Finding The Right Word
Finding The Right Word
Finding The Right Word
TEACHER’S NOTES
Check that students understand the meaning of each word in each part of speech. As a
follow-up, you could ask the students to write a sentence using each word in one of its parts
of speech, or assign different words to different pairs/groups. Students then swap sentences
and identify which part of speech has been used in each case.
2 Derivatives
This exercise is designed to help students become familiar with the treatment of derivatives
in the dictionary. Ask students what part of speech they think online is. Check that they
understand why it is an adjective in complete an online survey and an adverb in complete a
survey online: point out that the meaning of these two phrases is exactly the same – only the
grammar is different.
Elicit the meaning of impressive and a sentence using it. Ask students what the adverb
from impressive is (i.e. impressively); get them to check in their dictionaries at the entry for
impressive. Ask them to predict what the derivatives might be at unpopular and random –
not necessarily adverbs.
unpopular – the derivative is a noun, unpopularity; if there were an adverb it would be
unpopularly but this is such an extremely rare word it barely exists. In the 85-million-word
Oxford Corpus of Academic English, there is not a single instance of unpopularly; in the
3-billion-word Oxford English Corpus (of general English), unpopularly occurs only 8 times.
random – students may think of two derivatives, randomly and randomness. The adverb
randomly is a very frequent and important word in academic writing, so it has an entry of
its own in the dictionary. The noun randomness is less frequent, although it certainly exists:
its meaning can be worked out from the meaning of the adjective – either ‘the fact that
something is done, chosen, etc. so that all possible choices have an equal chance of being
considered’ or ‘the fact that something has no regular pattern’ – the example illustrates this
second meaning. You could also point out the entries for randomize (a verb with a specific
technical meaning) and the noun random which is only used in the phrase at random –
which is another way of saying randomly.
Ask students to guess the root words for successively, intensification and demographer. Ask
if they know the meanings of any of these words, then get them to check in the dictionary.
successively – adverb from successive. You can point out that it is also related to the nouns
succession and successor and that all these words derive from the verb succeed in its
second meaning – which may be new to them and is a more formal synonym of follow.
intensification – noun from intensify. Also related to intensity and intensive and all of
these derive from the adjective intense.
demographer – a person who studies demography. Other related words are demographic
(adjective and noun) and demographically.
3 Ask students to read the text first without using the dictionary. Ask a few global
comprehension questions: What is the topic of the text? Can you tell me anything it says
about this topic? Are there any words in the text you are not sure about?
industrialization – the process of a country or region (= Asia) developing industries on a
large scale – derivative at the entry for industrialize
dynamic – describing a process that is always active, changing or making progress; in this
context, dynamic changes are active changes (= changes made deliberately) that make
progress in industrialization – here it is an adjective, which is the second homonym in the
dictionary
competitiveness – the ability of businesses and industries to compete and be successful –
a derivative of competitive, but an important word, so it has its own entry
coherent – in this context, a policy (rather than an argument, theory or statement) that is
logical and well organized – dictionary sense 1
innovation – the introduction of new things, ideas or ways of doing sth (in this context, within
industry) – the uncountable sense of the noun (sense 1) to describe the process in general
contributor – ‘something that helps to cause sth’: a more specific definition for this context
would be: ‘countries that help to bring innovation in industry’ – again, this is a derivative
of contribute, but it has several different meanings, so it has its own entry. The relevant
meaning here is the first, very general meaning.
4 This activity encourages students to think about how they can use the dictionary to expand
their vocabulary within their own discipline. This will work best if the text or terms chosen
are not too technical. OLDAE is essentially a dictionary of general academic English and does
not include all the technical vocabulary of all disciplines, as students will learn these on their
subject courses. Instead, it gives help with the general academic vocabulary that has a wide
application across a range of disciplines. This extension task is designed to show students
how this general academic vocabulary applies in their own particular discipline. Encourage
students to focus on words that are fairly familiar but which they might not actively use in
their own writing.
validity Although the majority accepted the government allow wheelchair users to gain access. ~ to sth Access to
view that there shows that emergency,
was a public this is theLord first of
Hoffmann much of the canyon from above is limited. 2 ~ to sth/sb
did not. defeat risk criticism the reality of sth the the opportunity or right to use or get sth, or to see sb/sth:
two entries
fact that… The vast majority for now
of scientists access.
