Lost for Words
Introduction
Vocabulary is one of the most important building blocks in language acquisition. Learners often complain they are lost for words and panic when somebody approaches them in English. They also start either asking their teachers the meaning of an English word or the English translation of a German word without giving any context. They often leave everything else a side and start looking up the words in their small translation dictionaries thus interrupting speaking and reading. Learners need to know that looking up words in a dictionary while speaking or reading skills conversation and makes reading not enjoyable at all.
Learners also naively believe in the authority of dictionaries or anything which is printed as if they were the Ten Commandments. They often think any dictionary can help to find all the necessary vocabulary they need to communicate with people. They are often not aware of word partnerships and collocations, false friends, phrasal verbs, binomials….In addition they need to be reminded that words only in context makes meaning. Sometimes even a short sentence doesn’t help to provide the correct meaning. For example if you say: it is raining it is not clear what you really mean. Do you mean don’t go out because of rain or are you only expressing your disappointment?
Learners believe that all their conversation partners are educated British or Americans although most people who speak English are not native speakers. For example if they work in a library and need for example to explain library rules to Chinese or Indian students. Their vocabulary skills might not always be of help. It would help greatly if they learn how to describe an idea which they don’t have an English word for or they have forgotten it. Describing games and using body language like facial expression and gestures can be fun or even more successful.
Learner need to be aware how to make their text more interesting. If you stick to using more general words like: good, bad, happy, sad your text will be boring and it shows you don’t know how to express yourself more specifically. You can put some words on a scale, go up and down the scale, increase intensity or the degree of frequency: happy, delighted, overjoyed…
In addition, idioms and proverbial sayings are like spice to food.
Dictionary skills are very important for learners. They need to know the types of dictionaries which are available: monolingual and bilingual translation dictionaries, specialist dictionaries, thesauri and etymology
But Vocabulary learning can be fund but a burden as well. Learners usually make lists of words they don’t know without organizing their vocabulary and applying different learning and memory techniques and visualizations.. Visual aids are often of great help to organize and memorize their vocabulary. They additionally need some reading skills such reading for gist.
Lost for Words
What is English?
Germanic + Romance = English
Germanic is the natural register full of phrasal verbs
Romance is the formal register full of long words
Vocabulary Learning Strategies – Organising by Visualisation
· Scales
· Diagrams
· Key Words
· Word Fields
· Vocabulary Cards
Vocabulary / Organising by Categories
· Register
formal and Informal English
Varieties of English
Discipline related
· Collocations /Partnerships: Find the right partner
· False Friends: Find the true friend
· Confusibles / Problems Pairs
· Opposites
· German one word – English two or more
· Connotations and associations
· Metaphor
· Polysemy
· Phrasal Verbs
· Idioms
· Proverbs
· Binomials
· Eponyms
· Linking Words /Discourse Markers /transitional words /signposts
· General and specific words
· Buzz Words
· Adjectives /Describing:
People
Places
Word Building
· Prefixes
· Roots
· Suffixes
Word Formations
· Nouns
· Adjectives
· Verbs
Verbs of dual function
The Spelling / Pronunciation Gap
· Homonyms
· Homographs
Number (Countable and Uncountable Nouns)
Focusing words
Translations
Words in Use
Dictionary Skills
Mood Changes
happy – delighted – pleased – overjoyed –- feel great - get a surge of well-being – get butterflies of excitement – feel the purest love - makes my spirits soar – It was like being drunk – ecstatic – be on the top of the world
under the weather - basically content – relieved (it was a relief) – hopeful - burst with pride
moved (can be moving) – deeply stirred
horrified – feel scared – I really have the same highs
Sollen
· Vorschlag: sollen wir:
Shall /can / could / what about / how about
· Pflicht: should
· Angeblich /Vermutung/ man sagt: be to / be supposed to
she is said to be rich
· Fest geplante Termine: be to: Students have to be here by 10 O`clock.
· Was sol lich tun: what shall/should I do
Vocabulary Skills
Abbreviations and abbreviated forms
Antonyms
Opposites:
Positive and negative words
Binomials or compound nouns: law and order
Confusables and problem pairs
Lie, lie, lay
Connotations
Eponyms
Boycott: from Capt. Charles Boycott (Irish land agent)
Diesel: Rudolf Diesel
Granny Smith - apple- Maria Smith Australian grower
Sadism (Marquis de Sad (French writer and soldier)
Etymology
False Friends: English sensible vs. German Sensibel
General vs. specific words
German-English word play
German one word – English two and more:
Bis (deadline: by / period: from - to/till/until
Bringen: bring and take - Leihen: lend and borrow
Besuchen: visit, go/come and see, attend
Platz (court, room, pitch, place, seat, space, square)
Seit since 2000 / for 10 years
German two or more words – English one word
German all-round verbs: Machen
English all-round verbs
Germanic and Romance Heritage
Cow – beef
Calf – veal
Sheep – mutton
Sow/swine (pig) – pork
Deer – venison
Give up – abandon
Put off – postpone
Homonyms
Homographs
Idioms: It is all Greek to me corresponding to the German: Es kommt mir Spanisch vor.
Idioms and parts of the body
Memory and Learning Techniques
Organizing your Vocabulary
Categories (Organizing vocabulary according to semantic categories and word fields): Meetings: take the minutes, agenda…
Visualization and Mind Mapping
Bubbles and forks
Graphs
Picture
Scales and continuums
Trees
Word networks
Polysemy (multiple meanings)
Phrasal Verbs
Phrasal verbs with more than one meaning
Proverbs and sayings
Register
Formal and informal register
Englishes: AmE vs. BE
Register of different academic disciplines and social situations
Translations Translation games
Vague Language
Approximately
Bit: a bit
Sometime / any time
Sort: A sort of /and that sort of thing
Stuff
Thing(s)
Word building games
With the help of affixes and roots
Nouns, adjectives, adverbs and verbs
Words in Context
Methodology
Brainstorming Word fields
Guessing games: Describing celebrities or important places
Introducing different visual aids
Word Play Descriptions: describing a word a word without using it prepare learns for such
Situations
Exercises:
Gap filling
Matching
Order: put the letters in the correct order
Reading