Chapter
Report
(to be printed in The Language
Teacher)
Guest speaker: Adrian Paterson
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AKITA – December 2012 – The Role of Vocabulary in the Language Classroom – Adrian Paterson. Vocabulary is an essential part of language, however
it is also an often-neglected part of language teaching. Adrian Paterson,
a student of Paul Nation - the foremost expert on vocabulary, began the
presentation by introducing some of the basic principles and concepts,
in particular; defining what vocabulary is, what it means to know a word,
and how vocabulary is acquired, stored, and retrieved. In the second part
of the presentation he led a discussion on ways that teachers can help
students to improve their vocabulary knowledge. He covered such terms as
Token, Type, Lemma, Collocation, Metaphor, and Formulaic Language. He emphasized
that vocabulary is one of the few skills best acquired through rote memorization.
Alas, he had but a short time to touch on the neurolinguistic theories
of the Network Model and Emergence in Complex Adaptive Systems.
Reported by Stephen Shucart |
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