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    Know A Word

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    John Breed
    The document discusses teaching new vocabulary to beginners. It is difficult to use synonyms as beginners may not know those words either. Instead, the meaning should be illustrated through miming, pictures or drawings. The teacher must be clear on the denotation and connotation of each word and how the connotation can vary based on context. If a student picks a word because it "sounds right", the teacher should confirm that collocations - commonly used word pairs - are often chosen for ease of pronunciation. The document provides 10 examples of common collocations.

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    Know A Word

    Uploaded by

    John Breed
    14 views1 page
    The document discusses teaching new vocabulary to beginners. It is difficult to use synonyms as beginners may not know those words either. Instead, the meaning should be illustrated through miming, pictures or drawings. The teacher must be clear on the denotation and connotation of each word and how the connotation can vary based on context. If a student picks a word because it "sounds right", the teacher should confirm that collocations - commonly used word pairs - are often chosen for ease of pronunciation. The document provides 10 examples of common collocations.

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    know a word

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    The document discusses teaching new vocabulary to beginners. It is difficult to use synonyms as beginners may not know those words either. Instead, the meaning should be illustrated through miming, pictures or drawings. The teacher must be clear on the denotation and connotation of each word and how the connotation can vary based on context. If a student picks a word because it "sounds right", the teacher should confirm that collocations - commonly used word pairs - are often chosen for ease of pronunciation. The document provides 10 examples of common collocations.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    14 views1 page

    Know A Word

    Uploaded by

    John Breed
    The document discusses teaching new vocabulary to beginners. It is difficult to use synonyms as beginners may not know those words either. Instead, the meaning should be illustrated through miming, pictures or drawings. The teacher must be clear on the denotation and connotation of each word and how the connotation can vary based on context. If a student picks a word because it "sounds right", the teacher should confirm that collocations - commonly used word pairs - are often chosen for ease of pronunciation. The document provides 10 examples of common collocations.

    Copyright:

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    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    of 1

    How We Know a Word

    What are the difficulties in using synonyms to explain vocabulary when working with
    beginners?
    Why is it important to be clear in your own mind on the denotation and connotation of
    a word before you teach it?
    Suppose your student told you his/her (correct) choice of a word was based on a
    decision that it just "sounded right". Would you confirm for the student that this is a
    valid reason to use the word, or would you ask for a more logical explanation?
    Prepare a list of 10 common collocations. (Do not use the examples in the module.)

    When teaching beginners new vocabulary it is sometimes difficult to use a synonym, as this can also
    be a new word for the student. Instead of resorting to their first language to explain the new
    vocabulary it may be more memorable if you can mime the meaning of the word, or show or draw a
    picture to illustrate the meaning.

    It is important to clear in your own mind of the denotation and connotation of a word before you teach
    it. This is so that you can explain the different meaning the word has with respect to different
    contexts. How the connotation of the word can be positive, neutral or negative with regard to its
    attitude.

    If a student responded to me that their choice of word was based on a decision that it just “sounded
    right”. I would accept that this is the case with regard to some phrases that are most commonly used
    together. It may be that these phrases are used more often because they are more easily spoken, or as
    the student put it “sound right”. I would also explain that this is technically called collocation in
    language.

    Some examples of common collocations are:

    1. Utter nonsense

    2. Perform surgery

    3. Wreak havoc

    4. Splendid idea

    5. Spark criticism

    6. Cast blame

    7. Heavy losses

    8. Readily available

    9. Narrow margin

    10. Serious doubt

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