Teaching vocabulary : Pupils' attitudes towards vocabulary learning

This paper sets out to examine pupils’ attitudes towards vocabulary learning. The results of the paper are based on a survey conducted at a lower secondary school and the participants are aged between 13 and 15. The survey indicates that the learners are in general well motivated and they agree with the importance of learning new vocabulary. However, the pupils do not seem willing to spend more time than necessary on vocabulary homework and they prefer relatively simple methods of vocabulary acquisition like watch films and listen to music rather than teacher-controlled tuition. Even if a lot of pupils did not appreciated the vocabulary teaching during class a majority still believed that they had learned a lot of new words. A reason for this can be a so called incidental learning which take place while focus is on the use of language rather than the learning itself. It is suggested that more interactive media and technology should be integrated in the vocabulary teaching in line with the pupils’ own interests