FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF AUTONOMY
Develop your vocabulary learning strategies so that you can become an autonomous learner.This material was originally designed for students doing English Language III at the School of Languages, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba.
Some exercises included here have in fact been carefully selected from the printed out course books used in this subject. However, every activity and suggestion here is suitable for any intermediate, upper intermediate or advanced learner aiming at enhancing their autonomy in language learning, with a focus on lexical acquisition.
Strategies for the discovery of a new word’s meaning.
PARTS OF SPEECH
Analyze parts of speech. Discern the new word’s part of speech.
AFFIXES AND ROOTS
Analyze affixes and roots. Obtain hints of meaning from the word’s root or affixes.
L1 COGNATE
Check for L1 cognate. Cognates are words in different languages which have descended from a common parent word. Loanwords can also be considered cognates.
PICTURES AND GESTURES
Analyze any available pictures or gestures . Use contextual clues to determine the new word’s meaning.
TEXTUAL CONTEXT
Guess from textual context. Infer a new word's meaning from the surrounding words in a written text.
BILINGUAL DICTIONARY
Use a bilingual dictionary to determine the meaning of a new word.
MONOLINGUAL DICTIONARY
Use a monolingual dictionary to determine the meaning of a new word.
SPECIALIZED DICTIONARIES
Use specialized reference materials to determine the meaning of a new word.
WEB QUESTS
Web/Google. Conduct a Web search or google the new word to determine its meaning.
FLASH CARDS
Determine the meaning of a new word by resorting to flash cards.
MEANING MATCHING
Choose the right meaning from a group of meanings provided or provide the word that matches a given meaning.
DIFFERENT MEANINGS
Establish differences in meaning in pairs or groups of words. Determine the differences in meaning between two words or a group of words or choose the right term or word in a given pair or group.
TEACHER’S PARAPHRASE OR MEANING
Ask teacher for paraphrase or synonym of new word.
Strategies for consolidating a word once it has been encountered.
FLASH CARDS
Take flash cards anywhere and use them to review a word when you have a moment. Arrange them to create logical groupings of the target words.
NOTE-TAKING
Take notes in class. Create your own personal structure in the notes for learned words and afford the chance for additional exposure during review.
VOCABULARY SECTION
Use the vocabulary section in your textbook. Use any special vocabulary sections in your textbooks to help yourself study target words.
RECORDING
Listen to a recording of word lists. Make a recording of word lists (or any other vocabulary material) and study by listening.
LABELS
Put English labels on physical objects. Make L2 words salient by taping L2 labels onto their respective physical objects.
VOCABULARY NOTEBOOK
Keep a vocabulary notebook. Incorporate the progressive learning of different kinds of word knowledge for each word and also make use of expanding rehearsal.
MEDIA
Use English language media (songs, movies, newscasts, etc.). Exploit the pervasiveness of English-medium books, magazines, newspapers, and movies.
TESTS
Test yourself with word tests. Test yourself to get input into the effectiveness of your choice of learning strategies.
SPACED PRACTICE
Use spaced word practice. Schedule and organize your practice by applying the principle of expanding rehearsal or other memory schedule.
SKIPPING WORDS
Skip or pass new word. Skip or pass a word, especially low frequency ones which you may not meet again for a very long time.
EXTENDED STUDY PERIOD
Continue to study word over time. Make a conscious decision to persevere.
TEACHER’S CHECKED MATERIALS
Teacher checks students' flash cards or word lists for accuracy.
NATIVE SPEAKERS
Interact with native speakers.
PICTORIAL REPRESENTATION
Study word with a pictorial representation of its meaning. Pair the L2 word with a picture.
MENTAL IMAGES
Image word's meaning. Create your own mental images of a word's meaning.
PICTURE OR IMAGE
Associate the word with a given picture or image. Match a known word to a picture to consolidate its meaning.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
Connect word to a personal experience. Associate the word with a particularly vivid personal experience of the underlying concept.
MEANINGFUL CONTEXT OR SITUATION
Provide a meaningful context or a meaningful situation to consolidate the meaning of the word.
CONTEXT QUESTIONS
Formulate and reply questions related to the context of use for the word.
COORDINATION
Associate the word with its coordinates. Establish some type of sense relationship with a strong connective bond, such as coordination.
SYNONYMS AND ANTONYMS
Connect the word to its synonyms and antonyms. Establish this type of sense relationship, which has a strong connective bond.
DENOTATION/CONNOTATION, LITERAL/FIGURATIVE MEANING
Work on discriminating between denotative/connotative, literal/figurative meaning. Establish nuances of meaning to consolidate a new word.
SEMANTIC MAPS
Use semantic maps. Illustrate coordination, synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy and meronymy for consolidation.
SCALES
Use 'scales' for gradable adjectives. Order and establish meanings relative to other words in the same set.
PEG METHOD
Link words together that have no sense relationships, using a “peg” or “hook” word.
LOCI METHOD
Use a spatial mnemonic to memorize unrelated words.
GROUPING
Group words together to study them. Organize the words in some way before memorization and improve recall.
SPATIAL GROUPING
Group words together spatially on a page. Organize the words spatially on a page in some sort of pattern.
SENTENCES
Use new word in sentences. Group words together in a very natural way by using the target word in sentences.
STORYLINES
Group words together within a storyline. Group the words together in a story.
SPELLING
Study the spelling of a word. Focus on on the target word's orthographical form and explicitly study it.
SOUNDS
Study the sound of a word. Focus on on the target word's phonological form and explicitly study it.
SOUND REPRESENTATION
Say new word aloud when studying. Make a mental representation of the sound of a word, perhaps making use of rhyming words.
WORD FORM REPRESENTATION
Image word form. Visualize the orthographical form of a word in an attempt to remember it or to make a mental representation.
INITIAL LETTER
Underline initial letter of the word. Identify the initial letter of a word to aid recall.
CONFIGURATION
Identify word shape by outlining the word with lines to aid recall.
KEYWORD METHOD
Find a L1 word which sounds like the target L2 word, create an image combining the two concepts and invoke the created image to aid recall.
AFFIXES AND ROOTS
Remember affixes and Roots. Study a word's affixes and root to consolidate its meaning.
PARTS OF SPEECH
Remember parts of Speech. Study a word's word class to consolidate its meaning.
MEANING PARAPHRASE
Paraphrase the word’s meaning. Use the manipulation effort involved in reformulating the word's meaning to aid recall.
COGNATES
Use cognates in study. Resort to the cognate to remember word meaning.
IDIOMS
Learn the words of an idiom together. Analyze and learn the individual words of these chunks and and then use the whole chunk to remember individual word meanings.
PHYSICAL ACTION
Use physical action when learning a word. Use physical action to facilitate word recall.
SEMANTIC FEATURE GRIDS
Use semantic feature grids. Illustrate the meaning or collocational differences between sets of similar words.
RELEVANT WORDS
Select relevant words or terms specific to a given topic. Relate the word to other words which are relevant to a given topical area.
PARAPHRASING
Use paraphrasing to consolidate the meaning and the form of a word.
If you don’t know how to go about selecting different strategies to explore, develop and exercise, you can always pick them randomly until you develop a particular taste and can make more informed decisions. Take your chances with the wheel!
