Analysis of approaches to the learning and study of english vocabulary in high school senior thesis

Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan 
L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University

Plotnikova N.S.







Analysis of approaches to the learning and study of english vocabulary in high school senior thesis

major 5B011900 – «Foreign language: two foreign languages»











Astana, 2017

Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan 
L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University



“Admitted to the defence”
Head of the department___________________
___________________ D.Kh. Baidrakhmanov



SENIOR THESIS
ANALYSIS OF APPROACHES TO THE LEARNING AND STUDY OF ENGLISH VOCABULARY IN HIGH SCHOOL 
major 5B011900 – «Foreign language: two foreign languages»


Student                                                                                      N.S. Plotnikova

Scientific supervisor,                                                                 D.K. Anasheva
senior tutor






Astana, 2017

Contents
Introduction	6
1	Theoretical basis of approaches to the learning and study of English vocabulary in high school	9
1.1	‘Vocabulary’ definition, types of vocabulary, aspects of improving vocabulary	9
1.2	Approaches to vocabulary learning and study	11
1.2.1	Implicit/incidental vocabulary learning	12
1.2.2	Explicit vocabulary learning	15
1.2.3	Possible activities for vocabulary study	27
1.3	Physiological, psychological and cognitive peculiarities of high school students	32
2	Empirical analysis of English vocabulary learning and studying in the teaching process	36
2.1	The development of the lesson with the use of explicit vocabulary teaching techniques	36
2.2	The analysis on efficiency of certain explicit vocabulary teaching methods	44
2.3	Recommendations for teachers, taking into account characteristics of high school age	54
Conclusion	61
Bibliography	63
Appendix	66



