Working with
vocabulary
Vocabulary is
crucial for getting meaning from a written or oral text. Without knowledge of
key vocabulary in a text, a learner may have serious trouble understanding the
message.
Teaching the
meaning of individual words, however, will not ensure that learners can read a text
with understanding. 'Words enter into meaningful relations with other words
around them…' (Sinclair 1996:76).
To understand a
text, learners need to know words, and 'knowing a word involves knowing: its
spoken and written contexts of use, its patterns with words of related
meaning…' (Carter, 2001:43).
When teaching vocabulary it is then necessary to
consider aspects like denotation, polysemy, connotation and sociocultural
aspects when teaching a second or foreign language so that learners are able to
get meaning from texts.
Denotation and
polysemy
Connotation
Sociocultural
context
References &
further reading
Denotation and
polysemy
'The meaning of
a word is primarily what it refers to in the real world, its denotation.'(Ur
1997:61) For example, the denotation of the word cat is an animal with soft
fur, and whiskers. Nevertheless, words can have many different meanings; in
fact, one word in English often has more than one denotation. This phenomenon
is called polysemy. The word issue, for instance, refers to a subject that
people discuss or argue about, but it also refers to a magazine that is
published at a particular time. To solve this problem of polysemy, students
need to see and practise words in context, since it is the context that allows
them to understand the meaning of a word.
Felicity O'Dell (1997) suggests the
following activities to deal with polysemy:
finding one word
to fit all the gaps in a set of sentences which illustrate a range of meanings
of a polysemous word
finding a word
that fits two synonyms or definitions
explaining puns
in newspaper headlines
explaining jokes
matching two
halves of jokes
choosing which
meaning fits a particular context
ordering
meanings in a dictionary extract in terms of usefulness/interest.
Connotation
Connotation, on
the other hand, refers to 'the associations, or positive or negative feelings
it evokes, which may or may not be indicated in a dictionary definition.' (Ur:
1997:61). This means that words can suggest different things depending on the
context they occur in. A learner who fails to understand the connotation of a
word will probably fail to get the message of the text.
To handle
connotation O'Dell (1997) suggests the following exercises:
asking students
to give their own connotations for particular words
classifying
words with a positive, neutral or pejorative association
finding words in
a text that show attitude
explaining straight
meanings, unusual headlines, metaphors, puns
discussing words
in a text with regard to their connotations
adding words to
a text
changing the
attitude conveyed in a text.
Sociocultural context
Another
important aspect to consider is sociocultural context which refers to the fact
that the language used by a sociocultural group is closely connected with its
values, attitudes and beliefs. Consequently, learning a language involves
understanding and interpreting the culture of which it is part. It is
important, therefore, for students to develop the ability to interpret texts
from perspectives other than their own.
Some of the
activities suggested by O'Dell (1997) to deal with sociocultural context are
the following:
asking students
to compare words and expressions used in various English-speaking contexts with
those used in their own L1 context
students comment
on the sociocultural associations of lexis in a given text
students write
glosses for text
students
research a given set of items with sociocultural associations
quizzes focusing
on sociocultural lexical items
true or false
questions
explaining
newspaper headlines, adverts, graffiti.
References/Further
Reading
The Cambridge
Guide to Teaching English to Speakers of Other languages. Carter, R., Nunan, D.
(2001). Cambridge University Press.
The Practice of
English Language Teaching. Harmer, J. (2001). Essex: Longman.
Aspects of Word
Knowledge and Vocabulary exercises. O'Dell, F. (1997) Extract from MA
dissertation, Institute of Education. University of London.
Units of
Meaning. Sinclair, J. (1996). Textus 9, 75-106
A Course in
Language Teaching. Ur, P. (1997) Cambridge University Press.
Carmen Gloria
Garrido Barra, EFL Teacher, Concepción, Chile
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