Vocabulary in Language Teaching

by Norbert Schmitt

• ISBN13: 9780521669382
• ISBN10: 0521669383
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-03-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This text offers a comprehensive introduction to vocabulary for language teachers who would like to know more about the way vocabulary works. It provides the background knowledge necessary for practitioners to make informed choices about vocabulary teaching and testing. The overall theme is making research and theory accessible, and then drawing on it to suggest effective classroom applications. Chapters 1 and 2 provide linguistic and historical background. Chapters 3-7 describe the various kinds of knowledge a person can have about a word, how vocabulary behaves in context, and how it is acquired. Chapters 8 and 9 focus on issues in teaching and testing vocabulary. The chapters include teaching applications, exercises, and suggestions for further reading. The appendices include a word list of academic vocabulary and a vocabulary test.

Table of Contents

Series editor's preface	xi
Preface	xiii
Acknowledgments	xv
Introduction	1	(9)
Size of the English vocabulary	2	(1)
How many words do native speakers know?	3	(1)
The complex nature of vocabulary	4	(2)
Summary	6	(1)
Exercises for expansion	7	(2)
Further reading	9	(1)
History of vocabulary in language learning	10	(12)
Language teaching methodologies through the ages	10	(5)
The Vocabulary Control Movement	15	(2)
Research into vocabulary acquisition and organization	17	(2)
Historical overview of vocabulary testing	19	(1)
Summary	20	(1)
Exercises for expansion	21	(1)
Further reading	21	(1)
Aspects of Knowing a word: Meaning and organization	22	(23)
Word meaning	22	(9)
Register	31	(6)
Word associations	37	(6)
Summary	43	(1)
Exercises for expansion	43	(1)
Further reading	44	(1)
Aspects of knowing a word: Word form and grammatical Knowledge	45	(23)
The written form of a word	45	(8)
The spoken form of a word	53	(5)
Grammatical knowledge	58	(7)
Summary	65	(1)
Exercises for expansion	66	(1)
Further reading	67	(1)
The use of corpora in vocabulary studies	68	(28)
Corpora and their development	68	(3)
Applications of corpora	71	(10)
Corpus input into dictionaries	81	(7)
Summary	88	(1)
Exercises for expansion	89	(6)
Further reading	95	(1)
Vocabulary in discourse	96	(20)
Multiword units in English	96	(6)
Lexical patterning in discourse	102	(3)
Cohesive and stylistic effects of vocabulary in discourse	105	(8)
Summary	113	(1)
Exercises for expansion	113	(1)
Further reading	114	(2)
Vocabulary acquisition	116	(26)
The incremental nature of vocabulary acquisition	117	(3)
Incidental and explicit learning of vocabulary	120	(3)
Acquisition of word meaning and grammatical knowledge	123	(4)
MWUs in vocabulary acquisition	127	(2)
Role of memory in vocabulary acquisition	129	(3)
Vocabulary learning strategies	132	(6)
Summary	138	(1)
Exercises for expansion	138	(2)
Further reading	140	(2)
Teaching and learning vocabulary	142	(21)
How many and which words to teach	142	(3)
Teaching vocabulary	145	(5)
Vocabulary and reading	150	(5)
Vocabulary and writing, listening, and speaking	155	(2)
Summary	157	(1)
Exercises for expansion	158	(4)
Further reading	162	(1)
Assessing vocabulary knowledge	163	(18)
What do you want to test?	164	(1)
What words do you want to test?	164	(3)
What aspects of these words do you want to test?	167	(5)
How will you elicit students' knowledge of these words?	172	(2)
Examples of current vocabulary test development	174	(4)
Summary	178	(1)
Exercises for expansion	179	(1)
Further reading	180	(1)
Appendixes	181	(20)
Appendix A Word associations for illuminate	181	(1)
Appendix B The Academic Word List (AWL)	182	(5)
Appendix C Frequency of selected words in CIC/BNC corpora	187	(1)
Appendix D Concordance for made it plain	188	(3)
Appendix E Missing words from the Chapter 8 reading passages	191	(1)
Appendix F Vocabulary Levels Test: Version 1	192	(9)
References	201	(21)
Index	222