Dolch[4] of probable vocabulary development states that at the end of grade 8 a child is expected to have a vocabulary of 10,000 words.
Norman Lewis[5] estimates that the average college sophomore knows approximately 200,000 words.
C. Vocabulary development is often left almost
entirely to students.
Egyptian students receive very little formal training in vocabulary, usually as part of a reading comprehension course, using textbooks such as:
- Wanda Maureen Miller and Sharon Steeber de Orozco, Reading Faster and Understanding More, which includes a vocabulary pretest and posttest, words in context, and Personal Vocabulary List.
- E. Margaret, et al. Reader's Choice, which has sections on word study in terms of context clues, dictionary usage, as well as stems and affixes.
An American report informs us that at the college level “too little attention is given to vocabulary development.”[6]
D. Vocabulary is the most / second most serious
problem facing students.
In interviews with Egyptian college freshman students majoring in English[7], they often cited lack of vocabulary as the most serious or at least the second most serious problem facing them in expressing themselves both in writing and in speaking.
E. Lexical errors are often more serious than
grammatical ones.
Some researchers, e.g. Gerhard Nickel, hold that errors in grammar do not hinder communication as seriously as errors in lexical choice.[8] Nickel states that
if … grammatical errors are judged to be more serious [than
Lexical ones], one would have to give up the claim that
the communication aspect is the most important thing about
language learning, because obviously communication is based
more on lexical than on grammatical items.
Based on personal observation, which future research may support or refute, I claim that many English native speakers tend to correct nonnative speakers' grammatical errors mentally or even verbally, but face a more serious situation when confronted by unpredictable word choice.
II. FACILITATING STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT
According to Mina Shaughnessy[9], three kinds of teaching are involved in trying to help students develop their vocabularies. These are:
A. Learning words:
Learning words may be defined as assimilating specific word into one’s active vocabulary.
Words should be learned in context, not before context. In other words, new words should be introduced in sentences or paragraphs. Then students themselves should use the new words in order to make them part of their active (vs. recognition) vocabulary through use and
repetition.
B. Learning about words:
By learning about words is meant acquiring information about words as physical, grammatical, and semantic entities that makes their analysis possible.
C. Learning sensitivity to words:
This means becoming aware of the process by which exact choices are made in writing.
III. SOME SAMPLE EXERCISES AND ACTIVITIES
A. Learning Words:
1. Following is an abridgement of a lesson designed to familiarize students with some nouns that name people with different occupations.[10] The lesson starts with some explanations and directions. Students are instructed to carefully read sentences with certain boldface words, watching for clues which will help them guess intelligently at the meaning of the boldfaced word. Then from a list of an equal number of brief definitions, students are asked to select one which they think is nearest in meaning to the boldfaced word and place its number in the blank opposite the sentence. Students are also required to check the accuracy of their choice by looking up the word in the dictionary.
Definitions and Synonyms[11]
a. a specialist in diseases
b. a doctor who treats mental illness
c. a student of the factors of heredity
d. a student of the races of mankind
The Words in Sentences:
a. The ethnologist can answer your question regarding the differences between the Caucasian and Mongolian races.
a. ------
b. The pathologists, by discovering the causes of many diseases, have played a large part in eradicating epidemics.
b. ------
c. We have the word of the geneticist that twin births often skip a generation in a family, then recur.
c. ------
d. A child of ten who shows pleasure in killing very likely needs the services of a psychiatrist.
d. ------
2. Following the introduction of definitions and synonyms, and the use of the new words in sentences, the words may be used again in a paragraph, and students are asked to place the number of the appropriate definition above each italicized word.
Here is an example:
The press made much of the idea that “scientists stick
together” when a noted geneticist and a noted psychologist
were instrumental in saving Jonathan Jones, an ethnologist
on trial for murder. Their own version of the story was that
they had become interested in the case of Jonathan Jones
through a friend, a psychiatrist, who had been called in to
examine the defendant.
3. In subsequent exercises, students are asked to provide the name of the field in which the person is engaged.
E.g., geneticist ---------
psychologist ------------
4. Then students write sentences using the words they supply, e.g. "Psychology is the science dealing with the mind and
the mental processes.”
