View Content #17856

by Julie Sykes, CASLS Director

No matter one's take on second language acquisition and classroom methodology, vocabulary plays a critical role in learning. Words are needed for simple utterances at the novice level and complex discourse patterns as learners become more advanced. Gass and Selinker (2001) note that most common errors occur through lexical mistakes and that those errors are seen as some of the most obvious. A strategic approach to learning vocabulary highlights not only learning words, but also connecting those words as part of a system. A number of elements are key to facilitating vocabulary acquisition and a strategic approach enables learners to make the most of their efforts when learning new words. Drawing on design features for effective vocabulary activities (Lafford, Lafford, and Sykes, 2001), the following are sample strategies to aid learners in their learning of new vocabulary.

Strategy #1: Draw on background knowledge to connect new words with things learners already know.

This strategy emphasizes the importance of drawing on learners' current system and making explicit use of this knowledge. In one application of this approach, learners are encouraged to select three words associated with any new word. These can be morphological or semantic connections. For example, if the new word is carrot connected words could be orange, vegetable, cake or anything else the learners already associate with carrots.

Strategy #2: Use multimodal processing for new lexical items.

This strategy asks learners to consider a variety of modes, such as pictures, sound files, and written text, to access new words. When making flashcards or other study tools, learners are encouraged to include a sentence, image, and picture on the flashcard as opposed to only a one-to-one translation (whether or not one exists).

Strategy #3: Develop communication strategies to facilitate the learning of unknown words.

Learners are encouraged to uses circumlocution, descriptions, and gestures to explain words they do not know. Developing skills in this area is critical to ongoing vocabulary development through interaction. Explicit classroom practice using unknown words can make this technique more salient and helpful to learners.

References

Gass, S., & Selinker, L. (2001). Second language acquisition: An introductory course (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Lafford, B., Lafford, P., & Sykes, J. (2007) Entre dicho y hecho...: An Assessment of the Application of Research from Second Language Acquisition and Related Fields to the Creation of Spanish CALL materials for Lexical Acquisition. CALICO Journal, 24(3), 497-529.