Enhancing Vocabulary in ESP Context

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Enhancing vocabulary in ESP Context

• Group members:
• Muhammad Shazam BENF17R17
• Muhammad Sufyan BENF17R29
• Muhammad Rizwan BENF17R06
• Submitted to: DR Azhar pervaiz
Name Muhammad Shazam

Roll no BENF17R17

Importance of vocabulary in ESP CONTEXT


What is vocabulary

• Vocabulary refers to the words that we use in language and it plays


an important role in a language acquisition.
• If you spend most of your time studying grammar
• Your English will not improve very much.
• You will see most improvement if you learn more words
• People who represent themselves with appropriate words are more
likely to make a positive impression on their employers ,workers etc.
Importance of vocabulary in ESP CONTEXT
• Vocabulary has a great importance in any language.
• Because without sufficient vocabulary students can not understand
others or express their own ideas.
• Every good mechanic has a toolbox full of tools
• Some tools are used more than others but everyone has a specific
purpose .
• In a similar way every ESP learner has a tool box full of tools.
• This toolbox is constantly growing and is filled with figurative
language ,rhythm etc.
• Vocabulary is also just like a tool
• A good mechanic uses right tools to make a good engine even more
powerful
• A good ESP learner uses vocabulary as a tool
• To make his writing and speaking even more powerful .
• Without grammar very little can be conveyed
• Without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed
Types of vocabulary
• There are two major types of vocabulary we use in ESP learning
• Technical vocabulary are the words that we use in a specific line of a
work or profession
• Example people who work in the steel industry.
• Often use words like rockwell and cuptest
• These words have special meaning related to the manufacture of steel
Semi-technical vocabulary
• Semi-technical vocabulary includes words
• Which have one or more general English language meanings
• And which in technical context take on extended meaning
• Example the word fix has many meaning such as attach ,arrange ,get
ready and repair
• Which vocabulary type should the ESP
teacher teach?
• Nowadays most of the second language learners mostly
• Attend UK and USA universities to learn English not for general purpose
• But for specific purpose, English for a academic purposes and their
• Academic study includes specialized areas across different fields
• In physical sciences as well as in social sciences the main reason of
learning English is for academic purposes.
• So semi-technical vocabulary must be used because they need to
interact with the wide range of academic skills like reading and research
papers.
Muhammad Sufyan

BENF17R29

Vocabulary Learning Strategies


Vocabulary Learning Strategies
• Vocabulary Learning Strategies are procedures.
• These Strategies makes the learning easier, faster.
• Strategies are set of plans, actions or behaviors.
• learners use them to learn specific vocabulary.
• Difficult to understand and learn a new English word.
• learn a language words especially in ESP context.
1.Motivation
• If a student is determined and chosen a field which could be any one.
• They have to spend more time for learning specialized vocabulary.
• Students should be determined to learn the specialized words.
• due to their key role in following their current academic studies and
performing effectively in their current simulated (i.e., training courses)
and future occupational settings (e.g. in the clinics or hospitals).
2.Attitudes and Beliefs
• Using English words in Native speech.
• Use more English words bring about prestige.
• Students how believes that they should not switch between the
languages.
• Finding learning vocabulary as a difficult task.
• Therefore, they only memorize the words.
3.Learning Style
• Students who are good at auditory skills.
• Employ for specialized and non-specialized vocabulary.
• Employ more cognitive processing activities.
• Students who are good at visual skills
• in learning the new words preferred to visualize the meaning of the
new words.
4.Awareness of using Strategies
• Be aware of the analogies that exist between languages.
• How to derive the meaning of a word?
• How to find the synonyms of the word?
• How to use the contextual clues and rhetorical features to
comprehend the meaning of the new words?
• These strategies make learning meaningful.
5.Using word’s synonyms and using a word
in a phrase
• Learning synonyms can trigger the language learning. when students
had already learned the synonym of the new word, they used it. Since
it was of great help in facilitating the learning of the new word. For
example a student encountered a word “emesis" the teacher have
given the word “vomiting” as its synonym. So such Strategy can make
the learning more effective. Same goes with the phrase. If a word is
not being learnt by its isolation try to make a phrase of it and use if
whenever it needed. Let say the word “rupture” make a phrase of it
like “rupture of amniotic asc”.
6.Material

• ESP texts plays an important role in the development of students’


VLSs.
• It was observed that some of these materials (55%) contained long,
difficult and sometimes not closely subject related passages with
excessive number of vocabulary items.
• In this way after repeated exposure to these vocabulary items, they
easily learn their usage and use in real contexts.
7.Knowing the nature of the word to be
learned
• To know the properties of a word to use.
• For example
• Pronunciation
• Origin
• Degree of correspondence
• how the word is pronounced and is written.
• Muhamad Rizwan

