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Vocabulary elaboration in teachers' speech to L2 learners1*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2008

Craig Chaudron
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles

Abstract

Subject-matter lessons taught to English as a second language learners in several school levels were transcribed and analyzed. Characteristics of the teachers' speech when elaborating vocabulary were isolated and described, with a view to determining which characteristics would be helpful and which harmful to the students' comprehension and acquisition of vocabulary. It is seen that a major problem for the student may lie in the teacher's overelab-oration of vocabulary meanings through increased redundancy; the non-native listener may find it difficult to decode the exact message, because he cannot discern whether the same information has been provided redundantly or whether new information has been supplied.

Type
Research Notes
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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