     Introduction
     
     Topicality. Vocabulary is one of the most important skills that are necessary for language learning. It is the basis for all the other skills, both productive and receptive i.e. writing, speaking, listening and reading. Vocabulary allows people use language effectively, even if the knowledge of grammar does not allow to express the thoughts correctly. “Nevertheless, in spite of the importance of this element, vocabulary is often the least systematized and the most neglected of all the aspects of learning a second language, not only EGP but in ESP as well”. [1, 65] Kazakhstani professor Murat Kaplan emphasizes that an extensive vocabulary contributes communication and learning vocabulary is one of the first steps that should be made in learning the second language. [2, 7] Due to the changes in the aims of Kazakhstani educational system, every student should be able to communicate freely using three languages: Kazakh, Russian and English. However, regarding the vocabulary learning at high school, it can be noticed that students who have finished school often cannot express their ideas in English due to the lack of words that they know. Moreover, students sometimes are not aware ofthe context in which one word or expression could be used, which also means that school teachers do not pay attention to diverse aspects of words spending time on implicit vocabulary learning instead of explicit one. Unarguably, there are many factors that may lead to the scarce students’ vocabulary, including low motivation, lack of learning materials, but the most prominent ones are bad teacher’s performance and teaching methods. That is why it is necessary to investigate the effectiveness of explicit vocabulary learning in high school.
     There is a plethora of scientific researches that describe vocabulary learning strategies, however, there is a few of works which systematize and present full taxonomy of approaches to vocabulary study. The subdivisions presented by P. Nation, N. Schmitt, S. Thornbury, N. Akar, etc. differ not only in their grounding principles, but also in the sequence of steps to be used for vocabulary learning. What is more, some of the strategies, especially semantic mapping, semantic feature analysis, definition maps and Venn diagram, mentioned by N. Schmitt are not investigated well, as there is no data proving their usefulness and prevalence of use. [3, 12]
     Regarding the vocabulary study, the methods that are currently being used, for example, matching exercises, have become trivial and sometimes overused by teachers, which subsequently leads to the decreasing effectiveness of the method. What is known is that students are interested in interactive activities that are used not only for speaking, but for vocabulary study as well. It may be also noticed that children, whatever their age is, like playing games, so there is a need of systematizing the vocabulary games that can be used for high school students. N. Madiyev, the Kazakhstani scholar, in his book called “Какпреодолетьнежеланиемозгаучитьиностранныйязык” also emphasizes the importance of diverse activities for vocabulary studying stating that words themselves contain only 7% of information and the rest should be obtained through the various activities including mnemonics, role playing, meditations improvement of concentration skills and etc. [4]
     Topicality of the given research is determined by the need of depth study of approaches to vocabulary learning and study in a context of high school students. Topicality of the study is stipulated by the development of multilingual ambience, which increases the importance of further research in methodology which is important for creating the effective vocabulary instruction. With the increase in the number of English classes per week, it is crucial to develop a consistent set of lessons which will cover all the vocabulary needed for the comprehensive development of communicative competence and which will provide the opportunities for students to revise and train this vocabulary throughout the studies. Topicality of this thesis is also complemented by the fact that there are no scientific works providing the analysis on the effectiveness of certain vocabulary techniques for high school students. 
     The aim of the Senior Thesis is to scrutinize diverse approaches of vocabulary learning and study in the context of high school students.
     The objectives of the Senior Thesis:
- to systematize the vocabulary learning and study techniques and develop lesson plans aiming at the vocabulary learning and studying
- to identify the peculiarities of high school students that may affect vocabulary learning process and introduce secondary school students and tutors with a set of recommendations that may be implemented at vocabulary lessons
- to analyze the usefulness of certain techniques, particularly semantic feature analysis, semantic mapping, definition maps and Venn diagrams, implemented in the English language classes at high school
     The object of the Senior Thesis is the process of vocabulary teaching in high school environment. 
     The subject of the Senior Thesis is the analysis of efficiency of explicit vocabulary learning and studying techniques in high school. 
     The method of the Senior Thesis is observational, comparative, investigative, reproductive.
     The scientific noveltyofthe Senior Thesis consists of the fact that approaches to the vocabulary learning and studying are systematized and analyzed in the accordance with the requirements and new possibilities of using different approaches in the frame of Kazakhstani educational system. 
     The theoretical significance ofthe Senior Thesis is defined by the provision of a set of vocabulary definitions and types, which allow teachers to understand this term deeply. What is more, besides the vocabulary teaching techniques, the possible games to be used for vocabulary study are presented. The physical, psychological and cognitive features of high school students are depicted in a relation to the vocabulary acquisition which can be implemented for further researches.
     The practical significanceofthe Senior Thesisis determined by the possibility of the usage of lesson developments and the analysis results into practice of teaching vocabulary in high school, while the recommendations in their turn provide teacher with sufficient information about principles and features that must be taken into consideration while structuring the lesson for adolescents. Moreover, the results of the research were approbated at the Republican Olympiad of the foreign languages held in February 2017 in Almaty. Knowledge of the English language and the presentation based on the results of the Senior Thesis were highly estimated (the 2nd place among 120 Universities of Kazakhstan).
     Theoretical and methodological basis of the thesis was the scientifically and theoretically reasonable positions and classifications, relating to the vocabulary learning and studying provided by Kazakhstani and foreign scholars. The most prominent works are “Learning vocabulary in another language” written by P. Nation and “Vocabulary learning strategies” by N. Schmitt. The current investigations conducted by Kazakhstani scholars that were taken into consideration include the works of M. Kaplan and N. Madiyev.



     1 Theoretical basis of approaches to the learning and study of English vocabulary in high school
     1.1 ‘Vocabulary’definition,typesofvocabulary,aspectsofimproving vocabulary
     
