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Exploring Vocabulary, similar to the other books in the Routledge Introductions to Applied Linguistics series, is intended for those with or without practical experience. It is particularly useful for advanced undergraduates, graduates, postgraduates, and/or practitioner teachers returning to academic study. In line with Brumfit (1995), the organization of the book is problem oriented; unlike the more common development from theory to practice, it is structured from practice to theory. Aside from the Introduction and Conclusions, the other five chapters (2–6) move from Problems, Intervention, and then to Theory. According to Gardner, there is now more knowledge on vocabulary, particularly on what to teach and the many tools to do the task, hence another volume on vocabulary. (Recent publications in the field include Chacón-Beltrán, Abello-Contesse, and Torreblanca-López (2010) and Jiménez Catalán (2014), to mention only two.) However, this volume by Gardner is different since it is more practice- and task-oriented. More particularly, the book aims ‘to build your awareness of the vocabulary tasks facing our English Language Learners (ELLs) and to provide foundational concepts for dealing with these tasks in your various classrooms and tutoring experiences’ (p. 1). The chapters are guided by four philosophical positions (1) ‘All vocabulary is not created equal’ (p. 2), (2) understand what learners know and what they need to know, (3) focus on both form and meaning, and (4) ‘find ways to expedite the vocabulary learning process’ (p. 3). These positions have practical corollaries on the type of English, text, vocabulary, background knowledge, curriculum, and strategies ELLs need. The author maintains that vocabulary training and research have so far emphasized only one of the psychological (learner minds), linguistic (texts), or pedagogical (teaching) aspects. Therefore, Gardner attempts to propose a new approach to vocabulary education, which is based on the interrelatedness of these realities. Thus, with the intention of laying a solid base to explore further discussions on vocabulary needs and present knowledge of ELLs, and the pedagogical tasks to be employed to fill the gap (between actual and optimal vocabulary knowledge of ELLs), ‘The vocabulary of vocabulary’ in Chapter 2 discusses vocabulary terminology within applied linguistics. It focuses on the concepts of form (including token, type, lemma, and word family), spelling, pronunciation, meaning (such as homographs, heterophones, homophones, polysemes, and so on), and relationship (for example multi-word items, idioms, and collocations). Gardner emphasizes the context-dependent meanings of English words and phrases, illustrating the difference between context, co-text, and collocates through examples and concordancing. Gardner’s third chapter discusses the challenges in determining a core vocabulary, such as multiple word meanings, multi-word issues, spoken versus written English, arbitrariness of core lists’ size, and their getting dated. Yet, one needs ‘a base of English vocabulary that can support basic communication and literary needs, as well as support additional vocabulary learning’ (p. 48). Therefore, Gardner proposes a stable core and an unstable core of English vocabulary, with stability in an unstable core being a relative concept. He introduces a Common Core List (CCL) based on The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) and the British National Corpus (BNC). The CCL also has limitations, especially with multi-word items and the multiple meanings of highly frequent words. ELLs’ real-world needs, goals, and their encounters with different registers of interest demand knowledge of specific vocabulary for special purposes. To illustrate the point, in Chapter 4, ‘Register-specific vocabulary’, Gardner conducts a case study across four registers: fiction, American history, mathematics, and life science. He demonstrates that these registers have specific vocabulary with specific characteristics, i.e. similarities and differences, thus making register the focal point of the volume. Gardner here tries to answer the first guiding question, or corollary, raised in Chapter 1: What English? To take learners from what they know to where they need to go, Chapter 5, ‘The tasks of vocabulary learning’, first emphasizes the integration of skills in teaching vocabulary but it also discusses the positions taken by some scholars (for example Krashen 1989) who believe that reading input alone can contribute to vocabulary acquisition. Yet, Gardner argues that it does not suffice for learning many (especially academic) words incidentally because (1) the time for learning new words is short in academic contexts, (2) recycling words in authentic reading materials is poor, and (3) many words are cognitively challenging and appear in lexically dense reading materials in which the unskilled readers cannot use the context for word learning. Therefore, the chapter’s optimal recommendation for vocabulary learning is ‘[a] combination of direct vocabulary instruction coupled with actual opportunities for our learners to read and interact extensively in the language’ (p. 107). Chapter 6, ‘Building