Presenting and recycling vocabulary: Unity in diversity?

LÓPEZ BARRIOS, MARIO LUIS

Elche

Congreso; XL Congreso de TESOL-SPAIN ?Evolving and Involving?; 2017

TESOL SPAIN

Introducing and recycling vocabulary is a given in almost every foreign language lesson. The amount of new vocabulary presented or familiar lexis that is recycled in a lesson will vary according to many factors including the focus of the lesson, the teacher?s vocabulary teaching and beliefs and their actual practices, the type of course, the intended learners, etc. On the basis of empirical evidence Laufer (2010) concludes that learners learn around 2-3 words per class hour. How many new words are introduced, how much familiar lexis is recycled in an EFL lesson? An illustrative estimation can be made on the basis of class observations. This is the aim of the proposed presentation, in which I present data drawn from a number of classes observed in different educational contexts in a true EFL situation such as that of Argentina, where contact with the target language is to a large extent confined to the lesson. For my presentation I analyze the amount of vocabulary introduced and recycled in elementary level lessons taught to adolescent learners in different types of secondary schools (public and private) and to adults in a University language centre and describe the vocabulary teaching techniques employed by the teachers, state whether the words are selected by the teachers or the learners, and if the vocabulary items belong to the teaching materials or are required by the learners. The results can aid our understanding of vocabulary teaching practices in an EFL context and could also be of interest to materials designers as regards realistic amounts of lexical input in said context.