The Importance Of Teaching And Learning Vocabulary English Language Essay

The Importance Of Teaching And Learning Vocabulary English Language Essay Vocabulary represents one of most important skills necessary for teaching and learning a foreign language. It is the basis for the development of all the other skills: reading comprehension, listening comprehension, speaking, writing, spelling and pronunciation. Vocabulary is the main tool for the students in their attempt to use English effectively. When confronted with a native English speaker, when watching a movie without subtitle or when listening to a favorite English song, when reading a text or when writing a letter to a friend, students will always need to operate with words. In what follows, the focus of this introductory chapter will be on why vocabulary is important, on what makes words difficult, on the main reasons for which students often forget the words they learn and on some techniques which help them remember the vocabulary. Why is Vocabulary Important? Talking about the importance of vocabulary, the linguist David Wilkins argued that: without grammar little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed. Indeed, people need to use words in order to express themselves in any language. Most learners, too, acknowledge the importance of vocabulary acquisition. In my experience as a teacher, I noticed the fact that students usually find it difficult to speak English fluently. They usually consider speaking and writing activities exhausting because they keep on using the same expressions and words and very soon their conversation is abruptly interrupted due to missing words. And the main reason for such communication problems is the lack of vocabulary. Other students are confronted with the problem of forgetting the words immediately after the teacher has elicited their meaning or after they have looked them in the dictionary, and this also a cause of the lack of vocabulary. The more words students learn, the easier they mem orize them. The teacher has an essential role in helping students to improve their vocabulary. Unfortunately, vocabulary teaching has not been enough responsive to such problems, and teachers have not recognized the tremendous importance of helping their students to develop an extensive vocabulary. If we look back in the past, we discover that for a long time, English used teaching approaches such as Direct Method and Audiolingualism which emphasized the primary importance of teaching grammatical structures. Since the accent was on grammar, few words were introduced in such courses and most often, they were limited and related to the grammar structures taught. By the beginning of 1970s, there was a major change in teaching English. The focus turned from the Direct Method and Audiolingualism to the Communicative Approach which emphasized the importance of teaching vocabulary. Students were exposed to diverse vocabulary and speaking activities. Many words began being introduced during such courses and students were encouraged to express themselves as much as possible. Nowadays, there is more freedom in choosing the methods to be used during English classes. The English syllabus is organized around both vocabulary and grammar structures. Since there is a certain number of classes allotted for each item in the syllabus, teachers usually have the necessary time to insist on teaching and practising vocabulary. Vocabulary is no longer treated as an add-on and teachers become more aware of the importance of vocabulary and attention is paid to the grammar of words, to collocations and to word frequency. Nevertheless, students still have difficulties in expressing themselves fluently and still consider speaking tasks exhausting. What Makes English Vocabulary Difficult In English, like in any other foreign language, some words are easier to learn than others. Easiest of all are the words more or less identical to the students native language, like, for instance, the word vocabulary. However, students might be trapped in their confidence with which they memorize such identical words, since English has a list of some problematic words, called false friends. These false friends are words identical in form to certain Romanian words, but completely different in meaning. An example of this would be sensible. While many students might confidently translate this word simply sensibil, they will be astonished to find out that, the Romanian equivalent for sensible is in fact rational, while the English equivalent for sensibil is sensitive. This demonstrates the crucial importance of allotting a special lesson for these false friends and of encouraging students to practise them as often as possible. Another aspect that makes English vocabulary difficult is the pronunciation of certain words. Research shows that words that are difficult to pronounce are more difficult to learn. Many learners find that words with clusters of consonants such as health or crisps are problematic. Length or complexity of the words is another characteristic of the difficulty of English vocabulary. A long word will be more difficult to memorize than a short one. Also, variable stress of words such as necessary and necessity can add to their difficulty. The meaning of the words is another controversial feature of the English vocabulary. When two words overlap in meaning, students are likely to confuse them. An example in this case would be the difference between make and do. These words have the same meaning, but are used in different expressions. You make a decision, but you do homework. Students might find the use of these two words confusing. Main Reasons Why Students Forget the Vocabulary Acquired It is important that teachers insist on the practice of vocabulary because with all their best will, students forget the words they learn. Jeremy Harmer identifies two main reasons that cause forgetting: interference from subsequent learning and insufficient recycling. Most teachers are aware of the fact that introducing a new vocabulary may imply