Oral Vocabulary Instruction Practices of Teachers of Nonacademic Adult English Language Learners

Abstract

The number of non-academic adults who need English as a second language (ESL) classes is ever increasing, yet little is known about the instructional practices used to teach this population of learners. The focus of this article is to describe an exploratory single case study of the instructional practices used by teachers in a nonacademic adult English as a second language (NAESL) program. Specifically, the study looked at vocabulary instruction teachers employed with beginner-level adult ESL students. The data was collected using questionnaires, classroom observations, and post-observation interviews with the teachers. The findings show that teachers used two categories of activities to teach vocabulary: oral vocabulary activities and written vocabulary activities. It is significant that not only did the participants use twice as many written vocabulary activities as oral vocabulary activities in their NAESL classrooms, but they did not identify written vocabulary activities and oral vocabulary activities as addressing different language skills. Considering the importance of listening and speaking as entry-level language skills, NAESL teachers need to become aware of the importance of the distinction between these two types of instructional activities and the need to focus more instructional time to building and strengthening listening and speaking as these basic, necessary communication skills.