Understanding of the readings

Understanding of the readings

Understanding of the readings

Introduction

I believe that in addition to facilitating memorization and learning, word lists serve another purpose in the reading class: motivation. Upon adopting a corpus-based list of the 3,000 most frequently used words, Shillaw (2005) observed in his students a marked increase in interest, motivation, vocabulary checking, and peer checking. Shillaw introduced the list in response to student feedback indicating that not enough vocabulary had been learned, despite a syllabus that included a significant amount of vocabulary instruction. This shows that students needed proof of their own vocabulary gains. Despite his positive results, some aspects of Shillaw's classroom methodology are problematic. To begin with, the need for corpus-based word lists can be obviated by the introduction of extensive graded reading into a program. It is much more effective to use lists to help students focus on less-frequently encountered words that require more intensive study and organized review.

Shillaw's suggestion to present word lists at the beginning of the course is also problematic: Defining course content with a prescriptive list limits the ability to negotiate the curriculum through needs analysis. A more student-centered approach is to compile and distribute vocabulary lists periodically throughout the course. Providing learners with an ongoing list gives them the tangible evidence of their own learning which worked so effectively in Shillaw's classes, and better addresses items actually introduced in class.

I believe that there are drawbacks, however, to using word lists. As Stevick once observed, "If you want to forget something, put it in a list" (cited in Lewis, 1993, p. 118). Stevick's criticism was no doubt aimed at the inherently inflexible, linear nature of lists: Although they help learners organize words, lists do become tedious as they grow in length. Schmitt and Schmitt (2005) suggest that students write new words on index cards. Thus, whereas the compilation of a word list for the class may be the responsibility of the teacher, it falls on the students to create flashcards or some other organizational device to use the list more effectively for their own purposes.

Explanation

Extensive Graded Reading and Vocabulary Acquisition

Studies of implicit vocabulary acquisition have shown that learning through extensive reading is not only possible, but is almost certainly the means by which native speakers acquire the majority of their vocabulary (see Saragi, Nation, & Meister, 1978). For such learning to occur, however, the reader must understand approximately 95% of the running words in the text (Laufer, 1989; Nation, 1990; Parry, 1991) in order to infer meaning. While such high levels of comprehension pose no problems for native speakers, they are clearly out of reach for most foreign-language learners who are using authentic materials. Linguistically graded versions of authentic texts have therefore been created to artificially raise the level of reading comprehension for students of English. As a result, students can make vocabulary gains with each reader they complete (Davis, 2005).

In addition to quantitative gains, extensive reading offers qualitative gains with respect to newly learned ...