Vocabulary and Language Teaching

255 Pages·1988·5.938 MB·

by  Ronald Carter, Michael Mccarthy

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7
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0 Applied Linguistics and Language Study
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General Editor: C. N. Candlin
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APPLIED LINGUISTICS AND LANGUAGE STUDY
GeneralEditor
ProfessorChristopherN. Candlin, Macquarie Unil'ersity
7 Error Analysis Bilingualisn1 in Education
1 Perspectives on secolId Aspectst~rtheory, research and
0
2 languageacquisition practice
l JACK C. RICHARDS (ED.) JIM CUMMINS AND
i
pr MERRILL SWAIN
A Stylistics and the Teaching of
6 Literature Second Language Granllnar:
2 HENRY WIDDOWSON Leamingand Teaching
2 WILLIAM E. RUTHERFORD
5
: Language Tests at School
8 The Classroom and the Language
1 A pragmaticapproach
] at JOHN W. OLLERJNR ELtella1r1n0egrraphyandsecond-language
o classroom research
g Contrastive Analysis
ie CARLJAMES LEO VAN LIER
D
Vocabulary and Language Teaching
n Language and Communication
a RONALD CARTER AND MICHAEL
S JACK R. RICHARI)S AND McCARTHY (E1)S)
a, RICHARD W. SCHMIDT (EDS)
i Observation in the Language
n
r Learning to Write: First Language/ Classrooll1
o
f Second Language DICK ALLWRIGHT
i
al AVIVA FREDMAN, IAN PRINGLE
C Listening to Spoken English
ANDJANIC YALDEN (EDS)
f Second Edition
o
y Strategies in Interlanguage GILLIAN BROWN
sit Communication Listening in Language Learning
r CLAUS FAERCH AND
e MICHAEL ROST
v GABRIELE KASPER (EDS)
i
n An Introduction to Second Language
U Reading in a Foreign Language
Acquisition Research
y [ J. CHARLES ALDERSON AND DIANE LARSEN-FREEMAN AND
b A.H. URQUHART (EDS)
d MICHAEL H. LONG
de An Introduction to Discourse Language and Discrin1ination
oa Analysis .,1 Study ofcommullication in
nl New edition multi-ethnic workplaces
w MALCOLM COULTHARD CELIA ROBERTS, TOMJUPP AND
o EVELYN DAVIES
D Computers in English Language
Teaching and Research Translation and Translating:
GEOFFREY LEECH AND Theory and Practice
CHRISTOPHER N. CANDLIN (EDS) ROGER T. BELL
Language Awareness in the Process and Experience in the
Classroom Language Classroom
CARLJAMES AND MICHAEL LEGUTKE AND
PETER GARRETT HOWARD THOMAS
Vocabulary and
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2 Language Teaching
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6
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5 Ronald Carter and Michael McCarthy
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t with contributions from
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] Joanna Channell
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g James Coady
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i A. P. Cowie
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n Paul Nation
a James Nattinger
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a, Antoinette Renouf
ni John Sinclair
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o Della Summers
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LONDON AND NEWYORK
Firstpublished1988byPearsonEducationLimited
Published2013byRoutledge
2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN
7 711ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10017,USA
1
0 RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,
2 aninformabusiness
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i
r Copyright©1988,Taylor&Francis.
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Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorre
6 producedorutilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,
2 orothermeans,nowknownorhereafterinvented,includingpho
2 tocopyingandrecording,orinanyinformationstorageorretriev
5 alsystem,withoutpermissioninwritingfromthepublishers.
:
8
1 Notices
at Knowledgeandbestpracticeinthisfieldareconstantlychanging.
] Asnewresearchandexperiencebroadenourunderstanding,
o changesinresearchmethods,professionalpractices,ormedical
g treatmentmaybecomenecessary.
e
i
D
Practitionersandresearchersmustalwaysrelyontheirownexpe
n rienceandknowledgeinevaluatingandusinganyinformation,
a methods,compounds,orexperimentsdescribedherein.Inusing
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a, ssaufcehtyinafnodrmthaetisoanfeotyrmofeotthhoedrss,tihnecylusdhionugldpabretimesinfodrfuwlhoofmthethireyown
ni haveaprofessionalresponsibility.
