Temario de oposiciones

INGLÉS Secundaria

Margarita Valderrama Molina

Estefanía Espinosa Calderón
Juana María Sáenz
Inmaculada Fernández Montesino
Jose Augusto Dávila Fajardo
 Temario de oposiciones
INGLÉS SECUNDARIA
Margarita Valderrama Molina
Estefanía Espinosa Calderón
Juana María Sáenz
Inmaculada Fernández Montesino
Jose Augusto Dávila Fajardo
Primera edición, 2018
Autores: Margarita Valderrama Molina, Estefanía Espinosa Calderón, Juana María Sáenz, Inmaculada Fernández Montesino y
Jose Augusto Dávila Fajardo
Maquetación: Educàlia Editorial
Edita: Educàlia Editorial
Imprime: Grupo Digital 82, S.L.
ISBN: 978-84-17493-12-7
Depósito legal: En curso
Printed in Spain/Impreso en España.

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TEMA 16
La competencia léxica

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1. Introduction
1.1. Linguistic competences
2. Lexical competence
2.1. Concept and components
3. Lexical elements in lexical competence
3.1. Structure and processes in word formation
3.1.1. Prefixation
3.1.2. Suffixation
3.2. Loans
3.3. Abbreviations, initials and acronyms
3.4. Lexical creativity
3.4.1. Foreign word formation patterns
3.4.2. Clippings
3.4.3. Blending
3.4.4. Word coinage
4. Grammar elements
4.1. Characteristics
4.2. Function and Types
5. Acquisition and development of lexical competence
5.1. Definition and classification of language learning strategies
5.2. Factors affecting language learning strategies
5.3. Vocabulary learning strategies
6. Conclusion
7. Bibliography,Webliography and Legislation

1. INTRODUCTION
The object of linguistics is language in general. Around the world, people speak between 3000 and 6000
different languages. What is it that these languages have in common, and what is it that differentiates them?
Each language is a very complicated system with thousands and thousands of words, and many difficult rules
determine how these words can be combined into sentences.
A society without language is unthinkable. Speech and language are present almost everywhere and almost
all the time because of that reason; and verbal communication is so obvious that we forget how complicated
it really is and how many things there are which we don’t know about.
For the realization of communicative intentions, speakers need to use not only their general abilities, but also
some more specific capacities, some competences that are related to language and communication.
This communicative competence has the following components:
• linguistic competences
• sociolinguistic competences
• pragmatic competences
In this paper, we are going to focus on one of the first of these aspects.

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16 1.1. LINGUISTIC COMPETENCES
Languages, in general, are complex. One of the characteristics that make them so complex is the fact that
they are in continuous development as a response to the users’ new needs.
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Along the years, there have been multiple attempts to create models for language description. Most of them
are no longer in use and the ideal of one single model of description general to all languages has been
finally rejected.
Descriptive linguistics has always tried to describe the different aspects of languages, such as relating form
and meaning or even making the same description with other words, all of them having the aim of organizing
a language so that it is easier to learn.
The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages has gathered this linguistic tendency and gives
a classification of the main components of linguistic competence “defined as knowledge of, and ability to use,
the formal resources from which well-formed, meaningful messages may be assembled and formulated”. The
objective is to provide a set of categories so that professionals/users can reflect on the linguistic content.
The CEFRL offers six aspects of the linguistic competence:
- lexical competence
- grammatical competence
- semantic competence
- phonological competence
- orthographic competence
- orthoepic competence
The lexical competence is the particular one that is going to be developed in this paper.

2. LEXICAL COMPETENCE
2.1. CONCEPT AND COMPONENTS
We can define lexical competence as the knowledge of, and ability to use, the vocabulary of a language.
But it is not only the ability to identify a certain number of words. We can also relate this term to the process
experimented by the speakers to learn the information that a word offers. It is thus a complex and long process.
Lexical competence has got two main components: lexical and grammar elements, which will be described
in the following sections.

