Vocabulary Learning Tips
Learning new vocabulary through context clues is a strategy that is often recommended. But this is difficult for English as a second language learners because they often do not know enough vocabulary in English, so they miss the clues. While fluent English speakers understand a written English vocabulary of 10,000–100,000 words, most foreign students know only 2,000–7,000 English words prior to beginning to study at a university. For a reader to guess the meaning of new words using the context, he must know more than 98% of the words in the selected passage.
There are two levels of knowing a word: word recognition from the context is first level. To really know a word means knowing its “pronunciation, spelling, morphological and syntactic properties, and multiple meanings; the contexts in which the word can be used; the frequency with which it is used; and its collocates, or how it combines with other words.” according to Miriam Burt, Joy Kreeft Peyton, and Carol Van Duzer, Center for Adult English Language Acquisition.
They have the following suggestions for teaching English language learners:
1. Read passages that are only slightly above what you can read independently.
2. Learn high-frequency words first.
3. Provide learners with multiple exposures to specific words in multiple contexts. [This is what Denilso does with presenting multiple meanings of words to our blog readers].
4. Study lists of words and flashcards frequently.
5. Avoid learning synonyms, antonyms, or words in the same semantic set together.
6. Use both monolingual and bilingual dictionaries.
7. Test yourself by matching words to definitions or multiplechoice exercises periodically to see your progress in receptive vocabulary [word recognition].
8. Write sentences with the specific words and grammatical forms you have learned.
Autora: I'm Mary. I tutor ESL at the IHM Lteracy Center in Philadelphia. I lived a year in Brazil where I became certified to teach English as a Foreign language. Outros textos da autora.
Mairo Vergara disse:
Eu gostei destas 8 dicas, vou comentá-las.
1. Read passages that are only slightly above what you can read independently.
Com certeza é a melhor coisa que você pode fazer, porém as vezes é difícil organizar este material de forma que você sempre tenha algo para ler um pouco acima do seu nível e ainda tenha interesse no assunto. Minha sugestão para esse problema seria esse site aqui: http://www.lingq.com/
2. Learn high-frequency words first.
Certo, aprender palavras pouco usadas não tem muito vantagem, principalmente para iniciantes.
3. Provide learners with multiple exposures to specific words in multiple contexts. [This is what Denilso does with presenting multiple meanings of words to our blog readers].
Eu acredito que é vendo a mesma palavra em diferentes contextos, várias e várias vezes, que aprendemos seu significado de verdade.
4. Study lists of words and flashcards frequently.
Só vale lembrar que devem ser palavras provenientes do que você lê, escuta, etc. Palavras fora de contexto são difíceis de lembrar. Eu particularmente uso flashcards para frases inteiras ou expressões, não palavras soltas.
5. Avoid learning synonyms, antonyms, or words in the same semantic set together.
Certo, nem tenho o que dizer, absolutamente certo.
6. Use both monolingual and bilingual dictionaries.
Aqui uma dúvida minha. Até hoje não cheguei a conclusão de qual é melhor, mono o bi. Ambos tem suas vantagens.
7. Test yourself by matching words to definitions or multiplechoice exercises periodically to see your progress in receptive vocabulary [word recognition].
Não gosto de exercícios, acho que o tempo fazendo exercícios pode ser melhor aproveitado lendo e escutando a língua.
8. Write sentences with the specific words and grammatical forms you have learned.
E peça para alguém corrigir depois!
Bom, acho que é isso. Descobri o Blog faz pouco, está de parabéns, visual e conteúdo nota 10.
Falow.