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We are going to continue focusing on vocabulary and alphabetical order, but now we are going to have a look at one place where alphabetical order is used a great deal – the dictionary. Your educator may divide you into groups or partners for this activity, depending on the availability of dictionaries. Be sure to work carefully – read and copy carefully and write neatly at all times.
1. Look up the word alphabet in a dictionary and give it’s meaning.
2. Write down the word before ‘alphabet’ and the word after ‘alphabet’ in the dictionary, with their meanings.
3. Next to the word ‘alphabet’, there is a letter that looks like this: n . This indicates to us that the word ‘alphabet’ is a NOUN. Look carefully on the page and find other words that have the noun symbol next to them. Write them down.
4. Which letter in the English language is ALWAYS followed by the letter U ?
Turn to this letter in your dictionary. There are not many words that start with this letter, so you will find that there are only a few pages for this letter in your dictionary. List some examples of words, starting with this letter, that you have not heard of before, and write their meanings next to them. (Do not use words starting with the letters quad - or quin -) Try and find some long and some short words. Once you have found your examples, your educator will ask you to share your new words with the class so that everybody can learn some new vocabulary.
5. Now look at the words that start with the letters quad -. There are many to choose from. Find four words that start with quad - and write them down with their meanings.
Have you figured out what the prefix quad - means?
6. Now look at the words that start with the letters quin -. There are many to choose from. Find four words that start with quin - and write them down, with their meanings.
Have you figured out what the prefix quin - means?
7. Let us practise looking up words in the dictionary. Find the meanings of the following words and write the definition next to each one. If you are sharing a dictionary, be sure to take turns to look up the words so that everybody has a turn.
Relationship:
Friends:
Surname:
Family:
Personality:
Individual:
Opinion:
Autobiography:
| Criteria | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Attention to detail | Poor | Fair | Good | Excellent |
| Ability to look up words correctly | Poor | In some contexts only | Good, few errors | Extremely good. No errors |
| Neatness | Untidy | Presentation inconsistent, greater care needed | Good presentation | Excellent presentation. Great care taken |
Well done – that was a worthwhile exercise! Let us move onto another fun activity.
The focus of this activity is dictionary work.. Learners are required to make use of a dictionary to look up words and their meanings. It would be ideal to have one dictionary between two learners, but if this is not possible, learners can be divided into groups and will have to share the dictionaries. Should there be only one dictionary available, one group can use it while the others carry on with another task. Read through the activity with the whole class and point out what they will be assessed on, by looking at the rubric.
The following answers, taken from the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, should help you.
| LO 3 |
| READING AND VIEWING The learner will be able to read and view for information and enjoyment, and to respond critically to the aesthetic, cultural and emotional values in texts. |
| We know this when the learner: |
| 3.7 reads for pleasure: |
| 3.7.1 reads much fiction and non-fiction at an appropriate reading and language level; |
| 3.8 uses reference books and develops vocabulary: |
| 3.8.2 uses a dictionary; |
| 3.8.3 demonstrates a reading vocabulary of bewteen 3 000 and 5 000 common words. |
Quad- means “four”
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