3. LEXICAL ELEMENTS IN LEXICAL COMPETENCE

Lexical elements include:
a) Fixed expressions, consisting of several words, which are used and learnt as wholes. These expres-
sions include:
a. sentential formulae:
- direct exponents of language functions such as farewells, for example See you later, cheerio
- proverbs, as A picture paints one thousand words
- relict archaisms, like With this ring I thee wed
b. phrasal idioms:

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 - semantically opaque, frozen metaphors:
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• He drives me up the wall (he makes me furious).
• It’s a hands-on workshop (= practical rather than theoretical)

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- intensifiers: Their use is often contextually and stylistically restricted: as good as gold (= with a
very good behavior), as against as good as dead (= in a position of great danger).
c. fixed frames, sets of words used as a whole unit in which other lexical items have to be inserted to
form complete sentences, like If I were you...
d. other fixed phrases, such as:
- phrasal verbs, like to look after, to run out (of)
- compound prepositions, for example next to
e. fixed collocations, consisting of words regularly used together, e.g. to make a speech/mistake.

b) Single word forms. Here we observe the cases of polysemy (one word with different meanings), for
example letter:
a) a written or printed message or communication addressed to a person or organization and usually
sent by mail
b) a symbol or character that is used in writing and printing to represent a speech sound and is part
of an alphabet
In this category, we also include members of the open word classes: noun, verb, adjective, and adverb. We
can also include closed lexical sets (for example, days of the week, weights and measures, etc.).

3.1. STRUCTURE AND PROCESSES IN WORD FORMATION

Living languages, such as English, need to create new words in order to refer to new realities, facts, elements,
etc. The formation of these new words can happen in the following ways:
• the use of affixes. It is necessary to distinguish the different grammatical parts of a word:
⋅ -root or stem, is the base part of a word understood as the minimum element of it that conveys
its core meaning. It cannot stand alone.
⋅ -affix is a meaningful element of a word that is added to it before or after the root or stem.
Affixes added before the base of the word are called prefixes, and those added after the base of the word
are suffixes.
• We also need to refer to compounding, as the joining of two or more words to form a new one, e.g.
‘sweetheart’.
• And last of all, there is conversion which is the change of the grammatical form of a word, e.g. ‘dictate,
dictation’.

3.1.1. PREFIXATION
Prefixation is the result of attaching a particle to a word before its stem, forming a new word. Prefixation
usually has a foreign origin:
• -from the Romanization of English in the Renaissance. These include: a-, be-, fore-, un-, mid-, mis-.
e.g. misunderstand.
• -from the influence of Latin in scientific language. These include: bi-, du-, inter-, intro-, para-. e.g. dual,
paranormal...

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16 Prefixes add a meaning to the stem. According to their meaning, we can distinguish the following types of
prefixes:
Negative prefixes are a(n)-, dis-, in-, non-, un-. e.g.: asocial, dishonest, independent, non-violent, uneven.
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Pejorative prefixes are mal- (bad), mis- (meaning wrongly), pseudo- (false). e.g.: malware, misleading,
pseudonymous.
Prefixes of degree or size are arch- (highest), super- (above), out- (to do something better), sur- (over),
sub- (lower than / less than), ultra- (extremely), hyper- (extremely, extra specially), mini- (little), midi-
(medium), under- (too little), over- (too much), etc. e.g.: archbishop, supervisor, outstanding, surface,
submarine, ultraviolet, hyperventilate, minimalist, midi-skirt, underestimate, overcast,
Prefixes of attitude are co- (accompanying), counter- (in opposition to), anti- (against), and pro- (on the
side of). e.g.: co-working, counteract, antimatter, pro-life.
Locative prefixes  are super- (over, above), sub- (beneath, under), inter- (between, among), trans- (from
one place to another). e.g.: superficial, subway, interact, transgender.
Prefixes of time, and order are fore- (before), pre- (before), post- (after, opposite to), ex-(former), and
re- (again, back). e.g.: forecast, prefix, postpone, ex-president, rearrange.

