Strategic selection of vocabulary learning strategies involves familiarity with

•Challenges of TL Vocabulary Learning

•What Word Knowledge Entails

•Word Structure and Word Formation Processes

What we know:

•Learning a new lexical item means learning:

•its meaning(s)

•how to pronounce and transcribe it

•how it behaves grammatically

•other words with which it collocates and/or associates

Morphologically:

•a WORD has Structure

•a WORD multiplies itself through certain processes

•Word formation processes may be universal (cross-linguistic) or unique (idiomatic)

Word Structure in English (Simple vs. Complex Words) Simple words cannot be divided into smaller parts boy *b-oy train  *t-rain

[boy and train are simple words – each has only one morpheme]

Word Structure in English (Simple vs. Complex Words) Complex words have two or more morphemes

One-------- boy--------------hunt

Two -------boy-s-------hunt-er

Three---------------------hunt-er-s

boy and hunt are ‘free” morphemes (each can stand independently and has meaning).

-er and –s are “bound” morphemes (each needs to be attached to have meaning).

Key English Word-Formation Processes:

•Affixation

•Derivation

•Inflection

•Compounding

•Conversion