Literaure 3

Reducing Learning Burden in Academic Vocabulary Development

References TESOL Quarterly

Ayþegül Daloðlu, Middle East Technical University, Faculty of Education, Ankara, Turkey, e-mail: daloglu@metu.edu.tr, and Meltem Tarhan, Bilkent University, School of English Language, Ankara, Turkey, e-mail: tarhan@bilkent.edu.tr

Teaching vocabulary, especially academic vocabulary in EFL settings, is one of the main challenges in English language teaching. As English language teachers who believe in the importance of developing students’ academic language skills, we have emphasized vocabulary development as one of the main components in our courses.
Academic vocabulary can be defined as the most frequently occurring words in spoken and written discourse that students encounter during their academic studies in English-medium universities. Improving students’ academic vocabulary knowledge is crucial to ensure students’ academic progress but, at the same time, difficult as students have limited exposure to the English language outside class.
The learning burden of a word is “the amount of effort required to learn it” (Nation, 2001, p. 23). Different words impose different learning burdens for learners with different language backgrounds. In addition to this, the way the learner uses the new vocabulary item can contribute to its learning burden.
The general principle about learning burden is that if the word represents patterns and knowledge the learner is already familiar with, it is easier to learn that word. Therefore, the burden is lighter. Learners can obtain the patterns and knowledge from their experiences with their native language, another foreign language, or English. Teachers can help reduce the learning burden of words by drawing attention to systematic patterns and analogies within the second language and by pointing out connections between the second language and the first.
The distinction between receptive and productive vocabulary also contributes to the learning burden of a word. Receptive vocabulary use involves perceiving the form of a word while listening or reading and retrieving its meaning. Productive vocabulary, on the other hand, involves wanting to express a meaning through speaking or writing, and retrieving and producing the appropriate spoken or written word form.
Knowing a word involves form, meaning, and use. From the point of view of receptive knowledge, therefore, knowing a word involves
recognizing it when it is heard
being familiar with its written form so that it is recognized when seen in written form
recognizing that it is composed of written forms (how affixation influences the usage and meaning of the word)
knowing the particular meaning of the word in the given context
knowing words that are related to the given word (lexical set)
being able to recognize if the word has been correctly used in the given context
knowing the collocations of the given word
The main aim of vocabulary teaching is to lead to learner-focused vocabulary learning. Although recognition-level learning is easier to achieve at most levels of language proficiency, production of the learned item is more difficult to achieve because students experience problems in forming chunks.
The following are some difficulties associated with vocabulary learning:
limited encounters with the new vocabulary item
limited student experience in language learning
low teaching emphasis on word environment
lack of sensitivity to word forms
low awareness of sentence structure of target language
interference of the native language sentence and lexical aspects
Therefore, we believe that presenting the language in chunks together with the word environment, not as isolated words, helps academic vocabulary development in EFL settings. To improve both receptive and productive vocabulary learning, the teacher can follow five key principles:
1. Presenting and practicing vocabulary with its collocations
When introducing new lexical items, we should make an effort to present them with the words or types of words that commonly occur with the given word. For example, when presenting the verb to lose, we need to also present the nouns it collocates with: to lose your way, to lose your temper, to lose your purse, to lose your mind, and so on.
2. Presenting and practicing vocabulary with its grammatical environment
When introducing new lexical items, we should make learners aware of different patterns the word occurs with and the patterns we must use the word in. When presenting an item, we should make the learners aware of the changes in the grammatical structure of the sentence. For example, they need to differentiate between an adjective and a verb such as in “to apply for something” and “to be afraid of (doing) something.” When emphasizing the grammatical environment, draw learners’ attention to aspects such as using a noun after dependent prepositions, as is emphasized by something in the above examples.
3. Vocabulary with emphasis on register
When introducing new lexical items, we should emphasize the content of the message conveyed, its sender and receiver, its situation and purpose, and how it is communicated, which means we should also stress where, when, and with whom this word is used. For example, drawing learners’ attention to level of formality and social distance among speakers makes them aware of the register.
4. Vocabulary with emphasis on word form
When introducing new lexical items, we should emphasize what meaning this word form signals and what relationship exists between meaning and form. Learners should be aware of the functions of prefixes and suffixes. For instance, they need to know that prefixes change the meaning of the word whereas suffixes change the word form. With this awareness, they should be able to comprehend and produce appropriate word forms as required by the context.
5. Vocabulary with emphasis on connotation
When introducing new lexical items, we should emphasize what kind of effects connotations have when transferring lexical meaning from the native language. On this basis, we can identify the problem causing lexical items for the learners. One way to achieve this is to encourage the learners to use monolingual dictionaries. If learners do not have adjectives that correspond to the meaning differences among annoyed, disappointed, and frustrated in their native language, the monolingual dictionary will make them aware of the connotation of each.
In conclusion, we think that vocabulary learning in the EFL context is enhanced if attention is paid to the five principles above when presenting and practicing lexical items. We hope that these guiding principles encourage learners to transfer their knowledge to production of these items rather than only recognize them when they encounter them.
References
Nation, I.S. P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
EFLIS News March 2005 Volume 5 Number 1: Table of Contents