     Vocabularyisoneofthecomponentsofalanguagethatstudentsshouldlearn,asitisarduoustocomprehendandproducespokenorwrittentextwithoutunderstandingofwords.Itisalsotruethat“nomatterhowwellthestudentlearnsgrammar,nomatterhowsuccessfullythesoundsofL2aremastered,withoutwordstoexpressawiderangeofmeanings,communicationinanL2justcannothappeninanymeaningfulway”.[5, viii]Inspiteofthis,“…thereisatendencytoconcentrateongrammar,payinglittleattentiontovocabulary”[6, 36]whichsubsequentlyleadstothelackofstudents’knowledge.Hence,certainamountofattentionshouldbepaidonvocabularylearningas“Vocabularyacquisitionisthelargestandmostimportanttaskfacingthelanguagelearner.”[7, 7]
     Tacklingtheproblemofteachingvocabulary,itiscrucialtodefinethe‘vocabulary’termfirst.Differentscholarsdefine‘vocabulary’differently.Forexample,theAmericanHeritageDictionarydefinesvocabularyas“thesumofwordsusedby,understoodby,oratthecommandofaparticularpersonorgroup.”[8, 1]WhileaccordingtotheCollinsCobuildEnglishLanguageDictionary,“thevocabularyofalanguageisthetotalnumberofwordsinalanguagethatheorsheknows” [9, 1629],vocabularyisalsoconsideredastheunityof“…allthewordsofonelanguage,so‘vocabularies’meansthewordsownedbymorethanonelanguage…”[10, 94].
     InaccordancewiththeLongmanDictionaryofContemporaryEnglish,vocabularycanbedefinedas“allthewordsthatsomeoneknowsoruses”,“allthewordsinaparticularlanguage”,“thewordsthataretypicallyusedwhentalkingaboutaparticularsubject”and“alistofwordswithexplanationsoftheirmeanings,especiallyinabookforlearningforeignlanguages”.[11, 1653]However,MarkLonghurstadvocatestheideaofNorbertSchmitt“thattheterm‘word’isnotspecificenoughtocoverthecomplexityofvocabularyandtocapturedifferentaspectsoflexis.Singlewords,phrasalverbsandidiomscanallcarrythesamemeaning,forinstance.AfewexamplesthatSchmittusesare“die”(singleword),“passaway”(phrasalverb)and“kickthebucket”(idiom)”.[12, 13]Therefore,“vocabularycanbedefinedasthewordsofalanguage,includingsingleitemsandphrasesorchunksofseveralwordswhichcoveyaparticularmeaning,thewayindividualwordsdo.Vocabularyaddressessinglelexicalitems - wordswithspecificmeaning(s) - butitalsoincludeslexicalphrasesorchunks.”[13, 2]
     Ultimately, inthispaper,thetermvocabularyisusedtorefertoanywordorcombinationofwords,suchascollocations,phrasalverbsandidioms,inanyformthatistaughtorlearnt,bothimplicitlyand/orexplicitlywithinthecurriculumoftheEnglishlanguageforyears10-11intheKazakhstanigeneralsecondaryschool.
     Besidesknowingthedefinitionofvocabulary,itisnecessarytoidentifyitstypes.Thefirstconsiderationindelineatingvocabularytypesisthepurposeofvocabularyusage.Asitisknown,peopleusevocabularyforspeakingandwritinginordertoexpresstheirownideas,andforreadingandlistening–tounderstandsomebody’spieceofwritingorspeech.“Asaresultthereisanimportantdistinctiontobemadebetweenproductive/activevocabulary(i.e.thewordslearnersneedtobeabletouseandunderstand)andreceptive/passivevocabulary(i.e.thewordstheyneedtorecognizeonly),distinctionwhichtheteachermustbearinmindinhis/herpracticeasthereisobviouslyalotmoreworkinvolvedingivingastudentaproductiveknowledgeofawordthanareceptiveone.[14, 36]Proponentsofthisdistinction,particularlyJohnJ.Pikulski,ShaneTempletonandThaashidaL.Hutton,alsousetheterm‘expressive’forproductivevocabulary“sincethesearethevocabulariesweusetoexpressourselves.”