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TOPIC 11. LEXICAL AND SEMANTIC FIELDS IN ENGLISH. THE NECESSARY VOCABULARY…

- - - - Words can belong to more than one field. Orange can belong to the field of fruit or colours.
      - Fields are constantly expanding and contracting
      - Words define themselves against each other. E.g. in the semantic field of fruit, apple is not an orange or a banana.
  - - - Antonymy is the relationship of “oppositeness” of meaning.
        
        Ungradable antonyms, which are mutually exclusive and do not allow degree, such as “alive” / “dead”
        
        Converse antonyms, which denote a reciprocal relationship, such as “husband” / “wife”.
        
        Gradable antonyms, which allow the expression of degree, for example, “big” / “small”
      - Homonymy is the relationship between words that have the same form (either the same sound or same spelling) but have unrelated meanings. For example, train (means of transport) and train (teach).
      - Hyponymy is the relationship that exists between two terms in which the meaning of one is included in the other, for example, “color” and “blue”. The general term (color) is called superordinate and the specific term (blue) is the hyponym.
      - Polysemy is a sense relationship in which a lexeme can be used to express different meanings. These meanings are somehow related, for example, branch of a tree and branch of a company.
      - Synonymy is the relationship of “sameness” of meaning, for example, the words “mad” and “insane”. English is particularly rich in synonyms because of the influence of words from a variety of languages. However, most linguists agree that total synonymy is very rare: there are usually stylistic, emotional or other differences to consider.
      - Incompatibility is the relationship between groups of lexemes that are mutually exclusive members of the same superordinate category, for example, apple and banana are incompatible lexemes within the category of fruits because we cannot say “This fruit is an apple AND a banana”.
      - Translation. Most learners find it useful to make a conscious effort to link words between an FL and their mother tongue, for instance, the words “television” and “televisión”. However, this link between the FL words and the first language previous schemas may lead to problems, because different cultures organise aspects of the world differently.
- - - - GRANTING FORGIVENESS. That´s all right/ Never mind/ Don´t you worry.
      - APOLOGIZING. I´m sorry. I feel sorry.
      - HOPE. Hope to see you again.
      - EXPRESSING APPRECIATION. Nice! / Good! / Excellent! / Great!/Lovely/terrible/Brilliant!/ Awesome!.
      - REGRET. I wish I were richer.
      - SURPRISE. What a surprise.
      - LIKES/DISLIKES. I love / I like / I don’t like / I hate. Do you like...?
      - EXPRESSING DISSAPOINTNENT. What a pity!
      - EXPRESSING GRATITUDE. Thank you / Thanks / Thank you very much. Not at all / That’s all right
  - - - SAYING GOODBYE. See you/See ya/ Good night/ Sweet dreams
      - COMPLIMENTING AND CONGRATULATING. Very well done!/ That´s wonderful!/ Sounds good!/ Brilliant!/ Congratulations!
      - GREETINGS. Hello/Hi/ Good morning, afternoon, evening/ How are you?/ How you doing?/ I´m fine/very well/not too bad.
      - ATTRACTING ATTENTION. Excuse me! / May I have your attention, please?/ Ladies and gentlemen!
      - SEASONAL GREETINGS. Merry Christmas/ Happy New Year/ Happy Birthday/Happy Halloween.
      - SPEAKING ON THE PHONE. Can I speak to John, please?/ I will phone him later.
      - EXPRESSIONS IN WRITTEN LANGUAGE (LETTERS). Dear (name)/ Please write soon/ Yours faithfully/sincerely/ Best wishes.
      - INTRODUCTIONS. I´d like to introduce myself/Bob, this is Andrew, Andrew, this is Bob.
      - ASKING OR REQUESTING. Can /May I have...?/ Tell him to come here.
- - - - Principles for teaching vocabulary.
        
        Check your students have understood the new words and the revision is essential.
        
        It should be presented in a context that is familiar to the child.
        
        Visual support is also very important to help transmit meaning and to help pupils memorize new vocabulary.
        
        Teach the words in spoken form first. Otherwise, the learners will try to pronounce the words as if they were written in their own language.
        
        According to McKeown :silhouette: and Beck (2003), it is important to use both formal and informal vocabulary instruction that engages student´s cognitive skills and gives opportunities for the learners to actually use the words.
    - - Lexical sets: shops, fruits, rooms in a house.
      - Rhyming sets: bat, rat, hat.
      - Colour sets: things that are green: lettuce, peas, grass…
      - Grammatical sets adjectives, verbs, nouns…
      - Collocations: play the piano, loud noise…
      - Opposites: hot/cold, boy/girl.
    - - -Verbal techniques. We can explain the meaning of new words by giving a short definition of them or encourage the students to take risks and guess meanings from context as often as possible. We can use Eliciting vocabulary items from pupils by asking questions or using opposites since sense relationships between words like antonymy can be very effective to teach vocabulary. We can present the meaning of tall by contrasting it with short. This technique has two advantages: related words are learnt more easily and students learn two words instead of one
      - -Translating: After the set of words has been introducing, students must first listen to the word several times to become familiar with it. To do so, we can do activities such as listen and point or listen and mime. Then, they imitate the model and repeat individually or in groups. Once students are familiar with the new set of words, in their oral form, the written form must be introduced. The "look, say, cover, write, check" technique can be used.
      - -Visual techniques, as flashcards, photographs, blackboard drawings, wall-charts, mime, gestures, and realia among others which have great communicative power. As the saying goes “One image is worth a thousand words”.