Recommended further reading
Many of the applied linguistics and teacher resource titles available to teachers of languages are written with the English as a Foreign Languages market in mind. If you browse the shelves of bookshops for material on teaching other modern foreign languages, you will find little other than reference grammars and dictionaries. This list is compiled with this state of affairs in mind.
For a comprehensive yet readable account of the state of current research in vocabulary, from both a linguistic and a pedagogic perspective, I would recommend any of the following four titles. They cover historical perspectives, research projects, copora, and give advice on which vocabulary to teach at levels from beginner to advanced:
Carter, R (1998) Vocabulary: Applied Linguistic Perspectives, 2nd edition, Routledge, London
Nation, I S P (2000), Learning Vocabulary in Another Language, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Schmitt, N (2000) Vocabulary in Language Teaching, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Schmitt, N and McCarthy, M (eds) (1997), Vocabulary, Description, Acquisition and Pedagogy, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
For methodology, I would recommend any of the following three titles. Although Harmer is written from an English teaching perspective, many of the ideas can be adapted for use with other languages. Lewis presents practical ideas on how a lexical approach can be implemented. McKay and Tom has a useful third section constructed around topics and ways of teaching language items within a topic-based syllabus:
Harmer, J (2001) The Practice of English Language Teaching, 3rd edition, Longman, Harlow
Lewis, M (1993) The Lexical Approach, Language Teaching Publications, Hove
McKay, H and Tom, A (1999) Teaching Adult Second Language Learners, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
For resources, the following titles treat techniques and procedures that can be used for teaching languages other than English, though the materials themselves will need to be adapted:
Hadfield, J (1998) Elementary Vocabulary Games: A collection of vocabulary games and activities for elementary students of English, Longman, Harlow
Howard Williams, D and Herd, C (1994) Word Games with English 1, 2 and 3, Heinemann, London
Redman, S, Ellis, R and Viney, B (1996 / 1997) A Way with Words Resource Pack 1 and 2, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Watcyn-Jones, P (2001) Vocabulary 1 and 2: Games and Activities, Penguin, Harlow
Web resources
Paul Meara's Vocabulary Acquisition Research Group Archive (VARGA),
at http://www.swan.ac.uk/cals/calsres/index/index.htm is a huge bibliographical resource,
covering vocabulary research since 1990. The site includes testing tools
in main European languages.
For vocabulary tests: DIALANG at http://www.dialang.org
Journals of use to language
teachers, showing how theory relates to practice, and giving teaching
ideas:
http://www.etprofessional.com
http://www.babylonia-ti.ch
Online dictionaries:
http://www.yourdictionary.com
http://www.m-w.com
Russell Stannard has a regular
column in English Teaching Professional where he reviews useful
websites for language teachers. Some that might be of use for vocabulary
teaching, with Russell's comments summarized, are: http://school.discovery.com/cgi-bin/wcchop.cgi?T=chop
This site divides words into two parts and scrambles them across the page.
Students have to join the two parts of the word together. For lower levels.
http://school.discovery.com/cgi-bin/wcscram.cgi?T=scram
Key in a list of words your students have just learnt. Click on the button
and you have all the words scrambled into a worksheet.
http://www.wordsmyth.net/foundry.glossary.shtml
This is a tool that takes some getting used to but is very useful for
advanced levels. Key in a set of words that you want to review and set
various options, eg meaning, phonetic script, related words, etc.
http://school.discovery.com/cgi-bin/wcblanks.cgi?T=blank
http://school.discovery.com/cgi-bin/wcblanks.cgi?T=bnb
These are two sites for producing gap-fill activities.
http://school.discovery.com/cgi-bin/wcmultchoice.cgi?T=mc
This is a multiple-choice generator. Key in each question, followed by
a comma and then the correct answer, and the generator does the rest.
