by Language Learning Support Section, EDB

1
Vocabulary teaching Giving primary students
the key to learning English (Re-run)

• by Language Learning Support Section, EDB

2
Programme Rundown

• Reasons for promoting vocabulary teaching
• Vocabulary building skills to be taught
• Games for teaching vocabulary
• Infusing vocabulary teaching in the day-to-day
  teaching
• Assessing vocabulary learning
• Building up vocabulary learning environment
• Impact of vocabulary on the learning of language
  skills

3
I. Why do we promote the teaching of
vocabulary?

• 1. Students have limited vocabulary
• 2. Repetition of words in usage
• 3. Strong emphasis on READING in the 2004
  Curriculum Guide

4

• Learners need to acquire good vocabulary so that
  they can understand messages from others and
  combine words to form phrases, combine phrases to
  form sentences and combine sentences to form
  continuous texts.

(English Language Curriculum Guide P1-6 2004
p.164)
5
II. What vocabulary building skills do we teach?

• Sight words
• Phonics
• Word formation
• Word association
• Dictionary skills (picture dictionary, thesaurus)

6
What are sight words?

• words that are immediately recognizable as whole
  words and do not require word analysis for
  recognition.
• the most frequently used words
• Dolch word lists (compiled by E. W. Dolch in
  1940s)
• 220 service words
• 95 common nouns

7
Why is it important to learn sight words?

• They comprise approximately 50-70 of any given
  general, non-technical text.
• Many of the sight words do not follow the
  phonetic rules
• (e.g. said vs maid, paid)
• Many of the words share the same letters or look
  similar
• (e.g. of, for and from
• on/no was/saw)

8
Why is it important to learn sight words?

• For instructional purposes, we would like our
  students to recognize sight words in less than a
  second. Why? Because this enhances their chance
  of getting to the end a sentence in time to
  remember how it began.
• - Frank B. May in Reading as Communication

9

• Word formation
• (i) Affixation - adding prefix and suffix to
  base word
• e.g. unfriendly, careful, __less, __ly, dis__
• (ii) Compounding - formation of words with two or
  more separate words
• e.g. football, blackboard
• (iii) Blending - mix two words together
• e.g. motor hotel motel (a place to stay when
  travelling by car)
• smoke fog smog (air pollution in a
  city)

10

• (iv) Conversion - the process by which an item
  may be used in different parts of speech yet does
  not change its form
• e.g. Here is some butter. Butter the bread.
• (noun) (verb)
• (v) Derivation - the process whereby new words
  are formed from existing words or bases by
  affixation
• e.g. migrate migrated, migrating, migration,
  immigration, migrants

11

• Word association
• (i) Synonyms two words that can be
  interchanged
• in a context
• e.g. big, huge
• (ii) Antonyms - two words that express opposing
  concepts
• e.g. cheap, expensive
• (iii) Homonyms - words which have the same form
  but have completely unrelated meaning and
  have to be learned as different words
• e.g. go to a bank, sit on the river bank

12

• (iv) Collocation - relationship between two words
  or groups of words that often go together and
  form a common expression
• e.g. take (eat) medicine, spend (pay) time,
• do (work) your homework, go (do) fishing
• (v) Lexical sets - words that belong to a
  particular group (word families)
• Semantic groupExample cat, dog, elephant,
  snakebelong to the semantic group Animals.
• Syntactical groupExample pretty, long, unusual,
  frighteningbelong to the syntactical group
  Adjectives.
• Functional groupExample Hello, Hi, Good
  morning, Hello therebelong to the functional
  group Greetings.

13

• Vocabulary is best introduced in context such as
  through language games and tasks. Tasks address
  learners needs and interests, and provide
  authentic contexts for vocabulary use.

(English Language Curriculum Guide P1-6 2004
p.164)
14
III. What games can we use to teach vocabulary?
Managing words through games - 9 Fun vocabulary
games!
15
GAMES!
16

• Derivation
• the process whereby new words are formed from
• existing words or bases by affixation
• e.g. migrate
• migrated, migrating, migration,
  immigration,
• migrants

17

• A mini-activity
• Work in groups of 6.
• Brainstorm words that are derived from the base
  word.
• Fill in the blanks with words derived from the
  base word.

18
Collocation

• Collocation is the relationship between two
• words or groups of words that often go
• together and form a common expression,
• e.g. take (eat) medicine,
• spend (pay) time,
• do (work) your homework,
• go (do) fishing

19
Spot the mistakes (Collocation)

• Get into groups of 4.
• There are 4 mistakes in the diary.
• Write the correct verbs on the lines.

