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ESL forum >
Message board > Vocabulary acquisition
Vocabulary acquisition
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helena2009
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Vocabulary acquisition
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According
to Chomyky we can suppose that if you think /see this:
you have a
concept about it in your mind. This is in the deep structure.
If you
speak 2 languages
L1 and L2
(L1 is your mother tongue)
You can
name this object in these languages. This is the surface structure
My question
is : when you are memorizing a list of
words writing down in two columns and saying these words first in L1 then in L2
(rote learning) is your brain distracted by shifting between
L1�concept--L2�concept?
I suppose
that if you do that it makes the memorizing needless. I think by this way for
learning only goes to short memory and the words will fly away in a short time.
Thank you for your thinking with me!!
Helena
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21 Nov 2011
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minimal70
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hi Helena i don �t agree with you at all first of all, Chomsky �s theory of vocabulary acquisition is inadequate in his theorizing since he gives much importance to the abstract speech of language ( namely syntax or grammar) second of all, there is always a notion of THE LEXICON that he talks about and that means the way abstract operations handle lexical categories of F-Features together with functional categories C-Features. if a childs gets into a second language acquisition, he is in a state of Builingualism; what he is learning is just lexical categories without any F-Features attributes; he is to some extent overgeneralizing the lexicon of all languages. s/he may say the word "TIGER" which is an animal in english; the same word could mean a place in another language. the more the child grows up, the more his mental lexicon is restricted to his mother tongue |
21 Nov 2011
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ElenaGrig
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Dear Helena!
I �m not very good at Chomsky �s theory, but, from the point of view of physiologists, all the words in our memory are connected and organised in clusters. If the students learn the words the way you described, they can �t use them in their spontaneous speech because there are no connections between the words of L2. That �s why it takes a long time for a student to find the new word in his/her storage (memory). If the words were learnt within a phrase they have already got some connections. The more connections between the words we have in our memory, the easier our brain finds the word we need.
The rule for a teacher: Teach the phrases, not separate words. Use the phrases your are teaching in similar and different situations. Situations help to make new connections between the words.
Elena. |
21 Nov 2011
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clpycoc
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First of all, the mother tongue is in a different part of the brain than second, third or fourth languages, unless they were learned simultaneously. Going back and forth between L1 (mother tongue) and L2, is as though you are �traveling � great distances each time. So if you are teaching the word for "house", do NOT translate it into the mother tongue; show a picture of a house. I agree with ElenaGrig. You should teach the phrase not just individual words. I taught question words by showing a movie and having a viewing sheet go with it which the students had to answer. It worked so well! |
21 Nov 2011
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Mietz
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Chompsky is far away for me to be honest.
Well - I learned a lot of English with the help of my bilingual dictionary and with the help of bilingual vocab lists. Of course - most of the words were used in a context... I agree with that.
I remember writing an English test at school with and English-English dictionary. I ended up crying (at 18! ) because I jumped from one word I didn �t know to the next word I didn �t know. My teacher predicted, that I would never learn English... In Scotland I learned English with my - beloved - English-German / German-English dictionary. Of course that was in a context (loads of Germans there, though...), but I was also able to connect the new words with something I knew. My style of learning... Don �t tell my teachers, that I �m teaching English now...
My answer to the question: I think it �s a question of learning style. I cope fine with vocab lists. Others may not. Who are we to judge?
Just my two cents worth at the end of a crazy day.
Mietz
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21 Nov 2011
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MapleLeaf
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I think any kind of translation into your native language only slows down the vocabulary acquisition. It should be total native language immersion and learning in context, I think. For me it helps. To memorize a list of words, there �s a great book "Super power memory" by Harry Lorayne. Might be helpfull as well. There should be a very good imagination and the ability to make ridiculous associations to memorize within a short period of time a list of totally- different- not- linked -without- a-context words. Link method of memory pp39
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22 Nov 2011
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