[15, 1]However,P.Nationinhisbook“Learningvocabularyinanotherlanguage”proposestheopinionofD.Corson,accordingtowhom,“passivevocabulary…includestheactivevocabularyandthreeotherkindsofvocabulary-wordsthatareonlypartlyknown,lowfrequencywordsnotreadilyavailableforuse,andwordsthatareavoidedinactiveuse.Thesethreekindsofvocabularyoverlaptosomedegree.Corson'sdescriptionofactiveandpassivevocabularyisstronglybasedontheideaofuseandnotsolelyondegreesofknowledge.Somepassivevocabularymaybeverywellknownbutneverusedandthereforeneveractive.…FromCorson'sviewpoint,thetermsactiveandpassivearemoresuitablethanreceptiveandproductive.”[16, 38-39]
     Theseconddistinctiondifferentiatesmeaningororalandliterateorwrittenvocabularies,wheretheformerrefersto“thecombinationoflisteningandspeakingvocabularies”,andthelatter-to“thecombinationofourreadingandwritingvocabularies”.[17, 1]
     Thus,vocabularyisnotonlyasetofwordsthatisknowntoexistinonelanguage,butalsoitsupportsfourlanguageskills(listening,reading,speakingandwriting) and thereforevocabularyteachingandlearningshouldbeemphasized.“Inasimilarfashion,ifESLteachersareattunedtoeffectivestrategiesforteachingvocabulary,theycouldfacilitatestudents’proficiencyinthefourskills.”[18, 127]
     Tackling the problem of teaching vocabulary,it is important not only to identify the types of vocabulary, but also to be awareofwhatcomponentsareincludedintheknowledgeofword.TherearevariousassumptionsmadebyL.Taylor,P.Nation,N.Schmitt,S.Thornbury,J.AllenandJ.Harmer.Havinganalyzedallofthem,itmaybeconcludedthattheknowledgeofawordcomprisesthefollowingaspects:
     1. Knowledgeofhow often the word occurs in a language.
     2. Knowledgeofregister, dialect and style, which is one of the levels of word’s formality i.e. formal, neutral or colloquial. Styles could also be poetic, ironic, slang and the like.
     3. Knowledge of word’s semantic collocation and syntactic colligation.
     4. Knowledgeofword’s morphology, which is the knowledge of word’s underlying form and its derivations and derivatives
     5. Knowledgeofword’s semantics,which implies knowledge of word’s meaning and its connotations. 
     6. Knowledgeofpolysemy,which is the knowledge of diverse meanings of the word
     7. Knowledge of word’s equivalents in other languages and its translation.
     Besides, spelling, pronunciation and stress should also be considered as one of the pivotal word’s features to be known by learners, because any mistake made in stress or spelling may affect the meaning of an utterance and lead to the lack of understanding in a discourse. [19, 37-38]
     N.SchmittagreeswiththeaspectsmentionedbyP.Nation,whichincludenotonlypreviouslymentionedones,butalsothewrittenandspokenformsoftheword,itsassociationsandgrammaticalbehavior.[20, 5]
     J.AlleninherturnproposesanideaofI. L. Beck,E.S.McCaslin,andM.G.McKeownwhichimpliesthattherearethree“levelsofwordknowledge(unknown,acquainted,andestablished)…Kameenuietal.(1982)calltheselevelsverbalassociationknowledge,partialconceptknowledge,andfullconceptknowledge.” [21, 6] The notions describing these levels are not pivotal, the main significance of this subdivision is that teacher should vary the approaches utilized in accordance with student’s vocabulary knowledge level.
     Thus,theteachershouldidentifytheentiretyofstudents’ wordknowledgeandhavingnoticedtheshortages;createalllearningconditionssothatthestudentscouldacquireallthetypesofknowledgeofatargetvocabulary.
     