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li thors,contributors,oreditors,assumeanyliabilityforanyinjury
Ca and/ordamagetopersonsorpropertyasamatterofproductslia
bility,negligenceorotherwise,orfromanyuseoroperationofany
of methods,products,instructions,orideascontainedinthemateri
y alherein.
t
si ISBN13:978-0-582-55382-8(pbk)
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e BRITISHLIBRARYCAT.ALOGLINGINPUBLICATIONDATA
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i Carter.Ronald. /9</7-
n Vocabularyandlanguageteaching.
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(Appliedlinguisticsandlanguagestudy).
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oa Carter.Ronald.
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Bibliography:p.
o Includesindex.
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I.Languageandlanguages- Studyandteaching.
2.Vocabulary- Studyandteaching. 3.Secondlanguage
acquisition. I.McCarthy.Michael. IlJ47-
[I.Title III.Series
P53.9.C37 19XX 41 W.()()7 X7-2733
Setin 10/12Linotron202Erhardt
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1 Contents
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ri page
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A Preface vii
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2 2 Introduction Xl
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8 1 Word lists and learning words: some foundations 1
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] 2 Lexis and structure 18
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Di 3 Developments in the teaching ofvocabulary: 1945 to
n the present day 39
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a, 4 New directions in vocabulary studies 60
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r Some current trends in vocabulary teaching 62
o
if James Nattinger
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C Psycholinguistic considerations in the study of L2
f vocabulary acquisition 83
o
y Joanna Channell
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si Vocabulary and reading 97
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e Paul Nation andJames Coady
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ni The role of dictionaries in language learning III
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Della Summers
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y Stable and creative aspects ofvocabulary use 126
b
d A.P. Cowie
de A lexical syllabus for language learning 140
a
o John McH. Sinclair andAntoinette Renouf
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n Vocabulary, cloze and discourse 161
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o Ronald Carter
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Some vocabulary patterns in conversation 181
MichaelMcCart~J'
5 Lexis and discourse: vocabulary in use 201
Bibliography 221
Index 237
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful for permission to reproduce, in are-shaped
and re-edited form, material \vhich first appeared in Carter, R. A.
7 J/()cabulalJl: applied linguistic perspectives published by George Allen
1
0 and Unwin in 1987 and in an article 'Vocabulary and second/foreign
2
l language teaching', Language Teaching 20, 1 (1987) published by
i
pr Cambridge University Press. 1~ preliminary version of the article in
A
section four of this book entitled '·Vocabulary cloze and discourse'
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2 was first given as aconference paper at a RELC seminar in Singapore
2 (see Carter 1985). 'T'he author is grateful for comments ofparticipants
5
8: at that seminar and to RELC for allowing some ofthe material to be
1
t reproduced here.
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] The authors would also like to take this opportunity of thanking all
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g the contributors to the book, the general editor Professor Chris
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Di Candlin, and MichaelJohnson andJoy Marshall at Longman for their
n assistance at various stages in the completion of the book. We are
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S al~o especially indebted to Margaret Berry, David Brazil, Mike
a, Hoey, \Valter Nash, l\1ichael Stubbs andJeanne McCarten for many
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n invaluable discussions concerning the nature of lexis. The book is
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f dedicated to Jane and Jeanne.
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a
C R.A.C. M.].N1.
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y We are grateful to the following for permission to reproduce copy
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si right material:
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v Associated Book Publishers (UK) I~td for an extract from Basic
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n
U English and Its [jses by I. A. Richards (pub Routledge & Kegan Paul
y [ pIc, 1943); Newsweek Inc for an extract from an article in lVel1JSIlJeek
b 5/3/84 (c) 1984 News\veek Inc. 1:\11 rights reserved.
d
e
d We have been unable to trace the Language Research Institute,
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o Boston, the USA copyright holder in Basic English and Its Llses by
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n I. A. Richards, and \vould appreciate any information that \vould en
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o able us to do so.
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1 Preface
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6 One of the chief objectives of the Applied Linguistics and Language
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2 Study series is to offer books across the range oftopics in language
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: pedagogy, focusing research on issues which arise from educational
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1 practice. When one looks at the array of books presently available
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a in the series it strikes one as surprising that we have not until now
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o identified vocabulary as one such key topic. It is as ifits subject-matter
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e has been subsumed, as itwere, within other fields, for example within
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the study of reading in a foreign language, or within writing, or as
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a part ofsecond-language acquisition more generally conceived. It has
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a, not had a separate identity. Why should this be so?
i Partly perhaps because of the overwhelming concentration in
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or linguistic theory, at least in United States research, on issues of
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i syntactic structure. Partly because interlanguage research, following
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a
C this focus, has very largely not treated lexical acquisition as a priority.
