THE IMPORTANCE OF VOCABULARY IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING

Abstract

The aim of this paper is that both teachers and students of a foreign language become more familiar with the lexical system of English language and recognize the importance of the acqusition of new words in the process of learning a new language. The importance of vocabulary has been investigated through the different theories and approaches in learning foreign languages, from the traditional grammar-translation approach, through the direct and audiolingual method, to the communicative and lexical approach in which the central role has been ascribed to the lexicon. The paper reviews the semantic relations between words (syntagmatic and paradigmatic), how vocabulary has been acquired, strategies for learning new words, the factors that affect the acquisition of words and techniques that are used to teach the meaning of new words. The findings of the research among students about the usefulness and effectiveness of the various techniques for learning new words have also been presented.