Breadth and Depth of Lexical Acquisition with Hands-on Concordancing

One of the biggest challenges in English for Academic Purposes is to help the students acquire the immense vocabulary they need in the short time available for their language instruction. This challenge has led course developers to choose between breadth (learning from word lists) and depth (learning through extensive reading). Both methods have distinct disadvantages. Computerized concordances can help resolve the breadth-depth paradox. In this paper, the author describes how students, in effect, become concordancers, using concordance and database software to create their own dictionaries of words to be learned. This method combines the benefits of list coverage with at least some of the benefits of lexical acquisition through natural reading. The method is further enhanced by computerized learning activities based on the principle of moving words through five stacks as they are reviewed and learned.