September Workshop Summary
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| 04 Dec 2009 - 23:56 | 135 |
| Elizabethanne Kim Posts: 24 | September Workshop Summary Daegu Kotesol Chapter Meeting September 5, 2009 Scott Miles “Unforgettable: Systematic Recycling for Long-term Vocabulary Acquisition” Once the chapter concluded our standard introduction of newcomers and announcements, Scott Miles, visiting professor and teacher trainer at Daegu Haany University, kicked off the fall workshops with a lively presentation on vocabulary acquisition. Speaking to attendees in an overflowing classroom, Mr. Miles acquainted the audience with Pimselur's repetition cycle, which suggests that new material should be reviewed in cycles whose spacing increases by multiples of five (i.e., introduce new material at time 0, review in 5 seconds, then 25 seconds, then 2 minutes...). Treating us to a taste of vocabulary-learning, Mr. Miles demonstrated that one in-class session on vocabulary will not successfully translate into its retention in the mind of the learner. He also raised attendees’ awareness of gaps in vocabulary learning in which students may know several very basic words and many very high level words but comparatively few of the “productive” vocabulary (2,000-5,000 word level). This gap makes it difficult to communicate in conversation and to explain words in English. His own research has indicated that there is only a small difference between vocabulary retention when vocabulary review is built into classtime on a repeated basis or when it is performed by CALL (computer-aided language learning). Based on this research and the research of others, he suggested using CALL to a teacher’s arsenal of learning methods as an effective strategy in learning and retaining vocabulary. He also strongly advised adding extensive reading to any English program as a method of both recycling old words and learning new and also gaining access to collocations and grammatical forms. When choosing books for extensive reading, Mr. Miles stressed the importance of choosing a level that is relatively easy for the learners. Such levels can be more easily discerned by using a series of graded readers which are already grouped by level of difficulty. |
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