© 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers Guide to College Reading, 8/e Kathleen T. McWhorter Chapter 4 Learning New Words PowerPoint by Gretchen Starks-Martin St. Cloud State University, MN

© 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers THIS CHAPTER WILL SHOW YOU HOW TO: 1. Use the dictionary and the thesaurus 2. Pronounce unfamiliar words 3. Develop a system for learning new words

© 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers Four Levels of Vocabulary  Words you use in everyday speech or writing. (decide, daughter, date)  Words you know but seldom use in speech or writing. (document, disregard, destination)  Words you’ve heard or seen before but cannot define. (denounce, deficit, deductive)  Words you’ve never heard or seen before. (doggerel, dogma, deleterious, diatropism)

© 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers WORD INFORMATION SOURCES  The dictionary  Subject area dictionaries  The Thesaurus

© 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers Dictionaries  The Collegiate Dictionary  The Unabridged Dictionary  The Online Dictionary Merriam-Webster: American Heritage:

© 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers Subject Area Dictionaries  Taber’s Cyclopedia Medical Dictionary (for nursing)  A Dictionary of Anthropology  The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians  A Dictionary of Economics.  Black’s Law Dictionary

© 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers The Thesaurus A Thesaurus is a dictionary of synonyms used to:  Locate the precise term to fit a particular situation.  Find an appropriate descriptive word.  Replace an overused or unclear word.  Convey a more specific shade of meaning.

© 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers Using a Thesaurus 1. Start with the index to locate the word you are trying to replace. 2. Turn to those sections, scanning each list and jotting down all the words you think might work. 3. Test each of the words you selected in the sentence in which you will use it. 4. Select the word that best expresses what you are trying to say. 5. Choose only words whose shades of meaning you know.

© 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers USING YOUR DICTIONARY  Pronunciation  Part of speech  Meanings  History (etymology)  Special uses can also be found: restrictive meanings, multiple meanings  Spelling of other forms of the word

© 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers Abbreviations  v.t. – means: transitive verb  < – means: less than  c. – means: circa; about; around the time of  Obs. – means obscure  Fr. – means French  pl. – means plural

© 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers Etymology Etymology:  A word’s origin and development.  Its history, traced back as far as possible to its earliest use.  Often traced back to another language.

© 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers Restrictive Meanings  Definitions that apply only when the word is being used with respect to a specific topic or field of study. Example: The word “curve” has 2 meanings – one for baseball and another for math.

© 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers Multiple Meanings 1. Use parts of speech to locate the correct meaning. 2. Skip definitions that give slang. 3. Read each meaning until you find a definition that seems correct. 4. Test your choice by substituting the meaning in the sentence with which you are working.

© 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers Spelling  The entry gives the correct spelling of a word.  Shows how the spelling changes when a word is made plural or endings are added. Example: Word + Ending: budget – budgetary – budgeter

© 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers Spelling  Includes alternative spellings of words when there are two acceptable ways to spell the word.  Shows how the word is divided into syllables.  Contains the verb’s principal parts.

© 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers Usage Notes  Collegiate dictionaries have a Usage Note or Synonym section for words close in meaning.  Example: The usage note for the word indifferent may explain how it differs from unconcerned, detached, and uninterested.

© 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers Idioms  An idiom is a phrase that has a meaning other than what the common meanings of the words in the phrase mean.  Example: “wipe the slate clean” means “to start over.”

© 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers Other Aids  Lists and tables may be printed at the back.  Example: weights and measures periodic table for chemistry biographical listings for famous people a pronouncing gazetteer abbreviations, signs, and symbols

© 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers Locating Words Rapidly  Use the guide words at the top of each dictionary page, one in the left corner and one in the right.  The words on that page are alphabetical between the two guide words.

© 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers PRONOUNCING UNFAMILIAR WORDS 1. Divide compound words.  house/broken 2. Divide words between prefixes and roots and/or between roots and suffixes.  post/pone 3. Notice that each syllable is a separate, distinct speech sound.  ex/pen/sive = 3 syllables

© 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers PRONOUNCING UNFAMILIAR WORDS 4. Notice that each syllable has at least one vowel and usually one or more consonants.  as/sign 5. Divide words before a single consonant, unless the consonant is the letter “r.”  hu/mid[fa/vor, mor/on] 6. Divide words between two consonants appearing together.  pen/cil 7. Divide words between two vowel sounds that appear together.  te/di/ous

© 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers USING WORD MAPPING TO EXPAND YOUR VOCABULARY 1. When you find a word you don’t know, locate the entry for the word in a dictionary. 2. Study the dictionary entry to discover other meanings of the word. 3. Find or think of two synonyms (words similar in meaning) 4. Write two sentences using the word. 5. Analyze the word’s parts. Identify any prefixes, roots and suffixes. 6. In the box labeled ”Other” include any other interesting information about the word. See pages for examples.

© 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers A SYSTEM FOR LEARNING NEW WORDS 1. Make note of new words. 2. Write the word on the front of an index card. 3. Once a day, take a few minutes to go through your pack of index cards. 4. Sort the cards into two piles—words you know and words you have not learned. 5. Review them often to refresh your memory. See Figure 4-1 for a Sample Index Card

© 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers LEARNING STYLE TIPS  Creative Learner: Experimenting with new words in both speech and writing.  Pragmatic Learner: Creating lists or computer files of words you need to learn and use. Are you a creative learner or a pragmatic learner?

© 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers SELF-TEST SUMMARY  What reference sources are useful in building a strong vocabulary?  How do you pronounce unfamiliar words?  Explain the index card system.

© 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers Visit the Companion Website For additional readings, exercises, and Internet activities, visit this book’s Companion Website at: If you need a user name and password, please see your instructor.

© 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers My Reading Lab For more practice on vocabulary, visit MyReadingLab, click on the Reading Skills tab, and then click on Vocabulary---Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

© 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers TEST-TAKING TIPS: Taking Vocabulary Tests  Try pronouncing the word to yourself. “Hearing” the word may just make it more familiar.  Read all the choices before you select and mark an answer. Choose the “best” answer.  Many vocabulary tests are timed. So be sure to work at a steady, efficient pace.  Find out if there is a penalty for guessing.