SUBJECT 11. CAMPOS LÉXICOS Y SEMÁNTICOS EN LA LENGUA INGLESA. LÉXICO NECESARIO PARA LA SOCIALIZACIÓN, LA INFORMACIÓN Y LA EXPRESIÓN DE ACTITUDES. TIPOLOGÍA DE ACTIVIDADES LIGADAS A LA ENSE ENSEÑA ÑANZ NZA A Y EL APRE APREND NDIZ IZAJ AJEE DE DELL LÉXI LÉXICO CO EN LA CLASE DE LENGUA EXTRANJERA. INTRODUCTION Trad Tradit itio iona nall lly, y, the the teac teachi hing ng of a fore foreig ignn lang langua uage ge has has focu focuse sed d on the the teaching and learning of grammar as well as of vocabulary. The first thing children do in their mother tongue, once they are able to, is to say words. These words will be isolated, they won’t say sentences, but they are words which come from their surrounding and which have meaning anyway. At the same time that the children are more aware of reality, they learn more and more words. In the process of learning a foreign language, the teacher must take into account the natural process of language learning. The 4 skills are naturally acquired acquired in the following following order !I"T#$I$%, !I"T#$I$%, "A'I$%, "A'I$%, (#A)I$% (#A)I$% and *(ITI$% . Therefore it seems to be quite logical to learn a foreign language in the same way. +owever, as it was mentioned above, the teaching of a foreign language has been always based on both grammar and vocabulary aspects. The reason for this is that a child that can already read and write in hisher own language would feel frustrated if heshe could only produce isolated words.
LEXICAL AND SEMANTIC FIELDS -hoosing which vocabulary of the foreign language should be taught is not easy. Throughout the history of the teaching of foreign language there have been basic trends trying to select the most adequate vocabulary
The first of them was based on the frequency of use . This means there are are word wordss whic which h are are used used more more freq freque uent ntly ly than than othe others rs due due to determined circumstances. "ome works have been published, trying in an attempt to show the most frequently used words in written #nglish.
The second trend is based on the fact that there are some words that are more necessary than others due to their direct relationship with learning aims. It is very difficult to establish which words are necessary and which words are not because many different factors and realities can vary the criteria. That is why the teacher has to take into account the students’ world and interests. As well as this , the vocabulary cannot be presented in isolation but within real situations or linguistic conte/ts. This will facilitate both comprehension and production. The important factor is that they are useful words for communication. Thus teachers should look for these 0interesting’ conte/ts, for instance a1 informal conversations with classroom mates b1 phone calls c1 children stories d1 instructions for the functioning and organisation of the classroom, house , work... . e1 descriptions of ob2ects, people or animals f1 2okes and games g1 interviews h1 penfriends
It is easier to learn vocabulary when it is possible to associate it in some way. There are important ways of relating words 3. n the one hand, when they are related by means of semantic associations, that is, with their meaning, we say that they are related through !"#$%&' (&!)*. #.g. "ports, fruits, clothes,... . . n the other hand, when the link is through formal relations, we say that they are related through )!+&'#) (&!)*.#.g. photography, photographer, photocopy, photographic... . The classroom is the place where interaction in the foreign language mainly takes place. ften, the language used in the classroom does not have a real application outside but there are many other sentences that are also used in normal social situations, such as -ould you open the door, please5, "it down, please. "tudents should be provided from the beginning with simple linguistic tools that allow them to e/press their necessities and problems, such as a1 asking and giving information #/cuse me6, -ould you repeat that5, ... b1 e/pressing attitudes and actions I don’t like it at all, I hate it,...
c1 using social formulae +appy birthday6, +ow old are you5, %ood morning6,... d1 asking questions in class for information +ow do you spell it5,... . ur main task as teachers is offering the students a series of resources that allow them to communicate in a foreign language. That is why, apart from the teaching the above7mentioned vocabulary and structures, we must make them aware of the fact that a great deal of new words can be formed, as in their mother tongue, by means of
ORD FORMATION
There are different processes of word formation, such as 3. A88I9ATI$ There are two processes &refi/ation It consists in adding a prefi/ to the base o without a change of word7class : normally class7maintaining 1. 8or instance *e have some words as man , market,... if we add a prefi/ super7, we have another word. #.g. superman, supermarket, ... . "uffi/ation It consists in adding a suffi/ to the base normally changing he word7class : class7changing 1. 8or instance we have some nouns and if we add a suffi/es it is become in a ad2ective . #.g. +elp helpless black blackish
. -$;#("I$ A word changes its cathegory but it doesn
;erb... $oun To love7 love, to answer7 answer Ad2ective... $oun )aily newspaper7daily, comic actor7 comic $oun... ;erb =ottle7 to bottle, nurse7 to nurse Ad2ective... ;erb -alm7 to calm, dry7 to dry
There are other types of conversion >I$( -AT#%(I#" 8 -$;#("I$
-onversion from closed7system words to nouns. #.g. this book is a must for them
-onversion of phrases to nouns.#.g. >y house is one of the also7rans : from my horse also ran1 -onversion of phrases to ad2ectives.#.g. an under7the7weather feeling -onversion fron affi/es to nouns.#.g. &atriotism and any other isms you’d like to name. -onversion of secondary word7class. #.g. I am running : intransitive vb.1 I am running a mile : monotransitive vb. 1 "hakespeare was a writer. : proper noun1. There are many "hakespeares in t he world : common one 1 A&&(9I>AT# -$;#("I$ ;oicing and stress shift . In some cases conversion is appro/imate rather than complete, that is a word, in he course of changing its grammatical function may undergo a slight change of pronunciation or spelling. +e most important kinds of alteration are
;oicing of final consonants advice :noun17 advise : verb 1, house : noun17 house : verb1 "hift of stress *hen disyllabic verbs become nouns the stress sometimes change from the second to the first syllable. This happens with words like conduct, contrast,conflict,convert,....