     1.2 Approaches to vocabulary learning and study
     
     Aplethoraofscholarshasinvestigatedthevocabularyteachingstrategies,tryingtoidentifythemostusefulones.SuchmethodologistsasP.Nation,N.Schmitt,S.ThornburyandN.Akaretc.developedtheirownclassificationsofvocabularyinstructions,but,generally,allstrategiescanbesubdividedintotwomajorgroups:implicitandexplicitvocabularylearning.
     NickEllisidentifiedtwopossible avenues related totheprocess of acquiring and teaching ofnewvocabulary,they are theimplicitvocabularylearningandtheexplicitvocabularylearning.Theformerisrelatedtothe behaviorist approachesandimplies that vocabularyisacquiredunconsciously, withoutthestudentbeingawareofthe learning process,notablywhilereadingorspeaking i.e. through the visual or auditory channels of information input.Thisimplicitness referstotheunintentionalityof leaning which is regarded as itsmainfeature:
     The implicit hypothesis of studying vocabulary suggests that the new word’s meaning is acquired completely unconsciously as a result of repeated exposures in a number of meaningful contexts.
     The latter hypothesis, confirms the importance of conscious attention to new words through a series of explicit and planned strategies. The explicit vocabulary learning suggests that there is a positive effect of student’s vocabulary acquisition through noticing the word, deriving its meaning and memorizing it with the help of metacognitive strategies in order to reinforce new understanding through repetition.
     Even if the two above mentioned hypotheses contain opposing views on the vocabulary study, most second-language acquisition researchers would likely agree that for second-language learners the vocabulary studying process requires a combination of two hypotheses.[22, 3-4]
     Thus,implicitvocabularylearningcanbedescribedashavingnospecificattentiononthevocabularyitemstobelearnt,learnersduringthisprocessareunawarenotonlyoftheprocessitself,butalsooftheresultantknowledgeacquiredfromthisprocess.Explicitlearninginitsturndemandsthefocusofthestudents’attentiononthewordsandstrategiesthatareused.Whatismore,learnersareconsciousabouttheirvocabularylearningprocessandtheknowledgethattheygetasaresultofit.
     