forgetting the old one. This happens most frequently when words are taught that are very similar to the ones recently acquired because, according to Harmer, the new words have the effect of overwriting the previously learnt material. This is the reason why teachers should avoid teaching lexical sets containing words that have similar meanings to the previously ones. The second cause that triggers forgetting is insufficient recycling of the vocabulary acquired. Research shows that frequent review of learnt material can dramatically reduce the rate of forgetting. Nevertheless, it is not enough to simply repeat words and to reencounter them in their original context. What really helps is to recycle the words in different ways and at equal levels of depth. Research argues that if learners use or encounter the words in a different way from that in which they first met them, then better learning is likely to be achieved. Another important aspect when recycling certain words is for students to make sure that they really understand the meaning and the use of those words. Students might also try to apply the new words to their real life events or activities. Techniques for Memorizing Vocabulary In order to be able to have a rich vocabulary, not only do students need to learn as many words as possible, but they also need to remember them because, in fact, learning is remembering. Unlike grammar learning which is based on a system of rules, vocabulary knowledge implies accumulating individual items. It is a learning process that relies primarily on memory. Learners are different in terms of how easily they memorize vocabulary. According to Jeremy Harmer, researchers into the domain of memory distinguish three types of memory: short-term store, working memory, and long-term memory. The short-term store is the brains capacity to hold a limited number of information items for periods of time up to a few seconds (Harmer 23). Thus, it is the kind of memory that does not help students too much in their attempt to learn vocabulary items, because successful vocabulary learning involves something more than just holding words in your memory for some seconds. The working memory focuses on holding words long enough in your memory so that to be able to operate with them. It is the kind of memory that relies on reasoning and logic. Thus, if a student comes across a new word such as to acknowledge which means a recunoaste meritul cuiva, he will be able to easily memorize it by comparing it with another word from his long-term memory, for example, kno wledge meaning cunoastere. Using such an association will certainly help students keeping words in their memory for longer periods of time. Finally, the long-term store is the most trustworthy kind of memory. Unlike the working memory which has a limited capacity of holding words in the brain, the long-term memory has a tremendous capacity and its contents are durable over time. However, the fact that students forget vocabulary from one lesson to another, demonstrates the fact that it is not enough to have a long-term memory. It implies students efforts and teachers witty techniques when learning and teaching vocabulary. The great challenge for language learners and teachers is to transform the material from quickly forgotten to the never forgotten. It has been designed a number of techniques meant to help learners efficiently memorize words and to help teachers make the process of learning easier for their students. Repetition is an important technique in learning vocabulary. In order for the words to be kept as long as possible in the memory, it is necessary that they be repeated at frequent periods of time. However, repetition alone will not be effective. It must be accompanied by the understanding of the meaning of those particular words and by correlation with other similar already learnt words. Another important technique is using the newly learn words. In this case, the teachers role is also valuable. In the classroom, teachers should insist on pracising the news vocabulary by encouraging students to speak as much as possible and by designing vocabulary-centered activities and games. At home, students need to be motivated to individually keep on using the new words until they are stored in the long-term memory. Practising vocabulary is strongly connected to applying vocabulary to students real life events. Learners will acquire vocabulary easily if they practise it by associating words with events from their daily life. Considering that students are presented a new word list related to the topic entitled travelling. Learners will successfully memorize the word list by creating a real life event, for instance going to Italy and then performing a situation in which all the words can be included. This can be done in classroom as well as at home and will certainly entertain students and have positive results. Another witty technique to be taken into consideration when both learning and teaching vocabulary is imaging. Students will easily learn new words if they are taught to associate them with their picture. If, for example, students associate travel agency with the image of the particular building where we go to ask information about travelling, they are likely to keep that word in their mind for longer time. Thus, it is extremely important for the students to visualize the words they must learn. This will help the learning process and will keep the words in the long-term memory. In conclusion, vocabulary is the most required skill when learning a foreign language. It is on vocabulary that all the other skills, reading, writing, speaking, and listening are based and developed. This chapter has shown why it is important to learn new words and why English vocabulary is difficult to memorize. Moreover, it dealt with two main reasons for which most of the students permanently forget the words acquired. And finally, it has suggested methods and techniques that help to understand the new vocabulary by using the working memory and to transfer it in the long-term memory.

