Teaching the

vocabulary
of a text
by David Crammer Introduction Secondly, there may be good reasons
for not wishing to teach vocabulary
There are two basic sources for after the text has been presented. For
[This article originally appeared in The
vocabulary: firstly, what I shall call example, a particularly beautiful or
Newsletter, Vol. VII N.° 2, March
1986. at a time when the magazine had 'vocabulary collections', e.g. poignant text can be ruined by
already published two articles on vocabulary lists, dictionaries, and those dissecting it afterwards. This is often
vocabulary consolidation, but never collections of words in the heads of the case with poetry. Clearly in such
one on the actual teaching of teacher and students; secondly, texts, be cases any vocabulary teaching should
vocabulary. It was intended to fill that they written or spoken. Without be done beforehand. On some
gap. Ed] wishing in any way to deny the occasions, too, there may in general
importance of the former, it is on the terms be a lot of vocabulary to be got
latter that I shall concentrate. from a text (though if this becomes
excessive, then the text is being used at
Vocabulary can be the focus of the wrong level). To avoid teaching
attention both before the text itself is too much vocabulary later, some can
presented, i.e. 'pre-taughf. or during be taught before.
work on the text itself, and in both
cases we need to consider the following b & c How much and what kind?
points: These two are inextricably interwoven,
a why items might be taught before for the more kinds of things to be pre-
rather than after, or after rather than taught. the greater total number of
before presentation of the text words will be involved.
b how much to teach Correspondingly, any limit on the total
c what kind of items to teach number will limit the range of kinds of
d how to teach the items item. As we have seen, the main
reason for pre-teaching is to aid
1 Pre-taught vocabulary comprehension and, provided the text is
of the correct level, there should be few
a Why pre-teach? words central to comprehension that
will not be understood. The number of
There are a number of reasons for pre- pre-taught words should normally,
teaching vocabulary. Firstly, and most therefore, be small, perhaps half a
importantly, if words important to the dozen at most.
meaning of the text are not understood,
then the meaning and significance of When other reasons are involved, there
the text will not be understood either. may be many more words, and then
What will follow will be additional considerations need to be
Listening/Reading /^comprehension. taken into account. Firstly, is there a
Furthermore, not only does the pre- danger of overloading? The mind and
teaching of important words enable the memory can only process so much -
comprehension of those specific words, research suggests 7 plus or minus 2
but the mind subconsciously and even items or groups of items are the
consciously begins to build up optimum for maximum efficiency. And
associations between the words, so that if there are a lot of words, are they all
students can, to a degree, predict the going to be taught in one lesson or is
content of the text they are going to there going to be gradual preparation
listen to/read. The ability to predict the for the text, with the vocabulary
content is an important aid to introduced little by little over several
comprehension. preceding lessons?

5 8 The Journal
d How? how it is done, e.g. leaning or
kneeling to show what lean or kneel
Here are some ways of teaching means.
vocabulary:
h Acting
a Definition
Like demonstration but it is not for
A lexical item may be defined by a real, e.g. acting a sneeze or yawn to
student who already knows the word, show the meaning.
the teacher, a monolingual dictionary, a
textbook vocabulary list, etc. i Mime

b Exemplification and the reverse Explanation through

movement/gesture, e.g. scratching your
To teach tool we might give the head to show I'm thinking (action), as
examples hammer, saw, spanner and distinct from / think (mental
screw-driver. To teach spanner we state/opinion).
might describe it as a tool (i.e. an
example of tool). j Realia

C Analogy Using real-world objects, e.g. bringing

into class items of food to teach food
To teach venison (the meat of a deer) words.
we might use the analogy that venison
is from a deer as pork is from a pig and k Pictures - photos, magazine picture,
beef from a cow. illustrations

d Translation Visual representations of objects. The

teacher's own drawings on the board
coriander = coentros. This would are often as effective as photos and
avoid confusion with parsley (= salsa), magazine pictures, sometimes even
which I defy any non-technical more so. Bad but recognisable
definition to distinguish adequately. drawing, because it is humorous, is
Note that translation can be dangerous, especially memorable.
leading to all kinds of
overgeneralisation, inadequate / Explanation
matching of meaning, etc., but for
concrete items where the meaning is This is often necessary, e.g. for
straightforward, translation can save culture/language-specific words or
wasting a lot of time trying to explain phrases. One would need to explain
something in the target language. bank-holiday, for example, as being a
holiday recognised by tradition,
e Concept through situation occurring on Mondays twice a year
(late spring and late summer - in 1998
To teach disappointed give a situation they fall on 25 May and 31 August)
such as: "If a child wants a bicycle for because religious holidays, etc. don't
Christmas and gets a book he will be give us enough holidays!
disappointed."
m Synonym
f Description
Giving another word meaning the
e.g. of the word thimble. "A thimble is same thing. This can, however, lead
like a little hat on your finger when to confusion because true synonyms
you're sewing." are very few indeed. Even such
apparent synonyms as small and little
g Demonstration tend in fact to be used in rather
different contexts and with different
Performing some action to show shades of meaning.

