Have you been teaching vocabulary all wrong?

Have you been teaching vocabulary all wrong?

Before we get started, let´s take a quick quiz. You are working with an A1 student, what is the first word you would teach them in the following categories. Write your answers on a slip of paper:

First:
1. Fruit:
2. Vegetable:
3. Room in a house:
4. Woodland creature:
5. Sea creature:

Okay now that you have your answers. Let me make some predictions; you probably didn´t say the following:

First:
1. Fruit: mango
2. Vegetable: eggplant / aubergine
3. Room in a house: basement
4. Woodland creature: woodpecker
5. Sea creature: swordfish

The Theory

Was I right? I could safely make those guesses based on a linguistic theory called prototype theory. Prototype theory is the idea that some words belonging to a lexical category (i.e. lexical set) are more representative of that category (aka prototypes) than others (peripheral members).

I remember when I was introduced to this theory at university, my professor used the bird category to exemplify the concept. He showed us a circle similar to the one below with different types of birds, located at different points inside the circle. At the center of the circle is a sparrow, which can be considered the quintessential bird: it is a small, flying animal that lays eggs, hasfeathers, and lives in a nest in the trees.

As we work our way out from the center (to the periphery), the bird species conform less and less to that of our typical concept of birds: owls are big and carnivorous, woodpeckers live inside trees and ostriches and penguins can’t fly.

So why is this theory relevant to your teaching?: Well because this theory should beused to determine which words we present to our students and that, however unfortunate, is often not the case.

The Problem

I was inspired to write this blog post after observing an unsuccessful lesson with lower level B2 students by a colleague. In one of his activities, he decided to teach different types of pants: shorts, sweatpants, leggings, overalls, etc.

Things were going mostly well until he neared the end of his list, where his choices started to become more unusual with the culmination coming to “jodhpurs”.Huh? I, a native speaker, had never heard of this type of pants before in my life.

Through his explanation, though, I quickly found out that it was the type of pants worn by equestrians. As he was explaining this, I could quickly see the students’ faces as they searched for the equivalent in their native Spanish until one student spoke up to say “I don’t even know this word in Spanish”.

Such a comment should be a red flag. If a word is so obscure that our students don’t even need it in their native language, should we really be wasting our valuable class time and the students’ even more valuable cognitive energy to teach them a word they will most likely never come across- much less use?

This is why prototype theory is useful. It can help us teachers determine what lexis we should bring into the classroom.

The Practice: Choosing the Right Vocabulary

Let’s say that we can successfully introduce 11 – 15 new lexis per class (a debatable number arrived at through blog reading and conversations with fellow experienced teachers). Considering this, we must carefully choose which words we will introduce so
that we do not overload our students with words that won’t be useful for them. You can do this by sitting down and reflecting on the words you want to use in the class:

1. Choose your topic for the vocabulary (e.g. sea creatures)

2. Take five minutes to brainstorm all the sea animals you can think of (e.g. fish, hammerhead shark, shark, octopus, sea anemones, jelly fish, dolphin- yours will be a much longer list)

3. Organize your list. Put the words in order from most to least frequent (e.g. fish, dolphin shark, octopus, jelly fish, hammerhead shark, sea anemones); For lower levels, you will want to choose the first 11 – 15 words that are most frequent; these we will consider the center of your circle (i.e. prototypes). As your levels get higher, you can slowly progress out into the periphery words, which are naturally less frequent.

However, this progression should only proceed with the assumption (1) that the learners have implemented the more central words into their mental lexicon and (2) that the words you are going to teach will be useful to the student at some point in their daily life. For example, though a sea anemone is a sea creature, unless our students are marine biologist, this word is unlikely to occur in day-to-day life and is therefore rather useless.

Remember this: just because it is a word, doesn’t mean we have to teach it! We should be saving cognitive energy for the things that can provide multifold benefit for students.

Some Considerations

This being said, it is important to realize the process I just led you through is naturally subjective. You are creating list based on the lexis that you frequently and infrequently use. This will be inevitably influenced by your environment and your hobbies and interests. So is also the case for our students.

If we recall what Prototype Theory proposes, prototypes are those members of a category that are at the center of a concept. Concepts are naturally culturally and individually constructed. This means, depending on where / who you are teaching, you will need to change the lexis you are teaching.

For example, if you are teaching Spanish students, it will be extremely important to teach the word “potato omelet”, since for
Spanish people “tortillas españolas” form a vital part of their diet and are closer to the center of their “food” concept circle. Whereas, maybe with German students you wouldn’t teach “potato omelet” but rather “potato salad”, as it is more prototypical in Germany.

The same can be said for individuals, who have a variety of different interests and needs. Whereas when teaching an equestrian “jodhpurs” may be essential, as it is central to an equestrian’s concept of clothes, it is less appropriate for students in General
English or Business English classes, where other types of clothing will be more central (e.g. overalls, blazer, etc).

Lastly, there will be times in class when unplanned vocabulary teaching moments occur- whether spurred on from the learner’s or teacher’s side. If a learner asks about a peripheral word, feel free to answer their question; they are showing they are receptive and primed for the information.

If the teaching moment is rather your idea, ask yourself: Is this a vocabulary word that will bring a return on investment? Will my students be able to use this word outside of this current situation in many situations? Or am I just teaching it because it popped into my head or I think it is a cool word / expression?

Conclusion: What you should leave here with:

• Not all vocabulary should be treated equally. Just because a word exist, doesn’t mean we should teach it. You may like a word but teaching it could eat up valuable time and cognitive resources.
• With beginners, we should be teaching in the center of their concept circles and as they have established that vocabulary in their mental lexicon, we can move our way outwards.
• We must consider our student’s mental concepts (i.e. culturally and individually programmed needs) when deciding what to teach
• Be careful about the words we spontaneously decide to teach in class. Make sure you implement the same kind of discernment when choosing to focus on lexis you did not plan for.

By Kristen Schuenemeyer