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Other benefits of language learning is language apprenticeship. Being bilingual gives one confidence in learning another languages. “Knowing that it is easy to operate in two languages makes it seem entirely possible to learn a third (or fourth) language. [Baker and Prys-Jones 1998:265]. The third language is easier to learn than a second, a fourth easier than a third, and so on, (but, I think, we must take into account languages distance). The learning a second language is the key to unlocking a kind of mental ‘door’ to further language learning and it is termed ‘language apprenticeship’. An interesting empirical perspective is provided on this aspect by Postmus [1999] who compared the language learning processes of adult bilinguals with those monolinguals, all of whom were learning Mandarin as a foreign language at an Australian university. She found that differences in prior linguistic experience influenced learners' conceptions of language learning and their approaches to the language learning task, specifically their strategic use of metalinguistic thinking. Her findings are an important support for notion of ‘language apprenticeship’ and for the research into third and subsequent language learning as distinct from second language acquisition.

Other benefits of language learning: exhilaration. Sometimes overlooked in claims for benefits of language learning is the enjoyment, pleasure, and satisfaction which accompany the process. Second language learning is often regarded as simply the acquisition of a useful skills, meeting individual or national needs, rather than as being an essential part of education. Enjoyment, discovery and desire are also part of language learning. “What may have been overlooked is the sheer exhilaration of the journey into a foreign language and a foreign culture for its own sake…the intrinsically rewarding nature of such journey…” [Hawkins 1999:134]. One of the strongest motivation of foreign languages learners is their love of languages and desire to use them in communication, in their future or present work.. Such learners take intensive physical pleasure in acquiring a language, thrill in trespassing on someone else’s territory, becoming a foreigner on their own turf, becoming both invisible and differently visible. Multilingual speakers create new discourse communities whose aerial existence monolingual speakers hardly suspect. Many language learning autobiographies evoke a strong power of second languages to transform experience and identity [Pavlenko 2001], and this is evident in that [Lvovich 1997] who talks of the “nourishment” and “passion” which her learning and speaking of French afforded her in contrast to her grim Soviet existence. She describes her “French soul” as embracing people, passions, achievements, suffering and love, and she experiences being cut off from the language as being similar to losing a friend or a lover [Lvovich 1997:71]. Enjoyment is an intangible benefit which often considered in statements of desirable educational outcomes, and it is a key part of language learning for many people. In the case of the teachers in this study, enjoyment of and love for languages often constituted the key for their becoming ESL teachers.

The main focus in this article has been on individual advantages derived from language learning of an intellectual and cultural nature, as being the most relevant to the work of ESL teachers. The intellectual value of language learning includes the development of alternative ways of conceiving of and describing the universe, and of a deeper understanding of the process of communication, and involves processes of ‘metaphorization’ and ‘hypothesis forming and testing’. Speakers of second language develop skills in analysing and synthesising knowledge in order to communicate in contexts of limited linguistic resources and imperfectly grasped cultural concepts.

Библиографический список

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2. Baker,C. Faundations of bilingual education and bilingualism. Clevendon, //Multilingual Matters, 2001.

3. Ben-Zeev,S. Mechanisms by which childhood bilingualism affects understanding of language and cognitive structures. New York //Academic Press, 1977.

4. Crystal, D. English as a global language. Cambridge, //University Press,1997a.

5. Edwards, J. //Multilinguism. London, Routledge,1994.

6. Hawkins, E. Awareness of language study and language awareness. //Languages awareness 8 (3 & 4): 1999, 124-142.

7. Jessner, U. Metalinguistic awareness in multilinguals: cognitive aspects of third language learning. //Language Awareness 8 (3 & 4 ): 1999, 201-209.

8. Lambert, W.E. and G.R. Tucker Bilingual education of children: //The St.Lambert experiment. Rowley, Mass., Newbury House, 1972.

