TEACHING VOCABULARY TO

ADVANCED STUDENTS: A

LEXICAL APPROACH.

by Camila Cuevas A.

ADVANCED STUDENTS AND THEIR NEEDS

Take into account factors such as oral/written use of the

language; degree of formality, style, etc.

Broaden their vocabulary

Learn how to use words appropiately

Due to their limited productive use of a wide range of vocabulary, students need to:

In order to express

themselves more clearly

and appropriately

in a wide range of

situations

THE TEACHING OF VOCABULARY Aspects of lexis that need to be taken into

account:

Homophony

Style, register and dialect

Grammar of vocabulary

Polysemy Homonymy

Synonymy

Translation

Affective meaning

Chunks of language

Pronunciation

Boundaries between

conceptual meaning

MEMORY AND STORAGE SYSTEMS

Short-term memory is not effective if the

number of chunks of information exceedes

seven.

Our long-term memory can hold any

amount of information

however

We should not aim at teaching more than this number

whi

ch is

why

MEMORY STRATEGIES TO AID LEARNING

Creating mental linkages

Applying images and sounds

Reviewing well, in a structured

way

Employing action

If we diagnose learning style preferences (visual, aural, kinesthetic and tactile) we can recommend:

MEMORY STRATEGIES TO AID LEARNING

Other methods of organising items: using topic and categories; digrams and word

trees.

Meaningful tasks

Rely on students’ experiences and

reality

Require learners to analyse and process

language more deeply

DEALING WITH MEANING

Guided discovery

Contextual guesswork

Using dictionaries

Discovering

meaning

To foster learner independence so that

learners will be able to deal with new lexis and expand

their vocabulary

LEXICAL APPROACH

Grammar VocabularyMulti-word

prefabricated chunks

Collocations

Fixed and semi-fixed

expressionsIdioms

It’s essential to make students aware of

them!

Succesful communication is more

important than the production os accurate

sentences.

Contualixation is important!

RATIONALE OF THE LESSON

Choice of material

Noticing collocations and

dealing with meaning

Group work

Choice of task

Using authentic material to expose

students

To improve their collocational competence

To motivate them to ask others to

explain

To use the language they are

learning in a reaslistic context