Vocabulary Myths by Keith S. Folse

Simon Gill has just posted the following review of "Vocabulary Myths" by Keith S. Folse on the CETEFL list (22 September 2005). I thought it would interest EFLTU members and visitors to this site.

Dennis

(CETEFL-L Website http://www.volny.cz/cetefl)

September already! And, as a kind of salute to yet another new school year, here's a review, by your Reviews Editor, Simon Gill (who else?) of one of the books I've been dipping into over the summer. More later in the autumn, but for now, here is:

"Vocabulary Myths", by Keith S Folse, published by The University of Michigan Press, 2004, 185 pp, ISBN 0-472-03029-9, UK price 13.pounds sterling, US price $21.95

Henry G Strauss once said that "I have every sympathy for the American who was so horrified by what he read about smoking that he gave up reading." If he saw the headline of the back cover blurb for this book, which makes the somewhat remarkable claim that it contains "What every ESL teacher should know about teaching vocabulary", I hope Mr Strauss would sympathise with my own recent decision to give up reading back cover blurbs. The idea that any single volume can live up to such a lofty claim is one that, to put it mildly, gives me a lot of trouble, but that is not to say this book is not worth reading. Far from it.

The full title, "Vocabulary Myths: Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching", which we can find on the front cover, perhaps does a rather better job than what is on the back of really telling us what to expect inside. After an introductory chapter which considers the question of what vocabulary actually involves and what it means to know a vocabulary item, each of the remaining eight chapters deals with a different "myth"; they are as follows:

  1. In learning another language, vocabulary is not as important as grammar or other areas.
  2. Using word lists to learn second language vocabulary is unproductive.
  3. Presenting new vocabulary in semantic sets facilitates learning.
  4. The use of translations to learn new vocabulary should be discouraged.
  5. Guessing words from context is an excellent strategy for learning second language vocabulary.
  6. The best vocabulary learners make use of one or two really good specific vocabulary learning strategies.
  7. The best dictionary for second language learners is a monolingual dictionary.
  8. Teachers, textbooks and curricula cover second language vocabulary adequately.

Not all of these are equally familiar to me, but I've heard them all at one time or another and was pleased to see them being taken to task. Despite the differing lengths of the chapters, they are all organised along very similar lines. This really is a very structured book.

Each begins with a section called "In the Real World" in which the writer uses an experience he himself has had (the pitfalls of shopping for flour in Japanese corner shops and his embarrassment when his use of guessing from context in Spanish led him to believe that the word for 'cabbage' was actually the one for "a really big chicken" are two examples) as a lead-in illustrating the folly of subscribing to whichever myth the chapter deals with.

Next there comes "What the Research Says", usually the longest section of each chapter, in which we are given a summary of relevant research. This is really rather well done, as Folse has a good gift for synthesising various strands and combining them into a coherent and readable whole. As well as connected text, some of the chapters also include very clear tables that summarise some important aspects of the research.

The final section of each chapter is entitled "What You Can Do".. In this we can find practical advice, based on the research findings already presented, for teachers to follow in their teaching. It takes the form (most of the time) of a series of brief imperatives or slogans (such as "No vocabulary strategy or training is a substitute for knowing vocabulary" or "Use thematic presentations of new words when possible", followed by explanation and exemplification.

There are also 16 pages of works cited, should you be in the mood for more. However, there do seem to be some curious absences, perhaps reflecting the fact that the author and reviewer come from different sides of the old herring pond. Two books by Michael Lewis do make it into the list, but I was a bit surprised by the absence of works that I had always assumed to be of near-classic status in the area of vocabulary teaching, such as Gairns and Redman’s oldie-but-still-a-goldie "Working with Words" (1986), the Lewis-edited "Teaching Collocation" (2000), Thornbury's "How to Teach Vocabulary" (2002), and, if not the current edition of Morgan and Rinvolucir's "Vocabulary" (published in the same year as the book under review), then at least the earlier edition.

The book, then, represents a marriage of theory and practice, both as experienced and as the author recommends. This is, of course, very welcome. However, what I did miss was more in the way of specific activities for teachers to either use or adapt in their own teaching; the suggestions in the "What You Can Do" sections tend to remain, for the most part, very global and general, and I can imagine many teachers, and not only newcomers to the profession, scratching their heads and saying to themselves: "Yes, this is a nice idea, but just how do I do it?" And that is one of the reasons why I don't really buy the slogan "What every ESL teacher should know about teaching vocabulary"; the quality of the way in which the theory is brought together is not, unfortunately, matched by that of the practical advice that builds on it and what we end up with is more "some useful things every EFL teacher should know about teaching vocabulary, but there is more besides."

For its synthesis of the theory, I would not hesitate to recommend this book to teacher trainers and trainees; there's a lot here that can provide new teachers with solid foundations, or their more experienced colleagues with a refresher course, for an approach to the area. But ultimately it's one for the bookshelf rather than the briefcase, and for teachers who are looking for something to inspire their creativity in actual classroom practice then perhaps one of the other volumes I have mentioned might be more suitable. They vary considerably in style and approach, but all of them are at least worth looking at.

Gairns, R & S Redman (1986) Working with Words Cambridge: CUP
Lewis, M, ed (2000) Teaching Collocation Hove: LTP
Morgan, J & M Rinvolucri (2004) Vocabulary (2nd edition) Oxford: OUP
Thornbury, S (2002) How To Teach Vocabulary Harlow: Longman