Metal Detectors: Justifying School Safety Essay

How much is your child’s safety worth? Are you willing to put a price tag on your child’s life? Many schools are putting a price tag, but fortunately several are not. A shocking one in ten students has carried a weapon to school in New York. Statistics like this cannot be music to the ears of parents. You have to wonder what schools are doing about this awful matter. A notion that has been around, yet a new idea is helping pave the future on student safety in schools. It is metal detectors. This new idea has caused controversy all over the world. Schools around the United States have turned to metal detectors for their solution. I feel that metal detectors are a small price to pay when this matter concerns children. Metal detectors are helpful and expensive. However, most schools are able to afford them, and they do not exploit students’ rights. Metal detectors ensure school safety quickly and effectively. They help enforce a practice that is seen in many areas, including airports and courthouses. Many may argue that they consume too much time and require specially trained professionals. On the contrary, several schools have taken the same measures that are taken when conducting a poll. Polls only use a small percent of the population for the actual questions, but it still represents the entire population. Countless cities, including New York, have â€Å"†¦set a predetermined method of scanning which allows them to scan every second or third student instead of the entire student body† (McDermott 2). This measure is closely monitored, and it has proven to be successful. Some schools have even made things move quicker by having the teachers enter through a different entrance, which also includes metal detectors. Metal detectors in schools are also enforcing a method that is commonly used everywhere these days. A st udent from Chicago states in a message board that, Government offices have metal detectors that everyone has to walk through before they enter. If I go to City Hall, I have to walk through a metal detector. If I go to court for a speeding ticket, I have to go through a metal detector. Why shouldn’t kids have to do the same in school? It’s a public place, funded by public dollars (much like government offices) and I  don’t see that it violates anyone’s civil rights to have to walk through a metal detector to ensure that a school is safe. Students lose many privileges when they enter the school doors because student safety is on the top of the list. If they do not want to be searched or questioned then they should not bring with them articles that are inappropriate for school. Leigh was right when he said metal detectors are expensive. They can range from $4,495 to $5,495 for the walk-through models and from one hundred to four hundred dollars for the hand-held models. This minor setback causes debates. Metal detectors may not be needed in all grades of schools. â€Å"A vast majority of school homicides and suicides – 179 – took place in high schools†¦Ã¢â‚¬  when surveyed in New York. Therefore, various school districts may only need to install the metal detectors in high schools. Another aspect is that taxpayers already pay for insufficient funds. They should use the money for safer schools, instead of funding a new, state-of-the-art prison. Public officials need to look into where other tax dollars are going, and try and focus on getting it to go to schools. Students go to school to be educated; if their education is impaired the school officials then need to step in. Students are also missing valuable time when public officials are required to search the entire school because of threats of a bomb or other life threatening incidents. † ‘All the kids are missing out on their education†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ † (Szaniszlo 1). This could have been prevented with the metal detectors. Although the threats are to be taken seriously, the officials would have a sense of relief with the metal detectors in place. Metal detectors are beneficial to everyone, and not just the students. For example, they enforce school policy and protect students. The school officials have a right to search with reasonable cause and this does not invade the students’ rights or privacy. The school officials are in loco parentis (in the place of the parent) to help maintain order in the school. Rules and regulations create a structure that is necessary t o ensure a safe environment, † . . . that will reinforce the District’s priority goal of safe schools for all students and staff† (Code of Conduct). Just as  students must obey the rules, school officials have a set of rules to follow. Also, parents are allowed to search their kids’ room without a search warrant mandatory, so school officials should be given the same standard. They are acting in loco parentis; therefore, like parents they do not need a