20
Activity Sheet 1 Spot the mistakes
(Collocation) Tom wrote a diary about his bad
day yesterday. However, he is not good at
writing. He made 4 mistakes. Read the diary
carefully. Write the correct verbs on the lines.
1/3/2008 Rainy ? Yesterday was a bad day!
My friends and I went to Sai Kung. There was a
traffic jam. We ? paid a lot of time on
travelling. We ? did fishing, but we forgot to
bring the fishing rod! So my friends ? played
the kite with me, but I fell on the ground. My
friends took me to the hospital. I also ? made a
cold after the trip. How unlucky I was!
Correct answers ? ___________ ?
___________ ? ___________ ? ___________
21
Memory game (Lexical set)

• Each table forms a group.
• Listen to the theme carefully.
• Each group has to make up a sentence
• using a word associated with the theme.
• The second group repeats the sentence
• and makes up another one.

22
Memory game (Example)

• Theme Meat
• 1st group I like eating chicken.
• 2nd group I like eating chicken and beef.
• 3rd group I like eating chicken, beef and
• fish.
• 4th group

23
Classroom objects

• I spy with my little eye and see things with two
  syllables
• Rubber, ruler, pencil, cupboard, bookshelf,
  basin, towel, teacher, pupils, bottle
• I spy with my little eye and see things with one
  syllable
• Pen, chair, desk, chalk, bag, boy, girl, door,
  fan

24
(No Transcript)
25
Pelmanism

• Synonyms
• (words of similar meaning)
• Antonyms
• (words of opposite meaning)

26
(No Transcript)
27
(No Transcript)
28
Let's try the game!
Match the words of similar meaning

1. Put the cards face-down on the table.
2. Take turns to turn over two cards at a time. If
   they match, keep them. If not, put them back
   face-down in their original place.
3. The game finishes when all the cards are taken.
4. The player who has most cards is the winner.
5. Other players say WELL DONE! to the winner.

29
Pig

• Number of players 4-6
• Goal Collect the most word cards
• Directions
• Read aloud up to 4 words.
  Keep the card if you read
  the word correctly.
• Stop if you read a word incorrectly.
• Stop and keep the cards
  that you have got.
• Stop and return the cards that
  you get in this turn to the pile.
• Play until 4 PIG and 4 STOP cards remain.

30
Tic-tac-toe
Vocabulary building skills
31
Tic-tac-toe suffixes
Activity objective Students are able to form
words with the suffixes provided in the grid.
er ness ance
ly ful ion
hood able ment
Student A ?
singer
tidiness
beautiful
excitement
information
comfortable
slowly
childhood
appearance
32

• Passive vocabulary will become active with
• the development
• of ss language
• competence
• (ii) opportunity given
• to students to put
• the vocabulary
• learned into use

33

• Teachers need to make plans for vocabulary
  learning and teaching at different stages of
  learning so that new vocabulary items are
  introduced in a meaningful context and learnt
  items are revisited and practised in new
  contexts.

(English Language Curriculum Guide P1-6 2004
p.165)
34
IV. Infusing vocabulary teaching in the
day-to-day teaching
35
School-based example (1) Theme School Level
P2 Skills covered (i) Lexical set
(ii) Collocation Application writing a
school pamphlet
36
Background
Topic At school
Vocabulary Rooms and things to do at school
Target language item We (things to do) in
(rooms).
37
Step 1 word association
Circle words related to the theme School.
bathroom
sing the songs
draw the pictures
feed the animals
School
music room
wash the dishes
cook the food
read the books
playground
kitchen
classroom
washroom
38
Step 2 word categorisation
Categorise the above words into two groups.
Things to do at school
Rooms at school
39
Step 3 word collocation
Collocate verbs with suitable nouns.
1.
Children, please _________ the books silently.

2.
Well done, boys and girls. Can someone help me
__________ the board, please?
3.
I wrote some songs for all of you. Do you want to
___________ the songs now? Let me write them on
the board first.
4.
The songs are about cats and dogs. Can someone
__________ the pictures for me?
5.
Great! Thank you. Lets __________ the music now!
40
Step 4 Who / Do-what / Where?
Form grammatical sentences.

Who?
Do-what?
Where?
e.g.
I speak English in the English room.


