Keith S. Folse > Quotes

“Vocabulary knowledge is critical to any communication. Wilkins (1972) summarizes the situation best: “While without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” (p. 111).”
― Keith S. Folse, Vocabulary Myths: Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching

“In Tinkham (1993), two experiments compared the learning rates of the same ESL learners who were learning semantically related and then semantically unrelated target vocabulary items. Results of this study showed that the learners were able to learn the semantically unrelated target items much more quickly than they could do with the semantically related items.”
― Keith S. Folse, Vocabulary Myths: Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching

“Abstract words seem to be more difficult than concrete words.”
― Keith S. Folse, Vocabulary Myths: Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching

“This emphasis on grammar is surprising in current pedagogy that focuses on comprehensible input and communicative activities because people can generally communicate their meaning with less than perfect grammar whereas incorrect use of vocabulary can substantially impede communication.”
― Keith S. Folse, Vocabulary Myths: Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching

“The most common collocations for commit as a verb are all types of crimes: commit murder,”
― Keith S. Folse, Vocabulary Myths: Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching

“Positive words are easier to remember than negative words (Ludwig, 1984).”
― Keith S. Folse, Vocabulary Myths: Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching

“In a study of 106 undergraduate and graduate nonnative English—speaking students, Schmitt and Zimmerman (2002) found that it was rare for a student to know all four forms or no form of a word. In other words, partial knowledge of at least one form was the norm. Results also showed that learners tended to have a better understanding of the noun and/or verb forms rather than the adjective and/or adverb forms. The authors conclude that teachers cannot assume that learners will absorb the derivative forms of a word family automatically from exposure and suggest explicit instruction in this area of vocabulary.”
― Keith S. Folse, Vocabulary Myths: Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching

“vocabulary is actually more important than grammar.”
― Keith S. Folse, Vocabulary Myths: Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching

“Though Olsen's (1999) descriptive study of Norwegian EFL learners focused primarily on cross-linguistic influences on learner errors, one interesting conclusion was that external factors such as teaching confusing pairs such as sea and see, by and buy, want and won't, or lose and loose at the same time actually causes errors. Olsen recommends that each word be taught in its own context at different times.”
― Keith S. Folse, Vocabulary Myths: Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching

“Liu's [2003] idioms commonly used in spoken American English.)”
― Keith S. Folse, Vocabulary Myths: Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching

“categories are more difficult to learn than others. Nouns seem to be the easiest; adverbs—the most difficult; verbs and adjectives—somewhere in between” (p. 298).”
― Keith S. Folse, Vocabulary Myths: Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching

“Semantic sets actually hinder and impede learning (Tinkhan 1993, 1997; Waring 1997).”
― Keith S. Folse, Vocabulary Myths: Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching

“Learning a second language entails learning numerous aspects of that language, including vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, composition, reading, culture, and even body language. Unfortunately, traditionally vocabulary has received less attention in second language (L2) pedagogy than any of these other aspects, particularly grammar. Arguably, vocabulary is perhaps the most important component in L2 ability. For more than 2,000 years, the study of a foreign language primarily entailed grammatical analysis, which was practiced through translation of written work (Hinkel & Fotos, 2002). As a result, vocabulary has been academically excluded from or at best limited within L2 curricula and classroom teaching. A perusal of ESL textbooks quickly reveals a lack of focus on vocabulary. Unlike books in French, Spanish, or other foreign languages, there are no vocabulary lists in the lessons/units or vocabulary index at the back of the book. Exercises practicing vocabulary may be found in reading books, but such exercises are rarely found in grammar books, speaking books, listening books, or writing books in spite of the importance of vocabulary in these areas.”
― Keith S. Folse, Vocabulary Myths: Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching

“collocation(s) of a new vocabulary item. The meaning of collocation is apparent in its constituent parts: co (together) + location (place). A collocation is a word or phrase that naturally and frequently occurs before, after, or very near the target vocabulary item.”
― Keith S. Folse, Vocabulary Myths: Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching

“Knowing a word can also mean that the learner knows the frequency of occurrence of that word. Though this aspect of a word may seem almost trivial, the frequency of a word is often cited as a major factor in a given word's difficulty. In fact, Haynes (1993) claims that word frequency is probably the major component in word difficulty.”
― Keith S. Folse, Vocabulary Myths: Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching

“Research has shown that second-language readers rely heavily on vocabulary knowledge, and that a lack of vocabulary knowledge is the largest obstacle for second-language readers to overcome” (p. 154). Likewise, Haynes and Baker (1993) found that the main obstacle for L2 readers is not lack of reading strategies but rather insufficient vocabulary knowledge in English. Laufer and Sim (1985) list these areas in order of decreasing importance in reading ability in L2: knowledge of vocabulary, subject matter, discourse markers, and syntactic structure. In sum, Laufer and Sim find that vocabulary is most important, syntax least important.”
― Keith S. Folse, Vocabulary Myths: Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching

“Perhaps the single most important aspect of knowing a word for nonnative learners—besides or in addition to the obviously requisite synonym or denotation meaning—is the”
― Keith S. Folse, Vocabulary Myths: Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching

“commit suicide, commit grand larceny, commit adultery. Thus, commit does not mean just “do or make” but “do or make something negative.” An ESL student who learns that commit in commit a murder means “to do or perform an action” might attempt to make the following seemingly logical combinations: commit a joke on someone, commit the housework, commit a lie. The problem—a huge problem for nonnative learners—is that commit does not collocate with joke, housework, or lie.”
― Keith S. Folse, Vocabulary Myths: Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching