DICTIONARY SKILLS / dɪkʃənri skɪls/ Group members: Lui Chai Ying Mohd Iszwan Bin Isnin Yong Fee Sim

What is dictionary? Reference book containing words, usually arranged in alphabetical order. It gives information about their meaning, pronunciation and uses.

WHAT ARE THE DICTIONARY SKILLS? 1 Guide Words 2 Headwords 3 Syllabication 5 Accent Marks 7 Special Forms 6 Part of Speech 4 phonetics symbols

Different dictionaries have different numbers of guide words on the top of each page. At the top of each page of the dictionary, there is one GUIDE WORD. The first word is the same as the guide word at the top of that page Using alphabetically order, you will find all the words. Example: Page 588 in the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary shows the first word is same with the guide words, “forgive”. 1 Guide Words

The words you look up on a page are printed in bold type. Example: “Rubber” (on page 1292). It is written in bold type and found toward the middle of the right hand column. 2 Headwords

Knowing where to split a word correctly Words divided into syllables by placing a dot (•) or slash (\) between them. Knowing where to split a word correctly Examples: 3 Syllabication rab·bit re·flec·tion pre·sen·ta·tion

symbols that follow the headword and are set off with slashes (/) Help to pronounce words correctly Most consonants are pronounced only one way Example: “Can you tell me what is the first sound is in fish?” “It’s /f/” 4 Phonetic Symbols

It tells you to put a little more stress on the syllable that follows the accent mark than on the other syllables. Examples: husband – primary stress / ˈhʌzbənd / continue – secondary stress / kənˈtɪnjuː / presentation – tertiary stress / ˌpreznˈteɪʃn / 5 Accent marks

The short forms printed in italics are useful The short forms printed in italics are useful. Here’s a simple explanation. Some words can be used in several different places in a sentence. This means that the word can be used as a noun, a word that names a person, place, or thing, or it can be used as a verb describe an action. Examples: The light is not bright enough. (noun-naming a thing) I always light the oil lamp when power goes off. (verb-shows an action) Mary usually decorates in a light style. (adjective- describes something) 6 Parts of speech

The part of speech abbreviations are listed here. n..................noun pron.............pronoun adj...............adjective adv..............adverb vb................verb conj.............conjunction prep.............preposition interj............interjection Continue…

7 Special Forms Some words in English are inflected . If a word has some special forms, they are listed after the part of speech. Examples: What is the plural of “tomato”? (tomatoes) What is the past tense of “rise”? (rose) If a word has more than one acceptable spelling, it is also listed here. Usually the preferred spelling is given first. 7 Special Forms

References Anonymous. (2008). Retrieved 25 June, 2012 from http://www.tlsbooks.com/dictionaryskillsreview.html. Anonymous. (1998). Dictionary Skills. Retrieved 26 June, 2012 from http://www.nald.ca/library/learning/ academic/english/diction/module1.pdf. Barry & Scholes,A.( 2001) Collins Junior Dictionary Skills. London, England: Harper Collins Publisher Ltd Wright, A. (1998), Dictionaries, Oxford University Press, Hong Kong.