Folse: Vocabulary Myths/Teaching Language Classes Online

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Folse: Vocabulary Myths/Teaching Language Classes Online

Postby Kraut » Wed Jun 02, 2021 9:36 pm

Vocabulary Myths: Applying Second Language Research To Classroom Teaching

http://esl.fis.edu/teachers/support/folse.htm

This webpage is a summary of the above-mentioned book by Keith Folse, currently Associate Professor of TESOL at the University of Central Florida. The core of the book is a discussion of eight myths about learning and teaching vocabulary:

The eight myths are:

In learning another language, vocabulary is not as important as grammar or other areas.
Using word lists to learn L2 vocabulary is unproductive.
Presenting new vocabulary in semantic sets facilitates learning.
The use of translations to learn new vocabulary should be discouraged.
Guessing words from context is an excellent strategy for learning L2 vocabulary.
The best vocabulary learners make use of one or two really specific vocabulary learning strategies.
The best dictionary for L2 learners is a monolingual dictionary.
Teachers, textbooks, and curricula cover L2 vocabulary adequately.



Keith Folse - Teaching Language Classes Online: A Learner’s Perspective

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SC8Ui9J3SM
Plenary at the 2021 Korea TESOL International Conference.
Many teachers used to doubt that a language class could be taught effectively online. However, a worldwide pandemic has forced language instruction to go online in many parts of the world and we have all seen how some areas of language teaching have changed now. Because of COVID-19, both experienced online teachers and novice online teachers have now had almost a year of real experience teaching English and other languages online. When this is over or when a majority of learners and teachers can go back to a somewhat normal teaching situation again, how might instruction be different? I am a very experienced language teacher (40 years) and language learner (7 languages). In the past six months, I have also gained another type of experience: I have been an online language learner in an asynchronous university German course. In this talk, I will offer some interesting and sometimes unexpected insights I gained about online language instruction based on my perspective as a real learner in a real language course that was completely online.
_._,_._,_
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Re: Folse: Vocabulary Myths/Teaching Language Classes Online

Postby Iversen » Thu Jun 03, 2021 4:56 am

I can't really comment on the online learning question since I don't use it, neither from the perspective of a pupil nor a teacher. But concerning the vocabulary thing I can't but rejoice, as I see every one of my pet peeves concerning vocabulary learning being addressed. It follows in the footsteps of an iconoclastic article by Mondria, "Myths about vocabulary acquisition", and I also did a speech myself in Novi Sad about this topic. Ir was recorded, and unfortunately the recording of this speech was criticized by four persons, two of which clearly hadn't even bothered to listen to it since they in all seriousness believed that I was speaking about and advocating Anki - and the first attack from first troll clearly set the tone for next three commentators, who also didn't watch the video, but just let loose all their anger. But the research results I mentioned back then in Novi Sad clearly showed that any positive evaluation of passive vocabulary learning was based on the use of multi choice tests, while any positive results evaporated as soon as 'free' questioning was used - or in other words: totally passive 'vocabulary learning' could at best give some recognition ability, but not more than that.

So how come then that those members of Llorg who don't use any systematic methods like SRS or wordlists nevertheless succeed in learning words? Well, maybe their attitude is important - the typical test persons didn't really care about learning new words, and therefore they just skipped them. Or maybe even a small dose of systematic vocabulary study functions better than zero when used in conjunction with massive passive input. Ah dunno... but I do know that I have learnt most of the vocabulary in all of my languages (even the 'old' ones) with the help of wordlists, supplemented with attentive reading. And my wordlist layout is just a way to make that learning process more efficient. As for listening -- bah. I don't remember new words I just hear once, and if they occur in the middle of a stream of babble then I don't even have time to think about their possible meaning.

And concerning the use of translations: I advocate them without hesitation during intensive study, but prefer not to look things up during extensive activities, which in my world only become important when I am through the initial steps of learning a new language - but from then on they become more and more important. As for learning entirely from context: teachers who try to enforce that shouldn't be in the business.
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Re: Folse: Vocabulary Myths/Teaching Language Classes Online

Postby sporedandroid » Thu Jun 03, 2021 7:17 am

It definitely sounds like my experience learning languages. I’ve been pretty bad at learning vocabulary from context. It’s been pretty discouraging hearing about language learners should be able to learn from context. There are some situations where that’s possible, but you kind of have to seek them out. You can’t just watch some random tv show or pick up a random book and expect to learn from context.

