Recently I’ve been reading Learning Vocabulary in Another Language by I.S.P. Nation (cambridge australia link). I’m currently reading chapter 3 Teaching and Explaining Vocabulary which has a number of very interesting points to make about vocabulary acquisition and classroom applications. The book itself is a little dry, which is why it’s taking me so long to read, but it is very informative.

three processes of acquisition
Nation states that there are three process involved in successful acquisition of vocabulary. These are noticing, retrieval, and creative (generative) use. I will discuss each of these in turn and add my opinions and personal experience where relevant.

Noticing
Noticing is about noticing the word in the first place and recognizing it as an unknown. Noticing involves a number of things, but most importantly the learner recognizes that they have encountered the word before, but it is used slightly differently this time, they recognize that the word is important to the current context and that they are unfamiliar with it, and the learner is also motivated and interested in learning the word. Additionally learners willdecontextualize the word when noticing it. 

At first this seemed awkward to me as I believe that context is important for language acquisition. However the decontextualization is focusing on the word to better understand it. Decontextualization may occur consciously or subconsciously in a variety of ways:

• While listening or reading, the learner notices that a word is new or thinks,‘I have seen that word before, ’ or thinks, ‘that word is used differently from the ways I have sen it used before.’
• The teacher highlights a word while writing it on the blackboard.
• The learners negotiate the meaning of a word with each otheror with the teacher
• The teacher explains a word for the learners by giving a definition, a synonym, or a first language translation.
page 65

Within noticing we should also consider the effect that negotiation has on vocabulary acquisition. When learners discuss amongst themselves trying to determine the meaning of a word what they learn is more strongly in their memory. Interestingly, learners who observe other students negotiating learn the word equally as well as the negotiators. This is clearly beneficial for large classes where one student and the teacher negotiate the meaning of a word or even in smaller groups where one or two students don’t actively participate but mostly listen. They too are learning.

Retrieval
Noticing a word leads to learning the word, but retrieval will strengthen the meaning in the mind of the learner. This is particularly true when the word is retrieved in a learning task shortly after noticing it. Nation discusses astudy by Baddeley which suggests that “not simply repetition which is important but the repeated opportunity to retrieve the item which is to be learned.” Each repetition leads to a strengthening of the meaning of the word in memory. Additionally each meeting and retrieval of a word further broadens the definition so that eventually with repeated exposures and uses the learner will come to learn the full meaning of each word encountered.

It is important however that the time between encounters is not too long. This is particularly important for the first two to three exposures. Repetition is only beneficial if the learner remembers that they have encountered the word previously. If they do not remember the previous meeting then the current encounter acts like an initial encounter. At the end of this section Nations states:

it is very useful to try to estimate how much listeningandreaqding a learneer would need to be doing per week in order for incidental receptive vocabulary learning to proceed in an effective way….on aveerage learners would need to listen to stories at least three times a week for about fifteen minutes each time. they would need to read about one graded reader every two weeks.

page 68

Creative or Generative Use
The next part is about generative use, which to me is a new term. I will quote Nations first paragraph explaining this term:

The third major process that may lead to a word being remembered is generation. There is now an increasing number of studies that showthat generative processing is an important factor in first and second language vocabulary learning. Generative processing occurs when previously met words are subsequently met or used in ways that differ from the previous meeting with the word. At its moststriking, the new meeting with the word forces learners to reconceptualise their knowledge of that word.

Generative use can be receptive or productive. Receptive when the word is encountered in reading or listening and has a slightly different meaning, but it can also be productive. Where the meaning of the word is stretched beyond the known by the learner.

Additionally generative use has degrees of generation. Merely adding a strengthener to a word such as very deep to indicate than an body of water is dangerous for swimming is only minor generation. However if heavy were to be used in an entirely different context perhaps with metaphorical meaning as in The book in question that delves into the deeper meaning of relationships in the modern age clearly there is a greater degree of generation.

This entry took me over two weeks to write. I’ve been very busy and haven’t had as much time as I would like to read more on the subject and think more carefully about it. In particular the last section has been rushed.

Over all I highly recommend this book as I have learned a lot so far and am looking forward to reading the rest.