tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post5943584388142440278..comments2024-03-15T08:29:53.273+00:00Comments on Leoxicon: Horizontal alternatives to vertical listsLeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-15244804248986819012019-01-25T19:22:28.571+00:002019-01-25T19:22:28.571+00:00I really thank you for the valuable info on this g...I really thank you for the valuable info on this great subject and look forward to more great posts. Thanks a lot for enjoying this beauty article with me. I am appreciating it very much! Looking forward to another great article. Good luck to the author! All the best! <a href="http://seo-tools-comparison.com/" rel="nofollow">seomoz vs ahrefs vs semrush</a><br />ankita davehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14256479356464637764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-68588053158106285642014-08-28T12:51:36.665+01:002014-08-28T12:51:36.665+01:00Learning new words have always been burdensome for...Learning new words have always been burdensome for many students, as it is an abstract skill. Therefore, just learning new words without keeping it in the memory will put all your efforts in vain. So visit https://vocabmonk.com for learning new words with thematic learning with personalized sessions. Stay connected.<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16519685134687675296noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-80972491050232221622014-04-27T08:19:10.796+01:002014-04-27T08:19:10.796+01:00I have been reading "Vocabulary Myths" b...I have been reading "Vocabulary Myths" by Keith Folse and this is the first topic he brings up. He suggests learning vocabulary topically rather than semantically. For example, a theme could be shipping and words can include verbs like cost, comes to; phrases like how much? or do you have any?; and other words like nouns such as discount, delivery, etc. (These were all of the top of my head.) This way, the language is very different but they are also linked. <br /><br />I also agree that vocabulary alone is useless. When a words usage is obvious, I usually add very lityle, but when I know of useful collocation or colligation I'll include this info. I typically use learnersdictionary.com, wordandphrase.info, and StringNet in class. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13483177011096902924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-28650034123834591312014-03-09T16:10:02.986+00:002014-03-09T16:10:02.986+00:00Thank you, Leo. I teach english for Specific Purp...Thank you, Leo. I teach english for Specific Purporses. In my case I teach culinary English. So the day I teach kitchen equipment I actually go into the learning kitchen of the school and we learn the names of the items and how we use them in the actual context of their work. it certianly helps them to remember the names of the appliances and utensils, especially if we also make something together and use the English names for the items.Shellynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-72244469409471124722014-03-05T01:37:12.553+00:002014-03-05T01:37:12.553+00:00Leo,
Thanks for taking the time to give me such a...Leo,<br /><br />Thanks for taking the time to give me such a complete answer. You were so right, I was kind of blinded by my context and forgot who this post was for. And in fact, I work in a kind of strange school in which many of the students have very minimal school/academic experience, so many times my autonomy training doesn't start showing results for a year or more (if ever). I often worry about how to teach vocab and have been trying to be more proactive about it. And your response is helping me to realize that carving out time and pre-selecting vocabulary is probably necessary and no amount of training is going to fill the students need to learn a relatively large amount of basic vocab in a short amount of time. So thanks for the push as well as ideas for how I can make the explicit instruction more effective.<br /><br />And thanks for ponting me to Prof Laufer's work. I think some of her articles are going to be very useful as I prepare for next semester.<br /><br />Happy to join the conversation and hope I wasn't too much of a distraction.<br /><br />Kevin Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06905808845415117734noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-5877205754593912212014-03-04T18:56:11.008+00:002014-03-04T18:56:11.008+00:00Thank you, David.
Besides the TPR video above, I f...Thank you, David.<br />Besides the TPR video above, I found Helbling Languages have loads of other videos on their youtube channel.<br />LLeohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-3692088034676335482014-03-04T18:54:29.557+00:002014-03-04T18:54:29.557+00:00Hi Marek
Thank you for your comment. I've rea...Hi Marek<br /><br />Thank you for your comment. I've read both of your posts and recommended one to the teachers on my course - the ones I was referring to above. I also discovered Memrise thanks to your blog post and thought it would be the next best thing after Quizlet (that is if Quizlet becomes paid) but I wasn't that impressed with it. In a way, you can see why from this post.<br /><br />Thank you for stopping by!Leohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-50545833207083600752014-03-04T18:53:43.259+00:002014-03-04T18:53:43.259+00:00Thank you, EdgarThank you, EdgarLeohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-9376187084248101872014-03-04T18:43:46.620+00:002014-03-04T18:43:46.620+00:00Hi Matt,
Sure. My practical ideas and what resear...Hi Matt,<br /><br />Sure. My practical ideas and what research suggests concern only the <strong>initial encounter</strong> with new items. There's nothing wrong with <strong>consolidating</strong> vocabulary through semantic sets and drawing students' attention to recurring patterns, like -er suffix that you pointed out.<br /><br />Thank you for reading the post and adding your ideas!Leohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-17655706671942471672014-03-04T18:38:02.290+00:002014-03-04T18:38:02.290+00:00Thank you, Naomi.
