Principles of vocabulary acquisition: How well do textbooks do?
Rob Waring
Foreign teacher frustration in junior and high schools at forced student memorization of outdated unused vocabulary (and syntax)—usually administered by colleagues entirely in Japanese, right from ‘sit down' and ‘open your books'— was vindicated by Waring's comment, "It's insane", as a recap of and response to questions regarding his presentation of extensive research done by himself and others into required and actual frequency of word meetings to effectively and enjoyably lodge them into students' permanent memory. Publications supporting this welcome catharsis are available at www.robwaring.org/presentations/ -- essential reading for EFL curriculum developers.
Illustrating that Japanese high school textbooks provide only one fiftieth of the words students need to enter a good university and debunking false pedagogical notions throughout, Waring walked us through the rationale for and stages of a balanced curriculum of vocabulary teaching and learning (as distinct concepts), pointing out how the (non-linear) cycle needs to acknowledge the forgetting curve and to teach students how to deal with new words independently. Without criticizing course books for their limitations, he pointed out how they need to work with extensive additional (graded) reading to cover the otherwise impossible number of word meetings essential for adequate English exposure.
Link to meeting listing

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