AKITA – July 2015 – Why, What and How of Teaching and Learning English Vocabulary. Rachael Ruegg, Akita International University. Words are the basic building blocks of the language and the most important factor influencing language proficiency. Despite learning English for 6 years in junior high school and high school, many Japanese students report feeling that they lack sufficient English vocabulary. This presentation explained why vocabulary is such an important aspect of language. The presenter introduced which vocabulary should be learnt, and in which order. Following this, she explained how vocabulary should be learnt for maximum effectiveness. Finally, she shared some tools that can be used by teachers and learners to help in their vocabulary teaching and learning. Although the PowerPoint portion was only about an hour long, the remainder of the presentation was a lively round table discussion on teaching vocabulary.
Reported by Stephen Shucart
Bio: Rachael Ruegg is PhD candidate at Macquarie University and a lecturer at Akita International University. She has been teaching English for over 10 years in New Zealand, Germany, China, and Japan. Her research interests include vocabulary, assessment, and writing.
Akita JALT 
I find that vocab is certainly a challenge for sure. After 10 years of learning Japanese, I still fill there are gaps, so it’s not surprising the other way around!