Download Unit 4: Vocabulary and Phonology

Unit 4: Vocabulary and Phonology
Fields
One of the biggest problems for non-native speakers is their learning of vocabulary. Students will often
lament that their vocabulary is small and limited. Often in your lessons, you will want to (and indeed
have to) teach new vocabulary, and one of the best ways to do this will be by word association.
Words can be put into groups. That is, words are connected according to a particular subject or field.
For example:
Amy, Chloe, Catherine, Julie - these can be classified as girls’ names.
Mark, Chris, James, Martin - these can be classified as boys’ names.
Antonyms and Synonyms
An antonym is a word that has the opposite meaning. For example:
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

The antonym of thin is fat.
The antonym of fast is slow.
The antonym of big is little (or small)
A synonym is a word that has the same meaning. For example:
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

A synonym of thin is slim.
A synonym of fast is quick.
A synonym of big is large.
Homophones
Some words sound exactly the same but have both a different spelling and a different meaning. These
are called homophones. For example:
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
Which and
Witch
One of these words is a pronoun whereas the other flies around on a broomstick, yet they sound exactly
the same.
Homographs
Some words in the English language are spelt in the same way but have different unrelated meanings.
Such words are called homographs.They may or may not be pronounced in the same way, but they do
look the same in writing and may be confusing in a written text.
For example:
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- ‘bow’ as in ‘They bow to the king’ or ‘a bow and arrow’.
- ‘can’ as in “I can do it’ and ‘The can was empty’.
Syllables
Words are made of syllables. Some small words will have just one syllable. Here are few examples:

get

King

stressed
However, other longer words will have more than one syllable. Look at these examples:
This word has two syllables
Japan
This word has three syllables
beautiful
This word has four syllables
photography
This word has five syllables
hippopotamus
This word has six syllables
onomatopoeia
Word Stress
When we speak, we naturally pronounce some syllables with more force than others. The syllable is
louder and longer. This is called word stress. When we are teaching non-native speakers we usually
mark the stressed syllable with a large circle and the lesser syllable or syllables with a smaller circle. We
always mark the syllable above the vowel.
For example:
oOo
Confusion
On the word confusion, the second of the three syllables is stressed.
Now have a look at the following examples:
Record
Transport
Each of these words contain two syllables, but which syllable is stressed? This depends on whether the
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word is a noun or a verb.
For example, if the words were treated as nouns then the stress marks would appear like this:
Oo
Record (as in record that needs to be broken or a record that you would play on a turntable)
Oo
Transport (as in a mode of transport like the buses or trains or your car)
However, if these words were treated as verbs, then the stress would change like this:
oO
Record (as in, to record, whether it be in written form or in a recording studio)
oO
Transport (as in, to transport something from one place to another)
It is good to be aware of the differences between the British and the American way of pronouncing
words.
For example:
oOoo
controversy
Compare this to the American way of pronouncing the same word:
Oooo
controversy
Sounds
The pronunciation of words in the English language often causes problems to a non-native speaker.
Words, which have similar spellings or the same combinations of letters, can often have very different
meanings yet have a similar sound. For example:

Glass and

Grass
These words have quite different meanings, yet the sound of each word is similar, especially to a non
native speaker from Japan.
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