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6. Deleting: preventing learners from over-generalising by analogy
with L1, usually focussing on collocations.26
Successful strategies to improve vocabulary acquisition include the
activation of more than one sensory receptor. The simultaneous use
of verbal and visual codes allows for the activation of both halves of
the brain; the right half which is visual and considers the whole
before the details, and the left half which carries out analytic,
sequential and verbal tasks. This dual code, which involves both
halves of the brain and may also include hearing, smell or feeling,
provides better conditions for learning and memorization. Here are
some dual code strategies grouped according to learning styles:
• visual: spider diagrams, charts, labeling pictures, drawing
• sound: matching rhyming words, listing words with similar
beginning, intonation practice
• movement: miming, pointing at objects, card or domino games
• verbal: scripts, matching, ranking, synonyms and antonyms,
crosswords, exploring corpora
As vocabulary is learned incrementally, lexical acquisition requires mul-
tiple manipulation of a word. Research has shown that 5 to 16 repeti-
tions of a word are necessary for deep learning to take place.27 As a con-
sequence, recycling is necessary to prevent forgetting (most partially
known words are usually forgotten without recycling). Reacting with
personal response (such as expressing preference, opinion, prediction, or
recalling memory, etc.) to the new information provides an emotional
or affective connection which makes learning more memorable.
5. Active, passive and potential vocabulary
“It’s on the tip of my tongue…” Everyone has experienced it at one
time: knowing a word, name or number, but not being able to
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26 Ibid., pp. 89–91.
27 Paul Nation, Teaching and Learning Vocabulary, p. 44.
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