I’ve also heard a lot about being comfortable with ambiguity. It’s sort of true, but it can’t be forced. It’s also normal to not be comfortable with only understanding 60% 80% or sometimes even 90% of the vocabulary. My comfort with ambiguity naturally goes up as my vocabulary and comprehension goes up. One way to solve this issue is explicitly studying a lot of vocabulary.

Folse relates an incident when he failed to choose the right Japanese word for an essay, despite assiduous use of a dictionary.


Assiduous is a new word for me, but I correctly guessed it means diligent. It’s kind of ironic.
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Re: Folse: Vocabulary Myths/Teaching Language Classes Online

Postby s_allard » Thu Jun 03, 2021 1:04 pm

Kraut wrote:Vocabulary Myths: Applying Second Language Research To Classroom Teaching

http://esl.fis.edu/teachers/support/folse.htm

This webpage is a summary of the above-mentioned book by Keith Folse, currently Associate Professor of TESOL at the University of Central Florida. The core of the book is a discussion of eight myths about learning and teaching vocabulary:

The eight myths are:

In learning another language, vocabulary is not as important as grammar or other areas.
Using word lists to learn L2 vocabulary is unproductive.
Presenting new vocabulary in semantic sets facilitates learning.
The use of translations to learn new vocabulary should be discouraged.
Guessing words from context is an excellent strategy for learning L2 vocabulary.
The best vocabulary learners make use of one or two really specific vocabulary learning strategies.
The best dictionary for L2 learners is a monolingual dictionary.
Teachers, textbooks, and curricula cover L2 vocabulary adequately.


I agree with Folse's ideas about the teaching and learning of vocabulary in general but I do have to question the idea of eight myths. I know that the term myth refers to a belief that is not founded on any real evidence. My question is how many language teachers and learners share the beliefs or myths that are stated here.

For example, how many people believe that in learning another language vocabulary is not as important as grammar? I think I know what Folse is saying, that the really difficult part of a language is the syntax and the morphology (and the pronunciation of course). The vocabulary will sort of come along on its own as you need it.

I don't think any language teachers and learners believe this. Quite the contrary, I believe vocabulary is the first thing that people see, hear and want to learn. What is true is that there are grammar words and content words. We can separate them for learning purposes but in real life they go together to produce meaning.

Speaking of myths, a real one is this idea that you can learn a language by memorizing a list of the 500 or 1000 most common words in the language, as can be found on the internet. Just memorizing those words is useless. On the other hand, such a list can be very useful as part of a strategy that focuses of mastering the most commonly used speaking patterns in the language. This is a whole other story.

Of course, there are other situations where word lists are very useful - here I agree with Iversen - for the systematic learning of specific vocabulary. I like to call them lexical-semantic clusters. It's things like the parts of an automobile, the house, flowers, animals, etc. To use these terms properly of course you need the grammar and everything else.
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Re: Folse: Vocabulary Myths/Teaching Language Classes Online

Postby Le Baron » Thu Jun 03, 2021 2:29 pm

He wrote this in an article knocking around the web since 2005. Same list of 8 myths and their rejection.

I actually agree with his discussion of most of the eight points, but regarding the first, as s_allard asks,
how many language teachers and learners share the beliefs or myths that are stated here.

In the 70s the BBC were already fully pushing the 'a little grammar and a lot of words' approach in all their language textbooks. They were doing that because it was actually the approach that had been adopted in language teaching in most (progressive) schools anyway from the late '60s onwards. I have books even older than that, based upon the (then) widely-known research of vocabulary acquisition and 'most used words' in English by Dr H.E. Palmer, which had been applied to reading material prepared for schools. This was then taken up for German and French and later by compilers of Dutch educational material. It formed the basis for all those 'Easy Reader Series' books.

The problem with formulating these myths in lists like this, declaring them 'false', is that the bits where there is a kernel of opposing truth comes back to haunt you when other people find them useful.

To be fair Folse acknowledges this by stating that people have different needs and strategies:
Folse wrote:What research shows is that good learners use a wide variety of vocabulary learning strategies; however, the good students have developed an individualized set of strategies that works best for their needs and personalities...

