about a new word, its form, meaning and usage; in drill and transformation
to form lexical habits; in making use of the lexical habits in hearing,
speaking and reading, or in language skills. Various techniques are used to
attain the goal- to fix the words in pupils’ memory ready to be used
whenever they need them[1].
Presentation of new words. Since every word has its form, meaning and
usage to present a word means to introduce to pupils its forms (phonetic,
graphic, structural and grammatical) and to explain its meaning and usage.
The techniques of teaching pupils the punctuation and spelling of a
word are as follows:
1. pure orcoscious imitation;
2. analogy;
3. transcription;
4. rules of reading.
Since a word consists of sounds if heard or spoken and letters if read
or written the teacher shows the pupils how to pronounce, to read and write
it. However the approach may vary depending on the task set (the latter
depends on the age of pupils, their progress in the language, the type of
words, etc.). For example, if the teacher wants his pupils to learn the
word orally first, he instructs them to recognize it when hearing and to
articulate the word as an isolated element (a book) and in a sentence
pattern or sentence patterns alongside with other words. (This is a book.
Give me the book. Take the book. Put the book on the table.).
As far as the form concerned the pupils have but two difficulties to
overcome: to lean how to pronounce the word both separately and in the
speech; and to recognize it in sentence patterns pronounced by the teacher,
by his classmates, or by a speaker in case the tape- recorder is used.
If the teacher wants his pupils to learn the word during the same
lesson not only for hearing and speaking but for reading and writing as
well, he shows them how to write and read it after they perform oral
exercises and can recognize and pronounce the word. The teacher writes down
the word on the blackboard (let it be spoon) and invites some pupils to
read it (they already know all the letters and the rule of reading). The
pupils read the word and put it down in their notebooks. In this case the
pupils have two more difficulties to overcome: to learn how to write and to
read the word; the letter is connected with their ability to associate
letters with sounds in a proper way.
There are two ways of conveying the meaning of words: direct way and
translation. The direct way of presenting the words of a foreign language
brings the learner into direct contact with them, the mother tongue does
not come in between, and it establishes links between a foreign word and
the thing or the concept directly. The direct way of conveying the meaning
of foreign words is usually used when the words denote things, objects,
their qualities, sometimes gestures and movements, which can be shown to
and seen by pupils, for example: a book, a table, red, big, take, stand up,
etc.
The teacher should connect the English word he presents with the
objects, the notion it denotes directly, without the use of pupils’ mother
tongue.
The teacher uses various techniques for this purpose.
It is possible to group them into (1) visual and (2) verbal. The first
group involves the use of visual aids to convey the meaning of unfamiliar
words. These may be: besides, the teacher may use movements and gestures.
E. g., the teacher uses objects. He takes a pencil and looking at it
says: a pencil. This is a pencil. What is this? It is a pencil. Is it a
pencil? Yes, it is. Is it a pen? No, it is not. Is it a pen or a pencil? It
is a pencil. The pupils do not only grasp the meaning of the word pencil,
but they observe the use of the word in familiar sentence patterns.
GUIDELINES ON GIVING EFFACTIVE EXPLANATIONS
1. Prepare
You may feel perfectly clear in your own mind about what needs
clarifying, and therefore think that you can improvise a clear explanation.
But experience shows that teachers’ explanations are often not as clear to
their pupils as they are to themselves! It is worth preparing: thinking for
a while about the words you will use, the illustrations you will provide,
and so on; possibly even writing these out.
2. Make sure you have the class’s attention
One of the implications of this when giving the instructions for a
group-working task is that it is advisable to give the instructions before
you divide the class into groups or give out materials, not after!
3. Present the information more than once
A repetition of the necessary information may make all the difference:
learners’ attention wanders occasionally, and it is important to give them
more than one chance to understand what they have to do. Also, it helps to
represent the information in a different mode: foe example, say it and also
write it up on the board.
4. Be brief
Learners-in fact, all of us-have only a limited attention span; they
cannot listen to you for along time with maximum concentration. Make your
explanation as brief as you can, compatible with clarity. In some
situations it may also mean using the learners’ mother tongue, as a more
accessible and cost-effective alternative to the sometimes lengthy and
difficult target- language explanation.
5. Illustrate with examples
You may explain, for instance, the meaning of a word, illustrating
your explanation with examples of its use in various contexts, relating
these as far as possible to the learners’ own lives and experiences.
6. Get feedback
When you have finished explaining, check what they have understood. It
is not just enough to ask “Do you understand?” ; learners will sometimes
say they did even if they did not, out of politeness or unwillingness to
lose face, or because they think they know what they have to do, but in
fact completely misunderstood! It is better to ask them to do something
that will show their understanding: to paraphrase in their own words,
provide further illustration of their own.
WHAT IS ANTONYMY
Traditionally antonyms are defined as words that have opposite
meaning. This definition is open to criticism. The latest linguistic
investigations emphasize that antonyms are similar as words belonging to
the same part of speech and the same semantic field, having the same
grammatical meaning and functions, as well as similar collocations. Like
synonyms antonyms are interchangeable at least at some contexts (hot in its
figurative meaning “angry, excited” is chiefly combined with the names of
unpleasant emotions: hot resentment, hot scorn; its antonym cold occurs
with the same words). Unlike synonyms antonyms do not differ in style, or
emotional colouring (they express, as a rule, emotional characteristics of
the same intensity).
So antonyms are two or more words belonging to the same pat of speech,
contradictory or contrary in meaning, and interchangeable at least at some
contexts.
Almost every word can have one or more synonyms; comparatively few
have antonyms because not all notions can be opposed to one another.
Antonyms are primarily found in adjectives, nouns expressing quality and
state.
It should be noted, that as words are polysemantic ones and the same
words may have different antonyms (light bag-heavy bag; light wind-strong
wind; light colors-dark colors).
Generally we may divide antonyms into 2 groups: absolute and
derivational.
Absolute antonyms are subdivided into antonyms proper where opposition
is gradual (cold (cool)-(warm) hot; large-little or small), complementaries
having a binary opposition (dead-alive, single-married), conversives
denoting one and the same referent from different points of view (to sell-
to buy, to give to receive).
Derivational antonyms may be affixal (happy-unhappy, logical-
illogical) or suffixal (hopeful-hopeless).
It is not always possible to replace a word by its opposite. Where it
is possible you may notice that some words have several opposites depending
on the context.
The opposite of “old”, for example, can be “new” or “young” depending
on the situation.
WORDS THAT ARE THEIR OWN OPPOSITES
There are some antonyms that are called auto-antonyms - words that
have two opposite meanings. For example, to "clip" may mean to cut a little
piece off, or to put a little piece on. To "look over" may mean careful
scrutiny or that you missed an important detail. Sometimes the antonymy may
be historical: "nice" used to denote an unpleasant quality. There is a
discussion of whether any generalities could be made about such pairs. Are
they regularly motivated, or always a coincidence? Meanwhile, here are more
auto-antonyms that got left out of last post: One auto-antonym is "moot",
which at once means "suitable for debate" and "not worth discussing".
Impregnable: able to impregnated or inable to be pregnated,
cope(s)mate: used to mean antagonist and now means partner or comrade, It
turns out that they were having a week celebrating "fence-setters",
evidently another term for what is calling auto-antonyms. BRUCE NEVIN
reminds us of an intercontinental auto-antonym pair: "public school" in
Britain is "private school" in the USA and vice versa.
Infer: historically (and now, informally) this means "imply" as well.
Rent, lease: several pointed out to me that these means both lend and