The Journal 59
n Antonym cake?" (In Portuguese you cozer urn
bolo but you do N O T boil a cake in
Teaching by comparing words of English - boiling is always in water),
opposite meaning. Dangerous because and the traditional, useful method of
it often then becomes difficult to getting students to write a sentence
remember which was which, e.g. buy using the new word in such a way as to
and sell, borrow and lend, bring and show that they really have understood
take, pull and push. the meaning.

o Discrimination 2 Vocabulary taught after

presentation of the text
Contrasting words of similar meaning,
e.g. chair v. bench v. stool. Dangerous a Why work on vocabulary
for the same reason as Antonym. afterwards?

p Co-ordinates grid Principal among the reasons is the

obvious one that once the broad
Members of a set of words can often be context is understood, it is easer to
separated well by looking at various concentrate on the detail of individual
elements in the meaning of the word. words. Large-scale vocabulary
For example, words for ways of building is, in general terms, therefore
cooking imply elements such as use of better done after the text has been
water or oil, on the surface or in the presented. Another important reason is
oven, high or low heat. This can be that it is possible at this stage to exploit
represented in a grid (see fig. on the the new lexis in its own right, not just
next page). as a means to comprehension. If we
are to bring new vocabulary into active
cj Generalisation of form use and not just passive understanding,
it is not sufficient for us just to teach it.
To teach waitress: if actress is the We must provide ways to make sure
female form of actor, what's waitress? that it is learnt and used.
Answer: female form of waiter.
b How much and what kind?
r Word-building
In broad terms, many of the same
Transforming one part of speech to factors apply as to pre-taught
another, e.g. deep > depth, high > vocabulary. We have to be careful not
height, hot > heat. Always check that to overload the student but choose
students are fully aware of what parts items that are useful in terms of
of speech are involved. In this case the frequency of occurrence and
transformation is from adjective to appropriacy to the level. Importantly,
abstract noun. however, we can at this stage go
beyond the central items to items of
After teaching an item it is essential to detail, which will tend to be rather
check that it has been properly more numerous.
understood. There are various ways of
doing this, many of them involving c How?
getting students, as it were, to 're-
teach' the words back to the teacher, All of the techniques used for pre-
using one of the means described teaching vocabulary can also be used
above. The teacher may ask for the subsequently, but there are a number of
word in Portuguese - much better than additional possible means.
the teacher translating, as it requires the
students to put in more effort. Or Matching
he/she may ask for a
synonym/antonym. Then there are A definition is given and the student
concept question, e.g. for the ways-of- has to find the word with that meaning
cooking words "Would you boil a in the text.
Inference + Definition Conclusion

The student must guess the meaning of I would like to end by posing and
an item from its context and define it to answering a simple but not always
show it has been correctly understood. sufficiently asked question:

Use of monolingual learner Should ALL unknown words be taught'.'

dictionaries Central to this question is a further one:

It is important to encourage learners Does the student need to be able to use

into the use of monolingual learner the word or just to understand it. or
dictionaries at an early stage - they indeed does the word really need to be
contain much valuable information on understood at all?
the contexts and uses of words that is
not to be found in either bilingual or I would like to suggest that even in our
native-speaker monolingual own language we often read/hear
dictionaries. something without fully understanding
every word. We only do something
Categorisation about it if we do not understand what is
being said/written sufficiently for out-
Students are given sets of words from purpose. Surely - and the lower the
the text and have to categorise them level, the more this is so - it is a waste
grammatically (into noun, verb, of time and energy trying to learn
adjective, etc.) or semantically (e.g. words of limited use when there are
words describing positive/negative many others of much greater
characteristics, words associated with importance still to be learnt.
water, types of light). Or the reverse -
the categories are given and students What I am trying to say is this. There
have to find examples in the text that is no virtue in teaching words beyond
exemplify them. what is sufficient to enable an adequate
understanding of the text within the
Information transfer terms of what you want to get out of it;
and there is no point in students'
Students have to fill in some knd of learning what they are unlikely to need
grid, diagram, chart, map, etc. with and use in the reasonably immediate
vocabulary items from the text. future. If it is sufficiently important, it
As with pre-taught items, it is essential will recure later ... and can be learnt
to check that new words have been then.
properly understood.

cook boil poach braise stew fry roast bake simmer*

in water x x x x i a i m i m i a imk-i x

in oil x x x

nothinu « x sin its x

own juice)

surface x x x x « x x

oven x xiiishi x \ x x

high heat x x x x x

low heat x \ x x (*) x x

*Note: simmer describes the liquid the food is cooked in, not the food itself

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