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Direct Vocabulary Learning Introduction The previou s chapte r looke d a t ways that we can make our learner s awar e of how t o increas e thei r vocabular y throug h independen t learnin g wit h vocabulary collections, word associations and memory strategies. We have seen the importance of selecting and collecting words and creating lexical networks. We have also noted tha t words should not be considered a s isolated units bu t are bette r remembere d i n chunk s o r fixe d lexica l unit s suc h a s room for improvement, like a dream come true and make off with. This chapter will look at how we can incorporate discovery , consolidatio n and socia l strategie s int o ou r in-clas s activitie s t o encourag e furthe r development of vocabulary learning. Here we will look at ways to create a rich environment fo r vocabular y learning , enablin g learner s t o use an d practis e newly learned words . First we will look at direct vocabulary learning an d th e effectiveness o f word lists . We will then loo k a t dictionar y us e an d way s o f recycling word s whil e creatin g a supportiv e learnin g environmen t wher e learners feel a t ease to ask their peer s and teacher s about words they do no t understand. I n the next chapter we will deal with indirect vocabulary learnin g and guessin g meanings from context . Learning Words in Isolation o r in Contex t Researchers hav e argue d fo r a long tim e abou t ho w students ca n bes t lear n new words — in isolation o r in context . Direc t vocabulary learning involve s learners in exercises and activitie s directly focused o n vocabulary acquisition , for example , word building, vocabulary games and learnin g words from lists . Indirect vocabulary learnin g focuse s th e learners ' attentio n o n th e message 5 2฀HARS H฀WORDS :฀ENGLIS H฀WORD S฀FO R฀CHINES E฀LEARNER S฀ conveyed throug h readin g o r listenin g activitie s rathe r tha n th e word s themselves. While words are generally learned from contex t through readin g and listening , wor d list s an d game s ca n b e a n effectiv e wa y o f increasin g vocabulary for a specific purpose , such as preparation fo r academi c study, o r learning technical words. The two methods should be seen as complementary. Words i n Isolatio n Direct vocabular y learnin g ca n hel p t o spee d u p th e proces s o f languag e learning s o that a considerable numbe r o f words can be learned quickl y an d efficiently (Natio n 1982 , 1990; Nation and Newton, 1997). 'Discovering' words is made easier if the word lists and exercises have been selected by the teache r as being relevant and useful. I n fact, man y Chinese learners rely on word lists provided by their teacher s and memorise the m for clas s dictations. While thi s might not always be th e mos t effective wa y of testing their learning, carefull y selected wor d list s ca n b e quickl y revise d an d re-use d i n pee r evaluatio n activities, bingo, story-telling and ga p fill quizzes . Word List s For many years studies have focused o n the learning of a core vocabulary an d word list s have bee n develope d t o sho w the basi c and mos t frequently use d words. One o f the earlies t lists was West's (1935 ) definitio n vocabular y use d to compile a dictionary in which all the definitions were given in simple term s using the smallest basic vocabulary. Thorndike an d Lorge' s (1944 ) list , based on a running tex t of one million words includes the frequency o f occurrenc e of the 30,00 0 words covered an d som e information abou t thei r range, or th e kinds of texts in which a word occurs. Although thi s list was compiled ove r 60 years ago an d som e o f...

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