5. A final exercise is intended to test the students’ knowledge of the words introduced in the lesson. Students are asked to write the noun which designates the person described:
a. a doctor dealing with mentally disturbed patients a. ------
b. an expert in the field of heredity b. ------ c. A student of the races of mankind c. ------
d. A specialist in causes and nature of disease d. ------
6. Here are some sample exercises quoted from some of the most recent books concerned with vocabulary development.
Judith Nadell, Beth Johnson, and Paul Langan[12] ask students to write the letter of the meaning closest to that of each boldfaced (here underlined) word. Students are directed to use the other words (the context) to help them figure out the word’s meaning.
Example: agreement • After fighting for hours, the little girl made an agreement to share their toys. • Len is angry because Anita broke their agreement to take turns doing the dishes. ----Agreement means a. fight b. question c. promise
After students learn words in context, they are given a chance to match words with definitions. Following is an example from R. Kent Smith, Beth Johnson, and Carole Mohr[13].
Example: Definitions of the words are provided. Students are required to print each word next to its definition. They are advised that if they look closely at each word in context, they will be able to figure out its meaning.
------------ A feeling of anger and helplessness that comes from bad luck, defeat, or failure; disappointment
[In the space students are expected to write the word FRUSTRATION.]
Donald J. Goodman, Sherrie L. Nist, and Carole Mohr[14] offer students “Sentence Check” exercises, in which they ask students to complete each item with the correct word from a box. Students are supposed to use the answer lines provided and to use each word once.
Example: a. delete b. impartial c. integrity, etc.
------------ When my brother and I argued, my mother remained ------. She didn’t want to favor either of us.
------------ Computers make it easy to ------ unwanted information from a report without having to type the report all over again.
------------ Mark Twain once joked that he had even more ------ than George Washington. “Washington could not lie,” he said. “I can, but I won’t.”, etc.
In subsequent exercises,[15] students complete each item with two words from the box, and then read a selection and fill in each blank with a word from the box. Context clues will help students figure out which word goes in which blank.
Example: “… I truly believed that if I pressed charges against that man for attacking me, he would have a trial with a jury that would be ------ enough to fairly consider all the evidence, which would be brought out by reasonable questioning. , etc.[16]
7. Students should be encouraged to keep a personal vocabulary notebook in which they enter new words, the pronunciation, the meaning, the sentence or phrase in which they were found, and their source. Students may be asked to add a certain number of words a week (say 30 words) from their reading assignments or from their work
in other courses. They may share vocabulary items, discuss them, and develop good definitions.
8. As the dictionary is one of the most important tools in understanding words, students should learn how to use their dictionaries with the greatest possible efficiency and fruitfulness. They should also be encouraged to use English-English dictionaries rather than English Arabic ones, which they tend to overuse.
Here is a sample exercise[17] to help students make use of their
dictionaries:
From your reading (texts, other books, magazines, newspapers) find ten words which are new to you, then do the following:
a. Give the etymology of any two words. Do not use abbreviations.
i. WORD -------------------- ETYMOLOGY
ii. WORD -------------------- ETYMOLOGY
b. Use two other words in sentences, showing that you
understand the meaning.
i. WORD ------------------- SENTENCE
ii. WORD ------------------- SENTENCE
c. For two other words, give one or more synonyms each.
i. WORD -------------------- SYNONYM
ii. WORD -------------------- SYNONYM
d. For two other words, copy the sentence (or the pertinent part), then copy the dictionary definition which applies to the word as used in this context.
i. WORD --------------------------------------------------------------
SENTENCE ------------------------------------------------------
DEFINITION ----------------------------------------------------
ii. WORD --------------------------------------------------------------
SENTENCE ------------------------------------------------------
DEFINITION ----------------------------------------------------
Students then can continue to make new words their own by making consulting the dictionary a habit. If students fail to understand the meaning of a word from context or structure, they should look it up in their dictionary, then make it their own by using it. In time, students come to enjoy looking up words with a degree of curiosity and interest. They can easily continue their pursuit of an ever-growing vocabulary by making use of the vocabulary notebook. The mere fact of having one place in which to keep a listing of their new words will make it easier for students to know how fast their vocabulary is growing. The following format is suggested:[18]
WORD: category DEFINITION: a class division of things or ideas
SENTENCE: All animals are included in one or the other of two categories—vertebrates and invertebrates.