vocabulary knowledge’, discusses the procedures of accomplishing such a task. More specifically, the chapter focuses on what teachers and learners need to do in vocabulary teaching and learning, respectively. As the suggestion of the book is to move from the general to the more specific purposes in vocabulary training, the chapter emphasizes flexibility in instructional approaches and designs. Thus, to increase chances of vocabulary success, teachers are recommended to identify important vocabulary, organize vocabulary-centred curriculum around themes, integrate language skills, and collect graded books for a certain theme. As a result, some control is exerted over vocabulary demands, thus leading to better direct vocabulary instruction. Next, the chapter highlights six areas of explicit vocabulary instruction with effective techniques from good books: conceptualization, form and meaning practice, context-based word-learning strategies, dictionary definition training, morphological awareness raising, and collocation training. Discussing these practices, Gardner gives useful suggestions based on research and his own experience. Finally, the one-page Chapter 7, ‘Conclusions’, sums up the discussion and emphasizes the intention and considerations of the author. Exploring Vocabulary gives readers a great deal of information from a certain perspective, yet, it might also be suggested that the information does not suffice to provide a vivid and holistic picture of vocabulary and how to develop it. One reason might be the elusive nature of language acquisition in general. Due to the nature of what really goes on in the mind and the social aspects of language learning, some issues of language learning and teaching, for example vocabulary, involve elusiveness about how they really develop. Though different scholars have provided different perspectives on vocabulary development, each perspective most often deals with it partially, but not completely. (Teaching) vocabulary to ELLs can probably be analogous to the allegory by Rumi of the elephant in the dark that nobody sees quite in the same way (http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Masnavi_I_Ma%27navi/Book_III#STORY_V._The_Elephant_in_a_Dark_Room). The allegory relates that an elephant was exhibited in a dark room. Many people gathered to see it, but as it was so dark they had to touch the elephant to learn what it was like. Therefore, each person accidentally touched a different part of the elephant: one person felt the trunk and likened it to a water pipe. A second person touched its ear and believed it to be like a fan. Another found its leg to be like a pillar. Still another laid his hand on its back and said it was like a throne. Thus, each person had a different experience of the elephant. Apparently, the different volumes on vocabulary are not in total agreement with one another. Sometimes their perspectives vary widely, yet they do not contradict each other. Actually, each researcher describes aspects of and recommends approaches to vocabulary development influenced by the perspective he or she takes. The real problem is that (the elephant of) vocabulary in its totality seems to greatly exceed the capacity (of the hand) of the researchers. However, no single volume can afford to provide an holistic picture of vocabulary development for the vastness of the area. It was a major concern for Gardner ‘to decide which of the topics on vocabulary to include’ (p. 148). Yet, the author has illustrated how teachers can effectively address the needs of their learners. The significance of register stands out in this volume. Gardner highlights the role of register in teaching vocabulary to ELLs. However, he does not clarify how ELLs should embark on using a certain register right from the beginning, i.e. prior to having a basic foundation of a vocabulary knowledge level upon which they can work efficiently with this needed register; teaching a specific register practically without having a base of vocabulary is not possible since learners are unlikely to be able to run before they are able to walk. Despite the points above, the volume has some good features, one of which is its Vocabulary Project, leading to a portfolio of essential vocabulary resources, approaches, methods, and tools. Another interesting feature of the book is the inclusion of ‘Tasks’ within chapters after introducing an important discussion. Tasks provide practical experience and analysis of the concepts introduced in the book. Through the examples, corpus-based data, and software, Tasks help with processing and understanding vocabulary issues more deeply. The questions raised, as a follow-up to introducing a concept, indicate the problems and concerns still remaining within that issue of vocabulary teaching, learning, and research. In fact, the inclusion of the Vocabulary Project and Tasks gives the readers a chance to take in the conceptual issues presented. The Appendices and the informative Glossary of terms used are further helpful strengths provided to explore the realm of vocabulary. All in all, the readers will find the book worth reading and the solutions looked at worth trying in their contexts of teaching.
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