Annotation of “Reducing Learning Burden in Academic Vocabulary Development”
We all know that teaching vocabulary, especially academic vocabulary in EFL settings, is challenging for English teachers. Since students often encounter academic vocabulary frequently in spoken and written discourse during their academic studies in English-medium universities, improving students’ academic vocabulary knowledge becomes crucial to ensure students’ academic progress. However, as students have limited exposure to the English language outside class, vocabulary teaching is not an easy case.
In “Reducing Learning Burden in Academic Vocabulary Development,” the author defines the learning burden of a word as “the amount of effort required to learn it”. Learners’ different language backgrounds and the way they use new vocabulary can both cause learning burdens. Since words representing knowledge the learner is already familiar with are easier to learn, teachers can use systematic patterns and analogies within the second language or point out connections between the second language and the first to recall information from their experiences and thus reduce the vocabulary learning burden. Moreover, he asserts that presenting the language in chunks together with the word environment, not as isolated words, helps academic vocabulary development in EFL settings. In addition, the author also declares five principles to improve vocabulary learning – presenting and practicing vocabulary with its collocations; presenting and practicing vocabulary with its grammatical environment; vocabulary with emphasis on register; vocabulary with emphasis on word form; vocabulary with emphasis on connotation. He hopes that these guiding principles encourage learners to transfer their knowledge to production of these items rather than only recognize them when they encounter them.
Among all the above principles, I view the fifth one most helpful. By teaching vocabulary with emphasis on connotation, students are able to understand the original meaning of a word instead of memorizing it with translation in their native language which might cause misunderstanding. When I made interviews with my tutoring freshman students, I just offered them an advice of looking up a monolingual dictionary. It was not out of my expectation to find out that they were used to looking up bilingual dictionaries to learn a new word with translation in their mother tongue. However, they just told me that “after getting poor grades in the vocabulary part from the prior two tests, they just changed their learning way into looking up monolingual dictionaries.” I, as well as my tutoring students, all found out that it was inefficient to learn a new vocabulary by memorizing its Chinese literal meaning. I realized that to learn a new word effectively lies in understanding its existent connotation. Since any word might very possibly have its implications or associations, it’s essential to teach vocabulary with emphasize on its connotation. Just as what I heard from one of my tutoring students (Yu-Chun Lo), “In the filling blank of the vocabulary part of the test, I tried to guess the meaning of a missing word from its context and associated possible words with similar meaning that seems relevant with the contexts. I just hesitated in choosing the words I think relevant to the sentences but still unable to judge which might be the correct answer in the blank.” I told her that every world has its various meanings as well as connotations. Besides, I also advised her to use monolingual dictionary to learn the definition and connotations of a word in English since it’s the only way to get the most closed meaning of words and enable one to distinguish one word with minor difference with another word.
Furthermore, the author in this article also mentioned a principle to improve vocabulary learning is presenting and practicing vocabulary with its grammatical environment. When introducing new lexical items, I also agree with him about making learners aware of different patterns the word occurs with and the patterns we must use the word in. I see making associations between a word and the relevant words it often occurs with as important as well. I believe that teaching vocabulary in meaningful chunks with appropriate grammatical structure of the sentence rather than teaching words one by one in an isolated form will indeed help memorization. For example, in my interviews with my tutoring students, I taught them to learn a new word by memorizing it in chunks. I taught them to learn the word “furious“by remembering the preposition “at” in the chunk of “being furious at someone” and to apply the word “confidence” by recognizing the prepossession “in” in the chunk of “having confidence in somebody” when I taught them about their second exam. They also agreed with me that it was much easier to associate the correct word with the chunks relevant to grammatical environment of the vocabulary.
In addition, the author suggests presenting and practicing vocabulary with its collocations as a principle to improve vocabulary learning as well. I consent to his idea of introducing new lexical items by presenting them with the words that commonly occur with the given word. For example, I taught my tutoring freshman students to learn the chunks “ domestic violence” and “ malicious telephone calls” together instead of leaning the new vocabulary word by word. I think this way of remembering collocations with chunks will help them learn the words more easily and apply the correct answers in the blanks. The more familiar with the collocations, the bigger the chances they can have in getting the right answers and learning more relevant words in a given time.