Learning Vocabulary

QUESTIONS: How do you learn vocabulary? Do you often forget vocabulary? Why? What do you need to know to really

know a word?

What Should I Do?

To really learn vocabulary, you need to: Be organized See and use the words many times Test yourself often

To know a word, you need to know more than just its definition. You need to know: The number of syllables and the stress pattern The spelling and pronunciation The part of speech The meaning and an example sentence Other forms of the word

Syllables

A syllable is a part of a word with one vowel sound (not letter). Vowel letters: A, E, I, O, U, sometimes Y How many vowel letters? How many vowel sounds?

Meat Lately

How many syllables? Tomato Classroom Worked Newspaper Dishes Unbelievable Shrimp

Sy-lla-ble

Word Stress

There is always one stressed syllable in every multisyllabic word. We call this primary stress.

A stressed syllable is:

Di-nner En-joy A-la-ska

looooooonger

LOUDER!

clearerhigher

Stretching a rubber band while you say a word can help you remember the stressed syllable.

Why Do We Care?

Research tells us that incorrect syllables and stress are the most confusing things to native English speakers. “Can I borrow your bicycle?”

X bicycle X bicycle bicycle “I walked here.”

X wal-ked walked

Stress changes meaning. Some words sound the same except for the

stress. dessert desert

message massage

Some words change stress when they are a different part of speech. record (verb) record (noun)

Parts of Speech

The part of speech tells you what kind of word and how to use it. Noun

A person, place, or thing Pronoun

A word used instead of a noun Verb

An action; something you do Adjective

Describes a noun Adverb

Describes a verb Preposition

Describes when, where, and how Conjunction

Connects parts of sentences

My cat seldom sleeps in the sink, but he slept there

last night.

What’s The Word?

I’ll say a word, you tell me the part of speech.

Word Usage

Every part of speech has different rules. If you know a word’s part of speech, you will know how to use it. I speak English very bad.

Bad is an adjective. An adjective can only describe a noun. The word being described, speak, is a verb. You need to use an adverb.

I speak English very badly.

My weekends are never relax. Relax is a verb. You need an adjective—relaxing.

The child had a happiness birthday. Happiness is a noun. You need an adjective—happy.

A “Mad Lib” is a word game. Mad Libs are stories missing some words. Real word: ad-lib (v) – to say things that you

haven’t planned or prepared. “I lost my notes, so I ad-libbed my speech.”

Pairs: A asks B for the missing words. Don’t read the story; just ask for the missing words.

When finished, read the completed story to your partner.

The stories will probably be funny.

Example Mad Lib

How to Learn Vocabulary First of all, you need to _____(adv) write down

new _____ (plural noun) you see. You should use a / an _______(adj) notebook. Next, make sure you ______(verb) every day. Finally, eat ____(food) _____(adverb of frequency). This will help improve your ____(noun).

First of all, you need to LOUDLY write down new BICYCLES you see. You should use a WONDERFUL notebook. Next, make sure you TALK every day. Finally, ALWAYS eat BREAD. This will help improve your MONKEY.

Nationality: where someone is from. American, Chinese, Italian, Korean, Irish…

Shapes: circle, square, rectangle, triangle, diamond…

Comparative adjective: an adjective being compared to something else Bigger, stronger, more beautiful, better,

worse…

Translations and Definitions

It’s a good idea to write a translation for an English word, but you should also include an English definition.

Why? Sometimes, there is no exact match for an

English word in your language. Irusu: pretending that you’re not home Oishii: delicious, tasty, yummy, scrumptious,

delectable… You should be able to describe an English

word in English. This shows a better understanding of the language.

Definitions

When you copy an English definition from a dictionary, make sure you understand it.

You should use a dictionary that’s made for English language learners.

Which definition would you copy?A

B

Recommended Dictionaries

Paper Dictionaries Newbury House Dictionary of American

English Published by Heinle

Longman Dictionary of American English Published by Pearson Longman

Online Dictionaries Ldoceonline.com Learnersdictionary.com

Examples

A sentence or short example will help you see how to use the word. Write a good sentence that tells you the meaning.A. I’m furious.B. I’m furious because my husband forgot my

birthday again. You can also use a phrase or collocation.

Collocation: words that often occur together

Be furious at / with (something or someone)

I don’t think there is any strong evidence that ghosts are real. Noun First (and most common) meaning

Other Forms of the Word

Many words have related forms. You can save time by learning them all at once.

Example: happy (adj.) Happiness (noun) Happily (adv.) Unhappy (ad.)

Try to organize all the related word forms in one notebook entry.

Vocabulary in This Class

Everyone will make a vocabulary notebook and organize it the same way.

We will have 5-10 new words every week. I’ll write them on the board and explain them. Copy the information into your notebook.

We will have a short quiz about last week’s words every Tuesday.