This document summarizes a presentation on powering up vocabulary teaching. It discusses key concepts like the difference between receptive and productive knowledge of words and how many exposures are needed to learn a word. It provides teaching strategies like using visuals, games, flashcards and activities that involve meaningful use of words. Assessment ideas are given for different levels, from beginner to advanced. Productive activities like dialogs, writing and presentations are suggested. The goal is to help learners develop strategic skills and use vocabulary in real communication.

1. Power Up
YourVocabularyTeaching
Kristi Reyes
San Diego Regional CATESOL Conference
March 7, 2015

2. Handout, PowerPoint slides, Resources
•mccesltech.wikispaces.com/CATESOL+2015

3. 1. What does it mean to “know” a word?
•Receptive knowledge – word understood when
heard/read
•Productive knowledge – ability to use word in
speaking/writing

4. Productive Knowledge =
form, meaning, use
• Pronunciation
• Spelling
• Word parts (prefixes, suffixes) and forms (singular, plural, inflections) and family
• Associations and synonyms
• Denotative v. connotative (polysemy – different meanings in different contexts)
• Grammatical function / part of speech
• Collocations
• Register
• Frequency
Source: Nation, I.S.P. (2014). Learning vocabulary in another language (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

5. 2. What percentage of words in a text do readers
need to know in order to read a text with
support?
In general – for extensive reading
• 95% with support
• 98% without support
• Slightly lower (90-95%) for intensive reading
• Less than 90% - text is too difficult for student at his/her current
ability level

6. 3. How many exposures to a word are necessary
for a language learner to acquire and retain it?
• One exposure = typical student’s retention rate 5 – 14%
• 5 – 20 or more exposures / repetitions (depending on several
factors, including age of student)
• Repeated exposures – greater chances for word to move from
receptive to productive knowledge

7. 4. Word toTeach Explicitly
•High-frequency words based on corpora
•Lower levels:
• Basic themes (housing, clothing, transportation, food, etc.)
• New General Service List
•Higher levels:
• Oxford English Corpus
• Academic Word List

8. 5. Words to leave to “incidental” learning or
gloss
•Leave to incidental learning: lower frequency
words
•How likely is the student to encounter this word
again?
•Gloss: at higher levels, words that can be defined
with an image or quick/short definition or
explanation

9. Lesson Planning
•Goal: strike a balance to promote receptive and
productive knowledge
•Meaning-focused input: reading/listening
•Language-focused learning:
pronunciation/spelling/word parts/word forms/part of
speech
•Meaning-focused output: speaking/writing
•Fluency building
Nation, I.S.P., & Tamamoto, A. (2012). Applying the four strands. International Journal of Innovation in English Language Teaching and Research, 1(2).

10. Teaching and Learning the Words
• Lower levels: visuals,TRP, realia, choral repetition, manipulatives,
personalized picture dictionaries, labeling, word/sentence writing,
manipulatives, categorizing, personalized picture dictionaries/flashcards
• Higher levels: vocabulary notebooks or index cards (word, part of speech,
derivatives and inflections, dictionary entry, a sample sentence, synonym(s)
and antonym, and an original sentence) sentence writing
• All: matching, flashcards, games, categorizing, word web/concept map,
diagrams/chart, dialogs, vocabulary self-rating

11. Teaching and Learning Examples:
Vocabulary Preview/Self-Rating
See also “Vocabulary Self-Rating Chart” at
http://www.secondstorywindow.net/home/2014/01/vocabulary-tools.html

12. Teaching and Learning Examples:
Vocabulary Notebook or Index Cards
Image mnemonics

13. Teaching and Learning: Flashcards
• Print Flashcards: Beginning Level Flashcards or
make or have students make their own onWord or
PPT
• Digital Flashcards: Quizlet (Kitchen, Academic
Word List Sublist 1), Memrise (Academic English
course, EnglishVisual Dictionary course)

14. Teaching and Learning:
Word Clouds
•Tagxedo,Word it Out,Wordle,
Wordsalad app, ImageChef app)
• “Personality Characteristics” (any
word association or word lists) on
Tagxedo
• “Guess theVocabularyWord” onWord
it Out
• Other words for “good”Wordle

15. Teaching and Learning:
InteractiveVisuals
• Interactive Concept Map
Sites (Instragrok, Snappy
Words,TheVisual Dictionary)
• Interactive Images:
Thinglink (vegetables,
house)
• Vocabulary / WordWall –
Padlet (seeYouTube video),
Lino (example), others
Source: http://bcudl.pbworks.com/f/WordWallNedralFlickrCC.jpg

16. Teaching and Learning Examples:
Graphic Organizers, Webs, Mind Maps
Source: http://www.secondstorywindow.net/home/2014/02/knowing-a-word-assessing-vocabulary.html
• SmartArt graphic organizers in Microsoft Office products (Word, PowerPoint, and
Excel 2010), Education Place’s Graphic Organizers, Education Oasis,
Text2Mindmap, Bubbl.us with app, Mindmeister, Popplet app

17. Teaching and Learning:
Cloze Exercises
•ClozeTest Generator
ClozeTest Creator,
Learnclick Cloze Quiz
Creator – with app)
Cloze on PDF with Learnclick free account

