Vocabulary Using a dictionary When you read or listen to texts in English there will be a certain percentage of words you do not know or are unsure about. It is often difficult to work out the exact meaning of these unknown words, but it is useful for you to learn how to work out the basic meaning: whether itis positive, negative, or neutral; the word class (e.g. noun, adjective); what kind of ‘thing it refers to (eg. a tool, an action, a feeling, a person's job). Once you have tried to work out the basic meaning, you should be able to identify the correct exact meaning from those given in ‘the dictionary. TASK 1 Working out the meaning of unknown words 1 ‘The following words are all from Text 2 on page 015. Find them in the text, conventional facilitator refine theoretically 2 Foreach word, read the sentence it occurs in and answer the questions. 1 Is the word positive, negative, or neutral? 2 Isitanoun, verb, adjective, or adverb? 3 Can you think ofa word with a similar meaning (synonym) and one with the opposite: meaning (antonym)? TASK 2 Using a monolingual dictionary 1 Look at Extract A from the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Match the items in the list with parts 1-13. Some items can be used more than once. headword opposite _register(style) —- wordclass._—_ word order relatedword definition _ example sentence / phrase pronunciation collocation countable / uncountable keyword academic word list A 'con-ven-tion -al 20-65 “kon'venfonl ‘ad. 1 on (often disapproving) ‘tending to follow ‘hat is done or considered acceptable by society in general; normal and ordinary, and pethaps not very interesting: “conventional behaviour / morality ° “She's very conventional it er Views. "GD unconventional 2 e "(usually before noun following what is traditional or the way sth has bbeen done fora long time: conventional methods / approaches ° lt’ not a hate, n the conventional Sense, but rather a whole village turned into a hotel GHB unconventional» consven-tion-ality ‘kon, ven{a'nselati/ noun ”(U} con-venstion-ally /-Fanai/ ad: conventionally dressed » conventionally _grown food (= grovin according to conventional methods) 2 Look at Extracts A-D. Which definition, 1 or 2, best suits the meaning of the word asit is used in Text 2 on page 015? B fascili-ta-tor B09 /fo'silterta(ry noun 1a person who helps sb to do sth more easily by ‘discussing problems, giving advice, ete. rather than telling ther wht to do: The teacher ats asa Facilitator of earning. 2 formal) a thing that helps a process take place rresfime EXD /r'fatn/ verb 1 ~ sth :o make a substance pure by taking other substances out of tthe proces ofrefiing oi/sugar 2 ~ sth to improve sth by making small changes to it the-or-eticral EU /i'rotikl; NAME 20 aj. [usually before noun] 1 concerned with the ideas and principles on which a particular subject is based, rather than with practice and ‘experiment: a theoretical approach = eheoretcal physics» The fist year provides students with asound ‘theoretical bast for later sty. QHD experimental, practical 2 that could possibly exis happen ‘or be tue, although this unlikely: Its theoretical possibilty.» thevaret ‘ila ‘theoretically sound conclusions ° cts theoretically possible for him to overrule hei decision, but highly unlikely. ‘ounce Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary (th ed). Oxtor: Oxford University PressVocabulary Building academic vocabulary In academic texts, about 75% of the words are high-frequency core vocabulary. (There are about 2,000 such words in total The remaining 25% are either academic vocabulary or technical vocabulary. Academic vocabulary is used across all the disciplines, and typically refers to concepts (e.g. research), actions (e.g. allocate), reporting (e.g. argue), perspectives (e.g. economic), qualities (e.g. subjective), and evaluation (e.g, likely). There are over 1,000 items of academic vocabulary, plus the other words in their family, e.g. economic, economical, economist, etc. Academic vocabulary is at the heart of EAP, with several lists of academic words available, and new and improved lists emerging regularly. TASK 1 Becoming fami 1 Read the text and find the following academic words. Notice how the form of each word may change to fitthe grammatical context. medicine role advocate enable social achieve environment dominate specific inform cause provide condition jar with academic vocabulary Child public health in the twentieth century ‘Although the medical profession played a role in advocating and enabling change, the improvements in child public health that occurred in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were achieved almost entirely through changes to the social and environmental conditions in which children lived. During ‘the twentieth century, particularly the latter half, public health was also informed by advances in understanding of the causes of disease and the development of medical practice. Indeed, public ‘health practice became increasingly dominated by the provision of medical services and by attempts to prevent of treat specific diseases and conditions. ‘Stupee Bla M. Crowther Ry Stewart-Brown, 5, & Waterston . (2010) pp.111. Child Public Heath 2nd ed). ‘oxford: Oxford University Pass. 2 Classify the academic words in 1 using the following categories. 