Senior High School Department

Subject English for Academic and Professional Purposes

Grade and Section Grade 11 HUMSS/STEM

Teacher Christine Lynn R, Panganiban

Module no. Module 1: Developing your Vocabulary

Duration Week 19: Jan 10- 14, 2022

Reference Material English for Academic and Professional Purposes (DIWA

Learning System INC)
Lecture Material Format Printed, PDF file, Lecture videos

UNIT I: Reading and Analyzing Academic Text

Do you like to read? What do you like to read? Are you fond of reading academic texts? Have
you ever been required to analyze academic texts? This unit will focus on reading and analyzing
academic texts.

There are four macro skills in English language acquisition: listening, reading, writing. and
speaking. These language skills are further categorized as the receptive skills and the productive
skills. Listening and reading are receptive skills, and writing and speaking are productive skills.
Receptive skills have to do with how you interpret what your senses received, and productive skills
allow you to produce something that you want to communicate to others. Other people, in turn, will
interpret what you have produced.

This unit aims to develop your reading skills. The modules in this unit are designed in such a
way that you understand the basics of a text first before you proceed to writing and critiquing, which
will be tackled in the next unit. To start, you will get to expand your vocabulary through different
strategies such as analysis of word structures and use of context clues. Then, you will learn how to
look at reading texts from the author's point of view such as what the author's purpose is, who the
intended audience is, and what the author's tone is.

You will also learn to recognize statements that can be confusingly hard to determine whether
they are facts or opinions. Moreover, you will also be familiarized with sound reasoning and the tricky
fallacies that can be found in reasoning. You will also get to analyze the author's arguments depending
on the factors that influenced him or her to have such a stand.

Furthermore, you will also apply critical reading skills in academic and professional contexts,
which are important skills especially if you will be reading journal articles. You will also look at how
sources are cited, so that you can cite them properly in your own written text. Lastly, you will also
have an overview of important documents relevant in workplaces by reading job-related documents
such as advertisements, cover letters, resumes, and sample interview questions. Aren't these exciting?
Are you ready? Let's start!

Academic Texts.

As you move from one grade level to the next, you probably noticed how your textbooks change.
Your preschool textbooks had large-sized fonts and filled with colorful pictures, remember? Now, your
high school textbooks are mostly text and have smaller fonts and fewer pictures. Aside from these
elements, the vocabulary has changed as well-from one-to two syllable words in your early grades to
three- to five-syllable words as you move to senior high school. You are able to cope with these changes
in your reading materials because you have indeed matured as a reader.

Aids in Developing Your Vocabulary

Your vocabulary bank is the determining factor for the improvement of your reading speed and
comprehension. If you encounter a word you don't understand, you would normally pause to think
about it; this temporary pause affects your reading speed and comprehension of the text. Thus, to
enhance your comprehension, you should consciously continue to improve your vocabulary.

Context Clues

Using context clues to guess the meaning of an unfamiliar word is a strategy to improve one's
reading skill. When you encounter an unfamiliar word in a reading passage, stopping to read just to
open a dictionary to find the meaning of that word will reduce your reading speed. It will cause you
to unnecessarily read and reread some parts of the passage just to comprehend what you are reading.

Context clues are the words or sentences surrounding the unfamiliar word that give hints on
its meaning.

Context clues are hints found within a sentence, paragraph, or passage that a reader can use
to understand the meanings of new or unfamiliar words. Learning the meaning of a word through its
use in a sentence or paragraph is the most practical way to build vocabulary, since a dictionary is
not always available when a reader encounters an unknown word. A reader must be aware that many
words have several possible meanings. Only by being sensitive to the circumstances in which a word
is used can the reader decide upon an appropriate definition to fit the context.

A reader should rely on context clues when an obvious clue to meaning is provided, or when
only a general sense of the meaning is needed for the reader’s purposes. Context clues should not be
relied upon when a precise meaning is required, when clues suggest several possible definitions, when
nearby words are unfamiliar, and when the unknown word is a common one that will be needed
again; in these cases, a dictionary should be consulted.

There are several different types of context clues. Some of them are:

1. DEFINITION / DESCRIPTION CLUE

The new term may be formally defined, or sufficient explanation may be given within the
sentence or in the following sentence. Clues to definition include “that is,” commas, dashes, and
parentheses.

