The official website of educator Jack C Richards

Sponsored Young Musicians Receive Prizes

Dr. Richards' sponsored young musicians received prizes at the 11th International Competition for Young Pianists 'A Step Towards Mastery' in St. Petersburg, Russia June 2-9, 2017.

Both are in the Rising Stars program at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

  • Leroy Ma – 3rd Prize Category B (aged 12-15 years).  Leroy is 13 and was the youngest in his category who made the final.
  • Calvin Abdiel – 2nd Prize Category C (16-19 years). Calvin is 16 and was also the youngest in his category who made the final.

In the final Leroy played Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1 with the State Capella Orchestra of St. Petersburg. Calvin played Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 with the same orchestra.

Translating New Words

Question:

Submitted by Amin

Is it appropriate for an English teacher to translate new words into the students’ mother tongue? If so, how much and how many words?

Dr. Richards responds:

Translating new words into the mother tongue is sometimes an obvious and useful strategy when students encounter unknown words in a text. However, before deciding to use translation the teacher should ask:
How important is this word in the text?
Is it a word that the students will need for active use or simply for recognition?
Is it a low frequency word that the students are unlikely to need and that they may not encounter often again?

If the teacher decides that the word is useful and important, he or she should also ask:
Can the meaning of the word be inferred from the context or because it is similar to a word in the students’ mother tongue?
Can the students make an intelligent guess about the meaning of the word?
Can they check the meaning of the word in their dictionary?

If after reviewing the options the teacher decides that translation is a quick and effective way of introducing a new and useful word, the students can write the translation of the word on the margin of the text or in their workbook.

If it is a low frequency and not very useful word, quickly provide the translation and move on.

Grammar-Translation Method and The Direct Method

Question:

Submitted by 孙赫, Luoyang Normal University, China

  1. What are the teachers’ role and the students’ role in Grammar-Translation Method and The Direct Method?
  2. What are some common classroom activities in Grammar-Translation Method and The Direct Method?

Dr. Richards responds:

Grammar translation:
Teacher’s role: to provide translation of new grammatical items, to answer students’ questions about the meaning of items, to monitor students’ work for grammatical accuracy, to develop translation activities:
Students’ role: to learn and practice grammar rules, to try out new grammar items in spone and written texts
Common classroom activities: translation of sentences from one language to another: writing sentences using the new grammar

Direct method:
Teacher’s role: to present new items through the use of questions and demonstration, to monitor students’ production for accuracy, to avoid use of the mother tongue
Students’ role: to listen and repeat, to ask and answer questions
Common classroom activities: drills and repetition activities: question and answer activities

Vocabulary for Designing Textbooks

Question:

Submitted by Italo, The University of Queensland, Australia

How you know what vocabulary should be taught when designing your textbooks. How do you decide which words are appropriate for some levels and which aren’t?

Dr. Richards responds:

Textbooks writers usually consult any of a number of word lists that group words according to level and frequency. (Paul Nation’s vocabulary level’s test is a useful reference here). Increasingly reference is also made to corpus studies of word frequency.

In discussing knowledge of words, an important distinction is usually made between a person’s active, or productive, vocabulary and their passive, or receptive, vocabulary, since our passive vocabulary is generally much larger than our active vocabulary. In spoken English, for example, native speakers may use a relatively small number of words in daily conversation – as few as 1,500 different words – though they recognize far more words than they use. For passive vocabulary knowledge, researchers suggest that knowing a minimum vocabulary of 3,000 word families (which equals some 5,000 words) is required to enable a person to understand a high percentage of words on an average page of a text, and that 5,000 word families (some 8,000 words) is required to be able to read for pleasure. Twice as many words may be needed to read first-year university materials. It is also important to distinguish between knowledge of content words (those that carry the main meaning of sentences, such as nouns, main verbs, adverbs, adjectives and question words, e.g. why, when, what), demonstratives (this, that, these, those) and function words (those that express grammatical relationships, such as articles, prepositions, auxiliaries, pronouns, conjunctions and relative pronouns). There is a small, finite list of function words in English, but a very large set of content words. When people expand their vocabulary knowledge, they add to their knowledge of content words.

O’Keeffe et al. (2007: 37–47) suggest that based on their research on the frequency of items in spoken English, a basic or core spoken English vocabulary for second language learners contains several different categories of words:

