THE IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING VOCABULARY

INTRODUCTION

It is generally known that school leavers’ vocabulary is poor. They have troubles with hearing, speaking, reading and writing. One of the reasons is poor teaching of vocabulary.

At all stages of teaching vocabulary the teacher should constantly use all kinds of vocabulary testing to see how his pupils assimilate the form, the meaning, and the usage of the words. For testing the retention if the written form dictations may be suggested. For testing the meaning special tests may be recommended such as writing synonyms, antonyms, derivatives, identification, and some others. For testing the usage of the words the teacher may administer such tests as composing sentences using the words given, composing a story on a picture or a set of pictures, and some others. The teacher should bear in mind that most of the exercises offered for the stages of presentation and retention may be fruitfully utilized for vocabulary testing.

Learning may take place without conscious teaching, but teaching is intended to result in personal learning for students, and is worthless if it does not do so. In other words, the concept of teaching is understood as a process that is intrinsically and inseparably bound up with learning. There is no separate discussion of language learning; instead, both content and process of the various modules consistently require the teacher to study learners’ problems, needs and strategies as a necessary basis for the formulation of effective teaching practice and theory.

It is necessary to distinguish between “teaching” and “methodology”. Foreign language teaching methodology can be defined as ‘the activities, tasks and learning experiences used by the teacher within the language teaching and learning process’. Any particular methodology usually has a theoretical underpinning that should cause coherence and consistency in the choice of teaching procedures. ‘Foreign language teaching’, on the other hand, though it naturally includes methodology, has further important components such as lesson planning, classroom discipline, the provision of interest – topics.

THE AIMS OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING

The aims of foreign language teaching are threefold: practical, educational and cultural.

Its practical aims are consequent on the basic function of language, which is, to serve as a means of communication.

International intercourse is realized directly, through the spoken language, or indirectly, trough the written language, that is through printed, or hand-or type-written, texts. Therefore the school programmes set forth the following practical requirements: the instruction must be such as ensure that the graduates can observe on the foreign language on simple every day subjects, using the speech material dealt with in the course, cab read and understand without a dictionary an easy text in the foreign language, and with the occasional help of a dictionary a text presenting moderate difficulties, and can express in written form simple thoughts (write a short letter).

The educational aims of foreign language teaching in schools consist in inculculating in the children through instruction in the foreign language the principles of morality.

The cultural aims mentioned on school programme of foreign languages imply the following tasks: widening the pupils’ general outlook, developing their powers abstract thinking, cultivating their sense of beauty and their appreciation of art. The reading of English texts acquainting the pupils with the life and culture of the English-speaking nations, and with their manner and customs, will contribute to the mental growth of the pupils.

Later the ability of reading English and American authors in the original and texts in the English language reflecting the culture of the countries where that language is spoken will likewise serve the pupils as a mean of attaining a higher general education level.

Reading good authors in the foreign language will develop in the children a feeling of beauty.

A widening of their philological outlook will result from the unconscious and conscious comparison of the foreign with the native language.

THE IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING VOCABULARY

To know a language means to master its structure and words. Thus, vocabulary is one of the aspects of the language to be taught at school. The problem is what words and idioms pupils should retain. It is evident that the number of words should be limited because pupils have only 2-4 periods a week; the size of the group is not small enough to provide each pupil with practice in speaking; schools are not fully equipped with special laboratories for individual language learning. The number of words pupil should acquire in school depends wholly on the syllabus requirement. The latter are determined by the conditions and methods used. For example, experiments have proved that the use of programmed instructions for vocabulary learning allows us to increase the number of words to be learned since pupils are able to assimilate them while working independently with the program.

The vocabulary, therefore, must be carefully selected in accordance with the principle of selecting linguistic material, the conditions of teaching and learning a foreign language in school.

Scientific principles of selecting vocabulary have been worked out. The words selected should be:

1. frequently used in the language;

2. easily combined (nice room, nice girl, nice weather); 

3. unlimited from the point of view of style (oral, written);

4. included in the topics the syllabus sets;

5. valuable from the point of view of word-building (use, used, useful, useless, usefully, user, usage).

The first principle, word frequency, is an example of purely linguistic approach to word selection. It is claimed to be the soundest criterion because it is completely objective. It is derived by counting the number of occurrences of words appearing in representative printed material comprising novels, essays, plays, newspapers, textbooks and magazines.

Modern tendency is to apply this principles depending on the language activities to be developed. For developing reading skills pupils need “reading vocabulary”, thus various printed texts are analyzed from the point of view of word frequency. For developing speaking skills pupils need “speaking vocabulary”. In this case the material for analysis is the spoken language recorded. The occurrences of words are counted in it and the words more frequently used in speaking are selected.

The other principles are of didactic value, they serve teaching aims.

The words selected may be grouped under the following two classes (M. West):

1. Words that we talk with or form (structural) words which make up the form (structure) of the language.

2. Words that we talk about or content words.

In teaching vocabulary for practical needs both structural words and content words are of great importance. That is why they are included in the vocabulary minimum.

The number of words and phraseological units the syllabus sets for a pupil to assimilate is 800 words.

The selection of the vocabulary although important is not the teacher’s chief concern. It is only the “what” of teaching and is usually prescribed for him by textbooks and study - guides he uses. The teacher’s concern is “how” to get his pupils to assimilate the vocabulary prescribed. This is a difficult problem and it is still in the process of being solved.

The teacher should bear in mind that a word is considered to be learned when:

1. it is spontaneously recognized while auding and reading;

2. it is correctly used in speech, the right word in the right place.