1 Iknow this word and use it regularly in my spoken and written work. 2 [think understand this word, but don’tuse it. 3 Lrecognize this word, but 'm not sure about its meaning. 4 [don’t think I've seen this word before and I don't know it. 3 Workin groups and compare your answers. Which of the academic words in 1 are (a) the best known, and (b) the least well known in your group? TASK 2 Recording information about academic vocabulary 1 Decide which two strategies for learning vocabulary are most useful. 1 writing translations of words 4. making lists of words 2 highlighting words in texts 5 usingword cards 3 writing words in a notebook 6 using electronic devices 2 How do you decide which words to learn? Which strategies do you use? 3. Word cards can help you build word families. Use a dictionary to complete the word card below. advocate word class pronunciation sue 1 ‘ranslation ; t opposite’ words (antonyms) | example related words (in same family) collocations sin nenVocabulary Inferring meaning When you come across a new word, or you are not quite sure of the meaning of a word, it often helps to look firstly at its context or environment, ie. the words around it, in order to Infer the meaning of the whole sentence. Secondly, the word itself can give you clues to its meaning, particularly parts of the word such as prefixes, which have the same meaning in ther words. For example, the prefix tele- in television, telephone, and telepathic means ‘far away’ or ‘distant, and this meaning connects all three words. Many academic words in English contain prefixes, so understanding such prefixes helps with understanding academic texts. TASK 1 Inferring the meaning of unknown words in sentences 1 Each of sentences 1 -6 has one missing word. Try to infer the meaning of the word by using the sentence as context. 1 Handheld devices such as smart phones have revolutionized between individuals worldwide. 2 The main impact of online newspapers was to reduce the of paper-based national newspapers, with some less popular titles going out of. 3. Media investors and newspaper publishers were interested only in titles that would still sell in large numbers to the costs of production and make a profit. 4. Older communication technologies such as telegrams became while even newer ones such as faxes are in decline. 5. The market for downloads was initially limited, but in its of larger markets the music industry soon found ways of selling more downloads, to more people, more often, 6 Newer technologies are much more and to a great extent beyond the control of national governments. TASK 2 Using prefixes to infer meaning 1 Match the prefixes in words 1-9 to their meanings a-i. 1 biography a outside 2 deregulate b within 3. extra-terrestrial © skillor system 4 interdepartmental d take away or remove 5 intranet e far ordistant 6 misguided f life 7 technician % across 8 telepathic h bad(ly) or wrong(ly) 9 transcontinental i between 2 Complete the words in the sentences using prefixes from 1. 1 Applications from students wanting to study nology and logy are increasing. 2 ‘The graduation ceremony was vized and broadcast on the internet. 3 cultural understanding tends to develop quickly when people from different cultures act in the same context, such as at a university. 4 Experts’ views are frequently understood if people don’thave all the facts. 5 Computers are often blamed for skilling young people, 6 His performance in the end of term exams was ordinary.Vocabulary Classification Nouns and verbs can be used to classify many things such as items, ideas, and information. Another major area of classification language is classifying adjectives, e.g, politica, international, visual. These adjectives are very frequent in academic texts, and are widely recognized as making the category, level, or perspective clear to the reader, They are not evaluative (subjective), but are essential in elating items to aspects of the world (objective). TASK 1 Categorizing words 1 Lookat the following classifying words from this module and decide whether they are adjectives, or nouns, or both. social public national economy natural business environmental physical international individual _ political cultural consumer behavioural personal local 2 Use your dictionary to check the noun, adjective, and adverb forms of the words in 1. TASK 2 Creating and using classification phrases 1 Youcan use the words in Task 1.1 in many different phrases and in a wide range of contexts. Choose the correct form of the most suitable word given to complete the sentences. personal / personally / person economic / economically / economies political / politically / politics business local / locally / locality environmental / environmentally / the environment 1 Ata level, people in small communities such as villages could then become actively involved, which is a very positive step forward. 