Semantic clusters hinder adult beginners

Further to my post a couple of days ago re semantic clusters hindering learning, I found an interesting bit of research from the ELTJ March 2009.

The research concludes that....

adult beginners performed significantly better on the unrelated vocabulary test than on the related vocabulary test

children (intermediate level) showed no significant difference in test scores between related and unrelated vocabulary

This suggests tentatively that the presentation of unrelated vocabulary may assist learning of new L2 words more than related vocabulary only at beginners’ level (adults).

I am getting more and more interested in this subject, as it seems to buck the trend of vocab teaching and I have just started a new crop of courses of real / false starter adult beginners.
(Apology if this is old news to everyone and I've only just stumbled upon it!)

Has anyone out there (more knowledgeable and experienced than me) already changed the nature of their lessons in terms of giving vocab in non-related clusters?

If so, have you noticed any discernible improvement in Ss vocab recall after such a change??

I'd be very interested to get some feedback from anyone who has successfully taught vocab in this way and what the student reactions were?? Did the students think that there was no method and that they were suddenly presented with a load of random words???

Don't teach vocabs in associated groups!?!?!?!?

OK, so I've only just started studying the TESOL Diploma and maybe I should already know this, but I have just watched a lecture, where the speaker said that there is extensive research that shows that teaching associated vocab together is absolutely counter-productive to learning.

Here's the vid...

The lecture starts a bit slowly, but gets much better towards the middle and onwards.

When you go to any EFL lesson plans website, almost all of the beginners worksheets put vocab in related groups eg. fruit, family members, clothes etc

The speaker, Paul Nation, said that this info/research is from before 2000. SO maybe this is old news for more experienced teachers than me.
But this must surely be big news for a lot of teachers out there, who I think would teach vocab groups as the default method.

It seems incredible that this method of teaching can be 100% counter-productive to vocab memory recall (yep, that's what it says in the lecture) and I've emailed Paul Nation to get a link form him to be able to have a look at these research findings (which have been replicated a number of times with identical results apparently).

While I am eager to find out about this, I would think that it seems so ingrained in students' minds that you learn related vocab together that they might think that a teacher would not know what the hell they were doing if they only taught random words that had no interference with each other.

What would your students think?

Is it OK to use L1 in the classroom?

I have been wondering whether or not it is ok to use L1 in the classroom.

One of my teaching jobs is at a VHS (it's kind of a community college for those who don't know Germany), where the majority of Ss are middle-aged/'older' adults. The courses are very basic (Example course title - A1.1: mit Musse "At Leisure") with a mixture of REAL-starters and false-starters. Of course, the courses are monolingual and the school expects the teachers to use German in classes.

I try to keep my German use to an absolute minimum. If a student asks me a question in L1, then I always encourage them to ask me again and try to use English.
Ex from beginning of A1.2 lesson today (3rd session of a new course)....

Ss: Kannst du das an den Tafel schreiben?
Tt: Can you say that in English?
Ss: Write it!
Tt: Friendly? ....said with a :-)
Ss: Can you write that on the table, please?
Tt: Table? (touching a table)
Ss2: Board!
Ss: Can you write that on the board, please?
Tt: Perfect question! Yes, of course!

I also did a very quick drill of the Ss question.
Even though it looks long-winded when written out, this transaction only took a matter of seconds. I was pleased that 10 mins later, one of the lower level/confidence Ss used the same question absolutely perfectly.

That is just an example to illustrate how I always try to promote English usage above L1.

However, there are some occasions when a quick translation can save so much time and Ss frustration. I've been thinking that it would seem overly pedantic to insist on no L1 usage in these cases.
In another 'Mit Musse' A1.2 class last week, I was a bit annoyed that the coursebook CD suddenly threw up a 'Would you mind -ing...?' 'No, not at all'/'Sorry, I....' function.
Nothing wrong with that in principle, but this was a unit (and CD dialogue) based on 'Did....?'
Ex: Did you forget your friend's birthday? Yes, I did / No, I didn't

So, to have to deal with (what I would say is) the far more complex structure of, 'Would you mind -ing' and its seemingly negative response (No, not at all) for a positive answer was counterproductive, considering that we were dealing with something so basic as the 'Did...?' structure.
I attempted an explanation with 4 or 5 examples
Ex:
Tt: Would you mind sitting next to Martina?
Ss: No, not at all
Tt: Would you mind giving me your jacket until next Winter?
Ss: Sorry, I need it

...but there were still some blank faces and furrowed brows. I explained that this type of request is maybe overly formal and not so common, but I could still sense the Ss worry.

Next, I resorted to the German translation...
Tt: "Wären Sie so freundlich, die Tür aufzumachen?" 'Would you mind opening the door, please?

...and the penny finally dropped. Well actually, the rocks fell from the sky! The relief was as obvious as a hog roast at a Bar Mitzvah.

So, after being sold up the river by not entirely thought through textbook/CD materials, I saved a whole lot of duress by quickly codeswitching.

Is there anything wrong with that?