41
Step 5 application
Write the school pamphlet.
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
___________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
___________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
___________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
___________________
42
Vocabulary building skills tackled
Association
Categorisation
Verbs
Nouns

Collocation
43

• School-based example (2)
• Theme Gifts
• Level P3
• Skills covered (i) Lexical set
• (ii) Dictionary skill
• Application Writing a letter

44
(No Transcript)
45
(No Transcript)
46
(No Transcript)
47
(No Transcript)
48
(No Transcript)
49
Vocabulary building skills tackled
50
School-based example (3) Theme Food Level
P6 Skills covered (i) Lexical set
(ii) Synonyms
(iii) Phonics (iv)
Compound words Application Writing a food
poem Assessment Students writing
51
Background
Topic Food/ Healthy eating
Vocabulary Food from different countries
Target language item Use either.or . to
show choice
52
Additional reading materials
Poem Twenty Bucks
53
Understanding the poem
Poem Worksheet
Answers
54
Teaching students more words
Taste Texture
salty sweet sour bitter hot / spicy hard soft crunchy / crispy fatty thick juicy chewy smooth filling

• Students previous knowledge
• Red vocabulary items learned in P4 from a reader
  called No supermarket, just mega-market
• green vocabulary items learned in the textbooks

55
Teaching students to write a poem based on the
words learned
Writing task
56
Vocabulary building skills being tackled
Theme Food
Poem reading
Poem writing
57
V. Assessing vocabulary

• Assessment is an integral part of the
  learning-teaching-assessment
• cycle. It is the practice of collecting and
  interpreting information
• about pupils learning, and serves a variety of
  purposes.

In the context of the English Language
curriculum, assessment serves the overall
purpose of providing information about learners
progress and achievements in relation to the
Learning Targets and Objectives, thereby helping
learners, teachers and parents understand learners
strengths and weaknesses, and plan for further
improvement. (English Language Curriculum Guide
(Primary 1-6). p.191)
58
Learning-Teaching-Assessment Cycle
The ultimate goal of assessment is to raise the
standard of learning.
Learning
Teaching

• Teachers know more about student learning

• Provide students with formative feedback for
  improvement

• Adapt teaching strategies

Assessment
59
Assessment of Vocabulary




Skills assessed/ Other modes of assessment
Ultimate goal
What to assess
1. vocabulary size (how many words students know
the range of vocabulary -narrow? wide?)

• Creative dictation

a. Enlarge students vocabulary size

• Word Search

2. whether students could apply the vocabulary
skills learned in new contexts (e.g. to guess the
meaning of new words in new context or to
comprehend a text even if there are unknown words)
b. Equip students with necessary skills (tools)
for self learning

• Proofreading

• Comprehension
• questions

3. whether students could communicate with a wide
range of vocabulary, i.e., whether students
proficiency of the 4 language skills have
improved over a period of time
c. Enhance students language proficiency in
regard to the 4 language skills (reading,
listening, speaking and writing)

• Creative Writing

• Mini-research
• Presentation

60
Food
Drinks
Grains Products (Main Course)
Meat Fish (Main Course)
Snacks
Dessert
cola
spaghetti
tuna fish
salad
apple pie
lemon tea
noodles
beef
chocolate
green tea cake
orange juice
macaroni
bacon
wafers
peach tart
water
rice
pork
dried cuttlefish
mango pudding
61
1. Divide the blackboard into columns (or provide
a worksheet if its individual work) with names
of different lexical sets. 2. Teacher calls out
an initial consonant (e.g. c). Students need to
think of words that begin with the initial
consonant c and fill in each category within
the given time, say 3 minutes. Repeat this step
by calling out a different initial consonant
(e.g. t) 3. The one/ the group who could
provide the most/correct words would be the
winner.
Drinks Snacks Dessert Fruit

currant
candies
cake
cola
tangerine
tea
toffee
tart tiramisu
62
VI. What can we do to build up a vocabulary
learning environment?

• Dictionaries
• Labelling
• Word walls
• Personal collections

63

• VII.
• Impact of explicit vocabulary
• building skill teaching on the
• learning of language skills

64
Impact on the learning of four skills
Vocabulary building skills Skills development Expected outcomes





Synonyms, antonyms
Writing

• Avoid repetition on the use of words

Sight words
Reading

• Improve reading fluency and reading comprehension

Speaking writing

• Use a variety of vocabulary for elaborating
  ideas
• Write longer and richer text

Lexical set
Phonics
Listening, speaking writing

• Differentiate sounds so as to avoid
  misunderstanding
• Read with correct pronunciation
• Write with fewer spelling mistakes

Compounding, affixation, blending
Reading

• Work out the meaning of unknown words by
  recognizing the base word within other words

65
Tips
66

• Website of LLSS

http//resources.edb.gov.hk/cd/languagesupport
67
(No Transcript)
68
(No Transcript)
69
(No Transcript)
70
(No Transcript)
71
(No Transcript)
72
(No Transcript)
73
The End Thank you! Please hand in your evaluation
form!