2 Ona note, I would like to thank my family for their patience during the writing of this book. speaking, the impact on the country’s growth rate is likely to be dramatic. 4 Interms of these vast farms make good sense, but in terms of they are highly damaging to wildlife. 5 The development of organization and change is then discussed from a perspective. 2. Match contexts ae with sentences 1-5in 1. a The acknowledgements section ofa book dA presentation to a group of policymakers b ‘The introduction to an article e ion and analysis s .ction of a report ‘The evaluation part ofan essay 3. Decide which word class (noun, adjective, or adverb) is required to complete the phrases. ‘Then complete them using the correct form of the words in brackets. 1 itwe could look more closely at (business) 2 in terms (culture) interms of (finance) speaking (geography) froma perspective (local) for reasons (politics) yaaee to put this into an. context (international) 8 from the point of view of the (environment) 4 Complete the paragraph with words from the phrases in 3. Ifwe could in many countries, setting up high tech companies is the ‘main focus of government policy. In. ; raising money forthe development of such companies can be a major challenge. 5 Write atleast two sentences using the phrases in 3. Make any necessary changes.em Vocabulary Collocation When learning new vocabulary, itis not sufficient to know simply the given meaning of ‘a word, Other aspects, including collocation, help to give depth to your understanding of a word, Collocation refers to the patterns of words which typically go together, for example make a decision and key factors. These collocations may involve different combinations of Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, or grammatical words such as prepositions, Understanding and using collocation will help you build language and develop your fluency, flexibility, and naturalness. Collocations are particularly useful in building noun phrases to describe concepts, which are essential in an academic context, Specialist dictionaries, such as the Oxford Collocations Dictionary, can help you to work out which words do (or do not) go together. TASK 1 Creating adjective + noun collocations 1 Decide which nouns below collocate with ail the adjectives in each line 1-4. If necessary, check the meaning of the adjectives in your dictionary or refer to the Oxford Collocations Dictionary to help you. ability feedback idea difference 1 clever / stimulating / innovative / original / absurd / interesting 2 exceptional / outstanding / creative / intellectual / innate / limited 3 favourable / positive / instant / verbal / written / helpful / useful 4. big / great / major / basic / clear / minor / significant / important 2 What factors helped you to make your decisions, e.g. existing language knowledge? TASK 2 Using verb + noun collocations 1 Match the verbs below with the appropriate nouns 1-5 from this unit. develop do have make put 1 alink/ a contribution / an impact / an analogy / an investment / an assumption c research 3 the capacity / an impact 4 intelligence / a theory / a concept / link 5 an emphasis 2 Complete the text with nouns from 1. Add any articles and prepositions as appropriate. ‘Companies involved in selling electronic products such as ‘Brain Gym’ try to 'make a link between the use of their product and a person's 1Q. Itis however questionable whether doing such activities actually “develops. While they may ‘have a person's ability to play a particular word or number game, the companies’ message ‘makes ‘person's ability to transfer their skills developed in doing an abstract electronic activity to a real-life situation. One issue is the fact that the electronic games *put a great performing the task at speed, but real-life situations may not require such strict time pressures. Researchers have “developed an alternative, of ‘context-specific’ performance, which states that a person's performance in a particular task does not always translate into similar performance in a different context. They argue that there 1s insufficient evidence to “make a person sitting in their armchair doing a particular numerical task and the same person ina busy office doing a similar task under stressful conditions. It is uncertain whether people ‘have ‘make this link. This research should *make an important the current debate, but it seems likely that more ", this important area needs to be done. 3. Useat least five collocations