8.3.5
How can I pre-teach vocabulary?

It is sometimes a good idea to provide learners with help in processing vocabulary in advance of reading, especially when the text contains a lot of items that are likely to be new to them and that are not accessible to contextual inference (see Module 7, section 7.5.2.2). One technique, which simultaneously makes use of learners' background knowledge, is to get the group to brainstorm in L2 on the type of vocabulary they associate with the topic. For example:

Read the text (Text 2, 'The Architecture of Consumption') and note down under the following headings all the relevant items you would find in a large supermarket:

Dairy products            
Vegetables            
Fresh meat            
Tinned goods            
Bakery            
Fruit            
Clothes            
Drinks            
Household goods            
Writing materials            
Entertainment            

If suggestions in L2 dry up sooner than you hope, get students to offer further suggestions in L1 and provide the L2 equivalents yourself.

Another approach is to draw up a list of difficult lexical items with a note of where they occur in the text, to ask learners to look briefly at the immediate context and then to link each word with the appropriate explanation from a jumbled list of definitions. For example, with Text 6, 'Destination Gridlock', the following exercise might be appropriate:

Read the sentences in the text where the following words occur and then find the appropriate definition for each in the list that follows:

para 1, Transparent spacesent 1 Transparent spacesmog
Transparent spacesent 2 Transparent spaceto be flanked by
Transparent spacesent 4 Transparent spaceto be wracked by

para 2, Transparent spacesent 1 Transparent spacepredecessor
Transparent spacesent 2 Transparent spacemurals
Transparent spacesent 4 Transparent spaceto come out of the closet

para 3, Transparent spacesent 1 Transparent spaceautonomous
Transparent spacesent 2 Transparent spaceto weather out

para 4, Transparent spacesent 2 Transparent spacesecured

para 5, Transparent spacesent 1 Transparent spaceto invest
Transparent spacesent 2 Transparent spaceto keep hush-hush
Transparent spacesent 3 Transparent spaceto seduce onboard
Transparent spacesent 3 Transparent spaceoodles of
Transparent spacesent 4 Transparent spaceto be at the helm

person who used to hold an office or position
obtained
lots of something
to be in charge of something
mist or fog usually caused by pollution and heat
to be situated at the side of
to come safely through bad weather or difficult times
to put money into a plan or project
to be severely shaken by
to come out into the open
paintings on, for example, a wall
not let anyone know about an idea or project
self-governing
to persuade someone to join in by offering something attractive

If employed too frequently, this approach can mean learners become accustomed to dealing only with pre-processed texts. However, advance teaching of vocabulary is likely to be a useful aid if:

  • what is taught are key words from the text;

  • the pre-teaching of vocabulary is done concurrently with the pre-teaching of background knowledge.

For this purpose, words might be taught in semantic groups for a number of related texts.

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