| Modern America, 1914-present |
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All American >Modern American
Terms
Bibliography
Small Talk in Adult Conversations by D. L. Beakleman,:
Implications for AAC Vocabulary selection. Augmentative and Alternative
Communication, pages 260-264
Teaching and Learning Vocabulary by L. Taylor, has
Five Chapters, cover:1)What does it mean to "know a word"? Is L2
vocabulary like L1 vocabulary? 2)Communicative Teaching of Vocabulary--frequency,
collocation, morphology. 3)Repetition and Interaction--the effectiveness
of initial teaching. 4)Consolidation--What further practice for students?
and 5)Vocabulary in discourse. 93 pages
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Vocabulary by Mae Riggins English Education Student, University of North Carolina - Pembroke What is Vocabulary? According to the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, vocabulary is the total of all the words in a language used by a particular person, or a particular group of people. A person’s vocabulary includes all of the words he or she knows. These words are arranged in the dictionary in alphabetical order, explained and defined (1322-1323). The vocabulary, or lexicon, of language encompasses words of that language which is at the disposal of a speaker or writer.Charlton Laird, remarks in his book, Vocabulary: "Within the lexicon, there is a core of vocabulary words used to name common and fundamental concepts and situations of a culture, as well as words that result from one’s personal, social, and occupational experiences" (211). Why should we have a strong vocabulary? Having good communication skills whether verbal or written, is important to our everyday lives. In order to survive, we speak and write to help people understand us. Having a good vocabulary helps us to communicate our ideas effectively and efficiently. A strong vocabulary is the foundation of our ability to think as well as our ability to convey ideas to people. When we develop our vocabulary, we think better and speak more clearly. How does a person develop vocabulary? There are many ways to help a person develop vocabulary. I believe that reading is one way to develop a person's vocabulary. Reading does expose a person to words but reading, in itself, is not enough to develop vocabulary. I use many strategies and techniques to help children and adults develop vocabulary. For example, in my classroom, I use word scramble with spelling words, repeat and drill, flashcards, a banking system to find words for which I give extra points, spelling bee, definition bee, crossword puzzles, and after a story is completed, I ask students to look for nouns, adjectives, adverbs, etc. As a teacher, I believe that vocabulary is developed in the context of a person's experiences through oral and written language. Our experiences include listening, speaking, other media/technology, reading, and writing. Adult Vocabulary There are more than 500,000 - 700,000 words in the English language. No one person knows all the words in the English language. The average adult can use up to 50,000 - 100,000 words to communicate. An adult determines which words to use actively or passively according to his or her own interest and priorities. In the book, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, David Crystal explains: "the adult’s lexicon depends on his or her hobbies and educational background. A person who reads several novels a week is obviously going to pick up a rather larger vocabulary than someone whose daily reading is restricted to the telephone directory" (123) . David Crystal goes on to say in his book, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, "A person who has a degree in the area of chemistry or botany will have a large increase in vocabulary given that so much of the lexicon is made up of many scientific terms they have to know. For adults who have just left school; their vocabulary is estimated to be 10,000 to 12,000 words and for an adult who graduated from college; their vocabulary is estimated to be about 20,000 to 30,000 words" (123). Active and Passive Vocabulary In the book, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, David Crystal points out that a lexeme is the smallest contrastive unit in a semantic system (run, cat, switch on); also called a lexical item. A person's vocabulary must always have two totals. The first total must reflect active vocabulary (words that people use to speak or write). The second total must reflect passive vocabulary (words that people know but do not use them). It is not easy to determine these totals. It is very difficult to know whether a person actually uses or knows a lexeme (123). Children’s Vocabulary According to Jeremy Anglin, in the book, The Growth of Word Meaning: "By the time children are eighteen months, their vocabulary tend to be 100-200 words. Around 500 words at two years old. Children at the age of five have a productive vocabulary of at least 2,000 words. By the age of seven, children tend to have an impressive vocabulary usually exceeding 14,000, learning about 10 words per day since age one, and one word every 90 minutes" (121). These figures include an understanding of the English grammar, the ability to hear and pronounce sounds, and everything that children are involved in throughout the day in language. When a word enters a child’s vocabulary, there is a need for that particular word. New experiences for a child creates a need for new vocabulary. When children for example have an opportunity to try to paint, they will talk about a paintbrush, its shape, the form, the color, etc. These new experiences can extend and deepen meanings for words that are already in a child’s vocabulary. Children’s attitude toward language undergoes a fundamental shift. School age children observe language more directly. They are more aware of their development of language. In the book, Vocabulary, Semantics, and Language, E.M. Hatch said: "Children’s vocabulary become better organized and hierarchically arranged because they tend to use words more precisely and to think about them differently than they did at younger ages" (319). As teachers and parents, we usually don’t notice the rapid changes children go through during their school year. Between the start of elementary school and young adulthood, vocabulary will double, eventually reaching 30,000 words. Vocabulary is a great accomplishment for children. They accumulate lots of words within a short time and eventually put these words into sentences. As time passes and children develop more, their language becomes more structured and they acquire a better understanding of vocabulary. Educational Linguistics Linguists, those who study the human language; sociolinguists, those who study the language in our society; and psycholinguists, those who study the way the brain processes language. Overall, these linguists try to understand how and why human beings communicate through language. There have been many studies undertaken by educational linguists to determine the nature and the extent of children's vocabulary development. The various studies demonstrate and show enormous linguist accomplishments that children attain from early childhood through adolescence and adulthood. As a teacher, it is my responsibility to enhance vocabulary development by serving as a model and stimulate good language throughout the school day. It is my responsibility to create a climate that promotes free, informal discussions; use stories; conversations and other planned activities; and provide special help for those children coming to school with vocabulary problems. Even though a child has mastered some parts of their language, there is still a continuing process that they must go through in order to maintain their development and their vocabulary abilities. Vocabulary is used effectively in my classroom to create opportunities for experiences, facilitate interactions with children, stimulate and broaden personal interests and give children the support they need in order to be successful with language. It is very important that I encourage children to participate in the classroom setting. In my classroom we have sharing time; we talk about the news, we have show and tell, we talk about hobbies, we talk about topics that interest them, we talk about books, we have class projects, we go on trips, we invite resource people to come to the classroom, and I read aloud to my students daily. It is very important to me to allow my students to have the opportunity to interact with other students in the classroom and exchange ideas. Sometimes, it gets noisy but I feel that they need that opportunity and I always return to the basics of the day. Conclusion Using vocabulary is both a social and a developmental process.
In order for assimilation to take place in vocabulary, children must interact
with other competent language users as well as explore the various aspects
of the linguistic system.
Works Cited
Anglin, Jeremy M. The Growth of Word Meaning. Cambridge,
Crytal, David. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English
Hatch, E. M. and C. Brown. Vocabulary, Semantics, and Language
Laird, Charlton. The Word: A Look at the Vocabulary
of English.
McCarthy, M. Vocabulary. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990. Mish, Frederick C. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.
Opened-Ended Activity Sheet Using Raw Data
Directions: Draw conclusions about the various types of vocabulary you recognized. Types of Vocabulary Words YES NO 1. Number Words
Can you determine the grade level of the student?________ Your conclusions about this student's vocabulary.
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