EN 2106: Vocabulary Development III
Collocation tasks: different combinations connected
to verbs
· Adverb + verb –
choose carefully, verb + verb - be free to choose , verb + preposition-choose
between the things, verb+ adjective- keep something safe, adjective+
preposition- safe from attack
· Types of tasks:
- Matching tasks: e.g. adverbs in column A with an
adjective in B
- Sentence completion: e.g. put one of the adverbs
into each gap in the sentences.
Synonyms and their associations
· In order to avoid
repetition, writers use words which have a similar meaning.
e.g. I
could learn by heart - I started to memorize
He asked - He
enquired
· Types of tasks:
- Read the text and find the synonyms
- Complete the sentences using a word that has a
similar meaning to the word underlined.
Describing people: appearance and character
· Words used to
describe:
- Height and build - a slim woman, a chubby baby,
- General appearance - stylish, elegant woman,
well-dressed, unattractive,
- Intellectual ability- intelligent, gifted, clever,
foolish
- Clever in a negative way - cunning, crafty, sly
- Attitude towards life / people - optimistic,
sensitive, sociable, rude
- Face, hair, complexion - straight hair,
round-faced, fair complexion
· Types of
activities:
- Match the words with their opposite words.
- Write sentences to describe yourself, your
neighbours, colleagues etc.
- Make a collection of descriptions of people from
newspapers (advertisements by people seeking partners)
Antonyms: using prefixes and
suffixes
· Focus: how to
bring out negative qualities
· Procedure:
- Introduce negative prefixes - un-,in-, im-,
dis-, and suffixes-, -less,
- Get students to write the opposites of the given
adjectives. e.g. safe, kind, complete, etc.
- Identify adjectives with negative prefixes in a
text.
Dictionary work: exploring a dictionary page
· Focus: Raising
awareness of how a dictionary page can be exploited for language improvement
· Types of
activities: Look at page 311 in Macmillan English dictionary for advanced
learners.
- Which syllable has the primary stress: corollary,
corona, coronary, coroner
- What is the word for a small crown?
- What is the pronunciation of these words, corps
(singular), corps (plural)?
- What is the ceremony at which someone becomes
king/queen?
- Can the adjective ‘corporate’ follow a noun?
Working with texts to develop vocabulary: Identify
/ guess meaning from context
· Focus: Using the
natural redundancy of surrounding words, obtaining clues from grammatical
structures, pronunciation and punctuation, activating background knowledge from
a topic of a text.
e.g. My father is
a workaholic; he works so long and so hard that we rarely saw him.
