
12 December 2023
Vocabulary and structure important for learning English
Learning vocabulary is not focus on when teaching English in Swedish schools, despite research showing that vocabulary is an essential part of learning a second language that requires systematic work, according to a new thesis in English and Education.
Repeating vocabulary using word pairs is seen by many English teachers as old-fashioned and something they wish to avoid. This view is however not supported by international research, which indicates that structure and support are needed to learn words in a foreign language.
“To communicate successfully in English, a large vocabulary and a deep and varied knowledge of words are required. Students need to learn many words, a lot about the words, and most importantly, the right words. To achieve this, teaching needs to be systematically planned,” says Denise Bergström, who recently defended her thesis at Luleå University of Technology.
In the doctoral thesis, she has investigated how vocabulary learning is treated in schools through interviews with English teachers in secondary school and materials developers, as well as through linguistic analyses of teaching materials.
Words learnt randomly
“Vocabulary is seen as important, but it is taken for granted that students learn words along the way, especially as they learn a lot of English in their free time. However, this results in lack of equity in education. Students who spend less time watching TV or using the computer in their free time are at risk of falling behind. It is also random what words students learn,” says Denise Bergström.
The school curriculum does not contain specific guidelines for vocabulary. According to Denise Bergström, this could be clarified. But at the same time, the curriculum can be interpreted in a way that allows teaching to already include more systematic work with words.
Teaching materials lacking structure
What does it mean to work more systematically with vocabulary learning? It can for example involve learning the most frequent words in a language first, repeating the words by encountering them repeatedly in different texts, and learning to use them through constructing one's own sentences or finding synonyms.
“It is too much to ask for each individual teacher to find this structure, so it would be helpful if teaching materials could provide it. However, the texts students encounter are not structured from this perspective, and vocabulary lists often seem to be selected for unclear reasons. One could expect a better situation," says Denise Bergström.
Encourage teachers to use vocabulary lists
Based on her thesis, Denise Bergström suggests several areas for improvement.
"My message to teachers is that vocabulary is important to work with. I want to encourage them to use the vocabulary list; it is not an outdated way of teaching. Regarding teaching materials, more publishers should prioritize vocabulary learning. There is a need for guidelines. As researchers, we could also work more on concretizing the research.”
Finding solutions for more structured teaching
The thesis describes what vocabulary learning looks like in school but does not provide exact answers on how teaching should change, and which methods to use.
“I have described the situation in school and want to raise awareness that systematic work is needed but missing. The solution is the next step. I hope we can speed up the process by raising the question and talking about it. Through more practice-based research, perhaps schools and researchers can find the answers together.”
Contact
Denise Bergström
- Associate Senior Lecturer
- 0920-493008
- denise.bergstrom@ltu.se
- Denise Bergström
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