9. Liddicoat, A. Some future challenges for languages in Australia. //Babel 2002, 37 (2): 29-31.

10. LoBianco, J. National Policy on languages. Canberra //Australian Government Publishing Service. 1987.

11. Lvovich, N. The multilingual self: an enquiry into language learning. New Jersey, 1997.

12. Pavlenco, A.. Language learning memories as a gendered genre. //Applied Linguistics. 2001, 22 (2): 213-240.

Mina Nomerovsky

Acha College, Israel

AS A PART OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

TEACHING OF USEFUL VOCABULARY

I T E A C H

Harry E. Wilson

I learn so I may teach

I teach because I learn

I teach because it is hard

I teach because it is easy

I teach to share the treasures I have found

I teach to show how one may find one s own treasures

I teach to see more clearly

I teach for the joy of watching children learn

I teach them thrive from knowledge

I teach to see children sharing, discovering, teaching ... learning

I teach to share the joy of learning

I teach to see the smiles

I teach to smile

I smile often

I N T R O D U C T I O N

Once I have read somewhere that successful language learners have their own ways of learning vocabulary and this is what I want to study, that is different kinds of strategies in vocabulary acquisition and help students acquire this knowledge.

I think it is important to explain students these strategies to improve their reading, writing and speaking skills. Teaching vocabulary is the aspect that has interested me for a long time.

While writing this paper I want to show some strategies that can improve vocabulary acquisition in learners. These strategies are: learning by using groups of synonyms, antonyms, repetition, learning by definitions, etc.

Among the units that should be considered for teaching are different parts ofspeech, including non-oriented words and word combinations and their effect on the text understanding. We shall deal also with sentence analysis, explanation of different units as well as motivation to increase practice. We would like to demonstrate some of the available possibilities of significant assistance to the students and specialists, dealing with special literature.

The Importance of Vocabulary Acquisition

I would like to begin this part of my paper with the description of layers and groups in the vocabulary of Modern English.

Needless to say, this classification, as any other, is not ideal. I do not want to go into detailed description. We all know that the vocabulary of any language is divided into two basic groups: standard and non-standard vocabulary. / New English Russian Dictionary in two volumes having about 150 000 words/.We find this classification rather useful and interesting to know. It is impossible to draw a hard and fast line between the layers because the words tend to shift from one layer to the other.

Learning vocabulary is not an easy process; it requires a great attention to a great range of different factors, for example, grouping. It is well known in psychology that if the material to be memorized is organized in some fasion, learners can use this organization to their benefit.

Groups of words you need to remember by color, size, function, likes/dislikes, the similar meaning, the opposite meaning, or any other feature that makes sense to anyone to remember and know. When we teach any kind of reading and the students do not know the meaning of the verb r e v e a l, for example, we give them the words with the similar meaning as illustrate, demonstrate, indicate and show. They understand immediately the translation / the meaning/ and go on their reading.

The task of teaching vocabulary acquisition skills is a significant responsibility. Aquiring active vocabulary means learning the words in such a way that you can communicate both in speaking and writing without the help of word banks. We will have to develop effective strategies for remembering and using new words and expressions, for instance, assessing the depth of receptive vocabulary knowledge; effects of sentence writing; vocabulary input through extensive reading; effects of morphological knowledge /suffixes and prefixes/ as well as sentence structure; learning vocabulary through self-initiated attention /proverbs and sayings, idioms, poems and songs, synonyms, antonyms, homographs, homonyms/; comparing the lexical difficulty of two languages; the effects of learning different parts of speech in lexical sets.

All the benefits give the student possibility to derive more from the text. Reading comprehension is necessary in all subjects and a vocabulary of depth helps all readers /all levels/ to better understanding. Knowing vocabulary sparks a greater desire to learn. It means if the students have need, or want, they are highly motivated. Many motivation theorists assume that motivation is involved in the performance of all responses, that is, a learned behavior will not occur unless it is energized because m o t I v a t I o n is an internal state or condition ( sometimes described as a need, desire, or want) that serves to activate or energize behavior (Kleinginna and Kleinginna, 1981).

Explanations regarding the sources of motivation can be categorized as either Extrinsic / outside the person / or intrinsic /internal to the person/. In t r I n s I c sources and corresponding theories can be further subcategorized as either body /phisical, mind (mental), i.e., cognitive, affective, conatative or transpersonal /spiritual/.