3.1.2. SUFFIXATION
Suffixation is the result of attaching a derivative final element after a stem, forming a new word of a different
class from that of the stem. As opposed to what happens in prefixation, suffixes very rarely have a meaning
themselves to be added to the stem. Instead, they usually just modify the grammatical word category of the
stem, and define the grammatical category of the new word e.g. –ly = adverb, -ful = adjective.
We must distinguish between suffixes which have a semantic value (e.g. useful; “ful” = full of), and inflections,
which have a grammatical value (e.g. He uses “s” = third person indicator).
On the other hand we find semi-suffixes, which are not full words, but are not suffixes either. They are:
-monger, -wise, and -caster. (e.g. peacemonger, familywise, webcaster).
There are native and foreign suffixes. And we can also find hybrids, which are a combination of both. e.g.:
joyful, machinery.
Depending on the grammatical category of the word that they form, we find the following types of suffixes:
Noun suffixes. These can be:
• Occupational:-ster, -eer, and -er. e.g.: punkster, biscuiteer, carpenter
• Feminine: -ette and –ess. Although there are very few feminine words in English, they sometimes add
these suffixes, e.g. princess, majorette.
• Diminutive suffixes include the feminine ones and -let, -y, and -ling. e.g.: booklet, blogette, fortress,
puppy, duckling.
• Status, domain, etc.:-hood, -ship, -dom, -ocracy, and -ery. e.g.: childhood, relationship, boredom,
Eurocracy, husbandry.
• Nouns of origin or profession: -ite, (i)an, -ese, -ism, and -ist. e.g.: Mennonite, Hungarian, Maltese,
surrealism, saxophonist
• Personal and abstract nouns: -er, -or, -ant, -ee, -ation, -ment, -al, -ing, -age. e.g.: runner, correc-
tor, protestant, escapee, investigation, refreshment, autumnal, training, baggage.

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Verb suffixes. These are:
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• -ify and –ise: They imply the meaning of “to make” or “to treat in the way of”. Thus “identify” means
“to make identifiable”.

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• -en: e.g. weaken.

Adjective suffixes. These suffixes are added to nouns to form adjectives. These form gradable adjectives:
•-ful, -less, -ly, -like, -y, -ish, -ian.
e.g.: colourful, speechless, deadly, warlike, cheeky, stylish, bohemian.
•These are common in borrowed and neo-classical words: -al, -ic, -ive, -ous.
e.g.: bilingual, linguistic, ablative, homogenous
•Other common adjective suffixes are: -able, -ed, -fold:
e.g.: impossible, bored, threefold.

Adverb suffixes. These are: -ly, -ward(s), -wise: acoustically, northwards, sunwise.
(See Annex-1-Plurilexematic forms)

3.2. LOANS
Languages coexist in a permeable way, influencing and being influenced by others. Sometimes, when it is
necessary to name a new object or institution for which a language does not have a name yet, it borrows its
name from another language, being this word considered a loan.
We can catalogue loans depending on their origins:
1. importation
1. foreign word = non-integrated word from a foreign language. It keeps the spelling of the foreign
language. e.g. anorak (from Greenlandic); vodka (from Russian).
2. loan word = integrated word from a foreign language. The spelling is adapted, e.g. duke (from
French “duc”); alligator (from Spanish “el lagarto”).
2. substitution
1. loan coinage
a) loan formation: loan translation comes from the translation of the different elements of the
foreign word, e.g. ‘Tuesday’ (from Latin. Mars dies Twi Germanic god of War).
b) loan creation is
• a coinage, independent of the foreign word (but specifically created to replace the foreign
word) sherry, from the Spanish jerez, or
• the use of the foreign word with a slightly different meaning rendezvous: “secret meeting” in
English, just “meeting” in French.
2. loan meaning is an indigenous word that takes the meaning of a foreign word: for example pupil
originally meant “student” and “little boy/girl” (from the Latin pupilla).
(See Annex-2-Partial substitution)

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16 3.3. ABBREVIATIONS, INITIALS AND ACRONYMS
Abbreviations and acronyms are shortened forms of words or phrases.
Both abbreviations and acronyms are mostly used in informal situations, so users have to be careful when
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using them.
1. An acronym is an arrangement of initial letters from a phrase that usually results in another word. For
example “radar” is the acronym for Radio Detection And Ranging. They frequently form new words.
a. We can find two types:
a) Proper acronyms, which form new words: laser (light amplification by stimulated emission
of radiation), gif (graphics interchange format), AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syn-
drome),...
b) Initialisms, which are read letter by letter: UFO (unidentified flying object), PC (personal
computer), CD (compact disk), B&B (bed and breakfast),...
2. An abbreviation, on the other hand, is a series of letters (not a word) alluding to a whole concept
made short, for example “Mr.”
The most frequent situations in which we can find abbreviations are:
• Titles: Dr., Capt., Gov., St.,...
• Measurements: lb., cm., oz., l., etc.
• Postal terms: St., Ave., Mt., Rd.,...
• Dates: Mon., Tues., Jan., Feb.,...
• Business: Corp., Inc., Ltd.,...
• Others: vs. (versus), ex. (example)
3. An initial is the first letter of a word. We habitually use initials to refer to organizations (BBC > British Broad-
casting Corporation) and countries (US > United States). But they are also found in names (P. D. James).