search warrant. â€Å"The in loco parentis doctrine basically assumes that students have no legitimate expectation of privacy in their personal property, such as purses, gym bags, or clothing† (Persico 28). The school is now not only responsible for educating the children, but also for protecting them while in the school’s supervision. School officials â€Å"†¦were not permitted to begin a pat-down search until the scanning device had been activated twice†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (NYSSN). They are obligated to search when they feel the school environment has been threatened. School officials only begin a thorough search when the detector has beeped twice on the same student. Only then are they allowed to search the specific area where it beeped. Leigh states that metal detectors â€Å"†¦instill a sense of humiliation in students†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (654). Students would not be embarrassed if the search was done in private. He also mentions â€Å"†¦the most harmful effect of metal detectors is their psychological impact on students subjected to daily searches† (Leigh 653). I have to agree that it might cause such impact, but that it is worth the price. When a student dies on school grounds it also causes a sense of fear for classmates. Schools only have these powers because they are out to ensure our safety. Schools will use whatever means possible to protect he student body. The Columbine tragedy really awakened the American public. Who knew that two teenage boys would have access to guns and that they would intentionally use them to hurt others? Schools with the help of metal detectors would have a chance to prevent such incidents in the future. Metal detectors may not be a full-proof plan, but they would be valuable asset for schools. School districts are turning to this new phenomenon to better the school environment and community. Trying to work around the metal detectors idea or complaining about the cost are not the real issues. The students’ life is at stake. Nevertheless, to prevent the impossible from happening, adopting the idea of metal detectors is worth taking a chance.

Advertising and the Twentieth Century

In a sense this was advertising himself. In 3200 B. C. , papyrus appears in ancient Egypt. This paper like material made it possible for posters and sale messages to be written for the sale of goods. In 1 00 BC, political posters and campaign advertising became popular including negative ads in Roman culture. The first movable type print system was invented in 1 040 A. D. This system invention helped create fonts typography. Four hundred years later the movable printing press is created by the German printer Johannes Gutenberg; thus, making mass production Of the written word and advertising possible.And nil 647, the first newspaper ad tries to sell the book â€Å"The Divine Right of Church Government†. The first billboard was introduced in New York City in an 1 835 advertisement for the circus. Thousands of years of advancements helped pave the road to the explosion of the advertising world that would occur in the next century and change America forever. Beginning of a new er a. The 1 ass's saw industrialism and consumerism come together to form an American culture of consumption.Advertising was a very persuasive technique for promoting this new and vibrant consumer culture. 1 Advertising n the early sass was simply placing announcements in newspapers and magazines. As mediums changed and avenues for reaching the public expanded, advertisements quickly appeared every. N. ‘here. With this much advertising bombarding the public and persuading them to validate their self- worth by the products they purchase; it became embedded in people's daily lives; as a result, classes and social status were being clearly marked as the â€Å"haves† and â€Å"have nose†. Displays of this newly acquired wealth were seen all over America, especially in urban areas, where most of the rich hung out ND tried to outdo one another with displays of their wealth. Although the rich were targeted in these advertisements, an ever-increasing middle-class America ha d begun to buy machine made goods due to an increase of disposable income that past generations did not have. As America changed from a country of small towns into a country of busy cities, advertising played a key role in the ideology of Americans.The idea of convenience was a major selling point in one's life whether it be in the home, leisure, or personal grooming. The sass's America was rapidly changing into a modernization society. Some examples re: rapid expansion due to railroads, banking infrastructure that made the mass consumer marketplace possible, and more Americans now lived and worked in cities; undoubtedly, forcing them to quickly evolve in this ever changing social and economic environment. With this changing America, advertisers had three major points to contend with.First, advertisers needed to find some kind of meaning in this ever changing and complex bureaucratic world. 