f Partly, too, because the emphasis within semantics on the study of
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y paradigmatic structures and denotational meaning has seemed less
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si central to current concerns with pragmatics and the analysis of
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e discourse. Yet, as this book points out very clearly, the study of
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ni vocabulary is at the heart oflanguage teaching and learning, in terms
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of the organization of syllabuses, the evaluation of learner perfor
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y mance, the provision of learning resources, and, most obviously,
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d because it is how most learners see language and its learning diffi
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d culty. It is an apposite moment, then, to place vocabulary in a peda
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o gogic spotlight, not to argue its relevance, but to indicate how its
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n study offers insights into the process ofacquisition, the organization
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o ofteaching and the social and linguistic structure oflanguage.
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Appropriately enough, the authors begin their account with a
historical survey into vocabulary studies in a pedagogical context,
showingnot onlythat despite recent emphases on syntax, the ground
work of lexical description has a lengthy history, but also how
research into vocabulary controlwas intimatelyconnected to concerns
with acquisition. This introductory chapter establishes the connection
between language teaching, the organization and provision ofvocabu-
V111 Preface
lary resources, and the structure of language which informs the
whole volume.
Any discussion of acquisition necessarily raises questions of how
learners come to master and exploit relationships and structure, in
7 lexis no less than in syntax. In Chapter 2, therefore, the authors
1 address the issue of the interdependence of the linguistic organiz
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2 ation of vocabulary, its acquisition by learners, and its appropriate
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ri pedagogic structuring by teachers. They do so by focusing on the
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A need to integrate paradigmatic and syntagmatic dimensions in lexical
6 study as a way of providing organizational principles for pedagogy.
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2 The exploration of these dimensions is at the heart of the book,
5 raising as it does the problems of not only the relationship of lexis
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1 togrammarbutalsooftheindependenceofsemanticsfrompragmatics.
at Problems ofdictionary-making, ofdenotative and connotative mean
o] ings, ofstable and dynamic interpretations reveal issues oftheoretical
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e model as well as those of the boundaries of linguistic analysis. It is
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D here and in the more centrally pedagogic discussions of Chapter 3
n that we see applied linguistics most characteristically at work: prac
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S tical problems raising theoretical and descriptive questions for joint
a, action by researchers and practitioners.
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r It is at this point in the book that its innovative structure is most
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if valuable. The issues, both pedagogic and theoretical, have been
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Ca displayed. What is now needed is that they should be taken up in
f detail. Ron Carter and Mike l\lcCarthy have commissioned and
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y edited six original contributions from researchers and practitioners
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i directly involved in lexicology and lexicography, to which they have
s
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e added two personal studies oftheir own. The range oftopics matches
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ni the scope of the book: trends in vocabulary teaching; the nature of
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the learner's mental lexicon and the link between learning and
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y teaching; the relationship between lexical study and reading research;
b
d the place ofusers' 'stable' locutions in lexicographic description; the
e relationship between user needs and styles ofdictionary presentation;
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oa the use of large-scale computer corpora in lexicology and syllabus
nl design; the implications for cloze testing of current research in
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lexicology; vocabulary patterns in discourse. Each ofthese papers by
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D distinguished authors is followed by a set of points for further
development, contributed by the editors. These are not to be seen
as discussion topics only. They represent questions for action
research, eminently appropriate for teachers to undertake as part of
their practice with learners.
To this point, then, the book has set vocabulary in its pedagogic
and research context and, incidentally, has placed it very necessarily
Preface IX
in its historical perspective. Links have been made between the prac
tices of teaching, lexicography and syllabus design and the study of
linguistic structure, and connections between acquisition and organ
ization emphasized. The importance of the final chapter, Lexis and
7 discourse, is not only to reaffirm the connection between research and
1 practice. Much more importantly it is to show how present studies
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2 in lexical description, aided by quite massive advances in technical
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ri capacity, can provide the data to underpin the integration of the
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A syntagmatic and paradigmatic axes in vocabulary study. Such readily
6 accessible data, however, would be impotent without an appropriate
2
2 theory oflanguage, one which emphasizes lexical structure but which
5
: does so in the context ofthe language user. It is this emphasis which
8
1 underlines the centrality of vocabulary study both to current issues
at in linguistic theory and to present concerns ofcommunicative prac
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o tice.
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D Christopher N. Candlin Lancaster
n General Editor January 1987
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