Vocabulary in EFL teaching materials for young learners

• Vocabulary is a key factor in successful language acquisition and as thetextbook is central in the teaching of English, ideas behind vocabularyinput in teaching materials should be based on research findings. Thepresent study is an analysis of seven teaching materials used for younglearners in Sweden. The results show that only a limited amount of thevocabulary students encounter in textbooks features in the exercises,with the focus placed on practising words already occurring with highfrequency in the textbooks. Most exercises have an incidentalvocabulary-learning focus and also require students to deal withlanguage only in a mechanical way. This suggests there is nopedagogical thought behind the vocabulary input and that theinadequacies of textbooks are not properly addressed in workbooks. Aconclusion to be drawn is that many teaching materials intended foryounger learners in Swedish schools are questionable from a language learning perspective.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Didaktik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Didactics (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

English as a Foreign Language

Explicit Learning

Foreign Language Acquisition

Incidental Learning

Primary School

Recycling

Textbook

Workbook

English and Education

Engelska med didaktisk inriktning

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)