3.4. LEXICAL CREATIVITY

According to Tomaszczyk and Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk in Meaning and Lexicography, word formation
has two main features:
• they can be morphologically analyzed
• they have a motivational character
We can distinguish between syntagmas and monomorphemic lexical items. A monomorphemic lexical item
is a word containing only one morpheme (not being it possible to break it down into smaller meaningful
units). A syntagma is a linguistic unit made of a set of linguistic forms (phonemes, words or phrases).
The meaning of a syntagma can be derived from its constituents, and for this reason it is considered to be
transparent; while the meaning of a monomorphemic lexical item is not given by its parts, as it is the smallest
meaningful unit. This makes them be considered opaque.
Word formation rules are not like syntactic rules because in word formation there is a limited productivity as
not all words which result from the application of the rule are acceptable. They are freely acceptable only
when they have gained an institutional currency in the language. For instance, actual English words such as
pennywise, disadvantage, differ from other words that could exist in English,  such as *unadjust, *dollarwise.
Rules for word formation also change in time. For example, the affix –th is no longer used in English for the
formation of new words, although it has survived in common words such as youth, death, or truth.
(See Annex-3-Folk etymology)

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 3.4.1. FOREIGN WORD FORMATION PATTERNS
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Another form of lexical creativity is the use of foreign word formation patterns to create new words in the

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target language.
Some English affixes that have a Latin or French origin (co-, de-, dis-, in-, re-; -able, -ize, -ify, -ive, -ation)
were not borrowed directly as such affixes. Instead, English borrowed certain words (syntagmas) that
contained these affixes (co-education, decipher, disappear, incredible, relevant; divisible, fantasize, clarify,
native, dictation,...). In order to consider these cases as word-formations it is necessary to be able to identify
the foreign suffixes as such either because there is a large amount of formations that are semantically and
formally similar, or because the base has also been borrowed, or both.

3.4.2. CLIPPINGS
Quirk describes this process as “a polysyllabic word shortened often to a single syllable”. He also adds that “this
process occurs especially in nouns” (1997: 1580). This is a curious but really frequent phenomenon in English.
Language economy is applicable to almost all languages, and English is not an exception. Some examples are:
prom (from promenade meaning “end of the school year)
ex (meaning “ex-boyfriend”, “ex-wife”,...)
telly (meaning “television”)
grandma, e-mail, footie (football), pub, lab, maths, phone, gym, cinema, etc.

3.4.3. BLENDING
This phenomenon is rather usual to produce new words or name new concepts which English cannot refer
to. It consists of using part of a word and part of another word and mixing (blend) them together. The  usual
method is taking the first part of a word and mixing (blending) it with the final part of the second word.
Some examples are: brunch, Brexit, Eurasia, emoticon, biopic, Spanglish, cyborg,...
One of the latest fashions is blending the names of celebrity couples: Brangelina or Billary (Clinton) among
others.

3.4.4. WORD COINAGE

New inventions, new situations or concepts require new lexical items so they can be referred to somehow.
Sometimes words have to be created from scratch either accidentally or on purpose.
Many coinages start as brand names: google, kleenex, etc.
Others come from the inventor: sandwich, jacuzzi, Shakespearean, sadistic, etc.
(See Annex-4-Alliterative and rhyming constructions)

4. GRAMMAR ELEMENTS IN LEXICAL COMPETENCE

As mentioned in point 2, lexical competence has two types of elements: lexical elements and grammar
elements.
Here we are going to focus on grammar elements (often referred to as function words). These are words that
have very little meaning and denote grammatical relationships between lexical elements (content words).

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16 4.1. CHARACTERISTICS
Grammar elements -or function words- have five main features:
• their lexical meaning is ambiguous,
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• most of them are uninflected, and therefore do not take affixes,
• they come to structure the grammatical relationships between the different words in a sentence,
• very seldom are new words added to this category
• they enrich the syntax of sentences, not the meaning.

