Tag Archives: vocabulary

The application of word meaning expansion for teaching vocabulary


Written by - Masoumeh Gooya, Canada

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The following essay is a condensed summary of a completed thesis for achieving a degree of Master’s of Art in Teaching English as a Foreign Language.

If we imagine language as a living entity framed and supported by structure/grammar and fleshed with words, this organism requires both to function. It is impossible to learn a language without vocabulary. There exists at least 500,000 words in English, while the average native speaker only knows about 30,000 words receptively and 3000 words productively (Allen, 1983). Teaching every last word to English language learners is out of the question. Still, a more sustainable and feasible approach to helping students develop their vocabulary repertoire is by teaching them techniques of self-learning.  Continue Reading →

Categories:
ESL, Vocabulary
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COVID-19 infecting global vocabulary: Implications for EFL/ESL teaching and learning


Written by - Musa Nushi & Mohammad Hadi Fadaei, Shahid Beheshti University

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Abstract
Language is dynamic and keeps changing due to the influence of a number of factors, including global pandemics. COVID-19, commonly known as Coronavirus, has affected not only people’s health around the world but also their vocabulary. Focusing on the English language, one can see that many Corona-related medical words have entered the daily vocabulary of its speakers, and interestingly, many languages have been using those words to broadcast the news about the disease. The outbreak has also spawned new words, corona coinages, and new uses of old words in the language. This article intends to raise EFL/ESL teachers’ awareness of the word-formation processes evident in the new COVID-19 vocabulary and to teach learners how words are created.  Continue Reading →

Categories:
COVID-19, Vocabulary
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The incredible vocabulary machine


Written by - By Stephen Roney, Canada

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*For all footnotes, refer to the PDF version of the article.

Abstract
Vocabulary is the heavy lifting in learning a language. With grammar, little meaning can be conveyed. With vocabulary, anything can, in a pinch, be conveyed. Yet vocabulary has traditionally been neglected: In part for theoretical reasons; in greater part because the obvious process to learn it, item-based memorization, has seemed so tiresome and time-consuming. The process can be automated with free tools available on the web. It can be handled outside of class time, efficiently and with a minimum of dull repetition. Learning vocabulary can be easy and fun.

Introduction
Vocabulary is the heavy lifting in language learning. It is most of what must be learned,  Continue Reading →

Categories:
ESL, Technology, Vocabulary
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Lexical list for EAP/ESP programs: Multiword sequences in computer science textbooks


Written by - Genan Hamad, Carleton University, Canada

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Abstract
Lexical Bundles (LBs) —defined by Wood (2015) as “combinations of three or more words which are identified in a corpus of natural language” (p. 45) —play a key role in the comprehension and construction of academic language (Biber & Barbieri, 2007). Despite their importance, LBs are weakly presented in second language (L2) materials (Wood & Appel, 2014). Studies show that L2 learners may misuse LBs in their production (Pérez-Llantada, 2014). With the aim of informing L2 pedagogy in the university context, this corpus study uses WordSmith Tools 6.0 (Scott, 2007) to identify 59 items that represent the most frequently occurring LBs in eight Computer Science introductory textbooks. Utilizing the functional taxonomy, suggested in Biber et al. (2004),  Continue Reading →

Categories:
corpus, Other, pedagogy, Uncategorised
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