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Topic: Vocabulary

These resources relate to the nature of words and word choice, and move towards building student vocabularies in systematic ways.

Derived nouns and composition: Activity 1

Complete the examples with nouns which are derived from the highlighted adjectives. The first answer is provided for you.

Anna was late. It annoyed me. → Anna's lateness annoyed me.

Jeff is shy. I didn’t notice this until the party. → I didn’t notice Jeff’s ___ until the party. I didn’t notice Jeff’s shyness until the party.

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Derived nouns and composition: Activity 2

Complete the examples with nouns which are derived from the highlighted adjectives. The first answer is provided.

The peacekeeping forces withdrew. It led to civil war. → The withdrawal of the peacekeeping forces led to civil war.

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Discourse structure

Goals

  • Review a list of useful vocabulary and phrases for establishing continuity, cohesion, and structure in discourse.
  • Apply knowledge of discourse structure to arranging sentences into an appropriate, meaningful order as an article.
  • Analyse existing texts to identify elements that support the discourse structure of the texts.

Lesson Plan

Activity 1

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Dizzee Rascal and the textbook

The way we use language can differ dramatically according to context. This creative lesson asks students to translate from one context into another. This is a great approach that allows students to apply their implicit knowledge of language, and to analyse linguistic features naturally and implicitly, based on their intuitive language skills.

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Dizzee Rascal and the textbook: Activity

Stress on the brain, complain, too da fool. Stress on the brain, complain, too da max.

I'm gonna search for big money stacks, top tens and platinum whacks.

Ain't got no need for a chain of a chaks. I'm a rude boi, I ain't gotta relax.

I got this game in my head like dax. Got this game in my hand, be cool.

Unstoppable, make a boi relax. I'll take teeth for the money and jaks.

We make money off album tracks. Come on, I'll face it, let's all face facts.
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Formal and informal

This lesson resource is designed to draw attention to how we use different registers in a variety of written contexts. When we use language, we make a number of different lexical and grammatical choices, depending on the context, or 'situation of usage'.

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Formal and informal: Activity

working with register variation

The concept of register is about the idea of appropriate language, which is shaped by context. Thinking about context is a fundamental part of language analysis, and is a useful 'way in' to exploring language choices and meanings. 

Being able to vary your register is an important skill.

In this activity we will start by looking at two real letters. One of them is a personal letter and the other a business letter. You can download them, or read through them here:

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Gender in Nouns (Stein)

Plan

Activity 1

Explain to the learners that nouns can refer to male or female people. In language, this difference is called gender. 

Ask learners to copy down the list and add the nouns of the oppsite gender. Show them the solutions and ask them what patterns they notice. Answer: some are completely different words while others use a suffix to change the meaning. 

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Gender in Nouns (Stein)

Lesson

Objective

To explore the meaning of gender in nouns.

Activity 1

What's the difference between the words mother and father?

Nouns for people can refer to a man or a male such as father or to a woman or female such as mother .

In language, we call this difference gender.

For each noun, write the word that expresses the opposite gender: 

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Homonyms (Stein)

Plan

Please note: there are two pages of activities for this lesson.

Activity 1

Show the learners the two example words. Ask them to discuss with a partner how many different meanings they can think of. In the next two slides, show possible solutions. 

Next, explain that words with multiple unrelated meanings are called homonyms. Ask learners to identify the word class of the two example words.  

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Homonyms 1 (Stein)

Lesson

Objective

To identify the different meanings of homonyms of various word classes. 

Activity 1

Look at these two words. How many meanings can you think of for each? 

  • bank 
  • pupil

  • bank 
    1. an organization or a building that handles money and provides financial services. 
    2. the land on the side of a river or a lake

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    Homonyms 2 (Stein)

    Lesson

    Activity 3

    This lesson continues our look at homonyms. 

    Take for example the word fast

    How many different meanings and word classes can you think of?

    Look at these two sentences: 

    1. Katie works very fast
    2. Katie is a fast worker.

    They have very similar meanings, but in one sentence fast is an adverb and in the other an adjective.

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    Hyponymy (Stein)

    Plan

    Activity 1

    Show the learners the list of three nouns. Ask them to discuss the questions in pairs or small groups. 

    After a couple of minutes, reveal the focus of the lesson in the next slide: how nouns can relate to each other by being more general or specific. Use the example to demonstrate. Ask learners if they can think of any other examples. Don't worry if they struggle at this point, as they will see more throughout the lesson. 

    Ask learners to make notes on the new terminology as they will need it for the other activities. 

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    Hyponymy (Stein)

    Lesson

    Activity 1

    Look at these three nouns.

    What is the relationship between them? Can they be arranged into a logical order? 

    • Dog
    • Poodle
    • Animal

    We can label nouns as general or specific. The specific noun is included in the general noun.

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    Metaphor (Stein)

    Plan

    Activity 1

    Check your learners' prior knowledge by asking them to discuss the meaning of the term metaphor and to give examples. This can be done individually, and then check in small groups and/or whole class.

    Use the next slide to confirm the learners' answers. Next, ask if the learners can think of any other animal metaphors such as sly fox. Ask learners to share their ideas with each other and the whole class.

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    Metaphor (Stein)

    Lesson

    Activity 1

    What does the term metaphor mean?

    Can you think of an example? 

    A metaphor is when a word or phrase is used to suggest a resemblance to a another thing or action. 

    A metaphor uses language in a figurative sense. 

    When we call someone a sly fox we are implying that their behaviour is similar to a fox i.e. sneaky or crafty. 

    What other animal metaphors can you think of? 

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    Morphology - an introduction

    In this lesson, students explore word morphology. Morphology is an area of language study concerned with how words are formed. While syntax is about the larger structures formed when words are put together, morphology is about the structure within words.

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    Noun endings

    Exploring suffixes and how they affect word class

    In this activity we will look at suffixes which change verbs and adjectives into nouns. This process is a part of derivational morphology. 

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    Nouns and vocabulary

    Lesson

    Objective

    To explore the meaning of simple, everyday nouns, and how they relate to your experience of the world.

    Activity 1

    Look at this list of nouns: chair, fork, dog, house, person, football player

    What do they all have in common?

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    Nouns and Vocabulary (Stein)

    Plan

    Activity 1

    Show the leaners the the list of nouns. After hearing their ideas, explain what concrete nouns are, and ask leaners if they can see or find any other examples in the classroom. Explain what abstract nouns are and ask for any other examples. 

    Next, ask the learners to work in pairs and small groups. Copy down the table and decide which nouns are concrete or abstract. Check the answers as a whole class. 

    Concrete: spoon, bed, grass, snow, clock, panda, pillar  

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    Part and Whole (Stein)

    Plan

    Activity 1

    Ask the learners to read the five sentences. In small groups, ask them to discuss what the words in blue have in common. Guide the discussion towards: 

    • They are nouns
    • They refer to different animals 
    • They describe parts of animals

    After the discussion, show the learners the solution in the next slide to check their answers. 

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    Part and whole (Stein)

    Lesson

    Objective

    To explore the way that nouns can point to parts and wholes of things.

    Activity 1

    Read the five sentences below: what do the words in blue have in common?

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    Passives with 'get'

    Goals

    • Identify the difference between a get-passive and a standard passive.
    • Describe some of the differences between get-passives and standard passives in terms of grammar, semantics, and pragmatics.

    Lesson Plan

    The teacher explains that today, we will look at passives.

    First, let's briefly review our understanding of actives, and of passives and get-passives. 

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