4.2. FUNCTION AND TYPES

Grammar elements belong to closed word classes. They include the following types:
• Determiners. They modify nouns and alter the references of noun phrases in terms of form, location,
amount, and general/specific. They can be: simple (a, your, one), compound (a lot of), possessive
(my, his), demonstrative (this, these), quantifiers (much, many).
• Pronouns. They replace nouns and noun phrases. They can be simple (myself) and compound (each
other). Pronouns are classified into: subject personal (I, he, we), object personal (me, him, us), posses-
sive (mine, his, ours), reflexive (myself, himself, ourselves), demonstrative (this, these, such), relative
(who, all, that), indefinite (each, anybody, none), reciprocal (each other, one another), and interrog-
ative (how, who, why). Additionally, reflexives also operate as so-called intensive pronouns when
they are employed to emphasize an antecedent noun or pronoun (as in, “The boss himself prepared
the coffee” or “I myself could not believe it”).
• Question words (who, what, which, where, how, etc.)
• Prepositions (from, at, behind, off). They combine with nouns and noun phrases to form prepositional
phrases that can have, in turn, adverbial or adjectival relationships with other words. They can be
simple (on, of) or compound (close to). According to their function we can divide them in: time (until),
location (along), logical (since), possession (including), and movement (into, towards). Prepositions
also occur in post position with: nouns (interest in), adjectives (interested in), participles accustomed
to), and verbs (listen to).
• Auxiliary verbs (be, do, have, modals). They give a different character to the main verbs with dif-
ferent nuances of meaning related to tense (continuous, perfect, and passive) and modality (ability,
advice, expectation, volition, necessity, possibility, permission, politeness).
• Conjunctions (nevertheless, furthermore). They join words, clauses, phrases or sentences. They can be
of different types: addition (so), adversative (however), causative (as a result), and temporal (before).
• Particles (well, so, not, oh, etc.)

5. ACQUISITION AND DEVELOPMENT OF LEXICAL COMPETENCE

The acquisition of vocabulary is a much elaborated process. There are two main hypotheses:
• the Implicit Learning. It is based on Krashen, who identifies two kinds of linguistic knowledge: acquisi-
tion (it takes place automatically) and learning (it takes place consciously).
• the Explicit Learning highlights how using vocabulary learning strategies we can develop our vocab-
ulary acquisition.

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Both theories have supporters. It is true that it is impossible to acquire a huge vocabulary only by learning it.
And we must admit that reading and listening is also essential to increase our vocabulary. Therefore, the sum
of both approaches should be considered in favour of one of them alone.

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5.1. DEFINITION AND CLASSIFICATION OF LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGIES
One of the features of good language learners is the use of learning strategies. These learning strategies
were at first defined “as the techniques or devices which a learner may use to acquire knowledge” (Rubin,
1975, p. 43).
Learning strategies are divided in direct and indirect strategies. Direct strategies are those that contribute
directly to learning. They are the following:
• Clarification/verification
• Monitoring
• Memorization
• Guessing/inductive
• Inferencing
• Deductive reasoning
• Practice
Indirect strategies contribute to learning indirectly. They create opportunities to practice and use production
tricks.
The most detailed definition of language strategies establishes that “language learning strategies are
operations employed by the learner to aid the acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of information”
(Oxford, 1989). They are actions taken by the learner to make learning more enjoyable, easier, faster, more
directed and effective. Some of the features of language learning strategies are:
- Contribute to develop communicative competence
- Allow learners to be more autonomous
- Are problem-oriented
- Support learning both directly and indirectly
- Are often conscious
- Are not always observable
- Can be taught
- Are flexible
- Are influenced by a variety of factors
Language learning strategies can also be divided in the following:
1. Memory strategies. Grouping, repeating, using keywords.
2. Cognitive strategies. Analyzing, summarizing, finding similarities between first and foreign lan-
guages.
3. Compensation strategies. Using gestures or guessing vocabulary from context.
4. Metacognitive strategies. Planning, organizing, selecting resources, evaluating.
5. Affective strategies. Risk-taking, anxiety control, self-rewarding for success.
6. Social strategies. Cooperation, asking questions, empathizing, showing interest in culture.

