Vocabulary and Language Teaching

Description

The material in this book reviews work dating back to the vocabulary control movement in the 1930s and also refers to more recent work on the role of lexis in language learning. Two chapters describe the main foundations of lexical semantics and relevant research and pedagogical studies in vocabulary and lexicography; and a further chapter discusses recent advances in the field of lexis and discourse analysis. There is also a series of specially commissioned articles which investigate the structure and functions of the modern English lexicon in relation to its exploitation for classroom vocabulary teaching. Cover......Page 1 Title Page......Page 4 Copyright Page......Page 5 Table of Contents......Page 6 Acknowledgements......Page 7 Preface......Page 8 Introduction......Page 12 1. Word lists and learning words: some foundations......Page 14 1 Basic English: how basic is Basic?......Page 15 2 Michael West and 'A General Service List'......Page 19 3 Recent developments: problems and prospects......Page 22 4 Vocabulary acquisition: some more basic questions......Page 24 1 Words and things......Page 31 2 Does meaning organize the vocabulary?......Page 32 3 How are words in fields related to one another?......Page 35 4 Marked and unmarked terms: some words work harder than others......Page 40 5 Synonymy: are some words duplicated elsewhere in the lexicon?......Page 41 6 Are words atoms or molecules? Componential analysis......Page 42 7 Linguistic goings-on......Page 45 Introduction......Page 52 1 Structural approaches......Page 53 2 Throwing down the gauntlet......Page 54 3 Bring on the learner......Page 57 4 Consolidation: the lexicon meets the learner......Page 58 5 The present and the future......Page 59 6 Lexicography and language learning: users and uses......Page 65 7 Fixed expressions and the dictionary......Page 67 8 The COBUILD project......Page 71 4. New directions in vocabulary studies......Page 73 1 Comprehension......Page 75 2 Production......Page 83 3 Lexical phrases......Page 88 4 Further research......Page 92 Points for further development......Page 93 Psycholinguistic considerations in the study of L2 vocabulary acquisition......Page 96 Summary and conclusions......Page 106 Points for further development......Page 107 Vocabulary and text readability......Page 110 The effect of low frequency vocabulary......Page 111 The effect of pre-teaching vocabulary......Page 113 Learning vocabulary through reading......Page 114 Learning from context......Page 115 The rate of success in guessing......Page 116 A strategy for guessing from context......Page 117 Conclusion......Page 121 Points for further development......Page 122 Current attitudes in EFL to vocabulary and dictionary use......Page 124 Native-speakers' use of dictionaries......Page 126 Use of dictionaries in ELT......Page 127 Vocabulary acquisition......Page 128 How can dictionaries help students to learn words?......Page 129 Description of the experiments......Page 131 Points for further development......Page 136 1 Introduction......Page 139 2 Composites and formulae......Page 144 3 Conclusion......Page 149 Points for further development......Page 150 1 The EFL syllabus......Page 153 2. The lexical syllabus......Page 159 3 Implications of a lexical syllabus......Page 167 Acknowledgements......Page 171 Points for further development......Page 172 1. Introduction......Page 174 2 Cohesion......Page 175 3 Remediating discourse errors: using cloze......Page 179 4 Core vocabulary, cloze and discourse......Page 184 5 Conclusion: opening up cloze......Page 189 Points for further development......Page 191 Theoretical basis of the study......Page 194 The data......Page 195 Analytical approach......Page 196 Analysis and commentary......Page 198 Summary and conclusions......Page 210 Points for further development......Page 212 1 Studies of lexical cohesion......Page 214 2 Beyond cohesion: signalling in text and how language organizes itself......Page 218 3 But what about the other 400,000 words?......Page 223 Notes......Page 233 Bibliography......Page 234 Index......Page 250