     1.2.1 Implicit/incidentalvocabularylearning
     
     Implicitvocabularylearningalsoknownasincidentaloneisthetechniquethatcompriseslearningvocabularywithoutprovidingthedirectinstructiontothetargetvocabularyitem,themeaningofwhichismostlyachievedbyguessingfromthecontext.
     Thedifferencebetweenimplicitandexplicitvocabularylearningliesnotonlyintheroleofateacher,butalsointhetypeofmentalprocessingwhichstudentsusewhilestudying.
     AccordingtoP.Nation,theincidentallearningcomprisessuchmainprocesses asnoticing,retrievalandcreative(generative)use.“Theseprocessescanbeviewedasthreestepswiththelaterstepsincludingtheearliersteps.Thefirstprocessencouraginglearningisnoticing,thatisgivingattentiontoanitem.Thismeansthatlearnersneedtonoticetheword,andbeawareofitasausefullanguageitem(seeEllis,1991;McLaughlin,1990;Schmitt,1990fordiscussionsofnoticing).”[23,98]Noticingasthefirststageofincidentalvocabularylearningengagesso-called decontextualisation, which implies the allotment of the unknown vocabulary item from the context.
     Decontextualization happens when students pay attention to vocabulary item as the part of a language more than as a part of a message. This can happen in different ways. The examples may include the situationin reading or listening, when learner identifies the vocabulary item and decides whether he has seen this word before or not, and whether he has seen this word in a different context or the meaning of this word coincides with the meaning known before. Another example comprises the situation when the teacher selects the word while writing it on the blackboard. Decontextualization also occurs when students discuss the meaning of the word with classmates or with the teacher or when the teacher clarifies the meaning of the word for the students, giving a definition, a synonym or translation into the first language.
     Decontextualization implies that the word is extracted from the context and is seen as an item of the language. Two types of decontextualization exist which are negotiation and defining.
     1. Negotiation as a type of decontextualization implies that students discuss the word’s meaning while studying. Numerous investigations claim that the vocabulary items that have been negotiated are retained for a longer period of time than the words that have not been negotiated. However, some scholarships propose the idea that negotiation takes too much time of the lesson that there is no time left for other activities. Hence, even though negotiation contributes vocabulary learning, it is not the avenue by which the majority of vocabulary items are learned.
     2. Definition.The second type of decontextualization implies the clarification of the target items by placing these words into the context, for example, by compelling students to listen to the story where the words are used, and then, encouraging learners to discuss their meaning and translation. The target items, in this case, could be written out by the teacher before the activity. While listening, teacher points to the items written on the blackboard and then allows students to make their assumptions. [24, 99-100]
     However,sometimesteachersdonotmovetothenextstages,thinkingthatthesimpletranslationordefinitionofthewordisenoughforstudentstorememberthetargetitemduetotheexistenceandnoticingthiswordinacontext.
     Thesecondstageiscalledretrieval,anditincludestherecallingofpreviouslynoticeditems.“Eachretrievalstrengthenstheconnectionbetweenthecueandtheretrievedknowledge.Receptivelythecuemaybethewrittenorspokenformofthewordandtheretrievedinformationmaybeitsmeaningoruse.Productively,thecueisthemeaningoruseandtheretrievedinformationisthewordform.Therearethusmanykindsofretrieval-receptive/productive,oral/visual,overt/covert,incontext/decontextualized.”[25, 357]
     As for retrieval, itmaybereceptiveorproductive.“Receptiveretrievalinvolvesperceivingtheformandhavingtoretrieveitsmeaningwhenthewordismetinlisteningorreading.Productiveretrievalinvolveswishingtocommunicatethemeaningofthewordandhavingtoretrieveitsspokenorwrittenformasinspeakingorwriting.Retrievaldoesnotoccuriftheformanditsmeaningarepresentedsimultaneouslytothelearner.”[26,103]
     Thethirdstageisacreativeorgenerativeuse.Generating processing happens when previously encountered words are subsequently encountered or used in ways that differ from the previous contexts.In this case, a new meeting with the word makes the students rethink their knowledge of this item. What is more, generative use is not limited to a metaphorical extension of the meaning of a word and can be applied to diverse variations from inflection through collocation and a grammatical context to reference and meaning ... Generation as well as retrieval can also be receptive or productive. Receptive generation comprises meeting the vocabulary item that is uttered in new contexts in listening or reading. Productive generation implies creating new avenues of using the necessary vocabulary in new contexts. Thus, it can be said that if the vocabulary item is utilized in a discourse in a new context that differs from the previous use, it is used generatively.[27,105-106]
