Book Review: Word Strategies
Maya Hyunjeong Lee, esthi25@hotmail.com
Giannotti, L. (2007). Word strategies: Building a strong vocabulary (Low intermediate). Syracuse, NY: New Readers Press. 112 pp. US$11.50.
Teaching learning strategies is a relatively new idea (Brown, 2000) that has been developed with special attention to L2 learners’ individual differences. In comparison to traditional perspectives on language learning that have been developed with a collective view of L2 language learners, the individual differences approach focuses on the fact that individuals may take different steps in their language-learning process based on “their cognitive approach to learning and attitudes of the tasks” (Fan, 2003, p. 225). In other words, learners employ a variety of different strategies according to their personalities, aptitudes, and educational and cultural backgrounds. Therefore, the methods that each learner employs become the major concern in learning strategies. This trend has also been evident in the area of vocabulary learning, teaching, and related publications; as a result, teachers currently have a collection of vocabulary textbooks that are solely dedicated to vocabulary-learning strategies. As the title clearly indicates, Giannotti’s (2007) Word Strategies is one of these strategy development textbooks.
Summary
Word Strategies is a two-book set, with one for high-beginners and the other for low-intermediates, and both books have the same features, except for the genre of the reading articles that are presented at the beginning of each lesson. Whereas the readings for high-beginners are either dialogues or simple narratives, those for low-intermediates are expository. The table of contents makes it apparent that this book is organized by themes (Folse, 2004; Freeman & Freeman, 2003) and is not a collection of related words. After providing some guidance at the beginning to both students and teachers about how to use this book effectively, each book presents 10 lessons and an answer key at the end of the book.
Each lesson is composed of 10 strategy-building exercises and 2 review exercises. A lesson begins with a short reading article that presents the first dozen words of the lesson. The author urges teachers to encourage students to use learners’ dictionaries whenever they find unfamiliar words that are not explicitly taught during the lesson. After reading an article, students practice matching the words that appear in the reading to the dictionary definitions, and according to the author these definitions were chosen in consideration of contextualized meaning (exercise 1). Then, there is another matching exercise of initializations or abbreviations (exercise 2). Exercises 3 and 4 are word-building exercises using prefixes and suffixes. Exercise 5 asks students to make either synonyms or antonyms for the underlined words in question. Whereas exercise 6 deals with collocations, exercise 7 focuses on confusing words that usually cause problems in L2/foreign language writing because of their proximate meanings or the influence of bilingual dictionary use. Exercise 8 deals with context clues, and exercise 9 asks students to identify the part of speech of an underlined word. Finally, in exercise 10, this book asks students to look up words in the dictionary to find the best definition for the underlined words.
After the 10 strategy-building exercises, the book provides two review exercises, consisting of a crossword puzzle and a fill-in-the-blank exercise with contextual clues. According to the author, these two exercises recycle words from the lesson to enhance students’ word retention ability.
Evaluation
While evaluating textbooks, I think it is important to specify the objectives of a book and the proficiency level of its target students, and then to examine how each activity serves them strategically and cohesively. In this regard, Word Strategies has several strong points. First, this book focuses on forming the concept of strategy use in learners’ minds with rigorous repetition. In other words, because this book targets low-intermediate students who may not have sufficient experience in learning a second or foreign language or may not have developed their own vocabulary-learning strategies, reinforcing the use of a set of strategies will be as important as presenting a variety of strategies. This book seems to focus on internalizing particular strategies by using the same strategies repeatedly throughout all chapters. The author also included a confusing-words activity because, as she learned through her teaching experience, many language learners actually have a hard time dealing with similar words in their speaking and writing. In addition, this book has some user-friendly features, such as appropriate spacing and large fonts, which enable students to get a glimpse of the kinds of strategies that this book is dealing with even at first glance. I think this overall presentation or display is an important factor in choice of textbooks. Furthermore, providing the answers at the end of the book enables students to use it without teacher intervention, though this may not be ideal if the book is used as a classroom text.
Despite its strengths, however, this book raises a fundamental question about the use of the word strategy and its pedagogical application. It seems that there is a lack of consensus regarding the definition of the word strategy and its pedagogical applications. In other words, even though every activity used in this book seems to be dedicated to vocabulary-building strategies, it is hard to figure out how these strategies differ from the traditional view of word learning. For example, using word parts and word relationships, understanding parts of speech, guessing meaning from context, and using the dictionary have long been used in vocabulary textbooks even though they do not employ the term strategy (see Seal, 1990; Valcourt & Wells, 1999). One of the problems emerging from this understanding is that this book seems to fail to explore the various aspects of vocabulary-learning strategies, including individual differences, whole-word learning experiences, and motivational aspects (see Pike-Baky & Blass, 1994). According to Schmitt (2000), vocabulary-learning strategies can be classified into five different categories: determination strategies, social strategies, memory strategies, cognitive strategies, and metacognitive strategies. The majority of the activities used in this book, however, are determination strategies (for meeting a word the first time) and memory strategies, and the book fails to address other social, cognitive, and metacognitive strategies. In other words, this book does not provide any visual or auditory aids, pair or group activities, word lists, authentic materials, or culture-related topics that encourage students to internalize words by relating them to their real-life needs. Furthermore, this book fails to diversify the types of activities, dominantly using a matching-the-word activity. There are no jigsaws, games, or information-gap or journal-writing activities. I think this is a disadvantage to the students who need to figure out what strategies are right for them through various learning experiences.
Another drawback of this textbook can be found in its review exercises. It is hard to tell what aspects of word learning these activities assess and what kinds of feedback they aim to provide for students. Crossword puzzles and fill-in-the-blank from words in boxes can hardly assess students’ overall understanding of words and their usage in and out of context.
Considering all of these factors, I think this book can be a useful supplementary tool in reading, writing, and speaking classes, or for a few specified lessons focusing on presenting the definition of known words by demonstrating dictionary definitions, synonyms and antonyms, and collocations of a word.
Maya H. Lee is a recent Biola University MA TESOL graduate who is teaching ESL in southern California. She taught EFL in South Korea for 3 years and loves to listen to people with diverse backgrounds and to explore new places. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, writing, listening to classical music, and taking backpack trips.
References
Brown, H. D. (2000). Principles of language learning and teaching (4th ed.). New York: Longman.
Fan, M. (2003). Frequency of use, perceived usefulness, and actual usefulness of second language strategies: A study of Hong Kong learners. Modern Language Journal, 87, 222-241.
Folse, K. S. (2004). Myths about teaching and learning second language vocabulary: What recent research says. TESL Reporter, 37(2), 1-13.
Freeman, D., & Freeman, Y. (2003). Teaching English learners to read: Learning or acquisition? In G. G. Garcia (Ed.), English learners: Reaching the highest level of English literacy (pp. 34-54). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Pike-Baky, M., & Blass, L. (1994). Word strand 2. Boston: Heinle & Heinle.
Schmitt, N. (2000). Vocabulary in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Seal, B. (1990). American vocabulary builder 2. New York: Longman.
Valcourt, G., & Wells, L. (1999). Mastery. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
