Illustrated words

These lovely ilustrated words are taken from around the web. As an EFL exercise it could work very well as a class project (probably for students in intermediate or above, and especially if they are particularly creative). It would need some previous steps to be taken (it would fit well after focusing on nouns or word formation), clear examples from the teacher and some time. There are so many words that could have wonderful illustrations!

Speaking about words...

we could discuss how valid these statements are.


1. Beginner learners only need to know the denotation of words.
Knowing only the denotation of words will leave students in the very basic aspects of lexis. There is often much more to a word than its denotative meaning, knowing the connotative meaning shows a higher degree of mastery of the language and it should be encouraged as it triggers the students' creativity (trying to find out the meaning behind that phrase they don't understand) and inference skills. Not knowing the connotative meanings of words could put the foreign language speaker in very uncomfortable situations if he were to have real conversations in the native speakers' context, even in the classroom!
Connotative language often refers to sex, crime or other taboo themes, but it's not because of this that it should be -or will be removed altogether from the learners' reach. They always find a way to learn these words! Of course, this does not mean that they should be given utmost importance in our EFL lessons: they should still be handled with care. 


2. Learners don't need to learn the names for the different kinds of meanings -or words (this somewhat relates to the previous post about the types of nouns).
Do students need to learn the definition for every part of speech and every type of noun? Do they need to go over complicated terms that fall into the field of linguistics? Not really. Students often know much more than we think, in a subconscious level. The difference between what we mean in a context or another, between types of words, are inherent to language and therefore understood without official explanation. However, being presented with those terms will make students aware of their linguistic knowledge regardless of the language, which is one of the most important tasks of the EFL teacher.  


3. The only way to learn vocabulary is through reading widely.  
It may not be the only one, but it's certainly one of the best. First reason is, we don't learn the same vocabulary from reading and from speaking. Reading is a very complete language exercise that garners a wealth of vocabulary, inference skills, writing skills, and to top it all off, knowledge. Students should be encouraged to read even if they don't like it, the key is finding a topic that they really 
want to know about -that is, reading for pleasure, whatever preferences they may have. 

Types of Nouns

Here's a quick guide to the types of nouns. 

Phonetic alphabets

In our diagnostic test there was a phonetics part that got us all puzzled. None of us had seen those symbols before! I have found some information on a system called Visible Speech, which I think is the one we found on the test:

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/visiblespeech.htm

However, we all know the International Phonetic Alphabet (the most widely used). I came across this site long ago, when I was taking phonetics in university. Every speech sound in the English language is classified acoording to the IPA criteria and the articulation of each one is illustrated with wonderful flash animations. I really recommend it to everyone, even if you have never taken a phonetics course you'll be able to understand better how each sound is articulated. 

http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/#

I'll post more interesting info on phonetics, it's one of my favorite aspects of English to learn and teach about.  

Cambridge Dictionaries Online vs Vocabulary.com

We have been asked to compare these two online dictionaries with a very specific goal in mind: teaching vocabulary to our students. 

What do students need? Simplicity, accuracy and extensive work so that the new words they add to their personal lexicon stick on and don't get swept off the next day. We usually teach some new words in every class and students remember them, but a good vocabulary tool is essential outside the classroom as regular practice. Now let's get down to analysing the tools: 

Cambridge Dictionaries Online: 

This is a dictionary in the strict sense of the word. Students will only be able to look up the meaning of words and see examples of use. For advanced students there is a thesaurus section where the words are classified by theme, i.e. "light and colour", and it contains very nuanced vocabulary. 

Vocabulary.com:

More than a dictionary, this is a vocabulary building tool. The definitions are  written in a very simple language and they make the reader feel as if a person were explaining the word to them rather than reading from a dictionary. In addition, the site features an option called "list builder" which allows students to keep a record of their vocabulary and go back to it whenever they like. Teachers could ask students to do a writing task from the examples of use, including different parts of speech. This kind of exercise helps them reflect on the word and remember it better. 

Last but not least, there are a couple of features on vocabulary.com that will be fun for students who love words, they'll be able to challenge themselves and hopefully enjoy it: "the challenge" and "random word" 

All in all, vocabulary.com is a good choice for teaching purposes. In my opinion, it'll be handy for students in intermediate to advanced levels. I took a screenshot of it and wrote some side notes, check it out. 

Here are the links!

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/

http://www.vocabulary.com/

And this is a nice visual dictionary (intermediate to advanced!)

http://visual.merriam-webster.com/index.php