Examples:

a. His emaciation, that is, his skeleton-like appearance, was frightening to see. “Skeleton-like
appearance” is the definition of “emaciation.”

b. Fluoroscopy, examination with a fluoroscope, has become a common practice. The commas before
and after “examination with a fluoroscope” point out the definition of “fluoroscopy.”

c. The dudeen – a short-stemmed clay pipe – is found in Irish folk tales. The dashes setting off “a
short-stemmed clay pipe” point out the definition of “dudeen.”

2. EXAMPLE CLUES

Sometimes when a reader finds a new word, an example might be found nearby that helps to
explain its meaning. Words like including, such as, and for example, point out example clues.

Examples:

a. Piscatorial creatures, such as flounder, salmon, and trout, live in the coldest parts of the
ocean. “Piscatorial” obviously refers to fish.
b. Celestial bodies, including the sun, moon, and stars, have fascinated man through the
centuries. “Celestial” objects are those in the sky or heavens. READING – Context Clues rev. August
2005
c. In the course of man’s evolution, certain organs have atrophied. The appendix, for example,
has wasted away from disuse. “Atrophied” means “wasted away.”

3. SYNONYM RESTATEMENT CLUE

The reader may discover the meaning of an unknown word because it repeats an idea
expressed in familiar words nearby. Synonyms are words with the same meaning.

Examples:

a. Flooded with spotlights – the focus of all attention – the new Miss America began her year-
long reign. She was the cynosure of all eyes for the rest of the evening. “Cynosure” means “the
focus of all attention.”

b. The mountain pass was a tortuous road, winding and twisting like a snake around the
trees of the mountainside. “Tortuous” means “winding and twisting.”

4. CONTRAST / ANTONYM CLUE

Antonyms are words with opposite meanings. An opposite meaning context clue contrasts
the meaning of an unfamiliar word with the meaning of a familiar term. Words like
“although,” “however,” and “but” may signal contrast clues.

Examples:

a. When the light brightens, the pupils of the eyes contract; however, when it grows darker,
they dilate.
“Dilate” means the opposite of “contract.”

b. The children were as different as day and night. He was a lively conversationalist, but
she was reserved and taciturn.
“Taciturn” means the opposite of a “lively conversationalist.”

5. MOOD / TONE CLUE

The author sets a mood, and the meaning of the unknown word must harmonize with the mood.

Examples:

a. The lugubrious wails of the gypsies matched the dreary whistling of the wind in the all but deserted
cemetery.

“Lugubrious,” which means “sorrowful,” fits into the mood set by the words “wails,” “dreary,”
and “deserted cemetery.”

6. EXPERIENCE CLUE

Sometimes a reader knows from experience how people or things act in a given situation.

This knowledge provides the clue to a word’s meaning.

Examples:

a. During those first bewildering weeks, the thoughts of a college freshman drift back
to high school where he was “in,” knew everyone, and felt at home. A feeling of nostalgia
sweeps over him.
b. She walked away from her closet and quickly slipped a jersey over her head. She
smoothed it into place over her hips, added a belt, glanced at the mirror, and left for
work.
7. ANALYSIS OR STRUCTURE CLUE

The parts used to construct a word can be direct clues to meaning. Knowledge of
prefixes, roots, and suffixes can aid a reader in using this type of context clue. Learning
one-word part can add dozens of words to a reader’s vocabulary. The power of word parts
lies in the ability to combine the roots and affixes with the context in which a word is used
to discover the author’s meaning.

Examples:

a. The story is incredible.

The root cred means “to believe,’ and the prefix in means “not.” Therefore, if a story
is incredible, it is unbelievable.

b. The somnambulist had to be locked in his bedroom at night for his own safety. If a reader
knows the meaning of ambular (walk) and somn (sleep) and sees the sentence, the reader
may realize that a “somnambulist” is a sleepwalker.

8. INFERENCE CLUE

Sufficient clues might be available for the careful reader to make an educated guess at
the meaning.

Example:

a. She told her friend, “I’m through with blind dates forever. What a dull evening! I was

bored every minute. The conversation was absolutely vapid.”

“Vapid” means “uninteresting.”

9. CAUSE AND EFFECT CLUE

The author explains the reason for or the result of the word. Words like “because,”
“since,” “therefore,” “thus,” “so,” etc. may signal context clues.

Example:

a. She wanted to impress all her dinner guests with the food she served, so she carefully studied
the necessary culinary arts.
“Culinary” means “food preparation.”

