Vocabulary Acquisition by Randall Sadler https://padlet.com/randallsadler/vocabulary Post a note on the board with: =Your Name =At least one key "takeaway" you got from the chapter =One suggestion for learning vocabulary en-us 2016-04-14 16:09:35 UTC 2023-04-02 04:52:33 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/Templeball.png It's cyclical, ya know? mlnierenhausen https://padlet.com/randallsadler/vocabulary/wish/509315946 Starting on page 85 (of the PDF version) Hedgcock and Ferris discuss the role of lexical knowledge in relation to the development of L2 reading skills and strategies. One thing that I thought was interesting was the paradox for beginner readers. Having the knowledge of vocabulary to have a higher reading efficiency but not having enough vocabulary knowledge to get started. I think this paradox reiterates the importance of establishing an environment that fosters a love for reading in the beginning that will lead to "higher reading efficiency" (p 86).  While taking a Spanish class, one way we learned vocabulary was playing flyswatter. This was a super fun way to engage with new vocabulary and add a competitive edge. ]]> 2020-04-15 19:43:38 UTC https://padlet.com/randallsadler/vocabulary/wish/509315946 What is word knowledge? rbora2 https://padlet.com/randallsadler/vocabulary/wish/509561111 Something that stuck out to me from this chapter was the quest of what it really means to know a word. For example, teachers need to understand what when students are able to recognize a spoken word, this does not mean that they have full knowledge of the word. Understanding what the word is referring to, being able to identify synonyms and antonyms, and knowing how to spell the word are also important. Things like this are needed to have full word knowledge, but the teacher may still have a lesson that focuses on one element of word recognition in hopes of expanded to the others later on in the unit. This can be done by first learning new vocabulary orally on its own and then building to recognizing it written down in a paragraph. ]]> 2020-04-15 23:06:42 UTC https://padlet.com/randallsadler/vocabulary/wish/509561111 Pre-teaching vocabulary furkann91 https://padlet.com/randallsadler/vocabulary/wish/509780257 One thing that stood out to me was the discussion on whether pre-teaching vocabulary was effective or not. I was a little disappointed that there was no clear answer (surprise surprise!), but I was also glad that I am not alone in my hesitation. In my experience, I tried to approach pre-teaching vocabulary strategically, meaning that I pre-taught vocabulary when I thought a reading text would be too difficult for students, and I didn't want unknown vocabulary to make it even more challenging. Some texts, however, provided enough context and clues for students to guess figure out or at least make a good guess of the meaning of the target vocabulary. My takeaway from the chapter is that it is always a good idea to make use of both implicit and explicit vocabulary teaching techniques, and create opportunities for students to be exposed to a vocabulary item as many times as possible to make sure it sticks with them. ]]> 2020-04-16 03:05:22 UTC https://padlet.com/randallsadler/vocabulary/wish/509780257 World knowledge in L2 reading (among other stuff) karla_sanabria1 https://padlet.com/randallsadler/vocabulary/wish/509824171 Hello everyone! In terms of our group project (Chapters 3-5 of the Hobbit) we're focusing on providing an overview of "The Hero's Journey", developing skills for character analysis, and understanding the structure and literary significance of riddles. 

With a novel with so many complex ("old") linguistic features, the learning of vocabulary should be incidental while pre-teaching a set of significant words that are very important in the chapters. The teaching of this vocabulary will be vital to fully understand the style and comprehend the overall text. 

On a second note, since most of our work is going to discuss the racial and moral relationships among the character groups of these chapters (i.e. goblins, trolls, hobbits, dwarfs, etc. ), the word meaning map on p. 131 (Figure 4.2) can be very helpful for students to derive content knowledge from the characters based on the readings. Also, Figure 4.4 on p. 154 can be adapted as a self-assessment checklist to help students develop guessing strategies while reading. ]]> 2020-04-16 03:52:08 UTC https://padlet.com/randallsadler/vocabulary/wish/509824171 Direct vocabulary teaching tkashina293 https://padlet.com/randallsadler/vocabulary/wish/509832062 Lexical knowledge and reading comprehension display reciprocal interdependence. Ferris and Hedgcock (2018) maintain that reading facilitates L2 vocabulary development; at the same time, reading comprehension largely depends on vocabulary knowledge. Therefore, to promote reading efficiency in the classroom, L2 instruction should integrate indirect and direct vocabulary learning activities. Research shows that direct vocabulary activities enhance vocabulary learning and retention of words (Nation & Webb, 2011; Read, 2004b; Folse, 2004, 2011, as cited in Ferris & Hedgcock, 2018, p. 139). One of the activities that can promote vocabulary building is pre-teaching essential target items. Nation (2013), for example, suggests pre-teaching high-frequency words useful for comprehending future texts and provide “both contextual and definitional information” (as cited in Ferris & Hedgcock, 2018, p. 139). When I underwent CELTA training, our instructors often pre-taught unfamiliar vocabulary before reading the text. They used visual cues such as pictures and described a situation in which a target word could be used or gave a definition of a target word. After the word was elicited, the instructor asked concept-checking questions in L2 to ensure students grasped the meaning of the word. Then the instructor would model and drill the pronunciation of the word, and the whole class would repeat the word in chorus and individually. When all words were presented to students, the instructor would use the visual aids or an explanation to elicit the newly-pre-taught words and script them on the board, adding extra information on word class and word stress.]]> 2020-04-16 04:00:08 UTC https://padlet.com/randallsadler/vocabulary/wish/509832062 Challenges of teaching vocabulary successfully. lv51 https://padlet.com/randallsadler/vocabulary/wish/510197241 Teachers in L2 may be unsure about how to incorporate the right vocabulary into their teaching, especially in the reading courses. To understand vocabulary, the teacher needs to understand that learning a word involves many layers of meaning. The syntactic rules, grammatical properties, the socially-constructed pattern governing how, where, and when to use a word appropriate. Also, the teacher needs to have some kind of knowledge about using the token that its use to count lexical units or the lemma that can help understand the lexical analysis. Teaching vocabulary in L1 and L2 reading instruction is not just valuable but crucial.