18. Teaching and Learning: Games
•Jeopardy (BasicVocab Jeopardy Game – ESOL Help -
also on ESL Games Plus, Food Partitives and other
beginning vocabulary games on ESL Games Plus)
•Flyswatter game (Beg)
•Password (word association game)

19. Teaching and Learning: Dictations
•Running Dictation – Groups – Sentences or
paragraphs, based on students’ level
•Split Dictation –Text dividedA /B
•Dictogloss / Dictocomp – Listen, remember, write

20. Some key points from research
• Help students develop strategic communicative competence
• paraphrasing & expressions such as What is the word for…?
• Present vocabulary in context
• Practice activities: controlled practice (listen and repeat, matching, cloze) to
activities that allow students to use the target words in meaningful, personalized
ways
• Make time for review in a systematic way with repetition (remember 5 – 20 or more
exposures) and recycling
• Forgetting occurs soon after learning – review soon after teaching
• Competitive fun review (games) – motivational, forces faster retrieval
• Writing vocabulary in own sentences strengthens memory of target vocabulary
through generative processing

21. Using the Words
•Lower levels: dictations, running dictation, simple
sentence or story writing (from pictures)
•Higher levels: paragraphs, conversation/discussion,
summary or story writing , structured retell, oral
presentations, student-created cloze exercises
•All: interviews, surveys/questionnaires, info gaps,
writing/performing dialogs

22. Using the Words: Dialogs
•Comic strips (Bit Strips, ComicLife, MakeBeliefsComix,
Toondoo, StoryboardThat)
• SampleVESL Business Idioms Project
•Digital movies (Dvolver, GoAnimate!, ZimmerTwins)
• Sample Student Idiom Project
•Student-produced video

23. Idiom Dictionary
VESL @ MiraCosta College
Spring 2014

24. Business & Work Idioms
Victoria Mendoza
Edith Floyd
VESL@MiraCostaCollage
Spring 2014

25. • Lemon: A defective
product or anything
that doesn’t work.

26. • Think outside the
box: to think in
different ways.

27. • The big wig: An
important, powerful
or famous person.

28. Using the Words:
VoiceThread
•Listening, writing, speaking
• BasicVocabulary Example
• Assessment

29. Using the Words:
Writing Using
Vocabulary Lists
•Structured Retell (like dictocomp - paraphrase / write a
story they listen to, using provided list of words)
•Individual / pair / small group summary and story writing
from a provided list of words
• Writing sites and discussion boards (PicLits, Padlet or Lino,
Storybird, Storymash, an individual or class blog, a class wiki)

30. Using the Words:
Conversation / Writing prompts
and ProductiveVocabulary Party
• Teacher or student-composed questions using target vocabulary
words
• Students must reply to questions using full sentences and target
vocab
1. What is a good method for losing weight?
2.What is your preferred method for studying vocabulary?
3. What is the best method for learning another language?
4.What is your method for staying so young looking?

31. Assessment: Beginning Level
• Possibilities:
1. Matching
2. Labeling
3. Writing from picture prompts
(Action, English, Pictures! ,
Sequences: Picture Stories for ESL,
Picture Stories: Language and
Literacy Activities for Beginners)
4. Simple sentence cloze tests
Source: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/language/english/label/family/
Source:
http://www.englishforeveryone.org/Topics/Matching.htm
Source:
http://web.whittiercity.k12.ca.us/~eld/ELD/Resource_Page_files/fbp1895451612.pdf

32. Assessment: Intermediate/Advanced Levels
Objective:Test memory of definition or require critical thinking/creative
application?
• Possibilities:
1. Cloze tests – sentence or paragraph level
2. Contextualized sentence containing vocabulary word; students write the next
sentence
• The research on the effects of the antioxidants in chocolate on returning skin to its youthful
state has been conducted for more than a decade.
3. Sentence containing vocabulary word used correctly or incorrectly; students
explain if the use is correct or incorrect
• A combination of good sleep will help the body and mind restore itself and make you feel
refreshed.

33. PromoteVocabulary Study Beyond Class
Good language learners = study target vocabulary; take
initiative to learn, practice, and use new words
• Word-of-the-Day
(or week)
presentations
(PowerPoint, Prezi,
Animoto,
Powtoon, poster,
other visual aide)
Source: NewWays inTeaching Vocabulary,
2014 edition,TESOL Press, pp. 5 – 9 (with
rubric).

34. PromoteVocabulary Study Beyond Class
• Word-of-the-DayWeb sites (Learners Dictionary)
• Apps (Illustrate – vocabulary learning through animated videos, others – see
Web site)
• Email Subscriptions (A.Word.A.Day atWordSmith.org, Merriam-Webster's
Word of the Day, Word Central Daily Buzzword, L10)
• Provide list of Web sites/apps for supplementary vocabulary practice
(Learning Chocolate, General AcademicVocabulary, andVocabulary
Exercises for the AcademicWord List)

35. What is something new or different you are
going to try in your vocabulary lessons?
Handout, PowerPoint slides, and many resources online at
mccesltech.wikispaces.com/CATESOL+2015
•HappyVocabulary
Teaching!