accept the Males compete for access to females indirectly by control-
reality of climate change. ling access to resources. 3 [U, C] the process of connecting
d ADVERB + ACCEPT readily, willingly finally She did not to the Internet or of opening a computer file to get or add
willingly accept criticism or tolerateheadwords
dissenting views. information: Respondents with Internet access were asked
widely generally, commonly universally access
to complete the survey online. There was an average6of ac·com·mo·date
internationally tacitly, implicitly broadly The principle 745 URL accesses per household per week throughout the əˈkɑːmədeɪt/ verb 1 ~ s
has come to beAuniversally
differentaccepted
ac·cept·able /əkˈseptəbl
part of byspeech is
all the institutions.
A study period. ~ to sth The number of
exclusion denies access to opportunities that most people
to the Internet
people can agree d would consider a right.
part of the sentence, be, do, have, etc. come before the onwards, progress seemed unstoppable. 2 forward: The
what part
subject andofthe
speech is of
main part it?the verb: Only in Burma and term ‘cohort’ is derived from the idea of a Roman troop of
Thailand did Buddhism achieve the status of a state reli- soldiers marching onwards together. The fear was that
impressive
a gion. Only if cost-cutting fails will enterprises make stra- humankind might be regressing instead of striving
b tegic changes within their existing operations. 3 no more
unpopular onwards and upwards.
than; no longer than: Some species grow to adult size and
opaque /əʊˈpeɪk; NAmE oʊˈpeɪk/ adj. 1 (of glass, liquid,
randomonly once. Soil temperature increased only etc.) not clear enough to see through or allow light
c reproduce
slightly. Climatic recovery takes only a decade or so.
through: Most opaque minerals have colours in reflected
4 not until: The census analysis has only recently been
Now find the entry containing each
completed. Radiation damage may only become appar-
of these derivatives.
light thatWhat is the
range from root
nearly pure word
white and its part
to various shades ofof
grey. TRANSPARENT (2) 2 (especially of language) dif-
speech?
ent many months or years after radiation exposure. Only
ficult to understand; not clear: There is a growing percep-
then can the cell divide to form two daughter cells.
d successively
When only begins a sentence be, do, have, etc. come
tion that decision-making in Brussels is remote, opaque
and even undemocratic. TRANSPARENT (1)
the subject and the main part of the verb. 5 used
e before
intensification
to say that sb can do no more than what is mentioned, open1 /ˈəʊpən; NAmE ˈoʊpən/ adj. 1 allowing things or
demographer
f although this is probably not enough: Workers can only people to go through: He supports the ideals of democratic
peace, free trade and open borders. The family resource
hope to shape or block technical change, not to initiate it.
The President could only begin to come to grips with the centre should be a welcoming space with an open door
enormity of what Hurricane Katrina revealed. 6 used to policy. The inlet and exhaust apertures remain open so
say that sth has or will have a bad effect: AIDS only serves that the exhaust products can be expelled. CLOSED (1)
to exacerbate poverty. He argues that pumping more 2 (of sb's eyes or mouth) with the EYELIDS or LIPS apart:
money into the economy would only make things worse. The patient should breathe deeply with their mouth
~ to do sth Tall smokestacks are constructed on coal-burn- open. CLOSED (1) 3 spread out; with the edges apart:
ing power stations to reduce local pollution—only to cause Frost can damage open flowers, preventing seed set.
acid rain elsewhere. CLOSED (1) 4 not blocked by anything: Keep the
OUP EAP Data Standards Ltd, Frome, Somerset – 12/9/2013 EAP A-Z.3d Page 559 of 916
3 Read this short text and look up all the bold words in your dictionary. Write a short
explanation of each word, as it is used in this text.
• industrialization
• dynamic
• competitiveness
• coherent
• innovation
• contributor
Practice
4 Now find a short text in your own discipline and identify 5 or 6 words to check in your
dictionary.
a Identify the part of speech.
b Do the words have their own entries or are they shown as derivatives?