?. ->&@$)I$% This process consists in putting two bases together forming a syntactic unit. There are different types
$@$ ->&@$)" Are those which function as nouns. There are several types. 7"@=#-T B ;#(= sunrise 0the sun rises’ 7;#(= B =#-T record7player 0 9 plays the record’ 7;#(= B A);#(=IA! swimming7pool 09 swims in the pool’ 7;#(=!#"" ->&@$) ashtray 0 a tray :is1 for the ash’ A)#-TI;# ->&@$)" are those which function as ad2ectives. Types 7;#(=B=#-T a man7eating giant 09 eats a man’ 7;#(=B A);#(=IA! an ocean7going boat 0 9 goes across the ocean’ 7;#(=!#"" ->&@$) class7conscious 09 is conscious of hisher class’
;#(= ->&@$)" are those which function as verbs. The problem with this kind of compounds is that they are normally back7formations of noun compounds.#.g.baby7sit,
4. =A-' 8(>ATI$ 8ormation of a new word by the removal of : real or apparent 1 affi/es from a e/isting word. The ma2ority of back7formations in #nglish are verbs.#.g. 7=urgle :from burglar1 C to robe 7housekeep : from housekeeping1 D. (#)@&!I-ATI$ (eduplicatives are compounds with two or more constituents which are identical or slightly different. >ost of reduplicatives are taken from the language of nursery. #.g. walkie7talkie, criss7cross, goody7goody :very good, delicious1, ping7pong, hocus7pocus : abracadabra1, wishy7washy : when someone uses a very academic language.1. @ses of reduplicatives
to imitate sounds tick7tock to suggest alternating movements see7 saw : balancEn1 to suggest vacillation or nonsense wishy7washy to intensify tip7top.
F. -!I&&I$% It denotes he subtraction of one or more syllables of a word. -lippings are normally familiar words which are often shortened to a single syllable : especially in informal language1. The shortening may occur a1 at the beginning of the word telephone7phone b1 at the end of the word photograph7photo c1 both at the beginning and end of the word influenGa7flu. Another e/amples could be ad : advertisement1, e/am : e/amination 1,... H.=!#$)I$% : blends or portmanteau words1 #special type of compounds in which at least one of the elements is fragmentary. #.g.
smog: smoke B fog1, heliport : helicopter B airport1, #urovision : #urope B vision 1 , transistor : transfer B resistor 1 .A-($J>" *ords formed from the initial letters or larger parts of words. There are two types a1 A!&+A=#TI"> or A=(#;IATI$" words which are pronounced as sequence of letters @8, @"A, #-, @' , ... b1 &(( A-($J>" pronounced as a simple word ;AT, $AT, (A)A( : radio detecting and ranging1.
K.*()7>A$@8A-T@(# -I$A%# *hen a word is invented by someone and it can defining something. 8or instance %%! : a number that is equal to 3 followed by 3LL Geros1. 3L.=((*I$% !inguistic forms can be taken by one language or dialect from another. #.g. restaurant, cafM, piGGa, patio... .
TYPOLOGY OF ACTIVITIES RELATED TO T-E TEAC-ING AND LEARNING OF LEXICON
"o far we have referred to the formation of words and to which is the necessary vocabulary, but the simple fact of telling our students which are the e/pressions and mechanisms does not make them learn them. There are certain factors that are very important to consider in the teaching of vocabulary and we offer some helpful techniques A1&(#"#$TATI$ 8 ;-A=@!A(J *henever we elaborate an activity with the aim of acquiring vocabulary, we have to bear in mind that le/icon must be presented in real situational or linguistic conte/t that facilitate deduction of meaning. n the other hand,
it must be presented orally for the student to internalise pronunciation prior to orthography. Taking into account these factors we can present a word by means of a1 linguistic resources, in an indirect way using a synonym or antonym. b1 )escribing it : with this technique we will use the le/icon corresponding to descriptions1 c1 *orking out meaning through the conte/t. d1 *e can present vocabulary by means of realia : for instance, when the le/icon presented refers to classroom ob2ects, clothes, or physical characteristics1 =1 &(A-TI-# nce the vocabulary has been presented, the ne/t step is to give the pupil the possibility to put into practice in adequate real conte/ts inside the classroom in order to check that the student has understood. 8or this step there is a series of adequate activities a1 arrange drawings and words b1 riddles : ob2ect, people or animals1 c1 =ingo. This game can be used in order to practise any type of vocabulary : number, fruits, colours1 . *e can use this activity and revising the vocabulary. d1 Arrange and classify : in different categories colours, liquids,...1 e1 )omino f1 Telephone g1 &icture dictation h1 Arrange a te/t step by step i1 Association game. #.g. I went to the market and bought some breadI went to the market and bought some bread and some fish ... . 21 stories
-1 -$"!I)ATI$ 8 T+# ;-A=@!A(J A-N@I(#) It is the most difficult because for the vocabulary learnt not to be forgotten, it must be used frequently. >aking collages is an adequate
instrument to revise vocabulary. "tudents themselves can collect photos about determined semantic field : animals, clothing, sports, fruits , ....1 stick them onto a pasteboard and write their names in #nglish. *e can hung it on the walls : as vocabulary reminders1
CONCLUSION *e will decide which vocabulary and resources are the most appropriate and useful setting out from the peculiarities of our classroom . $one of them e/cludes one another. The use of motivating varied resources will make the #nglish class effective as well as amusing.
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