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9
2. Underline ten difficult words in one of the texts in this book as you read it, and before you reach for a
dictionary.
A. How important is it for you to know each of these words in order to understand the text? (Evaluate
the importance on a scale of 1-5: (O) = of no importance; (5) — crucial)
B. How important is it for you to know these words for your general/personal vocabulary? (Evaluate
the importance on a score of 1-5: () — of no importance; (5) = crucial)
3. Strategies available for learning and remembering a new word:
1. Internal context (analysing word structure — prefixbase — suffix)
2. Association of the new word with words that look the same (i.e., have the same base, or stem)
3. External context (studying the words, phrase or sentence(s) just preceding or just following the
unfamiliar word)
4. Aural and/or visual cues (associating the word with some sound or image)
5. Native language equivalents (associating the word with its equivalent in your native language)
6. Synonyms (associating the word with word(s) of similar meaning )
7. Antonyms (associating the word with word(s) of opposite or contrastive meaning)
8. Collocations (associating the word with words that go together with it, i.e. coffee or tea)
9. Placing the word within a semantic field — (groups of words used in relation to a given topic or
scene)
SECTION IV
THE WORD IN THE DICTIONARY
Some dictionaries you may want to examine:
American College Dictionary
Random House
College Dictionary Concise Oxford
Webster Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary
Longman's Dictionary of Contemporary English (Advanced Learners' Dictionary)
(4.1) Information Available in Some Dictionaries
1. Spelling (and various acceptable spellings, when there is more than one of these for a given word [e.g.
color, colour])
2a. Various related Usages should be indicated — i.e. , usages that are closely related to each other so that
they can be listed together — (usually in the order of the frequency with which they are used) under a single
entry (e.g. «radical» as used in political science or in mathematics or linguistics) .
2b. Examples should be given of each usage (sentences or phrases in each of which the given word is used
differently: i.e., has a slightly different «meaning»). E.g. «discipline» as «training» or «punishment», or as «an
area of instruction».
3. Homographs — there may be separate listings for words that are spelled alike but are different in other
ways. They may be pronounced differently, they may belong to different word classes (e.g., noun, verb,
adjective, etc....) or they may be completely different in meaning.
(e.g. flock (noun) — a group of animals or people
flock (verb) — to gather in large numbers
flock (noun) — (1) small pieces of wool, cotton, etc., used for filling cushions. (2) soft material that forms
decorated patterns on the surface of wallpaper, curtains, etc.
4. Abbreviations — there may be a separate listing for the abbreviated form of a word (e.g., «Dr.» and
«Doctor») (See also: Abbreviations, Unit 3 of WP Appendix, [Section X]).
5. Capitalization — there may be separate listings for the capitalized and uncapitalized forms of certain
words that have a specific meaning when they are written with a capital letter.
e.g. reformation — the act of improving something
Reformation — a 16th century European religious movement
6. Syllabification — there may be an indication of the correct way to divide the word. This information is
necessary in writing, when we have room for only part of the word at the end of a line. It also helps us too see
what parts the word is made of (which is useful for guessing its meaning).
Divide the words anonymous and anthropology according to the divisions indicated in your dictionary. What