]]> 2020-04-16 08:54:04 UTC https://padlet.com/randallsadler/vocabulary/wish/510197241 Remember Word Frequency, Glosses, and a Question anitagreenfield https://padlet.com/randallsadler/vocabulary/wish/510819702 I think one of my key takeaways from this chapter is the idea of selectively choosing which vocabulary to teach. The authors highly recommend focusing on word frequency as a measure for which words should be taught. I think this is something I need to consider more often in my classes. I often tend to choose words/phrases that students couldn't find easily on their own in a dictionary, such as idioms or phrasal verbs. However, frequency should be more of a consideration.
I think that that idea of using glosses for low frequency words was interesting/helpful, which leads to my question:

What is the effect of reading familiar material on vocabulary learning?

I ask this because it is my own strategy. I am currently reading Harry Potter in Korean and my vocabulary coverage is woefully low (probably more like 60-70% coverage- it's really bad). However, since I know the story I can still read the book with what I feel is decentish comprehension. I even feel like I learn some new words due to my knowledge of what they should be be according to the story.

Has anyone done a study on a topic of this nature?
(If not, I think it should be done!... Maybe I will do this in the future... )

]]> 2020-04-16 14:28:02 UTC https://padlet.com/randallsadler/vocabulary/wish/510819702 Graded Readers & Vocabulary alice_m_houston https://padlet.com/randallsadler/vocabulary/wish/510874815 One of the key takeaways for me from this chapter was the reading comprehension and vocabulary comprehension are interconnected yet not the same process (Hedgcock & Ferris, 2018, p. 86).  It is important that reading instruction contains both vocabulary instruction and reading practice that helps students develop a variety of reading strategies (one of which can be how to use context clues to figure out unknown vocabulary!).  
 
With that in mind, I think it’s important that teachers choose good texts that contain useful, level-appropriate vocabulary and are structured in a way that is challenging yet accessible to students.  I appreciated Hedgcock and Ferris’s discussion on graded readers (p. 97) and the pros and cons of using this type of text.  Some may argue that graded readers are inauthentic, but I had a lot of success using them in a British Literature class I taught English majors in China a couple of years ago.  My students would have been unable to understand Shakespeare’s original Romeo and Juliet, but they were enthusiastic about reading the graded reader version and learned a lot of useful vocabulary in context, such as “interfere,” “suicide,” “feud,” etc.  The graded reader was intentionally created to allow students multiple exposures to key vocabulary, and because students were interested in the story, they took in this vocabulary in a meaningful way.  So I am a big fan of graded readers!  
 