  • Modal items: These describe degrees of certainty or necessity and include modal verbs, such as can, must, should, may, etc.; lexical modals, such as look, seem, sound; and adverbs, such as probably, definitely and apparently.
  • Delexical verbs: These are words with little lexical content but high frequency, such as do, make, take, get, and their collocations with nouns, prepositional phrases and particles.
  • Stance words: These communicate the speaker’s attitude towards something and include words such as just, whatever, actually, really, basically, clearly, honestly and
  • Discourse markers: These are words that are used to organize talk and monitor its 
progress, such as you know, I mean, right, well, good and
  • Basic nouns: These are nouns referring to common activities, events, situations, places and people, such as person, problem, trouble, birthday; days of the week; family members; and colours.
  • General deictics: These are words that relate the speaker to the world in terms of time and space, such as here, there, now, then and
  • Basic adjectives: These are words that communicate everyday positive and negative evaluations of situations, people, events and things, such as lovely, nice, horrible, brilliant, terrible and
  • Basic adverbs: These are adverbs of high frequency referring to time, frequency and habituality, such as today, tomorrow, always, usually, suddenly and
  • Basic verbs for actions and events: These are verbs describing everyday activities, such as give, leave, feel, put and
  • Some of these types of words are not found in vocabulary lists for ESL/ELT learners because such lists have often been based on frequency counts of written language, rather than spoken English 
Beyond the core vocabulary, O’Keeffe et al. (2007: 48–9) suggest the following targets for vocabulary learning: 
A receptive vocabulary of some 5,000 to 6,000 words would appear to be a good threshold at which to consider learners at the top of the intermediate level and ready to take on an advanced programme. Such a programme would ideally have the following aims:
    • To increase the receptive vocabulary size to enable comprehension targets above 90% (e.g. up to 95%) for typical texts to be reached.
    • To expose the learner to a range of vocabulary at frequency levels beyond the first 5,000– 6,000 word band, but which is not so rare or obscure as to be of little practical use.
    • To inculcate the kinds of knowledge required for using words at this level, given their often highly specific lexical meanings and connotations.
    • To train awareness, skills and strategies that will help the learner become an independent vocabulary learner, and one who can continue the task for as long as he or she desires.

For further information see the chapter on vocabulary in my book Key Issues In Language Teaching (Cambridge University Press 2015) and also:

  • Nation, I. S. P. (2001) Learning Vocabulary in a Second Language, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • O’Keeffe, A., McCarthy, M. and Carter, R. (2007) From Corpus to Classroom, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Applied Linguistics’ Position and Future

Question:

Submitted by Mehran Darabi, Azad University, Iran

  1. What is the position of applied linguistics in relation to other language-related disciplines?
  2. What are some future directions in applied linguistics? Are corpus linguistics and CALL possible future directions?

Dr. Richards responds:

Applied linguistics refers to the study of language in relation to real-world issues. Language teaching is one branch of applied linguistics, but applied linguistics also sometimes includes such things as language and the law, language planning, and language in the media. Applied linguistics differs from other fields of language study that may have a descriptive or explanatory purposes but do not seek to resolve issues in education or society.

Corpus linguistics and CALL have been a part of applied linguistics for many years.  More recent issues in applied linguistics include World Englishes, the use of technology and the internet in language learning and teaching, translanguage language use as well as identity in language learning.

Principles of the Eclectic Approach

Question:

Tina, Ridgeway Campus UNZA, Zambia

What are the principles of the eclectic approach?

Dr. Richards responds:

The term “eclectic approach” refers to a teaching approach that is not based on a single method (e.g. task-based teaching, or CLIL) but that draws on several different method principles that are made use of in practice. It is a problem-based approach to teaching that is based on the following principles:

  • What particular problem do my learners encounter in mastering this aspect of language or language use?
  • What procedures can I make use of from available methods and approaches that could be used to address this problem?

Scholarships and Grants 2017

  • Grant to support students at the Modern American English School in Antigua, Guatemala.
  • Tairawhiti Museum, Gisborne New Zealand– sponsorship of 6 concerts featuring students from the New Zealand School of Music
  • Tairawhiti Museum, Gisborne – grant for acquisition (Ruanuku award)
  • Toihoukura program in Contemporary Maori Arts, Gisborne – student scholarships
  • Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation – grant to support the Foundation’s support for emerging opera singers
  • RELC, SingaporeMs Shwe Yee Htoo, Myanmar and Mr Hazwan bin Hamdan, Malaysia, scholarships to complete the Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Linguistics (blended version).
  • Support for musical development: piano students Leroy Ma (age 13), Sydney; and Lixin Zhang (age 15), Christchurch.
  • Support for university studies: Joshua Holmberg New Zealand; Lester Cajes Manila; John Yanson Manila.
  • Support for Ph.D studies: Christian Rudianto Indonesia.
  • Professional development grant: Tony Chen Lin (pianist), New Zealand/Germany and Frederick Jones (tenor), New Zealand/United Kingdom.
  • Sponsorship of websites for Jun Hong Lo (More Than Music) and Tony Chen Lin.
  • Dr Richards also provides ongoing sponsorship of The Gisborne International Music Competition.
  • Sponsorship of Calvin Abdiel and Leroy Ma (Sydney) to take part in the 11th International Competition for Young Pianists “Steps to Mastery” in St. Petersburg in June 2017.
  • Sponsorship of Lixin Zhang (Christchurch) to take masterclasses in piano at the Semaine International de piano et  musique du chambre, Blonay Switzerland, August 2017.