I am glad you found it useful
LThank you, Naomi.<br />I am glad you found it useful<br />LLeohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-91768217823393307872014-03-04T18:37:21.447+00:002014-03-04T18:37:21.447+00:00Hi Kevin,
Thank you for your comments - I'll ...Hi Kevin,<br /><br />Thank you for your comments - I'll start from the end. I am all for promoting learner autonomy which subsumes effective dictionary use, collocation awareness etc. but this post was written mainly with primary school teachers in mind - that's where most vocabulary tends to be organised in semantic sets- so not much autonomy there yet considering the age. <br /><br />Now, despite what Dogmeticians might claim about language emerging from communication, English vocabulary is enormous and learning it is a daunting task. You can't just wait for new words to naturally come up in class - they have to be proactively taught. To this end, GSL and NGSL are useful but mainly as a guidance for materials writers. From my experience of giving learners lists of words and asking them to learn them they almost always get usage wrong. And I've already expressed my reservations about it on this blog, for example, in this post: <a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/2012/01/teaching-vocabulary-out-of-context.html" rel="nofollow">Teaching vocabulary out of context</a> <br /><br />Lastly, I haven't read Baddeley's book but I believe Prof Batia Laufer was one of the first researchers who drew attention to the concept of <i>synforms</i> (her own term) and the difficulty they cause for ESL/EFL learners, e.g diary/dairy, quite/quit etc.<br /><br />Thank you for stopping by and joining in the discussion, Kevin!Leohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-21652581399937457062014-03-04T12:27:38.734+00:002014-03-04T12:27:38.734+00:00Great post, Leo.
I thoroughly enjoyed the useful v...Great post, Leo.<br />I thoroughly enjoyed the useful videos, as will the Primary School teachers that we work with.DavidBriggshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05579130065904642889noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-6493779481084393762014-03-03T20:03:39.593+00:002014-03-03T20:03:39.593+00:00Fascinating post! I never knew about all this rese...Fascinating post! I never knew about all this research into lexical sets. It seems counter-intuitive, but you don't argue with solid research results. I agree with Kevin, though, that it's mind-boggling that such research results are simply ignored by coursebook writers.<br />Thanks for a great post. I might need to rethink my approach to teaching lexis.<br />If anyone's interested or looking for ideas how to recycle vocabulary in class and clarify meaning of new lexis, here are two posts I've written on it. I'd be interested to hear what your thoughts are.<br />Clarifying meaning: http://teflreflections.blogspot.nl/2014/03/clarifying-meaning.html<br />Recycling vocabulary: http://teflreflections.blogspot.nl/2013/12/recycling-best-habit-on-earth_12.html<br />Marek Kiczkowiakhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08852185437294420885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-35045469727833754472014-03-03T15:44:36.640+00:002014-03-03T15:44:36.640+00:00This is a really useful post, Leo, and yet more pr...This is a really useful post, Leo, and yet more proof of how backward most published materials are in their ways! <br /><br />I would suggest, however, that there is an argument for drawing students' attention to recurring patterns in lexical sets, perhaps after they've initially encountered each item separately. An example would be the -er suffix that denotes many professions (carpenter, teacher, footballer, etc.). Perhaps then they might get the best of both worlds?<br /><br />MattMatthew Ellmanhttp://teachertolearner.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-64310745417366236612014-03-03T03:22:13.767+00:002014-03-03T03:22:13.767+00:00Hi Leo,
I'm always amazed at how the research...Hi Leo,<br /><br />I'm always amazed at how the research on this issue is just ignored when it comes to teaching students in class. In a similar vein, phonological similarities also produce interference when it comes to working memory. So a word list with similar sounding words is also going to create all kinds of inteference (Baddeley's "Working memory and language: an overview" is a great read for this kind of stuff). I guess, in the end, I'm left wondering if there any point in preparing word lists at all. Does vocabulary drive communication or does it emerge organically from communication? If it is emergent, isn't it just better to help students become aware of it as it arrises and create their own vocabulary lists? And wouldn't teaching students how to use the General Service List or New General Service List as a guidpost to keep them focused on the most frequent words be enough?<br /><br />I don't have any answers. I always struggle with teaching vocabulary. But at this moment, most of what I do is helping students develop the skills to learn vocabulary on their own in the way that best suits them. Lots of word card stuf. Teaching how to use a learner dictionary and be aware of collocations. Key word techniques. Unfortunately (or fortunately), next year I will have to start working with a coursebook again. And it does have lexical sets. So at least I have a handful of ideas for how to help the students learn the words which have been pre-selected for them.<br /><br />KevinAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06905808845415117734noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-1290431225328043462014-03-02T22:37:30.925+00:002014-03-02T22:37:30.925+00:00Gotcha. I was thinking that completely different i...Gotcha. I was thinking that completely different items would be the way to go, but I see your point regarding a coursebook syllabus.Tyson Seburnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04113881763418411873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-80945799004615438322014-03-02T21:50:02.111+00:002014-03-02T21:50:02.111+00:00very good ideas and materialsvery good ideas and materialsEdgar Picón E.https://www.blogger.com/profile/13009265906597347814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-76616611232474223082014-03-02T20:40:46.594+00:002014-03-02T20:40:46.594+00:00This is really useful, Leo. Complete with ideas an...This is really useful, Leo. Complete with ideas and references. I appreciate it!<br />Naominaomi epstein - editorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11313570483533421633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-91544069584716186842014-03-02T20:36:46.400+00:002014-03-02T20:36:46.400+00:00I have very little experience teaching very young ...I have very little experience teaching very young learners but when once I used Brown Bear and it was the highlight of the lesson! :)Leohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-48521567174608053742014-03-02T20:12:20.397+00:002014-03-02T20:12:20.397+00:00Thank you for your comment and compliment!