3 Modern comforts and lifestyles were drastically different than what previously was a major part of life's basic needs such as: food, clothing, and tools. People needed to find new meaning to this mechanized routine they lived. Advertisers were there to present the masses with products and consumer goods that would have significant meaning in their lives, no matter how fleeting. Second, advertisers had to give so-called â€Å"solutions† to many of these new problems that modern life proposed.This faster pace of life seemed to be very frustrating consequently, advertisers sought to ease the psychological pressures by helping people believe that the goods they were purchasing for the latest and most progressive product available would help them everyday n the hustle and bustle of modern life. As a result, this changed as needs and products changed. A family was provided simple information, often visually, on how the item would help fix problems of modern day life. Finally, advertisers helped create a new standard of conduct.Industrialization, city living, and an ever- growing move toward bureaucratic hierarchy making social interaction more complex. 4 Whether standard of conduct, fashion, novel technologies, or fads, for most of Americans these were found through national advertising. The degree of how much advertising expanded in the sass can be seen in the numbers. Total advertising volume in the United States increased approximately from 206 million in 1 900 to about 682 million minion and then reached 1,409 million by 1919. 5 By looking at these numbers it is easy to see how rapid expansion of national advertising flourished during this decade.Another key area advertisers targeted was American women. Advertisers saw that magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Ladies Home Journal, and Saturday Evening post were the best way to reach the urban middle-class, and help them to understand and cope with the complexity of modern life through their different products and goods. Rodents such as Budweiser, Coca-Cola, Gillette razors, Ford cars, and Wriggles gu m started advertising heavily during this time. Advertising in the Great War In April 191 7, America entered World War l. At this time advertising was not a new thing in America, but the message had to change.Instead of advertisers trying to sell products they had to try to sell a war that America had been neutral on for quite some time. Eight days after the war started Pres. Wilson formed The Committee on Public Information. Pres. Wilson appointed George Creel, a muckraker from Kansas City and Denver, to head he committee. 6 Pres. Wilson believed that this committee was essential to persuade American citizens to support the war. The ICP embroiled approximately 1 50,000 Americans, and it is estimated that the ICP produced 700 poster designs, 122 bus and trolley cards, 31 0 advertising illustrations, and 287 cartoons during its existence. These ads helped the nation come together with a sense of nationalism helping to promote volunteerism and donations. These artists repeatedly tugge d at American's sense of duty, patriotism, and humanitarianism. The Roaring Twenty During World War l, Americas were asked by the government to ration their consumption of fuel and food and to sacrifice most everything for the good of the war effort. When the war ended, advertisers had the chance to shine again. In the past decade, Americans could define themselves in such ways as, race, ethnicity, religion and politics.Americans had begun to define themselves with houses, cars, clothes, and other products and services they bought. In the 192(Yes, most Americans had more money than in the previous decade. Also, most had a belief that more material goods represented more success and modern advertising fueled this concept more than ever. With the use of billboards, newspapers, magazines and radio commercials, advertisers flooded the market with the need to purchase their products, saying it could change peoples lives by enhancing their health, safety, beauty, and daresay their entire being.Advertisers were unscrupulous at the time. Some advertisements would play on the psychological needs and fears in people; such as telling somebody that using a certain soup showed more motherly love than another, or that a toothpaste, detergent or soap bought from the impetigo could harm you or your family. One of the most successful ways advertisers marketed products was the appeal to modernity. Modernity equaled progress and in turn was seen as automatically desirable. Companies, such as the Campbell Soup Co. Convinced women to try condensed soup because the can was easy to open and more importantly the â€Å"modern way ‘ of making soup. Other advertisers would prey on the fears of some as if that