Teaching and Learning Vocabulary

Abstract

The study reported here examines the English language knowledge and performance of bilingual school children of Middle School age in Britain, in particular their acquisition and use of vocabulary. One of the chief premises of the research is that pupils from bilingual minority ethnic backgrounds suffer a major disadvantage while learning from the National Curriculum because they lack the necessary richness of word knowledge, accompanied by the conceptual frameworks expected in learning subjects such as science and geography. Furthermore, it is believed that by raising awareness among teachers and by the adoption of appropriate methods of vocabulary teaching founded on research, the vocabulary learning of bilingual pupils can be greatly increased.The aim of the study is to identify, describe and evaluate methods of vocabulary instruction currently used and to provide recommendations for suitable methods to be introduced. By means of an action research methodology implemented in a middle school, and with the joint participation of some members of staff and some pupils, classroom data was collected over a two and a half year period from teachers of science, geography and English and their pupils, supplemented with semi-structured interviews with teachers and support staff and conversations with children.

Influence of the NAO robot as a teaching assistant on university students’ vocabulary learning and attitudes

“…Thus, a robot appears to be a useful conversational partner for interaction, which can facilitate vocabulary learning in particular and language learning in general. Repeatability can be employed to foster vocabulary learning through repeated exposure (Hiebert & Kamil, 2005;Nation, 2001;Thornbury, 2002) and recycling (Cameron, 2001). The NAO robot possesses all the above-mentioned characteristics, providing an opportunity for learners to assimilate new words and incorporate them into their lexical knowledge.…”

Students' Difficulties In Speaking English

“…According to Kamil and Hiebert (2005), The third finding was lack of grammar that also contributes student difficulties in speaking English. It was constructing Grammar in providing discourse.…”

Assessing the Impact of Game Modalities in Second Language Acquisition: ELLE the EndLess LEarner

“…The emerging studies illustrate that language learners have benefited from the improvement of technology, overall, and some learners have benefited from videogames that augment or instruct in second language acquisition (SLA) [Chik 2014, Peterson 2011, Peterson 2010, 2012, 2016, Vosburg, 2017. Vocabulary learning in a second/foreign language is a complex process that can be approached from multiple research and pedagogical perspectives [Kamil and Hiebert, 2005]. Its importance is clear to researchers and instructors because it is connected to all other language skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing.…”