]]> 2020-04-16 14:48:31 UTC https://padlet.com/randallsadler/vocabulary/wish/510874815 The importance of choosing vocabulary level appropriate literature semorro2 https://padlet.com/randallsadler/vocabulary/wish/510947788 As I was reading the chapter I was thinking of some of my own experience teaching elementary L2 reading. I often found that outside of my first and second graders it became increasingly more difficult to level up the children to read more difficult literature in the EFL context. I was most surprised to see the break down of the word families (Ravenhorst-Kalovski, 2010).  I was surprised to see that newspaper articles require less word families than children's literature.  I was previously aware of the 95% understanding is required for minimal comprehension and 98% for adequate comprehension, but to see the breakdown of how many different language families for each medium was quite interesting. The main take away I have is the importance for teachers to really focus on reading vocabulary especially in EFL situations in which the students are already challenged with maintaining their English vocabulary use on a daily basis. Some of the methods I think teachers can benefit most from in EFL is introducing the words before the reading and implementing some easification strategies. Such as pre-teaching essential items, glossing and introducing new items, give as concise meanings as possible ie. draw from synonyms students may already know. And finally provide pictures or diagrams. I felt the pictures and diagrams were especially help fun with children in an EFL classroom because it kept them more engaged rather than keeping a vocabulary notebook which I find to be more effective with older and more individually motivated students. ]]> 2020-04-16 15:16:06 UTC https://padlet.com/randallsadler/vocabulary/wish/510947788 Vocab KyleRupp https://padlet.com/randallsadler/vocabulary/wish/511007615 The thing that stood out for me in the chapter was the delineation between vocabulary and reading. I took a semester long class of what was basically reading strategies in Japanese, and still (or perhaps because of that) when I read my main concern is the vocabulary in the text. I suppose it makes sense though, even if you gave somebody a dictionary and a paragraph there's still a chance that they're going to come out with a not great understanding of what happened. 
For learning vocabulary I think the most important thing is just repetition, repetition, repetition. Perhaps the ideal way to encounter the repetition would be through several texts so you can see the word being used in different contexts, but that's not necessarily the most realistic depending on what kind of vocabulary we're talking about. And (for the JFL context specifically) with there being so many characters that have big differences and ones that have small differences (contrast 愁 and 今 vs 生 and 性) I feel that it helps my future recognition to physically write the characters down over and over. ]]> 2020-04-16 15:38:29 UTC https://padlet.com/randallsadler/vocabulary/wish/511007615 Francois Gouin rtdunn1 https://padlet.com/randallsadler/vocabulary/wish/511027464  "explicit focus on vocabulary "[being] thrown under the rug"  (pg.123)  I think the dismissal of focusing on vocabulary goes is rooted in the grammar translation approach. Gouin was a famous German linguist, who moved to France in an attempt to learn French. However he did not take an immersion approach to learning. He stayed inside his French apartment and memorized thousands of French vocab. After he memorized significant amounts of French vocab, he would leave his apartment with hope of speaking French. However, he was unable to communicate and became quite flustered. He eventually left France and self-reported as not being able to speak French. 

Additionally, I find the book's dismissal of of etymology as a disservice to language learning. etymology is an excellent tool for building cultural and cross language connections. ]]> 2020-04-16 15:46:23 UTC https://padlet.com/randallsadler/vocabulary/wish/511027464 Incidental Learning timothyhigunjang https://padlet.com/randallsadler/vocabulary/wish/511216761 "(1) Novel words are embedded in their natural contexts, which help readers draw inferences about rich, subtle
meanings; (2) Incidental vocabulary learning occurs simultaneously with reading, making the process efficient; (3) Because readers
consciously or unconsciously attend to words that are unfamiliar to them, incidental learning can be highly individualized" (Huckin &
Coady, 1999; Koda, 2013, 2016; Nation, 2013).

Incidental learning is a great way to introduce and reinforce vocabulary, especially during extensive reading! This personally resonated with me because a lot of the vocabulary that I learned in my life came from extensive reading of books. Whenever an unfamiliar word came around, the context informed the meaning for me. I had to infer a lot of the meanings, so it solidified these words much more because of the added effort I had to have. Because the word is the outlier for a reader, the reader has to attend to it with greater attention! This could be accompanied with a vocabulary reading log as well to strengthen the internalization of the word. ]]> 2020-04-16 17:04:17 UTC https://padlet.com/randallsadler/vocabulary/wish/511216761 Easification ejahn1346 https://padlet.com/randallsadler/vocabulary/wish/575748011 One key thing that language instructor should keep in mind is to design a vocabulary instruction which can teach learners to connect vocabulary words with their contexts. Looking back my school years learning English, class always started with reading the textbook aloud together and the teacher translated the text line by line emphasizing grammar of sentence structures. In the meantime going along with the text, the teacher select some words from the text and provided the exact definition each.  I think that the instructional method, which is closely related to Grammar Translation, works in some extent for language learning. However, it affects negatively vocabulary development when learners face the words in different context, since those words were not taught in different aspects of contexts by being ‘easified’ as much as needed (Bhatia, 1983). Thus, making a text easy to read by scaffolding the reading process through easification would work effectively for learners. Accordingly, that can help learners better understand proper usage of words and produce them appropriately. ]]> 2020-05-15 18:05:24 UTC https://padlet.com/randallsadler/vocabulary/wish/575748011 Reading and incidental learning rschroeder101 https://padlet.com/randallsadler/vocabulary/wish/1418463835 One of the parts of the chapter that I related to the most was the discussion on incidental learning, where students can learn vocabulary as a side effect of reading or comprehending the language in a specific context. I have personal experience with this form of language learning, as rote memorization has not worked for me since getting past a beginner level of Spanish, and I have started learning vocabulary through reading and playing games in the target language.

I think this is a good tactic for students as well. Reading passages even movies and shows give students samples of the language and the words being used in a real context, and thus may be much more memorable than a flashcard. Not only might it be better for memorization, but it would also be significantly less boring! ]]> 2021-04-14 20:43:24 UTC https://padlet.com/randallsadler/vocabulary/wish/1418463835