looking old-fashioned could actually affect one's personal life by possibly losing a mate to losing a job to losing one's self-respect. On the there hand, advertisers use anti-modern ads to people that experienced anxiety due to the fast-paced, mass consumption, forward tech nology, and corruption of long-standing traditional values. Post Bran Flakes, for example, showed a frustrated businessman scurrying to work.The ad wanted to convey that eating their cereal would promote good health and calming despite living in the modern world. Ad agencies in the 1 ass's consisted mostly of college graduates with degrees in advertising and business. They had been trained to use market research and learned how to track consumer response o certain products and ads through statistics, surveys, and other analytical methods; thus making advertising almost a science in itself. The Great Depression years The sass's, Jazz Age, The Roaring ass's were years of advertising decadence.The decade even adopted a word to describe its approach to selling called â€Å"Ballyhoo†; a term used in the 19th century that meant to exaggerate blatantly, to get attention in anyway possible. 8 By 1929 advertising revenues peaked at 53. 4 billion dollars. Inn Ethel 9205, advertisers ha rdest thing to do was the show people how to spend their money. For the most part, the public accepted this laissez-fairer; the economy was strong and the government complacent. After the Great Crash of 1 929, everything changed in an instance. Advertisers were in a dilemma.Should they go about business as usual or advertise about the crisis taking place. Even though advertising didn't talk about the depression directly, advertising did change. Advertising remained for the most part bright and cheery. Ads were more geared towards the value products and services rather than the needs and need not's of the gluttonous sass's consumer. While employment was so high and finances, for many, so low, the publics distrust of advertising grew. As a result organizations like Consumer Union and Consumer Research grew and with their success government took notice.They responded with the Pure Food, Drug, and Committee of 1938, The Federal Trade Commission and Securities and Exchange, along with U. S. Post Office and Internal Revenue Service began to increase their supervisory and regulatory controls over advertising. 10 The good fight for the Good War With the advertising industry still on the defense against consumer assessment, America joining the war became a perfect time to repair their image and help the war effort at the same time. Advertisers were very concerned about their future.The industry was mainly concerned that criticism could crippled their credibility and lead to legislation that would tax and regulate its content. At the time, Pres. Roosevelt was very disenchanted with advertising and believed it was obsolete; likewise, he believed that advertising costs should no longer be a tax-deductible business expense. In November 1941, just months before the Pearl Harbor invasion, the Association of National Advertisers and the American Association of Advertising Agencies met to see what could be done.The majority of the industry believed it would be best to â€Å"r un ads explaining the economic value of advertising in creating jobs, wealth and low prices. â€Å"1 1 At this meeting was a man with the different vision. James Webb Young thought advertising was needed to promote business, yet he also believed that was just one component of it. Young proposed public-service advertising to help their tarnished image. â€Å"It ought to be used for open propaganda in international elation's, to create understanding and reduce friction. It ought to be used to wipe out such diseases of ignorance as childbed fever.It ought to do the nutritional job this country needs to have done. It ought to be the servant of music, of art, of literature and of all the forces of righteousness, even more than it is. When will we stop fighting over just the existing business and go back to selling advertising? When will we sell it into these new levels Of usefulness, this larger stature? ,† he asked. 1 1 With this vision the Ad Council was conceived. Lining the W ar Advertising Counsel officially was created to verse advertising for the war effort.Council wanted ads to encourage the public to organize campaigns for military, enlist in the service, buy war bonds, salvaging fat, and women to the work force. These ads had a significant contribution, especially when it came to women working. With so many men overseas, woman had to work to keep the war machine going. At the end of the war, women were expected to return home, yet that was not the case for most. This would be the beginning of the workingwoman era. The 2nd Half In the sass, after the war was over and the troops were home, the economy started to stabilize.

Female Monologues of Bad Mother Characters