Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1989. 19/3. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 19)

Kovács, Éva: The History of Teaching Vocabulary

12/ teaching lexis it can be attained by exercises aiming at the formation of the rigid associations between the words arid their meanings, by moans of rigthly formed associations. Vie have not acquired a word until we can produce it automatically. Automatism can be formed by repetition, hut is siculd not be monotonous, parrot-like. 2. Accuracy means conformity with a given model or standard. The principle of accuracy requires that the student shall have no opportunities for making mistakes until lie has arrived at the stage at which accurate work is reasonable to be expected. There may be accuracy and inaccuracy in meanings. The meaning of a word may vary considerably according to its context. Most English words have two or more meanings, the foreign words which are assumed to be their equivalent may also have two or more meanings, but the foreign word does not necessarily have all the meanings of the English word and vice versa. 3. Gradation means passing from the known by easy steps, each of which serves as a preparation for the next. The vocabulary in a well-graded language course will ho arranged in stich a manner that the more useful words will be learnt before the less useful, There are two sorts of useful words; those which are useful in themselves and words which are useful as sentence formers. In the ideally graded course the student first assimilates a relatively small but exceedingly important vocabulary; he learns to use it, lie learns the most important peculiarities of each word; he learns how to combine these words in sentences; he learns the exact range of meanings covered by each word. 4. The principle of proportion does not necessarily imply equivaiity of treatment nor even a fixed standard of ratios; it simply means that all the items in the range of subjects and aspects must receive an appropriate degree of attention, so that the student's knowledge of them rn3y ultimately form a harmonious whole. The principle of proportion may also be observed or violated in the selection of vocabularies, 1o include in early lessons words or forms which are comparatively rare, archaic and useless, while excluding some of the commonest and most useful items of language material is an offence not only against the principle of gradation but also against the principle of proportion. We have also to note a regrettable tendency to give preference in vocabularies to words