Teaching vocabulary – the basis for forming four main skills

Introduction

 

The basic reason for learning foreign languages that all people have in common is communication - communication in any mode. It is a two-sided process, which requires the ability to understand each other, to be able to code a message that someone wants to convey to someone else in a way, which will be comprehensible to the receiver and also appropriate to a concrete situation and status of all participants. Vice versa the person should be able to interpret a message that someone else is conveying to them. To acquire a good skill of communication in foreign language it is necessary to be familiar not only with vocabulary (single words and their meanings, collocations, phrases and phrasal verbs etc.) but also with language structures and above all with strategies for using them in right context according to concrete situations.

Learners can generally communicate well, having learnt all the basic structures of the language. However, they need to broaden their vocabulary to express themselves more clearly and appropriately in a wide range of situations.

Students might even have a receptive knowledge of a wider range of vocabulary, which means they can recognise the item and recognise its meaning. Nevertheless, their productive use of a wide range of vocabulary is normally limited, and this is one of the areas that need greater attention. At this stage we are concerned not only with students understanding the meaning of words, but also being able to use them appropriately, taking into account factors such as oral / written use of the language; degree of formality, style and others.

The relevancies of the topic are:

· Forming the requirements to the teaching foreign language vocabulary in modern secondary schools;

· Finding out the basic principles of teaching vocabulary in FLTL;

· Introducing the methodological aspects of teaching vocabulary;

· Looking for interesting and effective ways of teaching and learning foreign language vocabulary in accordance to time.

The problem:

§ We got used think that vocabulary is not the important part of teaching vocabulary, it is obviously proved that vocabulary ensures a successful start for personal knowledge..

The topic:

The topic of our research paper is “Methods and principles of teaching in teaching and learning Foreign Language”. This research paper is directed to the role of vocabulary for the progress in teaching and learning foreign languages.

Object of the research: The process of teaching foreign languages.  

    Subject of the research: Principles and methods in teaching and learning foreign language vocabulary in order to outline suitable ways of effective and comfortable dealing with students' vocabulary teaching possibilities on the way of forming all four skill areas: reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

    Hypothesis: If we perfectly use principles and methods in teaching and learning foreign language vocabulary which are the requirements we will do the process of FLTL effective, colorful and productive.

    Goal: to find out the appropriate principles and methods for teaching vocabulary. 

    Objectives: 

§ to illustrate the theoretical support of the importance of teaching vocabulary;

§ to use techniques of teaching vocabulary on the lessons;

§ to find out the effective principles and methods of teaching vocabulary;

§ to enlarge own knowledge of teaching.

Research methods: observation of the process of teaching and learning foreign languages at school, generalization, method of comparison, studying and analyzing scientific literature, method of processing and interpretation data, descriptive method.

Scientific basis:

Allen, V. (1983) Techniques in teaching vocabulary. OUP.

Gairns, R. Redman, S.(1986)  Working with words. CUP.

3. Hill, J. (1999) ‘Collocational competence’ English Teaching Professional, 11, pp. 3-6.

4. Lewis, M. (1993) The lexical approach. LTP.

5. Lewis, M. (1997) Implementing the lexical approach. LTP

6. Brown, H. D. (1987) Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.

7. Brumfit, C. and Johnson, K. (1979) (ed.) The Communicative Approach to Language Teaching. New York: Oxford University Press.

Spheres of application: the course of methodology in pedagogical institute, teaching process at secondary schools.

Structure of the research: R esearch work consists of 3 main parts: theoretical, practical and approbation; conclusion and recourses and references, appendix.

The first theoretical part divides into 2 sub points and gives general information about teaching vocabulary.

The second part reveals the principles and methods of teaching vocabulary during the process of teaching and learning foreign languages in different directions.

The 3 part is approbation, it deals with the exploring knowledge (information) according to the topic in the practice.

    Research approbation: Traditionally, the teaching of vocabulary above elementary levels was mostly incidental, limited to presenting new items as they appeared in reading or sometimes listening texts. This indirect teaching of vocabulary assumes that vocabulary expansion will happen through the practice of other language skills, which has been proved not enough to ensure vocabulary expansion.

Nowadays it is widely accepted that vocabulary teaching should be part of the syllabus, and taught in a well-planned and regular basis. Some authors argue that vocabulary should be at the centre of language teaching, because ‘language consists of grammaticalised lexis, not lexicalised grammar’.

The chosen theme “The methods and principles of teaching vocabulary in Foreign Language Teaching and Learning” let us look for the principles and methods of teaching vocabulary to use them on our lessons while the practice through the different techniques. 

 

The importance of teaching vocabulary

Teaching vocabulary – the basis for forming four main skills

 

To know a language means to master its structure and words. Thus, vocabulary one of the aspects of the language to be taught in school. The problem is what words and idioms pupils should retain. It is evident that the number of words should be limited because pupils have only 2-4 periods a week; the size of the group is not small enough to provide each pupil with practice in speaking; schools are not yet fully equipped with special laboratories for individual language learning. The number of words pupils should acquire in school depends wholly on the syllabus requirements. The later are determined by the condition and method used. For example, experiments have proved that the use of programmed instruction for vocabulary learning allows us to increase the number of the words to be learned since pupils are able to assimilate them while working independently with the programme.