SOME PRACTICAL AND THEORETICAL DIFFICULTIES

Outside the classroom our students are not engaged in extensive reading. They have little free time for extra reading when they can improve vocabulary knowledge necessary for new words to be repeated. Sometimes, both large classes and irregular attendance make it extremely difficult to monitor a studentdevelopment or provide adequate individaul feedback.

There are other difficulties when we do decide to give time to specific vocabulary in class. How many lexical items should be taught in a lesson? Other factors include pronunciation, orthography, semantics / we mean polysemy/, morphology, parts of speech, idiomaticity, etc. The latter are a particulary area for confusion.

Many learners fix on one meaning they know and find it very difficult to use another even if the one they know has no sense in that new context. For example, such a word as bank. We go to the bank to take or invest money. The banks of the river are picturesque. We can give a lot of similar sentences with other words.

There are dangers in teaching synonyms and antonyms as well as homonyms, for instance, please, give me your left hand. She left home at seven /homonyms/.

The emphasis should be made on teaching recognition or discrimination drills. For example, the linguistic contrast between the words b e a t and b i t, l e a v e and l i v e, t h a n and t h e n, etc. The same refers to teaching grammar.

We think these sentences demonstrate it clearly: She reads much. She is reading much. She has read much. Here we can cite the words ... we must teach our students not only how to surf the net, but also how to make waves /Schneiderman, 1977/.

One more important contribution of vocabulary as being basic for communication.

We do agree that if learners do not recognize the meaning of keywords they will be unable to participate in the conversation, even if they know the morphology or syntax. On the other hand, we believe that grammar is equally important in teaching and it is not the case to substitute it with vocabulary teaching. One should also mention the use of dictionaries as a way to discover meaning and foster learner independence /Solange Moras, 2001/.

Discussing this interesting subject, it is worth mentioning adjuncts, the units which operate the logic of the text. Taking into account the property of language system to create the similar groups, it is possible to consider them as follows: expressions with the meaning of comparison, such as compared to, for comparison, as compared with; to remember a group of words, having relation to number /a number of, a range of, a variety of, a set of, etc./ and others.

Among these units we can register the groups of synonyms:

For example owing to in keeping with

for instance due to according to

as well as antonyms /in keeping with (on the contrary/in contradiction with).

We are not afraid to show students the groups with the same syntactic structure

but different semantically, for instance,

in general at least in the way

in total at last in a way

in particular at hand in such a way

in addtion at rest in the same way

in fact at random

It goes without saying that learner s intentions can easily be lost or badly misunderstood, if no connector is used or it is used incorrect.

Finally, I would like to say that teaching these units is one of the important but not very difficult process. It is simply necessary to practice them, decide exactly what to teach, to give students the opportunity to feel confident in using them.

There is no doubt that all the items discussed above are very important while teaching vocabulary.

P R O C E D U R E

Considering all the possibilities and difficulties we decided to give students to answer the questionaire.

P U R P O S E O F T H E S T U D Y

The purpose of this reasearch was to understand how they see the role of teaching vocabulary.

TWENTY FIVE STUDENTS WERE GIVEN FIVE QUESTIONS:

1. What is the teacher’s role in this process?

2. What approach in teaching vocabulary is the most effective:

A/ audio-lingual method, focused on pronunciation of basic sentences/ patterns, etc;

B/ natural approach / communicative approach focused on a clear and meaningful process of acquisition and not on the final product of correct grammar, a list of words and their meaning;

C/ the last and recent approach in schools today “whole language approach”

to start from the abstract and continue to the specifics / contextual

approach /.

3. How will you know when your students are progressing effectively andwhen they need support?

4. How will you structure your lesson if you want it to be meaningful and relevant?

5. Why is teaching vocabulary as a part of language acquisition so important?

F I N D I N G S

All students are from the English Department and we think that their opinion is very important because they are future teachers of English. The answers we have received are interesting and rather different.

When asked about the teacher’s role they wrote the following:

- to guide students to be aware of use active vocabulary;

- teacher’s role is to engage pupils in acquiring vocabulary;

- to activate the pupil’s role;

- the teacher should read aloud the new words to teach proper

- pronunciation;

- to use high level vocabulary and translate the new words;

- to challenge students;

- to give examples and ideas;

- to use interesting texts, songs, poems, books and movies;