Republic of the Philippines

President Ramon Magsaysay State University

Zambales
Telefax : 047-8111683/email address: prmsu.edu.ph

Course Code En +
Course Title Enhanced Communication Skills
Place of the Course in the General Education
Program
Semester and Academic Year First Semester A.Y. 2023-2024

COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course aims primarily to provide students with basic skills in the use of
English language as a tool for learning and for communicative competence. This
specifically includes listening, reading, spoken interaction, spoken production and
writing. At the end of the course, the students are expected to become B2 level which
corresponds to a more advanced and more independent level.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
1. To understand the main ideas of both concrete and abstract topics;
2. To include technical discussions in his/her field of specialization;
3. To interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular
interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for either party;
and
4. To produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain viewpoint
on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.

LESSON 1: SPOKEN INTERACTION

1.1. VOCABULARY ENHANCEMENT
Objectives

At the end of this lesson, the learners should be able to:

• Recognize vocabulary skills/opportunities to learn words independently;

• Encourage grasping “high” processing frequency of word meanings;
• Nurture a love and appreciation of words and their use.

What is a vocabulary?
Introduction
Before going forward to the appropriateness of words or vocabulary usage,
it is absolutely best to figure out first the meaning of vocabulary. Then, what is
a vocabulary? Reference to Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (2022), a

EN + Enhanced Communication Skills 1

 Republic of the Philippines
President Ramon Magsaysay State University
Zambales
Telefax : 047-8111683/email address: prmsu.edu.ph

vocabulary is a set of familiar words within a person's language. A vocabulary,

usually developed with age, serves as a useful and fundamental tool for
communication and acquiring knowledge. It is commonly defined as all the
words known and used by a particular person.
Moreover, as stated in Pusat Dunia Ilmu (2022), vocabulary is a knowledge
of words and words meaning in both oral and print language and in productive
and receptive forms which is used in listening, speaking, reading and writing.

Vocabulary types come in the following form:

1. Reading vocabulary (words recognized when reading - this is

generally the amplest, as new words are more commonly
encountered when reading than when listening);
2. Listening Vocabulary (words recognized when listening to speech -
cues such as the speaker's tone and gestures, the topic of
discussion, and the conversation's social context may convey the
meaning of an unfamiliar word);
3. Speaking Vocabulary (comprises the words used in speech and is
generally a subset of the listening vocabulary); and
4. Writing Vocabulary (word appears in registers as different as formal
essays and social media feeds - written vocabulary is generally
limited by preference and context: a writer may prefer one synonym
over another, and they will be unlikely to use technical vocabulary
relating to a subject in which they have no interest or knowledge).

Vocabulary is an important focus of literacy teaching and refers to the

knowledge or words, including their structure (morphology), use (grammar),
meanings (semantics), and connections to other words (word/semantic
relationships). By the third grade, students must have learned 3,000 words per

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 Republic of the Philippines
President Ramon Magsaysay State University
Zambales
Telefax : 047-8111683/email address: prmsu.edu.ph

year. Teachers directly teach only 400 words to hearing students each year. The
English language has a large vocabulary, with an estimated vocabulary of
450,000 to 750,000 words. Contact with Anglo-Saxon English, Spanish, French,
Greek, and Latin, to name a few, has resulted in the evolution of English.

Types of Vocabulary Words Involves Three Tiers (Rows or levels of a structure)

Tier 1 – Basic Words

Below are the types of vocabulary referring to simple common words under Basic
Words (Tier 1) for English Beginners such as: good; new; first; last; long; little;
own; old; right; big; high; different; great; own; same, and able.

Tier 2 – High Frequency Words

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 Republic of the Philippines
President Ramon Magsaysay State University
Zambales
Telefax : 047-8111683/email address: prmsu.edu.ph

High frequency words are the words most commonly used in the English
language. These are the words used by mature language users with multiple
meanings, and used in many settings (cluster, sympathy, estimate). High
frequency words are one of the main types of sight words and are those words
which occur most frequently in written material. Above are examples of High
Frequency words.

Tier 3 – Low Frequency Words

Words under this type of vocabulary refers to words that are not commonly
used; these words belong to content specific (have distinct meanings or
purposes) or specific classes such as: Science/Math/Social Studies.

