A Scaffolding for Vocabulary Teaching and Learning

Abstract

This paper discusses a scaffolding material for teaching and learning vocabulary. Herein called Protomnema, this scaffolding material functions as a “ learning structure” that allows students to collect, process and manage new words not in a rote nor in a fragmented manner, but systematically and creatively, drawing on the awareness of tools and processes necessary to tie together vocabulary learning techniques and to use such knowledge as a source of language use and development. Delineated in a box with nine grids, Protomnema blends into a structural unit nine vocabulary learning tools and processes: Translation, Intonation, Contextualization, Transference, Association, Conceptualization, Thesaurus, Objectification, and Comparison, mnemonically termed as TIC-TAC-TOC. Drawing on the literature on Vocabulary learning, the paper discusses the principles underlying the constituents of Protomnema and delineates its relevance to learners’ order of thinking based on Blooms’ (1964) taxonomy of educational goals.