1 frequency: which words and expressions are most frequent and which are rare
2 differences in speaking and writing: which vocabulary is more often spoken and which is more often written
3 contexts of use: the situations in which people use certain vocabulary 4 collocation: which words are often used together
5 grammatical patterns: how words and grammar combine to form patterns
6 strategic use of vocabulary: which words and expressions used to organize
and manage discourse
Concerning with reading academic text, Grabe and Stiller in Celce- Murcia eds, 2001 describe the ways to choose the words to be learnt. The words
should be categorized as follow. 1 + + : critical for comprehending the text and useful in other setting
2 + - : necessary for comprehending but not particularly useful in other context 3 - - : not necessary for comprehending the text nor in other context
The words in category + + and + - should be taught to the learners in direct instruction while those in category - - should be omitted. They suggest that
it will be efficient to use not too many words at one time since presenting a large number of vocabularies at one time is not an effective teaching strategy.
e. Knowing a Word
Knowing a word is essential to understand vocabulary. It is likely the main purpose of learning vocabulary. To be able to know a word there are some
aspects that should be concerned by the learners. They have to understand what is meant by knowing a word and the characteristics of knowing a word.
According to Thornbury 2002: 15, “At the most basic level, knowing a word involves knowing its form and meaning”. He adds that the form of a word is
not enough to make the learners know about its meaning, they need to know its dictionary meaning. After the learners know the dictionary meaning of the word,
they also have to know what the word is usually associated with its collocation and its connotation, including its register and its cultural accretions.
Learners may think that learning a word means that they have to learn its pronunciation, spelling and meaning. In fact, a single word is not only formed
from pronunciation, spelling and meaning. It is go beyond those aspects. For the learners to be called as knowing a word they have to have knowledge in the
aspects of a particular word’s pronunciation, spelling, word parts, meaning, grammatical properties, collocations, and contextual factors effecting its
appropriate use Nation in Herbert and Kamil, 2005 In addition, Harmer 1991:158 proposes that knowing a word means
more than just knowing its meaning, but also knowing word use, word formation, and word grammar. Considering with the word meaning, we have to set the
thought that context where the word is used and its relation toward the other words will determine the word meaning. Word use also influence the state of
knowing a word. Metaphors and idioms, collocation, and also style and register are ways to use words in various texts. The next concern is word formation which
related to its part of speech, affixes, spelling and pronunciation. And the last is the word grammar which concern with its grammatical context such as noun, verb,
adjective, etc. The diagram of knowing a word by Harmer 1991 is shown below.
Figure 2.1. Diagram of Knowing a Word by Harmer 1991
Related to vocabulary in academic reading, the learners should know about the word’s meaning in context, the word’s part of speech, its pronunciation
and its parts August: 2009, Grabe and Stiller: 2001.
f. Kinds of Vocabulary
Vocabulary knowledge is used to deal with different forms and purposes. Based on its form, Hiebert and Kamil 2005: 3 propose that vocabulary comes in
two forms which are oral and print vocabulary. Oral vocabulary is the set of words for which we know the meanings when we speak or read orally. Print
vocabulary consists of those words for which the meaning is known when we write or read silently. At the beginning readers, the words that they know are
mainly oral vocabulary, then as they learn to read, print vocabulary plays greater role to understand the text rather than oral vocabulary.
