In boring Chinese class today, I had a fleeting thought pass through my mind. That was that during the newspaper class, one of the exercises was to name to opposite word of the one listed on the paper. It was also a question we had on the midterm exam for the reading class and the teacher seems to often point out opposites. The thing is that in my own teaching, I rarely will make use of opposites. Perhaps on a few occassions when it seems to make sense to use and opposite, I will do that, but it is more to explain the meaning of a word than for something I expect the students to memorize. In fact, for some of the words that came up, I am not even sure there is an opposite. But what occured to me that was even more startling was that it could be the opposite meaning I would think of for a word may not be the same as the opposite meaning a Chinese person may associate with the same work. Who can actually guarentee we think in the same way.
So it made me wonder if using opposites is an effective way to teach vocabulary in a foreign language or if it has the potential to be incredibly confusing cross-culturally. I also wondered if Chinese students may be more likely to remember words in terms of opposites because in Asian countries they tend to pay more attention to the relationship between things (or related to some crap I read in Nesbitt's book) and if for Westerner's this way may not be an effective way. Then I got to thinking that for a PHD program I am going to need to write some kind of writing sample and that this could be an intersting project to work on.
The question being how effective is it for students to learn opposites when learning Chinese or English. Do English teachers from China and Native Speaking English teachers put the same emphasis on opposites in their teaching and what about for teachers of Chinese who are native English speakers or Native Chinese speakers. It should also be asked to students how effective it is for them to learn opposites. It seems like an interesting question to pursue and it would not have occured to me had I not attended the boring class.
4 comments:
Interesting observation. The research on vocabulary, either from Folse or a Kiwi guru whose name escapes me at this hour, is that teaching vocabulary that is closely related, such as opposites or the typical topical lesson (body parts, car parts) is an ineffective way to learn because terms are easily confused. The answer (I have not seen a text do this) is to teach contextually, isolating closely related terms into separate lessons. For example, a trip to the airport, a meal in a restaurant, etc., while striving to minimize clashing terms.
Bruce Moon
ESL instructor
Sacramento, CA
eslbruce@gmail.com
My Korean students will often define a word as "not" something; for example, "offbeat" as "not usual." This may be a result of their texts, though. I wonder if "not" something is the same as opposite.
My Korean students will often define a word as "not" something; for example, "offbeat" as "not usual." This may be a result of their texts, though. I wonder if "not" something is the same as opposite.
@Mary,
I do not think that would be the reason. I think Korean students would have a opposite word meaning in their language, but using not is a stragegy they have to make up for their lack of vocabulary. I often use not something to describe things I do not know how to say in Chinese.... not example: not married anymore (divorced), not good (bad), not right (wrong) until I have the vocabulary to compensate for this deficiency. I think it is more of a language learning stragety than something in their own language. It would be easy enough to find out. But the reality is a native English speaker would also do this if they did not have the right word on the tip of their tongue.
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