《词汇教学设计》是一本介绍如何在课堂中安排词汇教学的实用书。作为词汇教学的基础手册，《词汇教学设计》涉及词汇教学的基本原理和方法，对教学有具体的指导作用。全书共分七章。第一章 是对课堂词汇教学的引入，主要讨论如何将词汇教学融入课堂教学的四个组成部分。针对不同的组成部分，作者提供了不同的词汇教学思路，以帮助教师建立词汇教学的整体概念和启发教学思路。第二章 到第七章 具体讨论如何实施词汇教学。作者首先在第二章 介绍了如何决定教什么词，从教学内容的角度为词汇教学策略的选择提供依据。作者从介绍词汇的不同类型和划分依据入手，将词汇分为高频词、通用术语、专业术语和低频词。针对每一类词汇的教学提供指导，重点介绍高频词和低频词不同的教学思路。

第三章从学习者的角度为词汇教学提供帮助，即根据学习者词汇水平决定教学内容和策略。作者介绍了词汇水平测试的原理、依据、实施方法、评价方法和应用。本章的落脚点在应用，分别指出了针对高频词和低频词的教学方法。

第四章和第五章 介绍了如何实施精读和泛读词汇教学，这是目前词汇教学的主要手段，并且已存在相当数量的学习和教学资源。作者对精读和泛读进行了比较和区分，并根据各自的特点和目标归纳出进行词汇教学需要遵循的原则和指导性方法。在每一章内，教师可以通过完成相关任务和操作具体例子来体会教学的具体方法和步骤。作者在第四章 和第五章 分别提到了要反思自己的精读词汇教学，以及提倡在泛读教学中使用分级读本。

第六章专门讨论与阅读密切相关的一种词汇学习策略，即根据上下文猜测单词的意思。这是一种常用而有效的词汇学习策略。作者依然从理论入手，阐述该策略的原理、条件和总体思路，然后提供了三种猜测词义的方法及具体步骤。最后，作者指出应通过反复练习以熟练运用该策略。

第七章专门讨论通用术语词表，对词表进行了说明和学习指导，并指出通用术语词表的教学也应贯穿不同的语言技能和课堂四个阶段。

Paul Nation is a leading language teaching methodology and vocabulary acquisition linguist researcher, mainly for English as a Foreign Language. He has taught in Indonesia, Thailand, the United States, Finland, and Japan. He is Emeritus Professor in the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.[1] Key concepts of his works are word frequency lists as guidelines to vocabulary acquisition, the learning burden of a word, the need to teach learning strategies to students in order to increase their autonomy in vocabulary expansion for low frequency items, support to extensive reading of accessible texts (≥95-98% of known words), the usefulness of L2→L1 tools (dictionaries, word cards) for their clarity. After the communicative approach of the 80's, his works have been instrumental for second language courses design and current teaching methods, relying mainly on fast vocabulary acquisition of frequent words.[2] Together with Batia Laufer, James Coady, Norbert Schmitt, Paul Meara, and Rob Waring, his position emphasises having a balance of learning opportunities including the 'four strands' approach to language courses and classes (Taylor 2004, Nation & Newton 2008), with study time devote about 25% to each of :

input from reading and listening,

output through writing and speaking,

study of formal language instruction i.e. grammar and vocabulary, and

practice for fluency in all four of the basic skills.