INVESTIGATING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE TECHNIQUES APPLIED TO TEACH VOCABULARY IN MBUJIMAYI

Abstract

This paper is about the mismatch between vocabulary (its nature and importance in language) and the techniques used for teaching it. It is obvious that vocabulary is not solely a given meaning of a word; it is actually the study of the words of a language. Teaching vocabulary is therefore teaching words with their various features that make lexical knowledge. This objective cannot be achieved when depth and breadth of vocabulary do not matter for instructors. Unfortunately, this study reveals that the techniques dominantly used for teaching vocabulary in Mbujimayi (DRC) are scarcely ever effective in helping teachers impart knowledge of all or the majority of a word’s aspects. Visuals, gestures, eliciting and translation that have been the used in teaching vocabulary hardly ever succeeded in helping teachers present information about polysemy, sense relations, collocations, style, idioms and word parts during the vocabulary lessons. To take visuals (as they are the techniques the most applied) as an example, teachers do teach only the words’ spelling, pronunciation and only one of its meanings when applying this technique. The rest of word information is ignored (as it is explained in the text). To solve this problem, I advise teachers to reconsider their choices of the vocabulary teaching techniques and their combination with others paying attention to those likely to achieve lexical competence. I find the use of the dictionary the best technique for teaching vocabulary as the dictionary contains all the elements of vocabulary listed in this paper. Decision makers and teachers should maximise teacher training in dictionary use (in class or out of it) for the good of the learners’ lexical instruction.

Keywords

• vocabulary teaching techniques
• vocabulary knowledge
• use of the dictionary