6 Spend some time on connotative meaning. You can turn connotation into
a window on the target culture. Take a simple item like ‘train’. For many
British speakers, this item has the connotation of a fast and frequent, though
also expensive and unreliable, mode of transport. The item probably would
not have these connotations for someone from a country without a
developed railway system.
7 Help learners to be aware of register. Is the target vocabulary item usually
associated with either written or spoken language? Is it formal, informal,
literary, technical, slang? What clues does the context of the word give
about its register?
8 Look at word formation. An understanding of common prefixes and
suffixes, for example, can open up the meaning of many words. How much
conscious emphasis you place on this will probably depend on the learners’
first language. Speakers of Latin languages will understand many English
morphemes immediately; speakers of languages less close to English will
need to spend more time on these aspects.
9 Use direct translation carefully. Learners often request translations, and if
you can give them this it is an efficient way of explaining a word. But it’s
also worth drawing attention to the ways in which words are not equivalent.
Perhaps the ‘translations’ differ in terms of connotation, register, grammar,
collocation? You can use dictionary study activities to emphasize this point.
10 Teach conscious vocabulary learning strategies. This is one of the areas
of study where it is particularly beneficial for learners to apply their own
‘techniques’; to remember items or work out the meaning of new ones. It’s
especially useful for you to show them strategies that they can use outside
class. For example, they might: keep a vocabulary notebook; classify new
words they have seen; revise new vocabulary at intervals. Your role can be
to explore various techniques with the class, and help each learner to find out
which ones suit them best.14 Teaching pronunciation
Pronunciation is an area of language use where it is particularly difficult to exert
conscious control. And yet, it’s important. For beginners, or for those who have
learnt mainly from written texts, poor pronunciation can be a obstacle to being
understood. For more advanced learners, pronunciation can still be an issue;
inappropriate intonation may mean that they ‘give the wrong message’ when
they speak. The importance of pronunciation work is being increasingly
recognized in coursebooks, and you may well find yourself using a book that
contains specific pronunciation activities. The following suggestions, then,
should help you to make the most of explicit pronunciation work with your
learners.
28 LANGUAGE WORK IN THE CLASSROOM