B. Learning about Words
1. This requires a study of AFFIXATION, especially how
prefixes and suffixes are added to words in order to shift grammatical class or to change meaning. Showing students that words can be broken down into smaller units (STEMS and AFFIXES) increases their control over words.
Examples:
It is useful and comforting for students to learn that verbs in English are formed by a few suffixes, mainly -en, -ate, -ize and that adverbs are formed mainly by -ly, and –wise.
2. Students should be encouraged to practice word class shifts in phrases and sentences.
Examples[19]:
audible (adj.); --------- (noun)
a. The sound is not audible.
The --------- is poor.
b. suffocate (verb); --------- (noun)
He will suffocate.
He will die of ------------.
c. anarchy (noun); --------- (adj.)
His thoughts suggest anarchy.
His thoughts are ------------.
d. resemble (verb); ------------ (noun)
He resembles his father.
There is a ------------ between him and his father.
3. Students may also practice filling in all possible blanks in a grid, and writing sentences for each word:
Example:
noun verb adjective adverb
initiation initiate initial initially
courage
believe
envious
psychologically
4. Students may also experiment with the "Master Word" approach of the University of Minnesota, which is based upon the premise that 60% of English vocabulary is derived from Greek and Latin. Essentially, the program calls for the teaching of a list of twenty prefixes and fourteen roots which pertain to over 14,000 words in Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. Reports from this program suggest that vocabularies of students rapidly improved.
C. Learning sensitivity to words:
Although the process by which experienced writers generate choices is not observable, students can experience the process through some exercises such as the following:
1. Substitution practice:
Words from a thesaurus entry are substituted for underlined words in passages or student compositions and the students describe the shifts in meaning (both denotative and connotative) resulting from each substitution.
Alternatively, words from student writing are circled and students asked to provide as many options for each word as they can think of. The student writers, in turn, defend their choice by showing how the various options shift from their intended meaning.
2. Examination of first drafts:
Students should be alerted to the fact that the process of creating precision in writing is characterized by "littering the page with so many deletion marks and emendations as to make some manuscripts indecipherable.”[20]
Students may scrutinize manuscripts written by the teacher himself / herself or by professional writers if these are available. Such scrutiny is instructive, since it reproduces for the student a map of the writer's debates in choosing his / her words, and encourages students to ponder over their words.
In conference or on the students' pieces of writing, the teacher can raise questions about certain words and search with them for better ones. Hopefully, students will develop the habit of raising their own questions and initiating their own debates.
3. Reading:
It is only when students observe themselves as readers and envisage the writer that is behind what they are reading that they understand their own situation as writes. As readers, students should be guided to shift their perspective and try to figure out the writer's intent and to decide why he / she used a certain word instead of another, moved in a certain direction rather than another, or chose to expand one point and not another.
In conclusion, let’s consider this quote from Shaughnessy.[21]
Reading in this way, the student begins to sense that the
meaning of what he reads or writes resides not in the page
nor in the reader but in the encounter between the two.
This insight makes him a more careful writer and a more
critical reader. As a writer, he must think about the kinds
of responses his words are likely to arouse; as a reader, his
growing critical stance encourages him to raise questions
about what he reads, to infer the author's intent, and even
to argue with him. And of course these same critical skills
can be turned upon himself when he writes.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A Programmed Course in Language Skills Development, Stanford, Ct.: MIND, Inc.
Brown, Marion March. Learning Words in Context (San Francisco: Chandler Publishing Company, 1961).
Deighton, Lee C. Vocabulary Development in the Classroom (New York: Teachers College Press, 1959).
Elkhatib, Ahmed Shafik Abdelwahab. Case Studies of Four Egyptian College Freshman Writers Majoring in English, (Ed.D. Dissertation, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1984).