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16 5.2. FACTORS AFFECTING LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGIES
Research has shown that there are many factors that influence the effectiveness of the different strategies,
including the kind of task carried out, the personality of the learner and the learning environment, according
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to the three components of metacognitive knowledge (declarative, procedural, conditional). The person-
task-context-strategy model stresses the importance of each element and their interrelation. As a result, an
analysis of learning strategies must be carried with knowing the person, task and context.
There are some factors which influence a strategy’s usefulness:
• Motivation – generally, more motivated learners use more strategies than less motivated students
• Gender – females often employ greater overall strategies than males
• Age and L2 stage – students of different ages and stages of L2 learning use different strategies
• Personality – different personalities call for different strategies
• Learning style – the different learning styles (visual, aural, kinesthetic) influence the choice of L2
learning strategies
These person-related factors are quite stable, and have a great influence on the way a learner approaches
a task.

5.3. VOCABULARY LEARNING STRATEGIES

Learning strategies are key to our students to increase their competence for long life learning and to make
them more efficient in the different skills. Language learning strategies are, thus, a crucial aspect in teaching.
It is important to point out that most of the categorizations are referred to vocabulary learning (as memory
strategies).
(See Annex-5-Vocabulary learning strategies: taxonomy)
These are the most frequent VLS:
a) Guessing from context
This strategy plays an essential role in VLS. It refers to the ability that a learner should develop in order to
interpret the meaning of a word taking into account the context in which it appears.
The context can be:
• Linguistic: the learner takes the text where the word appears as a basis for their inference
• Extralinguistic: the learner infers the meaning by observing the characteristics of the word.
D.F. Clark states that the VLS includes four steps:
• determining the part of speech of the word
• looking at the immediate grammar
• studying the wider context (usually the conjunction relationships)
• guessing the word and checking the guess.
One disadvantage of guessing from context is that it is time consuming. Therefore applying the strategy only
to key words in the text may be the best idea. The other is the interference of our mother tongue (false friends).
All in all this strategy is useful for text interpretation, but it does not necessarily imply vocabulary acquisition.
b) Focusing on form: word-formation
Students can benefit greatly from having knowledge of the lexical roots of words in English in many aspects:
• Predicting the meaning of a word

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 • Predicting how a word is spelt
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• Remembering the meaning of a word
c) Note-taking

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Note taking is an appreciated strategy by researchers and learners to help language acquisition. All second
language students take notes, and they use different ways to do so: keeping notebooks, vocabulary cards,
noting along margins or between lines. However, little has been done to determine how different types of
note-taking can influence vocabulary acquisition.
d) Word lists and repetition
Wordlists have certain advantages:
• They can help students memorize large numbers of words in a short time
• They help to organise words
However, wordlists present several disadvantages:
• They are more helpful at an elementary level, since wordlists become too long and tedious in
higher levels.
• Students are likely to forget the words after a short period of time
There are some ways to prevent these drawbacks: lists are usually used with a reading passage to give
context. Also, students can write new words on index cards, making them more engaged in their learning
process and use the list more effectively.
Repetition is the most natural strategy for students to memorize vocabulary in a wordlist. Unfortunately,
there are some considerations to be discussed:
• the number of repetitions needed to remember a word list
• the number of words to be studied at one time
• the timing for repetition
• repeating aloud vs. repeating silently. In this sense we need to consider also remembering vs.
practicing pronunciation.
e) Mnemonics
Using mnemonic strategies can enhance greatly our vocabulary acquisition. The word “Mnemonic” derives
from the Greek goddess of memory, Mnemosyne, which means “memory enhancing”. We distinguish four
types of mnemonic strategies: Linguistic, Spatial, Visual, and Physical.
f) Non-mnemonic elaboration techniques
There are other non-mnemonic techniques that we can use in vocabulary acquisition:
• Semantic mapping - in this technique students arrange words into a diagram with a keyword
in the centre or the top, relating words as branches to the keyword and to other words.
• Sentence writing method - in this technique students construct a sentence with the word they
want to memorize. They should be careful to write a sentence in which the target word has the
meaning they want to identify with it.
(See Annex-6-Frequent VLS)

6. CONCLUSION
The present law of education engages all the elements of the curriculum in the development of the foreign
language. Starting from the key competence in linguistic communication (“the result of communicative action

