Optimising students’
exposure to English through
non-language subjects
Outline of the presentation
1. Exposure and second language acquisition (SLA)
2. Roles of English language (ELTs) and non- language teachers (NLTs)
3. General, academic and technical English 4. Why vocabulary growth needs serious
collaboration between ELTs and NLTs 5. Some practical issues concerning
1. Exposure and SLA
Universal agreement that exposure is a necessary condition for SLA
Input is one type of exposure
Input has been studied extensively (e.g.
Krashen’s “comprehensible input”)
For many years, HK schools have tried to
provide a “language-rich” environment with a view to improving exposure to L2.
Exposure to L2 Additive Effect (Esser 2006)
2. Roles of ELTs and NLTs in providing exposure
Does EMI simply provide more exposure to English?
OR
Is the type of exposure provided by ELT and NLT qualitatively different?
2. Roles of ELTs and NLTs in providing exposure
Should we focus on:
Similarities between the English covered by ELT and NLT?
OR
Differences between the English covered by ELT and NLT?
2. Roles of ELTs and NLTs in providing exposure
Ideally, we should do BOTH.
But we need to be clear about where the similarities and differences lie.
Vive la
différence!
Vive le genre!
3. General, Academic and Technical English
EXAMPLE 1:
The language of a mathematics textbook
FROM THE TEXT:
Use positive numbers to represent heights below sea-level.
Use directed numbers to represent gains in
weight.
General English (2000k)
Academic Wordlist
(AWL) (570)
Technical vocabulary
Vocabulary in textbooks: a realistic sequence?
general > academic > technical?
Use positive numbers to represent heights below sea-level.
Use directed numbers to represent gains in
weight.
TECHNICAL WORDS OCCUR EARLY ON
Use positive numbers to represent heights below sea-level.
Use directed numbers to represent gains in
weight.
ACADEMIC WORDS OCCUR ALONGSIDE TECHNICAL WORDS
Accept the overlapping of domains
in content subjects
Technical Words
Academic Words General Words
4. Vocabulary growth and NLTs and ELTs
4. Vocabulary growth and
NLTs and ELTs
English Vocabulary Growth
0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000
3 6 9 12 15 18
No. of words known
English NS
English Vocabulary Growth
0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000
3 6 9 12 15 18
Age of learner
No. of words known
English NS HK Learners
English Vocabulary Growth
0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000
3 6 9 12 15 18
Age of learner
No. of words known
English NS HK Learners New HK Target
Understanding L2 vocabulary acquisition
The “iceberg”
principle?
COGNITIVE PROCESS
Conversational Proficiency
LANGUAGE PROCESS
Knowledge Comprehension
Application Analysis Synthesis Evaluation
Pronunciation
Vocabulary
Grammar
Semantic meaning
How is English vocabulary acquired by students in Hong Kong schools?
From teachers’
explanations? YES From extensive NO reading of stories?
From reading YES expository texts?
From formal exercises focused on words? YES
ELT and/or NLT?
ELT+NLT
n/a
NLT
ELT
How much vocabulary do L2 students learn
from reading?
• Finally some empirical evidence of the low extent of vocabulary gains from L2 reading
• Claims about number of encounters
required to learn a new word vary between 6 and 20
• Just “reading” is not enough.
Extensive reading revisited
• Disappointing gains from reading of novels (Horst 2000)
• Far more vocabulary is learned if the
same text is read several times (Horst &
Meara 1999)
Insights from genre:
some text types are better than others
• Expository texts provide greater repetition of key lexis than narrative texts.
• Success reported with primary learners who read more expository texts (Gardner 2004).
• Mathematics/science textbooks repeat key technical and academic vocabulary in a
systematic way and provide “repeated encounters”.
Key priorities in
vocabulary teaching
1. Providing multiple exposures to target words (mainly NLT)
2. Cognitive ‘elaboration’ of the form-
meaning relationship (mainly ELT)
Two key Complementary considerations roles of NLT/ELT
AREAS OF FOCUS
BREADTH
(NLT) DEPTH
(ELT)
General, Academic and Technical English
EXAMPLE 2:
The language of humanities textbooks
Exploring different forms Morphology of words
expand
expansion expansionism expansive
Exploring different forms Morphology of words
evolve
evolution evolutionary evolutionist
The war *destroyed* many factory buildings.
This __________ ruined the economy.
Hitler *suppressed* anti-Nazi parties. The
___________ of opposition parties lasted for
several years.
The war *destroyed* many factory buildings.
This destruction ruined the economy.
Hitler *suppressed* anti-Nazi parties. The
suppression of opposition parties lasted for
several years.
Principles for handling vocabulary
• Avoid meaningless transformation and repetition exercises.
• Provide helpful contexts.
• Deliberately expose the students to different forms of the key words.
• Contexts help with collocation.
Collocational awareness in geography
adjective activity action problem
commercial logging damages forests emit pollutants
landslides global
Key theoretical notions of the HK Vocabulary Curriculum Project
1. Providing multiple exposures to target words
2. Cognitive ‘elaboration’ of the form- meaning relationship
3. Greater instructional intervention in the
vocabulary learning process
5. Practical collaboration between ELT and NLT
1. Set up a Language-across-the-Curriculum (LAC) Committee
2. Share texts.
3. NLTs need to know the discourse of their
own subject and its linguistic features. Make sure ELTs are made aware of these.
4. ELTs need to know the texts used to teach content subjects and their characteristics.
Refer to them in regular English classes.
Vive la
différence!
Respect different discourses!