Table 2
70 Low Frequency Words
Abstemious Abstinence Absquatulat Caterwaul Contrive
(Moderate (Regaining from e (To protest (To invent)
eating/drinki something (To flee) noisily)
ng) entirely)
Deferment Delineate Gloaming Loquacious louche
(Delay) (Describe with (Twilight/du (talkative) disreputab
precision) sk) le

Maleficence Mendacious Obloquy Orotund Osculate

(evil) (deceptive) (condemning (pompous) (to kiss)
or abusive
language)
Perspicaciou Poltroon Peccadillo Prognosticate Raffish
s (coward) (minor (to predict) (vulgar)
(Having a offense)
ready insight
into)
Rambunctio Resplendent Ribaldry Rigmarole Ragamuffi
us (brilliantly (Coarse (Confused n
(unruly) glowing) behavior) talk/ (dirty)
complicated
procedure)

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 Republic of the Philippines
President Ramon Magsaysay State University
Zambales
Telefax : 047-8111683/email address: prmsu.edu.ph
Ruckus Scofflaw Spiffy Squelch Rogue
(disturbance) (lawbreaker) (stylish) (to suppress or (a
silence) dishonest
or
unprincipl
ed man)
Spiffy Subterfuge Slump Tat Defiant
(stylish) (deception) (sit, lean, or (Tasteless or (Disobedie
fall heavily) shoddy clothes) nt)
Fops Balderdash Pelf Helve Finagle
(Men who are (nonsense) (Money (Handle of a (To trick)
very devoted gained in a weapon/tool)
or vain with dishonorable
their clothes way)
or
appearance)
Agnostic Ameliorate Brevity Cohesive Debauche
(Doubter) (To make (Shortness) (Well- ry (sensual
better) integrated/Unifi gratificatio
ed) n)
Denounce Foible Curative Fusty Congenial
(Condemn (fault) (Healing) (moldy) (Agreeable
openly) in nature)
Structuralis Agronomy Organon Geology Ecologist
m (Application of (An (A Science that (A
(The analysis soil and plant instrument deals with the Biologist
of formal sciences to for acquiring history of the who
structures in land knowledge) earth as studies the
a text or management recorded in relation
discourse in and crop rocks) between
Linguistics) production) organisms
and their
environme
nt)
Eclecticism Entrepreneurs Genetics Semantics Prowess
(Making hip (The branch (The meaning of (a superior
decisions on the process of of biology a word, phrase, skill that
the basis of developing, that studies sentence, or you can
what seems organizing, and heredity and text/the study learn by
best instead running a new variation in of language study and
of following business to organisms) meaning) practice
some single generate profit and
doctrine or while taking on observatio
style) financial risk n)

EN + Enhanced Communication Skills 5

 Republic of the Philippines
President Ramon Magsaysay State University
Zambales
Telefax : 047-8111683/email address: prmsu.edu.ph
Ferocity Curvet Astuteness Dichotomous Proxemics
(The property (a light leap by (The (Dividing into (The study
of being wild a horse in intellectual two sharply of spatial
or turbulent) which both ability to distinguished distances
hind legs leave penetrate parts or between
the ground deeply into classifications) individuals
before the ideas) in different
forelegs come cultures
down) and
situations)
Falsifiable Invariant Conjecture Cognitive Spinous
(Capable of (a feature (Reasoning (Involving (Difficult
being tested (quantity or that involves conscious or
(verified or property or the intellectual unpleasan
falsified) by function) that formation of activity (such as t to handle
experiment or remains conclusions thinking, or meet)
observation) unchanged from reasoning, or
when a incomplete remembering)
particular evidence)
transformation
is applied to it)

References:
Learn English today (2022). Formal Vs Informal Expressions: Formal and
informal expressions for written or verbal communication.
Retrieved from https://www.learn-english-
today.com/vocabulary/formal-informal-expressions.html
Macey, Bobby (2022). 25 Important Medical Terms You Need to Know. Retrieved
fromhttps://selecthealth.org/blog/2016/08/25-important-
medical-terms-you-need-to-know
Manabatfiel (2021). Which of the following refers to the appropriateness of word.
Retrieved from
https://www.srsdeaf.org/Downloads/Bridge_of_Vocabulary.pdf

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