Teaching & Assessing Vocabulary Session 2: The Role of Frequency in Word Selection and Learning

Teaching & Assessing Vocabulary

Session 2: The Role of Frequency in Word Selection and Learning

Presenter: Sam Barclay

   

Teaching & Assessing Vocabulary

Session 2: The Role of Frequency in Word Selection and Learning

Review

Vocabulary is a crucial goal for language learners, alongside grammar, pronunciation, cultural knowledge, strategies, fluency, and discourse knowledge. Despite being overlooked in traditional approaches, vocabulary is now recognized as vital for language performance, necessitating a systematic teaching and learning approach.

Vocabulary Counting Methods

- Word Types: Counts each inflection as a new word.

- Lemmas: Includes the base word and its inflections.

- Word Families: Includes the base word, inflections, and derivations.

- Flemmas: Includes the base word, inflections, and derivations with the same form but different parts of speech.

 Bauer & Nation’s (1993) Levels of Word Knowledge

1. 1. Each form as a different word: Learners do not recognize inflections (e.g., book vs. books).
2. 2. Inflectional Suffixes: Words with the same base and inflections are one item.
3. 3. Frequent and Regular Derivational Affixes: Only orthographic alternations (e.g., -able, -er).
4. 4. Frequent, Orthographically Regular Affixes: (e.g., -al, -ation).
5. 5. Regular but Infrequent Affixes: (e.g., ante-, -ward).
6. 6. Frequent but Irregular Affixes: (e.g., -ee, -ion).

 Activity: Reflective Task

Reflect on your learning and teaching experiences. How would you advise a student who asks, “How should I study vocabulary?” or “Which words should I learn?” Write your answers and bring them to the next session.

 Pre-session Reading

In preparation for the next session on defining vocabulary, read:

- Webb & Nation (2017) - Chapter 1

- Coxhead (2000) - Journal article

Discussion Questions:

• 1. What principles would you choose to select words to teach your students?
• 2. What role should word frequency play in our teaching?
• 3. How can we manipulate texts to promote the learning of high-frequency/academic vocabulary?
• 4. Is frequency the only metric for usefulness? Can you think of others?

 Understanding Word Knowledge

- Vocabulary Size/Breadth: Number of words known.

- Vocabulary Depth/Quality: How well those words are known.

Word Knowledge Approach (Jack Richards, 1976; Paul Nation, 1990, 2001, 2013):

- Form

- Meaning(s)

- Frequency

- Collocations

- Register

- Syntactic behavior

- Associations

- Derivations

 The Developmental Approach

Henriksen (1999) suggests vocabulary learning is incremental:

1. Partial to Precise Knowledge: Gradual improvement in word knowledge.

2. Receptive to Productive Knowledge: Learners typically know more words receptively than productively.

 Frequency in Word Selection

- Zipf’s Law: Frequency is inversely proportional to rank.

- Nation & Waring (1997): 

  - Top 10 word families = 20% of language use.

  - Top 50 word families = 35% of language use.

  - Top 100 word families = 41% of language use.

  - Top 2,000 word families = 80% of language use.

 History and Word Lists

- Basic English (Ogden & Richards, 1925): 850 words.

- General Service List (West, 1953): Most common 2,000 words.

 Types of Vocabulary

- High-Frequency Vocabulary: 

  - Paul Nation: 1K + 2K words.

  - Schmitt & Schmitt (2014): 1K - 3K words.

  - Dang & Webb (2017): 1K words as an initial goal.

- Mid-Frequency Vocabulary: Domain-specific after high-frequency words.

- Low-Frequency Vocabulary: Limited classroom attention recommended.

 Academic and Technical Vocabulary

- Academic Vocabulary: Frequency and distribution important (e.g., AWL by Coxhead, 2000).

- Technical Vocabulary: Important for specific contexts (e.g., plumbing, science).

 Lexical Coverage

- Reading: 

  - 95% coverage = 4,000 – 5,000 word families.

  - 98% coverage = 8,000 – 9,000 word families.

- Listening: 

  - 90% coverage = >2,000 word families.

  - 95% coverage = 2,000 - 3,000 word families.

 Tasks

1. Complete the pre-session reading.

2. Complete Exercise 3 on page 136 of Schmitt & Schmitt (2020).

 Areas for Research

- Derivational knowledge of learners.

- Strategies for understanding low-frequency items.

- Developing subject-specific word lists.

- Evaluating vocabulary coverage in textbooks.

 Useful Tools

- Complete Lexical Tutor: [Lexical Tutor](https://www.lextutor.ca/vp/)

- AWL Highlighter: [EAP Foundation](https://www.eapfoundation.com/vocab/academic/highlighter/)

- PHaVe List Flashcards: [Quizlet](https://quizlet.com/br/389971142/the-phave-list-flash-cards/)

 Further Reading and Resources

- Listen to Averil Coxhead on wordlists: [Teaching English](https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/what-do-esp-teachers-need-know-about-word-lists-language-learning-teaching)

- Watch Charlie Brown on the NGSL: [New General Service List](http://www.newgeneralservicelist.org/tedtalk)

- Read about the Academic Vocabulary List: [Academic Vocabulary](https://www.academicvocabulary.info/x.asp)

- PHaVe List by Garnier and Schmitt: [PHaVe List](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1362168814559798)