Přednášky - topic 4, 5, 6

Long term memory

• Repetition, retrieval, spacing, pacing, use, cognitive depth, personal organising, imagining, mnemonics, motivation, attention, affective depth

What makes words difficult?

Pronunciation

Spelling

Length and complexity

Grammar

Meaning

Range, connotation, idiomaticity

Anticipating problems - example

Look at the words, what problems of meaning or form might they present to learners?

Stomachache get on with chuffed

Lawyer actually

Thorough crisps

Comfortable remind

Furniture invaluable

Mistakes

Form – related

• mis-selection, misformation, spelling, pronunciation errors ( e.g. My girlfriend was very hungry with me / angry; he persuaded me to have a noise operation)

Meaning- related

• using words that have similar meaning (looking at TV/watching TV)

Example

I hope after biggening English studing I shell not have a free time at all.

I’d like to spend a couple of week somewhere on a peopless island.

I’d like watching flowers and inhaling their lovely smell.

Stages of learning lexis

Meeting the new lexical items and understanding them and their use. - Teaching/pre-teaching

Practising using them

Memorising them

Recalling them and using them

Presenting lexis

• Offer cues, pictures or information about the target items

• Elicit the words from students

• Model them yourself

• Drill

• Concept check

• Write and highlight phonology

• Words connected with the same location or event (shop words, wedding words)

• Words that have the same grammar and similar use (adjectives to describe people, movement verbs) •

• Words that can be used to achieve success in a specific task (persuading a foreign friend to visit your town);

Practising words

• After students have seen and heard a new lexical item for the first time, they will need opportunities to become familiar with it; some simple practice activities:

  • Identification

  • Selecting

  • Matching –Sorting

  • Ranking and sequencing

Practising words – controlled practice

• Matching pictures and lexical items

• Matching parts of lexical items to other parts

• Matching collocations

• Using prefixes

• Using given lexical items to complete a specific task

• Filling in crosswords

• Filling in gaps in sentences

• Memory games

Practising lexis

Production tasks

• Completion of sentences

• Creation of sentences and texts

Production - free practice

• Focus on fluency

Memorising lexis

• Use alternative ways of recoding lexis

Recalling and using lexis

• Revisiting lexical item pages

• Redesigning your pages

• Using via various exercising?

gloves/disgusting /swimming /café /often/ chase/frightened/crossroads/window sill/ exploitation/Hope/put up with/ Stapler/put your foot down/contact lens/ reduction

Alternative techniques:

• Gloves – Mime putting them on.

• Disgusting – Mime (e.g. smelling old food) and make a facial expression.

• Swimming – Translate it.

• Café – Draw a quick sketch on the board or show a flashcard or picture in a book.

• Often – Draw a line. Mark never at one end and always at the other. Mark points along it: usually, rarely, etc.

• Chase: Get two or three students to act it out

• Frightened: Tell a personal anecdote.

• Crossroads: Build a model with Cuisenaire rods or toy construction bricks.

• Window sill: Point to the object.

• Exploitation: Explain the meaning with examples.

• Hope: Read out the dictionary definition.

• Put up with: Tell a short story that includes it.

• Stapler: bring one into class to show them.

• Put your foot down: Act out a short conversation.

• Contact lens: Students who know explain to those who don’t.

• Reduction: Draw a diagram or graph.

• (Some of the ideas – time-consuming, but may be valid if they are generative.)