V is for Vocabulary Acquisition

Vocabulary Acquisition  

Learning vocabulary in large quantities remains a problem in the second or foreign language classroom.  The advice on how many words to teach in each lesson varies, from 5 to 10 or 12.  Yet, students need masses and masses of it to make progress – it’s not the grammar that makes the difference as much as the range and amount of vocabulary available to a user that contributes to their ability to communicate. 

You may have read various posts and articles about recycling, multiple encounters and how exposure to authentic text in which vocabulary  ‘naturally’ reappears and is ‘re-encountered’ is the path to assimilating new lexis. There are also claims that when we read  massively on topics we are interested in (as in ‘narrow reading’, a term coined by S.Krashen), we will be able to do just that without the need of a teacher – we can ‘acquire’ on our own.

We all look for ways to that end; the lexical approach had an impact on teachers. Learning language in chunks makes sense,  but despite its promises, the lexical approach has little to offer by way of new techniques or methods related to how these ‘chunks’ that learners are meant to notice will also be acquired in large numbers. The sad truth is that massive vocabulary learning it is still very much of a mystery to language teachers.

So, the big question still remains:  is the old tradition of memorising long lists of words with or without translation the best way or are there other more effective ways of helping our learners acquire large quantities of vocabulary?

Massive Vocabulary Acquisition & Paul Meara’s Research

A quick search for this string reveals very little readily available on the web except for some research reported by Paul Meara, in which he claims that young adults at the peak of their acquisition ability were able to acquire as many as 60 words a day – in the foreign language as well as in their mother tongue.

Of course!!! If we look back at school, what was it but a great way of acquiring words for new concepts that were being presented to us? 60 words a day may even be very little if  one thinks of the multitude of new words and concepts students are exposed to every day at school.

Paul Meara has put together a formidable portal for vocabulary research – it’s called Lognostics and is dedicated to showcase research on vocabulary acquisition – a treasure trove of interesting papers and research reports.

Paul Meara himself has written extensively on vocabulary acquisition, including the potential for learning large numbers of words in a short time. Two downloadable articles follow:

“Vocabulary Acquisition: A Neglected Aspect of Language Learning“ (1980) – Language Teaching and Linguistics: Abstracts.

In this article, Meara critiques traditional vocabulary learning methods and explores the possibility of rapid vocabulary expansion, suggesting that learners can acquire dozens of words per day under the right conditions.

You can download it from this link

“The Dimensions of Lexical Competence” (1996) – In Performance and Competence in Second Language Acquisition (Eds. G. Brown, K. Malmkjaer, & J. Williams).

In this, free to download article, Meara discusses how high-input learning environments (such as intensive study or immersion) can facilitate massive vocabulary gains, possibly even exceeding 50–60 words per day for highly motivated learners.

Key Points from Meara’s Work:

• Spaced repetition and high-frequency exposure are critical for retaining large numbers of words.
• Contextual learning (e.g., reading extensively) helps reinforce new vocabulary.
• Learner strategies (e.g., mnemonics, word lists) can dramatically increase daily acquisition rates.

You might also like to read Stephen Krashen’s article on narrow reading – downloadable from the link here 

Krashen, S., “The Case for Narrow Reading” (2004), in Language Magazine 3(5):17-19,

This is a potential very much worth exploring and experimenting with. The big questions are

• Would the numbers be different with younger or older learners?
• What classroom practices would encourage and support learning large numbers of words in and out of class?

For Cambridge DELTA candidates, these questions might be worth considering as a possible topic for their experimental practice assignment.

In a follow-up post, I will post an example of such an experimental practice assignment focusing on massive vocabulary acquisition.

All images from https://canva.com