I think...Thank you for your comment and compliment!<br />I think students won't make much progress if they learn one new collocation per lesson :) so 3 two-word collocations was sort of a compromise instead of 6 single words belonging to the same semantic set. But I see your point - pls see my reply to Tyson's comment below.<br /><br />Also agree with you on using stories.<br /><br />Thank you for stopping by, Vicki.Leohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-66925376942623565202014-03-02T20:04:50.668+00:002014-03-02T20:04:50.668+00:00Hi Tyson, thank you for your comment and sorry if ...Hi Tyson, thank you for your comment and sorry if my suggestions were not very clear. Something to work on if I ever decide to turn this post into an article!<br /><br />I see what you mean by my alternatives being to close to the original problem. Especially when it comes to clothes. As I said in the post, it was probably the most difficult category. <br /><br />I think providing co-text / pattern is a step in the right direction. True, it still leaves us with the problem of differentiating between the items. So tackling them 2-3 at a time instead of the whole set of 6-8 is a way to go, I thin.<br /><br />Of course, ideally, it'd be best to teach completely unrelated items in one lesson: <br /><i>He is wearing a blue shirt<br />red flower<br />come to school by bus<br />I like eggs for breakfast</i><br /><br />but most of the teachers I was working on (and many other school teachers around the world for that matter!) are constrained by the syllabus and textbooks which present new vocabulary in semantic sets. So my ideas were aimed at helping them adapt the textbooks they are using.<br /><br />Leo<br />Leohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-57577238373096574942014-03-02T15:29:28.577+00:002014-03-02T15:29:28.577+00:00Brown Bear has always been a massive hit with the ...Brown Bear has always been a massive hit with the kids I teach. They seem to drink it in and have it engrained in their memory after seeing/hearing it just a few times. They love to read/repeat aloud while I turn the pages. susieqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15112955976030585446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-17062702968111253252014-03-02T15:24:47.910+00:002014-03-02T15:24:47.910+00:00Interesting. I get the point of it and the downsid...Interesting. I get the point of it and the downside of teaching semantic sets. However, in the examples you give, I wonder if your alternatives in some cases remain too closely to the issue. Using a semantic context (e.g. clothes) does little to differentiate this from the original problem. Replacing 'a hat' with 'a shirt' yet all the other words in the sentence remaining the same is no different than just giving students a semantic set of clothes or pointing to them with different photos in a coursebook. There are no differentiating characteristics to the words, unless maybe you add 'on her head' or 'on her feet', which aren't authentic things to say.<br /><br />Maybe I'm not seeing the real difference.Tyson Seburnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04113881763418411873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-543191705063304132014-03-01T16:53:26.702+00:002014-03-01T16:53:26.702+00:00Great post! Not sure why we'd want to teach th...Great post! Not sure why we'd want to teach three collocations at once rather than one at a time - any thoughts on that? <br />Really glad to see this issue addressed - and in such a practical way too. Another thought - I think stories provide great potential for 'horizontal' learning too. Vickihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05874066922451262091noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-11661903943935271202014-03-01T14:27:34.010+00:002014-03-01T14:27:34.010+00:00Thank you for your comment.
I also wouldn't te...Thank you for your comment.<br />I also wouldn't teach it like this but many do. When I was learning Spanish we were given once a list of 50 food names!<br /><br />Fractions through pizza? Sounds fun. Would you call it CLIL then?<br /><br />Good to have you here, Mike!Leohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.com