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16 in certain social practice, in which individuals interact with other partners and through texts in different
modalities and formats”), and following with the objectives (i.e.: “students have to be able to understand and
express themselves in one or more foreign languages in a suitable way”). The four blocks of contents present
the language in the same order that we learn these skills in our mother tongue: comprehension of oral texts
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(listening), production of oral texts (production and interaction), comprehension of written texts (reading)
and production of written texts (writing). The production blocks, so necessary for communicative competence
emphasize the communicative functions. And all these aspects can be found again in the corresponding
evaluation criteria and learning standards.
We can observe how first LOE and now LOMCE put the biggest emphasis on communication rather than on
pure grammar. Both bilingual and non-bilingual schools are changing their methodologies so that students
can become efficient English speakers.
The Communicative Language approach is the proposed methodology and more and more teachers try to
find real context in which students can use the language. We should focus on the real function of languages,
which is the social use. The FL is no more the subject of mere study, but a means of talking about all the
different topics that are interesting for our students. We need the language to do things and to communicate
things. Communicative competence is essential in life and we have to be able to use our mother tongue
coherently, but nowadays doing the same with at least a foreign language is as important.
The need to communicate is the ultimate aim of a Foreign Language learner. If we take into account that
-as has been stated in this topic- lexical competence is one of the elements of communicative competence,
helping our students develop their lexical competence is essential in our classroom. Furthermore, we should
provide them with different learning strategies that will entitle them as competent and autonomous learners,
fostering also their lifelong learning.
Thus, instead of long lists of vocabulary, we should supply our students with learning strategies that they will
be able to use not only when studying English itself, but also when studying any other subject in English, as
they will then need to expand their vocabulary. In this way, we can teach them the basics of word derivation
or dictionary strategies, which will greatly help them to become independent learners (learning to learn
competence).
Besides, we, as teachers, should prepare and encourage our students to exploit in an optimal way their
communicative competence in the second language in order to participate in actual communicative situations.
How can we do that? We should use as much authentic material as we can, we should give our students as
much input in the FL as we can, we should supply the students with as many learning strategies as we can,
we should find as many interesting and relevant topics for them as we can.
Doing all this, they will hopefully find themselves motivated enough to produce the necessary output. Then,
we can be sure that the teaching-learning process has been has been successfully accomplished.

7. BIBLIOGRAPHY, WEBLIOGRAPHY AND LEGISLATION

• Council of Europe (2001) Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teach-
ing, assessment. Cambridge, CUP.
• Jespersen, O., (1965) Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles. London, U.K, Allen & Unwin
Ltd.
• Leech, G. & J. Svartvik (1986) A Communicative Grammar of English. Oxford, OUP.
• Quirk, R. & S. Greenbaum (1973) A University Grammar of English. London, Longman.
• Quirk, R., S. Greenbaum, G. Leech, & J. Svartvik (1972) A Grammar of Contemporary English.
London. Longman

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• Read, J. (2000) Assessing Vocabulary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
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• Rizo Rodríguez, A. (1993). “Teaching dictionary-using skills: Outline of a syllabus”. Greta. Revista para
Profesores de Inglés. Granada

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• Thomson, A.J. & A.V. Martinet (1986) A Practical English Grammar. Oxford, OUP.
• Tomaszczyk, J. & Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, B (1990) Meaning and Lexicography. Amsterdam/
Philadelphia. John Benjamins Publishing Company.
• eslgames.com/esl-vocabulary-games/
• www.fluentu.com/blog/educator-english/esl-tefl-ell-vocabulary-games/
• www.teachingchannel.org/blog/2017/05/18/top-5-vocab-strategies-ells/
• www.vocabulary.com/articles/under-the-hood/esl-tricks-for-vocabulary-learning/
• The Organic Law of Education (LOE), 2/2006, of May 3rd (BOE number 106, May 4th 2006) and its
development for CSE.
• The Organic Law on the improvement of the quality of Education (LOMCE), 8/2013, of December 9th ,
(BOE number 295, December 10th 2013) and its development for CSE.
• Royal Decree 1105/2014, which establishes CSE and Post-secondary basic curriculum.
• Order ECD/65/2015, January 21st, by which the relationships between competences, contents and
evaluation criteria of Primary Education, Secondary and Post-secondary education are described.

