Key Findings

Overall, texts read by the trades students were lexically as demanding as university-level academic texts.

Findings on vocabulary

• Learners in the trades needed a substantial vocabulary in English to cope with the written texts in their studies.
• The vocabulary was around 9,000 word families, as well as proper nouns, abbreviations, marginal words and compounds.
• There was a specialised or technical vocabulary for each of the trades, and that in the written trades texts, as many as one word in three was technical in nature.
• There was a substantial (over 1,000) multi-word units in carpentry and a large number even in a small text on diesel engines.
• There were technical multi-word units in carpentry and multi-word units in automotive technology.
• A high number of technical words in the trades had no equivalent in Tongan.
• Vocabulary was learned in a variety of ways in the carpentry context, ie, through tutors and learners drawing attention to specialised words in tutor talk and tutor-learner interaction.
• Additional ways that vocabulary was learned included using glossaries and drawing pictures.
• Language was a thread woven through the teaching and learning of carpentry, where attention was drawn to the specialised words, integrating the language focus with the learning of the trade.

Findings on language and text

• Being able to engage in appropriate trade talk was an important part of expression of trade identity.
• Trades professionals needed to move between registers in talking the technical trades talk with colleagues and adjusting to less technical language when talking to clients.
• The reading that trades students do was extensive and drew on a range of pedagogical, legal and technical documents.
• Texts were multimodal, with written text embedded with a wide range of visual elements.
• Trades students did a range of writing in tests, assignments and professional genres such as the Builders’ Diary.

Findings on visual expression of meaning

• Trades texts had a high density of visual elements on average.
• A range of visual elements were found in the texts.
• The use of visual element varied, with photographs being more common in carpentry and in fabrication.
• The most commonly used visual elements used were drawings.
• Photographs were used to represent procedures or processes and consequently, many photographs included people.
• Two connections between images were identified. The first was a temporal connection where a group of images formed a sequence in time and the second was functional, where images were grouped for a classificatory purpose.
• The use of multiple representations in the trades investigated was extensive, but limited to certain types of representation.
• The most common was the representation of artefacts obliquely, for identification purposes and also as section views to develop understanding.
• The use of images, as well as language, were used in diaries to express a personal identity as a carpenter.
• Human participants featured in images were depicted as an unremarkable parts of the building site, not as the focus.
• The focus of photographs was largely the building work rather than the builders themselves.
• The expression of visual meaning by the writers of the Builders’ Diaries provided evidence that the students, who had no formal training in drawing or photography, shared a cultural understanding of visual meaning and were able to use these understandings to express meaning.

Key Recommendations

Trades vocabulary | Test the vocabulary of learners at the beginning of their study to see how much support they need in reading their texts.

Technical meaning | Make learners aware of the technical meanings of technical words early on in their studies.

Word lists | Use trades-based pedagogical word lists and the abbreviations and proper noun lists in planning to help identify lexical items relevant to a course of study.

Bilingual word lists | Use a bilingual English-Tongan technical word list to support Tongan students for whom English is a second language.

Teaching and learning | Tutors should plan for teaching the technical vocabulary that may arise in the classroom, as well as reflect on strategies they have used, and whether their learners have understood and used the new words.

Resources | Tutors should integrate and support the learning of vocabulary.

Student writing | Spend time on demonstrating use of a more concise style of writing which is less personal and relies on point form during the teaching of the Builders’ Diary.

Expression of visual meaning | Use resources to outline the range of visual meanings that tutors use in course material and share with materials developers.

Vocabulary load | Give learners exposure to written trades texts in order to be exposed more to the technical trades vocabulary.

Vocabulary testing | Test the vocabulary of learners at the beginning of their study to see how much support they need in reading their texts and to ‘walk and talk’ like a builder.

Vocabulary support | Embed vocabulary into existing teaching and learning, so that the learning of the language is integrated with the learning of the vocational content.

Pedagogical word lists | Make learners aware of the technical meanings of words early on in their studies. Do not take it for granted that learners know the technical meaning of everyday words in the trades.

Word development | Give first and second language speakers of English support for the development of this lexis and develop skills in recognising technical words in speaking and in writing.

Vocabulary teaching framework | Use the Nation’s (2013) framework of planning, strategy training, testing and teaching vocabulary within the trades, as well as by ESOL tutors in Institutes of Technology and polytechnics.

Vocabulary planning | Use the framework's pedagogical word list and the abbreviations and proper noun lists to plan and identify lexical items that will need attention during a course of study. Also include aspects of word knowledge, eg, how the words are written, how they sound, their meanings, and common word patterns. Take into account the timeframes of courses and the time that learners have for vocabulary in busy educational programmes.

Vocabulary development | Do not leave technical vocabulary development to chance. Give learners training on how to learn technical vocabulary effectively and efficiently.

Vocabulary testing | Make testing part of the learning objectives of trades courses and carry out assessment during the courses.

Vocabulary teaching | Vocabulary needs to be taught, but do it once all the planning, strategy training, and testing elements are already in place.

Multi-word units in the trades | Use multi-word lists in much the same guiding way as single-word lists. Use the lists as guides for planning for courses, as well as strategy training, testing, and teaching, drawing on Nation’s (2013) framework.

Bilingual word lists | Give bilingual word lists to students for whom Tongan is a first language. Develop the bilingual technical dictionary to include English and Tongan terms, Tongan and English definitions and diagrams illustrating the vocabulary item. Add a technical vocabulary as a glossary to textbooks.

Vocabulary learning in carpentry | Practice and draw attention to the vocabulary used in talk, eg, by developing a tool where tutors can plan for their teaching, and the words that may arise, and reflect on strategies they used and whether their learners are understanding and using the new words.

Glossary development | Update and further develop glossaries, using the pedagogical word lists as a source to draw on. Help tutors develop glossaries using the word lists, as well as a range of simple activities and teaching strategies to further integrate and support the learning of vocabulary.

Literacy research | Carry out more research of reading in the trades, as well as informal talk by students assisting in integrating known and new information.

Builders’ Diary | Share the benefit of the more concise, less personal telegraph pointform style of writing diaries. Make students aware of the stylistic and grammatical features associated with different styles to enhance awareness of the features and facilitate conciseness in writing.

Analogies in trades teaching | Take care when using analogies or developing existing analogies to ensure that the mapping of both attributes and relations is adequate.

Visual expression of meaning | Take opportunities to visually express concepts and meaning. Show students examples of how temporal, spatial and overview-detail image-image relations have been expressed.