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Greek vocabulary acquisition using semantic domains
Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Jun 2003 by Wilson, Mark
To achieve success in reading a second language, Coady argues "that we must enable students to learn and acquire a lexical base. . . ."14 Since the 2,000 word threshold is so critical, Schmitt cites Meara's suggestion that it might be better to concentrate on teaching the necessary vocabulary right at the beginning of a language course. "Although the students would not know a lot about grammar at the end of this vocabulary-based period, I suspect that they would quickly make up this shortfall, and would soon overtake students who were taught by more traditional methodologies."15 Such a suggestion is probably too radical for most language programs, but its implications for teaching Greek must surely be considered.
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2. Vocabulary learning strategies. Vocabulary learning strategies vary between the levels of students. To acquire a threshold vocabulary requires repeated contact with a word. A L2 student must encounter a new word between 6 and 20 times before that word is known.16 According to Schmitt, "shallower" strategies such as rote memorization may be more suitable for beginners. However, "deeper" learning strategies such as forming associations and utilizing keyword methods are more beneficial for intermediate and advanced learners and have been shown to enhance retention.17 L1 vocabulary acquisition occurs incrementally over a period of years. Although incremental learning would be the ideal way to acquire L2 vocabulary, this is not feasible since acquisition must usually be accomplished in a much shorter period of time.
Incidental acquisition in authentic texts is ideal but, according to Groot, is inadequate for L2 learners because "it contains too many other unknown words."18 Yet it is instructive to note the three stages to incidental vocabulary acquisition that have been observed:
a. Notice of the various properties of the new word: morphological and phonological, syntactic, semantic, stylistic, collocational, and so forth.
b. Storage in the internal lexicon in networks of relationships that correspond to the properties described in (1).
c. Consolidation of the storage described in (2) by means of further exposure to the word in a variety of contexts which illustrate its various properties. This results in a firmer embedding in the memory needed for long term retention.19
Thorough implementation of these stages embeds the vocabulary into the mental lexicon; superficial (i.e. "crash" memorization) ensures a high rate of forgetting. The deeper the level of vocabulary processing the better is the chance for retention. A general consensus exists among researchers, according to Groot, that "there is a stringent relationship between retention and intensity or elaborateness of processing lexical information about a new word (i.e. paying close attention to its various features such as spelling, pronunciation, semantic and syntactic attributes, relationships with other words, etc.)."20
3. Semantics-based approaches to vocabulary acquisition. Some L2 teachers have championed semantics-based approaches for vocabulary acquisition. John T. Crow claims that semantic fields are the best way to expand an individual's vocabulary and discourages the use of decontextualized word lists based on frequency of occurrence computations.21 He claims that the use of these lists has been the primary teaching aid of vocabulary, although "rote learning is one of the most inefficient applications of human cognitive facilities."22 His research ultimately concludes that a student should initially learn a receptive (i.e. passive) vocabulary-what is needed for a basic use of the language in listening and reading-in order to achieve quicker interaction with the text and a basic comprehension of the text. In their study of vocabulary acquisition Crow and Quigley found that advanced ESL students gained receptive control over twice as many words using a semantic field approach as using a traditional approach, with no significant difference in long-term retention.23
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