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16 ANNEX
1. Plurilexematic forms: These are another way of word formation.
A. Compounds with the noun: These are the combinations of this type:
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• Subject+Verb / Verb+Subject: e.g. watchdog
• Verb+Object: e.g. mincemeat
• Verb+Adverbial: e.g. walking stick
• Noun+Noun: e.g. ponytail
• Adjective+Noun: e.g. blackberry
B. Compounds with the verb: These are the combinations of this type:
• Adverbial+Verb: e.g. daydream
• Object+Verb: e.g. palm read
• Adverb+Verb: these are phrasal verbs. The main adverbs used to form these are:  out, over,
under: e.g. outcome, overlap, undermine.
C. Adjective compounds: These are the combinations of this type:
• Verb+Object: e.g. English speaking
• Verbless compounds: e.g. part time
2. Partial substitution: compound words, which count with one part that is borrowed and another one
substituted, e.g. Saturnes day ‘Saturday’ (from Latin), etc.
3. Folk etymology
The distinction between opaque and transparent elements is not always obvious. For this reason it is not
always possible to catalogue an item as monomorphemic or polymorphemic. Therefore we find that
there are transitions (polymorphemic/polymorphemic  monomorphemic), and that in these transitions the
features of analysability and motivation also vary.
Folk etymology is one of the transitions from monomorphemic to polymorphemic forms. It is the analysis of
items that have been considered as monomorphemic to find out if they could be considered polymorphemic.
The analysis takes into account the phonetic resemblance that may be established between different parts
of the item and other morphemes. e.g.: French cerise E cherry.
On the other hand we can find a similar process in backformations. Backformation is a linguistic process
through which a new word results of another one that seems to be its derivation.  E.g. ‘creepy’ and ‘creep’.
Historically, the originary word was creepy and creep appeared after it. However, the relationship was
inverted to take the more common model ‘to learn: learner.
4. Alliterative and rhyming constructions
Alliterative construction of words is, in fact, quite a traditional method of creating words in the English
language. It may occur that the semantics suffer in favour of the phonetics. Some examples are: gender
gap, lollipop lady or lava lamp
Regarding rhyming, we can also talk about asonances. Some examples are: easy peasy, toy boy or
dream team.
This type of words are mostly used in colloquial language, but they can be also found in newspapers and
television.
5. Vocabulary learning strategies: taxonomy
The first taxonomy regarding this was created by Stoffer in 1995. She categorized the Vocabulary
Learning Strategy Inventory (VOLSI) in nine groups:

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 • Strategies involving authentic language use
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• Strategies used for self-motivation
• Strategies used to organize words

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• Strategies used to create mental linkages
• Memory strategies
• Strategies involving creative activities
• Strategies involving physical action
• Strategies used to overcome anxiety
• Auditory strategies
Two years later, Schmitt came along with another taxonomy which was quite different from Stoffer’s:
• Strategies to guess the meaning of a word
- Determination
- Social strategies
• Strategies to learn this meaning
- Social strategies
- Memory strategies
- Cognitive strategies
- Metacognitive strategies
Social strategies belong to both groups as they can be employed in the two contexts.
6. Frequent VLS
g) Dictionaries
According to the number of languages, we can consider three types of dictionaries: monolingual,
bilingual and bilingualized or semi-bilingual (they offer a translation as well as the definition in the
two languages).
It is not necessary to point out that the use of online dictionaries (etymology, synonyms and antonyms,
or even rhyming) of all types is growing every day.
h) Mnemonics
Linguistic mnemonic strategies are:
• The peg method - memorizing lists of words by linking them to familiar words or numbers by
means of an image.
• The keyboard method - it is based on linking a foreign word to a keyword in L1 that sounds
similar to the L2 word.
Spatial mnemonics include:
• The loci method - remembering words by picturing them in specific locations.
• Spatial grouping - remembering words on a page to form different kinds of patterns.
• The finger method - associating new words with fingers.
Visual mnemonics include:
• Pictorial method - pairing pictures with words.
• Visual method - visualizing a word instead of using real pictures.
Physical mnemonics require to enact the meaning of a word. Some teaching techniques are based
on physical reenactment, among them Total Physical Response.

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