Dealing with difficult vocabulary

Focus on one key strategy: By the end of this lesson, you will hopefully be better able to… Deal with difficult words when you see them in the texts you read Today’s lesson

What do you do when you see a word that you don’t understand? e.g. bow 1.Look in a dictionary? 2.Ignore it? 3.Look at the word in context? (e.g. the bow doors were opened and cars were able to enter the vessel) Your experience

All three options? Depends on the situation. e.g. bow 1.Look in a dictionary? What if there is a number of different meanings? 2.Ignore it? What if you need to know it? 3.Look at the word in context? (e.g. the bow doors were opened and cars were able to enter the vessel) What if there still is not enough information? Your experience

Complete the following: How important is the definition for me? Not very I need an approximate meaning ? ? I need an exact meaning ?

Possible Options How important is the definition for me? Not very I need an approximate meaning Ignore Guess using contextual clues I need an exact meaning Use a dictionary

Today’s Topic: Tourism

Purpose: You are going to read about six places in London – you need to match the text with the photo/place name

= understanding difficult vocabulary (using clues) Decoding unknown lexis = ?????

Read A and B quickly – don’t worry about the “difficult” words – focus on general meaning

NOT What do these ‘strange’ words mean? They are NOT real.

Think about how you did this

Clues ?

More clues?

Read C and D quickly – don’t worry about the missing words – focus on general meaning

Think about the missing words

What were the clues?

Read E and F quickly – don’t worry about the underlined words – focus on general meaning

Guess the meaning – even if you know – use the clues to make sure

What were the clues?

Reflection

Any other words in this text that you want to practise with?

Let’s look at a more academic example with which to practise Look at the title and abstract – what will this be about?

Read to answer the questions: What do the following words mean? empirically;semi-longitudinal; encompasses; initiatives;mainland;provision; What were the clues? If time, find 3 more words you are unsure about. Use contextual clues – grammar or related to the subject – to guess the meanings