from this page to write a short text of your own on the subject of intelligence._ Vocabulary Suffixes Building word families greatly increases your vocabulary knowledge. For example, adding the noun suffix -mentto a verb such as involve results in involvement; adding an adjective suffix results in involved: adding a prefix for the opposite results in uninvolved. These changes give you four words from one headword, The headword can be a verb (e.g. achieve), noun (e.. system), or adjective (e.g. private). Longer words can be built from headwords such as these, for example: achievement, achievable; systematic, systematize; privately, privatize. In general, suffixes show a grammatical change to the word, while many prefixes have more meaning, e. bio- (life). TASK 1 Building word families through suffixes 1 Change headwords 1-10 into adjectives by selecting from the list of adjective suffixes. You may have to add, delete, or change some letters at the end of the headwords. Note also that some of the words have more than one adjective form. If you are not sure, make a guess and then check in your dictionary. Example: attract (v) + attractive (adj) -al -ent -ful ive -ous 1 attract 3 generate 5 influence 7 invent 9 repel 2 connect 4 infect 6 interact 8 respect 10 truth 2. Work out the word class for each word 1-10. Then change the words into nouns by selecting from the list of noun suffixes. Note that some of the words have more than one noun form. Check the forms in your dictionary. Example: brave (adj) > bravery (n) -age -ant -er -ery ity -ism -ment -ness -ship -tion 1 brave 3. connective 2 create 4 develop 5 infirm 7 rough 9 store § mature 8 smooth 10 treat 3 Change words 1-10 into verbs by selecting from the list of verb suffixes. Make any other minor changes necessary. Note also how the pronunciation sometimes changes. Example: category (n) + categorize (v) “ize -ate ify 1 category 3 different 5 electric 7 international 9 public 2 carbon 4 diverse 6 intense 8 private 10 subsidy 4 Decide which words from 1.1-1.3 can be made into adverbs by using the adverb suffixes: -ly /-ally. TASK 2 Using multiple suffixes to build more complex words 1 Academic vocabulary is characterized by the heavy use of affixes (prefixes and suffixes) to build more complex concepts. Look at how the noun industry can be built up into a more complex noun by adding several further suffixes. suffixes headword adjective verb noun = resulting noun industry) + 0h tie + tion industriatization 2 Use the adjective, noun, and verb suffixes in Task 1 to build longer nouns and adjectives from words 1-10. 1 connect 3 drama 5 interact 7 national 9 subsidy 2 develop 4 electric 6 international 8 standard 10 urbanVocabulary Prefixes Prefixes (added to the beginning of a word) and suffixes (added to the end of a word, as shown in Unit 6€) are both affixes. Prefixes can be essentially grammatical, eg. they change a noun to a verb or make a negative form, or meaning-carrying, e.g, pseudo-, which means false, Meaning-carrying prefixes are useful in helping you to recognize the deeper meaning of the words which they are part of, TASK 1 Understanding the meanings of prefixes 1 Select the essential meaning of the prefixes in bold from those given in the box. false everything thesame heart milk-egg art/skill over / more than normal ina sense / in appearance only 1 pseudo-public 2 technologies 3. quasi-public 4 homogenization 5 cardioprotective 6 omnivore 7 lacto-ovo vegetarian 8 hypertension 2 Try to work out which prefix from 1 goes with all three endings in the table below. One prefixis not needed. The first is done as an example and, in some cases, the spelling of the prefix may need to change. homo ‘homogeneous homosexual homegenized A A ea vascular ac URS is ial active nym. science “present = potent = directional autonomous -scientific -official 3 Work in pairs and select six words from 2. Try to work out the meanings using your knowledge of the prefixes and the endings. 4 Identify which two of the prefixes in 1 have the opposites hetero- and hypo-. Write the opposites next to the correct endings below. What is the meaning of each word? geneous, sexual dermic, thermia, -allergenic TASK 2 Using prefixes to complete words in context 1 Complete the words in the sentences using prefixes from Task 1. 1 The American author Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910) is better known by his nym of Mark Twain. With the continued interest in software engineering, applications for places in the logy centre have increased. 3 Criticizing any branch of alternative medicine as -scientific is very damning, 4 The aim is to provide an overview of resuscitation, confined to the management of acarrest. 5 ‘The Director of the company thought she was potent, but the shareholders soon cut her powers dramatically. 6 When children are active, the cause needs to be identified and dealt with.