The Importance of Learning Vocabulary [PDF]

Citation preview

1. The importance of learning vocabulary



1.1. The key to communication



Vocabulary is a crucial element to communicate effectively. Wilkins (1972) argued that without vocabulary you can not express anything . In additionally, Krashen (as cited in Lewis, 1993) noted that when students go on a trip, they take dictionaries with them instead of grammar books. Therefore, by having sufficient vocabulary, students can successfully express their emotion and clarify their ideas as well as understand clearly what others say.



1.2. A tool to develop other skills



No one can deny that vocabulary plays an important part in developing four basic skills. Nation (1994) said it is more simple to perform listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills with a large vocabulary. Indeed, students with a wide variety of different words can easily get the meaning of the texts in reading, get the idea of the conversations in listening and using words effectively in speaking and writing.



2. Teaching vocabulary



Teaching vocabulary directly affects the student’s learning English process. According to Thornbury (2002) , teaching vocabulary plays a vital role in studying a foreign language since language depends on words. Therefore, without an appropriate teaching way, students will have the lack of vocabulary which makes they find more difficult to perform English skills. In addition, recent study shows that teaching new words might be difficult as a lot of teachers are not sure about the most efficient way to put vocabulary into practice and can not see where to start to create an instructional emphasis on learning new words (Berne &Blachowicz, 2008). Thus, teachers have to deal with things such as which types of word and methods should be used for students to get the best result.



Reference: Berne, J. I. & Blachowicz, C. L. Z. (2008). What reading teachers say about vocabulary instruction: voices from the classroom. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228626576_What_Reading_Teacher s_Say_About_Vocabulary_Instruction_Voices_From_the_Classroom



Nation, P. (Ed.). (1994). New ways in teaching vocabulary. Alexandria, VA: TESOL. Retrieved from: https://b-ok.cc/book/3086039/9fa8fe Lewis, M. (1993).The Lexical Approach. Language Teaching Publications. Retrieved from: https://www.scribd.com/doc/311179432/The-Lexical-Approach



Thornbury, S. (2002).How to teach vocabulary. England: Pearson Education Limited.Ur press, (2002). Retrieved from: https://www.academia.edu/18950782/How_to_teach_vocabulary_by_Scott_Thor nbury?auto=download Wilkins, D. (1972). Linguistics in language teaching. London: Arnold. Retrieved from: https://abamedia.press/med-48958/0846205068