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While language teachers are generally very aware of the importance of vocabulary development for learners, there is not much consensus about the way vocabulary should be learned and taught, or indeed which vocabulary items to focus on. We have been struck by the research of Professor Averil Coxhead at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, ever since she presented the Academic Word List as her MA work in 1998 (see Coxhead 2000 below).

She has more recently continued to examine the use of word lists and vocabulary testing in language teaching and learning. We are delighted to present here a video of our conversation with Averil. We have divided it into two as it is almost an hour in total because there was very little we wanted to omit in editing!

Part 1 of our conversation with Averil, on vocabulary testing and teaching, and the importance of word frequency for prioritising what vocabulary to teach and learn.

Part 2 includes a beautiful idea for working with a class to select the vocabulary that is worth learning.

Here is a transcript of the entire interview with Averil.

Reading

Dang, T. N. Y., Webb, S., & Coxhead, A. (2020) Evaluating lists of high-frequency words: Teachers’ and learners’ perspectives. Language Teaching Research.https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1362168820911189

Skjelde, K. & Coxhead, A. (2020). Mind the gap: Academic vocabulary knowledge as a predictor of English grades. Acta Didactica Norden 14(3): 1—20. https://doi.org/10.5617/adno.7975

And further reading

Coxhead, A. (2000). A new academic word list. TESOL Quarterly, 34(2), 213-238.

Coxhead, A., Parkinson, J. & Tu’amoheloa, F (2020). Using Talanoa to develop bilingual word lists of technical vocabulary in the trades, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 23(5), 513-533, DOI: 10.1080/13670050.2017.1374329

Norberg, C., & Nordlund, M. (2018). A corpus-based study of lexis in L2 English textbooks. Journal of Language Teaching & Research, 9(3).

Averil mentions these websites:

1. Just the Word
2. Compleat Lexical Tutor
3. Academic vocabulary lists
4. AntConc
5. EAP foundation website

Other resources

Advanced learners’ dictionaries help you in many ways. Look at the Oxford learners’ dictionary pages and the 3000 and 5000 word lists as well as advice on how to work with them.

Other dictionary publishers offer resources too, such as this vocabulary checker from Longman.

The Swedish Kelly list is also useful with resources for Greek, Arabic, Chinese, English, Italian, Russian Norwegian as well as Swedish.

We have now come to the end of the first year of CIRCLE. We have very much enjoyed the conversations with researchers and the live conversations with those who have been able to join us to discuss the material. Now we are considering how to proceed in 2022. Please take a look at this survey and let us know what you would like to see in the CIRCLE in 2022.

https://survey.su.se/Survey/44338

Look at this Padlet which was started during our live conversation. Comment in the field at the end of this page if you would like to discuss or add anything.

My colleague, Mara Haslam, who joined me in the live conversation about Teaching Fluency on 7 June, has prepared some material on Teaching Listening Fluency Through Structured Input. She says she was inspired by my difficulty distinguishing between ele [he] and ela [she] in Portuguese (see my conversation with Tore in the Teaching Fluency page). You can download Mara’s material here, and be inspired or use it as is!

During the live conversation, someone wondered how you can establish the vocabulary size of your learners in order to work with fluency at an appropriate vocabulary size level (Nation tells us that in fluency work, 98% of the words learners encounter should be familiar). Fortunately, Nation has left us many resources to establish our learners’ vocabulary size, at least if the target language is English. Take a look at this website about vocabulary tests.

I am currently developing a course on vocabulary and fluency development for teachers of English. Hopefully, it will run as a summer course in 2022. Let me know if you are interested in this! Always happy to discuss!

Reading

and while we are at it, a last treat from my friend and colleague in Lodz, Ewa Waniek-Klimczak:

• Waniek-Klimczak, E. (2015). Correctness in pronunciation instruction: Teachers’ and learners’ views. Konińskie Studia Językowe, 3(1), 75-88.

Reading questions

Lots of reading this time, but choose what ever you find interesting and relevant to dig into. Here are some questions to help focus your reading. Feel free to comment below, join our live conversation (sign up below), and/or set up one of your own.

1. Pronunciation teaching has been called the Cinderella of language teaching. Do you agree that pronunciation teaching is not given enough attention? Why do/don’t you think pronunciation should have more focus in language teaching?
2. Going back to Nation’s Four Strands model of language teaching (re-view Tore’s presentation in the module on Grammar teaching if you need to refresh your memory on that), where would the teaching of pronunciation fit in. Is it only in the language-focussed strand, or is there a way to make pronunciation teaching more meaning-focussed.
3. What about the input and output side of it? Pronunciation has both a role for the speaker and for the listener. Can learners hear sound distinctions they cannot pronounce, and vice-versa?
4. Where do you yourself stand on the teaching of pronunciation? What is the role of “say after me” vs explicit teaching using phonetic symbols and terminology? How can we help learners notice sounds and sound combinations that they are mispronouncing?

Interview

In this module the interview is with two pronunciation teaching researchers who have not (yet) published together, Anna Jarosz and my colleague at the Department of Language Education at Stockholm University, Mara Haslam.

Live conversation

There was a live conversation about Teaching pronunciation on 26 August 2021.

Readings

In Sweden, the topic of the language learning that happens outside the classroom was brought to the attention of many teachers through Pia Sundqvist’s Ph.D. thesis:

Sundqvist, P. (2009). Extramural English matters: Out-of-school English and its impact on Swedish ninth graders’ oral proficiency and vocabulary (Doctoral dissertation, Karlstad University).

Well worth reading, or at least delving into parts of! Pia has continued her work in this area, and another open-access text:

Sundqvist, P. (2019). Commercial-off-the-shelf games in the digital wild and L2 learner vocabulary. Language Learning & Technology, 23(1), 87–113. https://doi.org/10125/44674

Hayo Reinders and Phil Benson, both based in Australia, are also key players in the field of Language learning beyond the classroom. This article from 2017 set out a research agenda:

Reinders, H., & Benson, P. (2017). Research agenda: Language learning beyond the classroom. Language Teaching, 50(4), 561-578.

Reading questions – feel free to comment on these questions, the readings, the interview or anything else relevant to the topic in the comments section at the end of this page

1. What is your own experience of language learning beyond the classroom, as a learner or as a teacher?
2. Do you recognise the aspects that Pia mentions in her article about learners’ vocabulary and their gaming habits?
3. Reinders and Benson point out that “classroom learners can also engage in language beyond the classroom”. Can teachers encourage this, or must the entire activity be learner initiated?

Interview

We are delighted to have had the opportunity to interview Pia Sundqvist herself about her work in the area of extramural English.

Pia refers to the work of James Paul Gee, e.g. Gee, J. P. (2007). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. Revised and updated edition. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. That is a book, and not available through open access, but Gee wrote this open access article which may be of interest:

Gee, J. P. (2013). Learning systems, not games. Texas Education Review, 1.

There was a live conversation about Language learning beyond the classroom on 30 September 2021.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.