...two points should be stressed. First, no vocabulary learning strategy is a substitute for knowing vocabulary. Second, no single strategy is better than another. The most successful learners not only have more strategies at their command but also use them more extensively and more consistently. (Folse, 2004)

In his discussion of teachers insisting upon the use of monolingual dictionaries (his myth 7) I wonder how true this is in reality outside of ESL teaching; or even how true within it. Two facts spring to mind: 1. The absolute preponderance of bilingual dictionaries in publication compared to monolingual. 2. The sales of these in comparison to monolingual dictionaries for L2 language students. He may be right that some ESL teachers demand this, but it seems to me that students just disregard it and use bilingual dictionaries. Of course I see the point he is making, that it makes students feel they are failing by using a supposed 'crutch' and wrongly being misled into the idea that bilingual dictionaries are inferior.
In my view monolingual dictionaries are for upper-intermediate and advanced students to consult alongside bilingual dictionaries. They are a different beast and using both is better than using just one.

Lastly I agree with him that language courses are often grammar-led, but I don't think vocabulary is as neglected as he makes out. After all what 'instructions' do you need for learning word lists? You really do require some instruction/explanation for learning and using grammar. So it's pretty obvious that's going to happen and very often the lessons include progressive vocabulary. If they didn't they couldn't exist because all the lessons consist of words! It's legitimate to question whether there's enough vocabulary or if the words are useful/meaningful, but the fact is you also can't just pour out word lists and imagine this will be the major (or sole) key to unlocking passages of prose. It won't, because the way the words are employed will constantly trip you up. Plus, there is the fact that words are often used with multiple meanings and in ways that make their meaning change when combined with other words, or in set phrases, where just learning the words does not help. You can collect as many tools as you want, but if you don't learn how to use them (and in increasingly sophisticated ways) you just have a lot of tools.

So it boils down to the same old prescription: 'sufficient words and enough grammar to use them effectively.' Vague, I know.
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Re: Folse: Vocabulary Myths/Teaching Language Classes Online

Postby tractor » Thu Jun 03, 2021 9:09 pm

Le Baron wrote:In his discussion of teachers insisting upon the use of monolingual dictionaries (his myth 7) I wonder how true this is in reality outside of ESL teaching; or even how true within it.

I've had several teachers who professed this myth, both in Spain and in Norway. It may have been a fad in the nineties.
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Re: Folse: Vocabulary Myths/Teaching Language Classes Online

Postby Le Baron » Thu Jun 03, 2021 9:32 pm

tractor wrote:
Le Baron wrote:In his discussion of teachers insisting upon the use of monolingual dictionaries (his myth 7) I wonder how true this is in reality outside of ESL teaching; or even how true within it.

I've had several teachers who professed this myth, both in Spain and in Norway. It may have been a fad in the nineties.

Blimey. How odd. What made them insist upon this? I've never been advised to get only a monolingual dictionary. In fact I was advised which particular bi-lingual dictionaries were worth getting (I got the Prisma ones for Dutch nearly 25 years ago and even as late as 2006 I was using a Van Dale all-in-one bi-lingual. I still have it). I still have an ancient Larousse one for French.
In Cologne on the course I was on there there was a student raffle and among the the prizes were those little Langenscheidt mini-bilingual dictionaries! The ones with the vinyl covers. I didn't win one. Those were printed in the 90s. I wouldn't ever do away with my larger 'pocket' version of that dictionary, it's an excellent book I would recommend to anyone.
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Re: Folse: Vocabulary Myths/Teaching Language Classes Online

Postby gsbod » Thu Jun 03, 2021 9:51 pm

I had a French teacher in the late nineties who insisted on us using a mini monolingual French dictionary (which I found next to useless...)

It's never come up in any class I've taken in the 21st century, however, and in the last 5 years or so the expectation has tended to be that most people will use whatever dictionary app suits them best.
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Re: Folse: Vocabulary Myths/Teaching Language Classes Online

Postby Le Baron » Thu Jun 03, 2021 10:26 pm

gsbod wrote:I had a French teacher in the late nineties who insisted on us using a mini monolingual French dictionary (which I found next to useless...)

It's never come up in any class I've taken in the 21st century, however, and in the last 5 years or so the expectation has tended to be that most people will use whatever dictionary app suits them best.


Where was this? The UK? If so I'm wondering why I never encountered it. I'm not doubting you at all, but I was actively pursuing languages in the early and middle nineties - one of them (basic Cantonese) on an 8 week night class - and I wasn't advised to only use a monolingual dictionary in any home course or by any teacher. Was it only in FIGS languages maybe?
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Re: Folse: Vocabulary Myths/Teaching Language Classes Online

Postby gsbod » Fri Jun 04, 2021 12:08 am

It was at an FE college in the UK. The teacher was a native French speaker.
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