     As it can be seen, productive use as well as context play an important role in learning and studying of the vocabulary. However, taking into considerationguessingword’smeaning fromthecontext,itcanbementionedthatcontextsthatareseenina usualtextaresometimesuninformative.Unarguably, word’s environment tells the reader something about its meaning; however not every randomly chosen context may provide the full information about it. Informative contexts can be created, but they would be not natural; hence, students will not be able to learn the strategy of guessing the word’s meaning from unnatural context, which they will frequently use. Informative context contributes leaner in the attempt of guessing the meaning of a word as soon as the student knows the synonym of this word’s concept. However, if the teacher is going to use the context for compelling students to guess the meaning of the word with the unknown concept, it would be arduous for learners to do so. Thus, if the teacher’s purpose is to give students the explanation of the strategy, teacher should choose the words which concepts are somehow known for learners; in this case, the context could be occasional and natural. If the aim of a teacher is to make students identify the meaning of the word with a completely new concept, the teacher ought to create unnatural and informative context or complement natural one with some sort of additional activities or information. [28,6-7] What is more, of course, guessing from context can result in remembering the word, however, in order to do that the word should be met in a meaningful context between ten and fifteen times. [29, 35]
     As for other positive sides of guessing from the context, the word that has been put in a context gives student more information than any oral explanation of this word’s meaning. Analyzing the context, students may guess the exact meaning of the word, and sometimes they may have only the idea of it. To exemplify, the sentence “He overcooked pizza” possesses the new vocabulary item ‘overcooked’, which consists of two parts ‘over’ and past simple form of the verb ‘cook’. Hence, if the students know the word ‘cook’ and have already encountered the prefix ‘over’ in some other contexts, it would be easier for student to guess the meaning of the target item.
     P. Nation claims that guessing from the context engages learner in some sort of seeking activity which comprises several steps leading from the immediate context to the operations with the surrounding one. These steps are as follows:
     Step one implies looking at the word and deciding on its part of speech. The second step comprises looking at the sentence or the part of a complex sentence, where this item is utilized. If the target vocabulary item is a noun, it is therefore necessary to identify the adjectives and verbs depicting this noun.If the target vocabulary item is a verb, the learner should seek for a noun that does this action and for an adverb that modifies how the process is done. If it is an adjective, it is important to know what nouns are used with it. If it is an adverb - what process it illustrates.
     The third step implies analysis of the relations between sentence parts and the target word, relations between sentences surrounding sentence under analysis are also important. The relationships may be identified by the analysis of conjunctions, which may show such relations as exemplifications, contrast, cause and effect and the like. After that, it is probable to make a guess on the word’s meaning. 
     The fifth step comprises the checking of the guess’s correctness. This can be done in two possible ways: by checking whether the guess’s part of speech coincides with the part of speech of the target item and then by trying to replace the target item with the guess. If the meaning of the sentence with the replaced word still makes sense, the guess may be correct. If not, more detailed analysis is needed. This analysis can be contributed by the division of this word into their parts (prefixes, suffixes and roots) and taking into consideration the meaning of each of the constituents. [30, 66]
     Taking into account the fact that all learning, and vocabulary in particular, involves certain amount of attention paid, it is therefore arduous to maintain the difference between these two types of vocabulary learning. Some scholars, take Hulstijn for instance, claim that terms ‘intentional’ used for vocabulary that is known to be tested later and incidental’ for items that students are not aware of getting in a later test are not suitable for vocabulary learning. The thing that matters in this subdivision is the type of mental processes engaged in vocabulary learning. 
     Nation advocates the idea that even though the guessing the word from the context and working with it mainly refers to the incidental learning and is used in the majority of the cases at schools, teachers should spend some time on deliberate vocabulary study and intentionally focus on the strategies utilized for it. [31, 369-370]
     Asitwasmentionedbefore,implicitvocabularylearningmostlyincludesinferringthemeaningofthewordsfromthecontextthatisretrievedlateronconsequentretrievalandgenerativeusestages.However,notallteachersdevoteenoughattentiontothelasttwostages,decidingtospendthetimeongrammarorotherskills.Thisleadstothelackofresultantknowledgeintheuseoftargetvocabulary.“Moreover,thecontextinwhichunfamiliarwordsareembeddedcansometimesbeuninformativeorevenmisleading,causingchildrentomisinterpretwordmeanings(Becketal.,1983).Alternatively,directvocabularyinstructionallowstheteachertocontrolthecontextinwhichthewordorwordpartsareintroduced,ensuresthepresentationoftheintendeddefinitionoftheword,andprovidescontroloverthenumberoftimesthechildisexposedtotheword(Becketal.,1983;Nagy&Herman,1985).Therefore,directinstructioncanprovideanimportantfoundationforfutureexposuretowordsincontext(Beck,Perfetti,&McKeown,1982;Nagy&Herman,1985).”[32, 49]Havinganalysedbothwaysofteachingvocabulary,itwasdecidedtofocusonstrategiesaimedatprovidingrichinstructionforstudentswhilestudyingnewwords.
     