Goodman, Donald J., Sherrie L. Nist, and Carole Mohr. Building Vocabulary Skills (Marlton, New Jersey: Townsend Press, Second Edition, 1997).
------------. Advanced Vocabulary Skills (Marlton, New Jersey: Townsend Press, Second Edition, 1997).
Johnson, Beth and Susan Gamer. Advanced Word Power (Marlton, New Jersey: Townsend Press, 1999).
Nadell, Judith, Beth Johnson, and Paul Langan. Vocabulary Basics (Marlton, New Jersey: Townsend Press, 1998).
Nist, Sherrie L. and Carole Mohr. Improving Vocabulary Skills (Marlton, New Jersey: Townsend Press, Second Edition, 1997).
Petty, Walter T., Curtis P. Herold, and Earline Stoll, The Status of the Knowledge About the Teaching of Vocabulary, (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education, Bureau of Research, 1967).
Shaughnessy, Mina. Errors and Expectations: A Guide for the Teacher of Basic Writing (New York: Oxford university Press, 1977).
Smith, R. Kent, Beth Johnson, and Carole Mohr. (Marlton, New Jersey: Townsend Press, Second Edition, 1998).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] A Programmed Course in Language Skills Development, Stanford, Ct.: MIND, Inc.
[2] The test was administered as part of my doctoral dissertation. See Ahmed Shafik Abdelwahab Elkhatib, Case Studies of Four Egyptian College Freshman Writers Majoring in English (Ed.D. dissertation, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1984), p. 206.
[3] A Study of the Vocabulary of Children Before the First Grade (Washington, D.C.: International Kindergarten Union, 1928).
[4] B. R. Buckingham and E. W. Dolch, A Combined Word List (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1936), p.9.
[5] Norman Lewis, Word Power Made Easy (Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1949), pp. 3-4.
[6] Walter T. Petty, Curtis P. Herold, Earline Stoll, The Status of the Knowledge About the Teaching of Vocabulary, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education, Bureau of Research, 1967.
[7] Elkhatib, Case Studies, pp. 179-182.
[8] Gerhard Nickel, “Aspects of Error Evaluation and Grading,” Errata: Papers in Error Analysis, ed. Jan Svartvik (Lund, Sweden: CWK Gleerup, 1973), p. 27.
[9] Mina Shaughnessy, Errors and Expectations: A Guide for the Teacher of Basic Writing (New York: Oxford university Press, 1977), pp. 211-224.
[10] Marion March Brown, Learning Words in Context (San Francisco: Chandler Publishing Company, 1961), pp. 41-46.
[11] The original example includes 15 items instead of 4. I have reordered the definitions.
[12] Judith Nadell, Beth Johnson, and Paul Langan, Vocabulary Basics (Marlton, NJ: Townsend Press, 1998), p. 8.
[13] R. Kent Smith, Beth Johnson, and Carole Mohr, Groundwork for a Better Vocabulary (Marlton, NJ: Townsend Press, Second Edition, 1998), p. 19.
[14]Donald J. Goodman, Sherrie L. Nist, and Carole Mohr, Building Vocabulary Skills (Marlton, NJ: Townsend Press, Second Edition, 1997), p. 18.
[15] Goodman, Nist, and Mohr, Building, pp. 18-19.
[16] The same kind of exercises is provided in Sherrie L. Nist and Carole Mohr, Improving Vocabulary Skills (Marlton, NJ: Townsend Press, Second Edition, 1997) ; in Donald J. Goodman, Sherrie L. Nist, and Carole Mohr, Advancing Vocabulary Skills (Marlton, NJ: Townsend Press, Second Edition, 1997) as well as in Beth Johnson and Susan Gamer, Advanced Word Power (Marlton, NJ: Townsend Press, Second Edition, 1999
17Brown, Learning, pp. 27-28.
[18]Brown, ibid.
[19] Lee C. Deighton, Vocabulary Development in the Classroom (New York: Teachers College Press), 1959.
[20] Mina Shaughnessy, Errors and Expectations, p. 222.
[21] Ibid. p. 223.