Word Structure

You should be able to analyze word structure so that you will understand many English words.
A word in the English language may have three parts: the prefix, the root word, and the suffix.

You can think of the word as a monkey. The head of the monkey is the prefix-the one that
comes before the body. The body of the monkey is the root word, and the tail of the monkey is the
suffix. See the figure on the right.

The parts of a word in English have meanings based on their origin, which could be Latin,
Greek, and French, to name a few. Here, we shall look at some examples.

Prefixes

Pre means "before" and fir means "to attach." Prefix means "to attach before a word." Prefixes
have meanings, and understanding their meanings can help you in figuring out the meaning of the
word with the prefix. There are negative prefixes that imply the opposite of the root word such as un-
, non-, in-, and dis-. There are also prefixes that show location such as tele-, sub-, inter-, and trans-
. Other prefixes can show numbers or amounts such as mono-, bi multi-, and deca- Suffixes
 Suffixes usually change a word from one form or part of speech (e.g., noun, verb, and adjective)
to another form. A verb can become a noun when you add a suffix, for example. Adding the suffix
may not change the meaning of the root word, but it helps change the form of the word to make it
suitable to its usage in a sentence. For example, the word memory is a noun. How do you turn this
word into an adjective or a verb? You do so by changing its suffix. So, if you will turn the noun memory
into an adjective, it will become memorable; if you will turn it into a verb, it will become memorize.

Root Words

Many think that root words are easy to spot. This is true only if the root words are of modern
English. Examples of root words in modern English are aim in aimless, love in unloved, joy in joyful,
and happy in happiness. However, there are many root words in English that originated from Latin,
Greek, and other languages. Root words from these languages may be hard to spot; but if you know
many of these root words, it will be a lot easier for you to dissect the words and get their meanings.
Look at the example given on the first item in the following table on the next page. Then try to identify
the root word in the succeeding items.

Denotation and Connotation

When we say denotation, we are referring to the real meaning of a word. When we say
connotation, we are referring to the implied meaning of a word. For example, the denotative meaning
of the word snake is "a cold, scaly reptile." However, it may have a connotative meaning, which is
"betrayal, evil, or danger." The words fat, chubby, and obese have the same denotative meaning
"excess flabby tissue." However, when we use them with their connotative meaning, saying that
someone is fat may be taken offensively; therefore, we use the term chubby to somehow imply that
the person is still cute in spite of being a "little" fat. Obese, on the other hand, would refer to someone
with a medical condition characterized by excess fat in the body.

The most common type of denotation that you’ll come across is in literature. Denotation means
the literal definition of a word. To give an example, the denotation for blue is the color blue.

For example:

The girl was blue.

 You mean the girl was quite literally the color blue.

You are a dog.

 You mean that the animal is literally a carnivorous domesticated animal with fur and a snout.

Denotation Examples

 Still a bit confused? Look at these denotation sentence examples.

 The boy was pushy. (He was literally pushing people.)
 She was cold. (She was cold in temperature.)
 It was too hard. (The object was too firm.)
 The dog is a mutt. (The dog is a mix of several breeds.)
 Trevor is a bull. (The bull is named Trevor.)
 The woman was frugal. (The woman is economical when spending money.)
 He was bull-headed. (He literally has a head of a bull.)

Denotation and Connotation

While denotation is the literal meaning of the word, connotation is a feeling or indirect meaning. For
example:

• Denotation: blue (color blue)

• Connotation: blue (feeling sad)

 Depending on whether you are using connotation or denotation, the sentence, “She was blue”
could mean she was literally blue or she was sad. Here’s another example to really drive this home. •
Denotation: dog (animal)

• Connotation: dog (ugly)

Again, the sentence, “You are a dog” could have two different meanings. You are saying they are an
animal or ugly. Knowing whether a writer is using connotation or denotation depends on the text
surrounding the passage. Let’s check out a few literary examples.

Denotation Symbol Examples

Symbols have important denotations or literal meanings. They are often used as math symbols
but could be used for other purposes. Check out common examples.

 @ is at
 # is number
 % is percent
 $ is dollars
 + is plus
 - is minus
 = is equals
 < is less than
 is more than

Prepared by: Approved by:

CHRISTINE LYNN R. PANGANIBAN HAZEL P. PALAPUS, MEng

Teacher Principal