     1.2.2 Explicitvocabularylearning
     
     Explicitvocabularyteachingismarkedbypayinggreaterattentionnotonlyonlearningtheworditself,butalsoonitsstudying,analyzingitsfeaturesandusinginavarietyofexercises.Numerousscholarshavetriedtocreateataxonomyofteachingvocabularystrategiesthatcanbeusedexplicitly.ThemostprominentareP.Nation,N.Schmitt,N.Akar,S.Thornbury,W.E.Nagy,CynthiaandDrewJohnson,etc.Afterstudyingdiverseclassificationsoftheauthors,wechoseseveralofthemtobepresented.
     Thegeneralsubdivisionofallvocabulary-teachingtechniquesclassifiedbyN.Akar,S.Thornburyetc.comprisesthevisual,verbal,aural,kinaesthetic,olfactoryandgustatorytechniques.Accordingtothebookcalled“Teachingvocabulary:BridgingthegapbetweenTheoryandPractice”,thevisualtechniquesincludetheuseofthefollowingmaterials:
     1. Realia:realobjects,tickets,advertisements,forms,brochures,magazines,visitsoutsideclass
     2. Cutouts,posters,flashcards,charts,graphs,grids,puppets,streetmaps,floorplans,models,pictures,photos,drawings,wheelcharts,figurines,picturestories,diagrams,pictograms,spidergraphs/mindmaps
     3. Films,plays,videos,TVprogrammes
     4. Facialexpressionsandbodylanguage
     5. Crosswordpuzzles,boardgames,cardgames,scrabble
     6. Computer-basedtechnology
     7. Mime,demonstration,actingout
     Auraltechniques in their turnrefertothematerialssuchasfollowing:
     1. Soundsfromthenatureandeverydaylife(ahorseneighing,adoorcreaking,ashrillcry,birdstwittering,acarbraking,peoplequarrelling,differenttonesofvoice,noisesinarestaurantorthetraffic,aseriesofsoundsmakingupascenarioasinSoundsIntriguingbyMaleyandDuff,CUP)
     2. Poems,nurseryrhymes,limericks
     3. Audiosoundtracksfromfilms,plays,radioprogrammes,videos
     4. Recordedanecdotes,interviews,speeches,dialogues,monologues,commercials
     5. Computer-basedtechnology
     6. Songs,withorwithouttheirlyrics(notallsongsaresafeandsuitabletousesincemostdistortlanguageandmakecomprehensiondifficult)
     Verbaltechniquesarethemostfrequentlyusedones,andcontainthefollowingtechniques:
     1) Definition
     2) Connotation:impliedmeaning
     Theimpliedmeaningofalexicalitemcanbedeterminedby:
     a) context
     b) culture
     c) theattitudeofthespeaker
     d) theattitudeofthepersonbeingreferredto
     Itisimportanttoteachimpliedmeaning,andonewayofdoingthisistodescribethesamesituationindifferentways.
     3) Synonyms(Similarwords)
     4) Antonyms
     5) Word-formationandpartsofspeech(i.e.wordclassesorwordfamilies)
     6) Cognates:Borrowedwords
     Truecognatesarewords,whicharesimilarinform,meaninganddistribution...Inthecaseoftruecognates,itisenoughtoindicatethatthemeaningoftheEnglishwordisthesameastheL1word,sothemeaningisnoproblem.However,pronunciationmustbepracticedsinceitneedsextraemphasis.
     Falsecognates,ontheotherhand,aredifficultforthestudentssincethemeaningsofthetwowordsarecompletelydifferentalthoughtheformsarealikeinthenativeandtargetlanguages…sotheyneedthoroughexplanationandpractice.
     7) Series
     Theycontainrelatedwordgroupssuchas1,2,3…;first,second,third…;daysoftheweek;monthsoftheyear;seasons;timesoftheday;andthelike.Teachinginseriesenhancescomprehensionandretention.
     8) Semanticfields
     Theseareareaswhichhaverelatedwordstaughttogether,whichhavesimilarityinmeaningwithslightdifferences…
     9) Scales:clines
     Thesearerelatedwordsagain,butgradableamongthemselves.Oncestudentshavelearnttwocontrastingorrelatedgradableitems,thiscanbeausefulwayofrevisionandfeedinginnewitems.
     10) Games
     11) Riddlesandtongue-twisters
     12) Consultingothersanddictionaries
     13) ContextualGuesswork/Educatedguessing
     14) Conceptforming
     …itisadvisedthatvocabularyitemsbetaughtbyaskingquestions,whichcanhelplearnerstodeveloptheconceptoftheitembeforetheylearnthewordforitinthetargetlanguage.
     15) Sayings,proverbsquotations,mottos,idioms,phrasalverbs
     16) Role-playactivitiesandsimulations
     17) Examplesentences
     18) Superordinatesandhyponyms
     Superordinatesareblanketitems,whichcontainnumerousitemsoftheirclasswithinthem,andhyponymsaretheitemstheycontain.
     19) Activity
     Anyactivitytakenfromreallifewouldnecessitatethelearningofvariousvocabularyitemsthatarenecessarytofulfilthatactivity.
     20) Process
     Dependingontheneedsoflearners,theteachermayuseagreatvarietyofprocesseswitnessedinreallife.Thesemaybelongtospecializedareassuchas’operatingamachine’orgeneralareassuchas‘makingfruitsalad’.
     21) Topic
     Teachingbytopicsenablestheteachertoteachcollocatingitemstogether,andalsoenablesthelearnertocomprehendandretainthembetter,especiallywhenthechosentopicisonetheythemselveshaveofferedoronerelatedtotheirownlifeorsomecurrentevent.
     22) Collocation
     23) Translation
     Translationisaneffectivewayofexplaininglow-frequencyitems,orcangetridofthedangeroffalsecognatesandcansavevaluabletime.
     24) Lexicalsets
     TannerandGreen(1998:29)statethatresearchintomemoryhasshownthatwestorewordsinourbrainingroupsofrelatedwords,soifanewwordisassociatedtootherwordswhicharealreadystored,itiseasi.......................