• BENF17R29

Challenges for vocabulary in ESP


Challenges for vocabulary in
ESP
ESP vocabulary always presents a major linguistic obstacle to nonnative English-speaking
students. It is difficult to learn words in general, especially those ESP terms which are not
the same in all languages, because they are low frequency words and are not
encountered very often. Vocabulary acquisition is incremental in nature and this means
that words are not learned instantaneously but they are learned over a period of time
• One difficulty with identifying vocabulary for ESP is what to do with every day
words that take on a particular meaning in a specialized context. Everyday words
with.specialized meanings could present some difficulties for teachers as learners
to learn new meanings and concepts for words that are already established in
their lexicon in a particular way.
• In New Zealand a secondary school science teacher explained that;
• Teaching biology is like teaching a language subject. For example, dissolve is not
scientific word. It refers to solubility and insolubility. It relates to solute and
solvent. Students have to be able to explain this meaning in a scientific context. If
they use a scientific word in general, it will not be used in the correct way in
normal language
• according to Crawford is that specialized vocabulary evolves and
renews itself according to changing interests in communities of
practice. In the case of business English it is important to consider
how professional texts in business and academic texts might use
specialized vocabulary.

• Most of the ESP courses concentrate on grammar instead of


vocabulary;
• The ESP courses concentrate on structure and grammar rather
than specialized vocabulary.
The ESP courses and most of the teachers focus on structure and
grammar of the language rather than teach specialized vocabulary in
target situation.
Teaching Hours:
• The teaching hours devoted to ESP courses are not enough for
students to learn the ESP courses teaching hours should be increased
to enable the ESP teachers to complete the ESP courses.
• Coping with Specialized Vocabulary:
• Students learning English but, they are not able to cope with
specialized vocabulary. Even some students who already have
completed basic courses in English are not able to cope with
specialized vocabulary.
Techniques for Vocabulary Building;
• There are countless techniques that help in improving vocabulary;
• Bringing special vocabulary into the classroom;
• The purpose and methods of any corpus study need to be clear to
teachers before they bring research findings into the classroom.
• Maximum Exposure in Class;
• Continuous exposure to the specialized vocabulary is key because
students do not normally do homework or revise their lessons at
home maximum exposure must happen in class. However, it matters
how this exposure is planned.
Techniques;
• Numerous Exposures To A Particular Word;
• It is difficult to learn words especially ESP words because they are not encountered very
often. Vocabulary acquisition is incremental in nature and thus means that words are not
learned instantaneously but they are learned over a period of time. The number of
words learned depends on numerous exposures to a particular word.
• Devide Teaching Material Into Certain Topics;
• Teacher should devide his teaching material into certain topics, specific to the students
field. For example in the case of Ecology students, such topics would be ; air pollution,
water pollution, soil pollution, fossil fuels, renewable energy, and others. Each topic has
a specific terminology and there are also specialized words that pervade all these topics.
Thus, in a desire to expose the students to a large amount of vocabulary and because the
classes have limited time, teacher should be careful not to repeat the same terms too
often
Techniques
• Translation;
• Translation is a global exercise that helps with spelling, usage,
accurate equivalence of technical terms, practice of high_frequency
words(articles, prepositions, pronouns etc.), grammar, or word order.
It helps with a better understanding of the differences between L1
and L2 and opens discussions about appropriateness according to
context, and according to meaning relationships (suitable
synonyms).Teacher should use translation exercises mid_class or
towards the end of the class in order to revise and consolidate the
terminology discussed at the beginning of the class.
Techniques;
• Matching exercises:
• match the word to its definition.
• match the term with opposites/synonyms, match the term to the
picture/symbol/diagram/abbreviation,
• match collocations (two terms that go together)
• Categorization of words;
• putting the lexical items into different categories.
Techniques;
• multiple choice;
• learners are proposed to choose the correct word
• Gap-filling exercises;
• Gap-filling exercises, used not only in practice but also in revision
stages. They are open gap-fills or students can choose from the given
words
• creation tasks;
• In the creation tasks the students use the new terms in a sentence or
a story, in writing, speaking or in both forms
Conclusion;
• Good command of English as well as fluency are required by
vocabulary building which in turn is accomplished by exposing the
learners to a carefully selected corpus of authentic materials and to
real_life situations where context_appropriate language is used and
where focus on lexis and chunks of language, rather than words are
preferred. How this exposure occurs and the choice of techniques
used are very important as they will make difference. Use of the
mother tongue correct equivalence of terminology between L1and L2,
and translation as means of consolidation and revision should not be
rejected. They are good techniques if used appropriately, they will not
fail.

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