English Vocabulary Quest

The Underestimated Importance of Vocabulary in the Foreign Language Classroom
By Keith S. Folse, Coordinator of TESOL Programs, University of Central Florida[Non-copyright article reproduced here from CLEAR News 8:2. Fall 2004. pp. 1, 3, 6. ]

In the last decade, our field has seen enthusiastic interest in the role of vocabulary in foreign language courses. This recent interest has led to research with practical classroom applications for foreign language classrooms. In order to progress in a foreign language, learners need to be able to understand what they are hearing and reading. That is, the input must be comprehensible in order for it to be useful and meaningful to the learner and help with acquisition (Krashen, 1982), but if learners do not understand a sizable portion of the vocabulary in the language that they are reading or hearing, then this language is not comprehensible and therefore cannot be useful for acquisition. Many argue that vocabulary is one of the most important-if not the most important components in learning a foreign language, and foreign language curricula must reflect this.

Though each language has its own vocabulary intricacies, the vocabulary needs and learning processes of the learners of foreign languages are similar. Support for this position comes from vocabulary research from a wide variety of foreign languages, including research with Dutch learners of French, English learners of Japanese, Swedish learners of Finnish, and Chinese learners of English. In fact, some of the most useful foreign language vocabulary research for classroom teachers has come out of the Netherlands (Hulstijn, 1992) and Israel (Laufer &: Shmueli, 1997). What emerges from these studies are vocabulary universals that are not tied to anyone language; these include the importance of vocabulary, the variety of learner strategies, and the value of explicit vocabulary teaching.

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