Owl Lesson1 Mar11

5/27/2018 Owl Lesson1 Mar11

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lesson linkTEACHERS NOTES

Expanding your vocabulary with theOxford 3000

Introduction

During our research for the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, 8th edition(OALD8), many teachers told us that their students (even students at advanced

levels) tend to use the same basic words again and again. These students may

have a large passive vocabulary, but they avoid using more difficult words in

their own speech and writing, possibly because they are not exactly sure how

these words should be used.

Many students think that they know a word once they are able to understand its

meaning (or translate it into their own language) when they come across it in a text. Butobviously real word knowledge is more complicated than this. In fact, you cant really

claim to know a word until you are familiar with all of its important meanings and all

of the other words that frequently occur alongside it, including words that collocate with

it, prepositions that come after it, synonyms, opposites, and other related expressions.

This is precisely the kind of information that students can find in OALD8 in the entries

for the Oxford 3000 keywords (the most frequent and most useful words in English). By

looking up one of these keywords, students can actually learn a large number of related

items as well which means that by studying the Oxford 3000 entries, students can

increase their vocabulary to many more than just 3000 words.


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LEAD-IN (5 minutes)Write the following two sentences on the board.

The teacher gave her students lots of valuable advice.

The teacher received an extremely valuable watch as a present from her students.

Ask students the following questions:

Does the word valuable in the rst sentence have the same meaning as in the second

sentence? (No.)

What does valuable mean in the rst sentence? (It means very useful or helpful.)

What does valuable mean in the second sentence? (It means worth a lot of money.)

So, how many meanings does valuable have? (Two.)

Now ask students to look at the rst sentence again. Point out that valuable and advice

are often used together. They are a collocation, which means they are words which often gotogether. Ask students if they know any other collocations for valuable. They might suggest

valuable information, a valuable experience, a valuable idea / suggestion.

Tell students that they are now going learn more about the word valuable and how to use it.

INTRODUCTION TO WORKSHEET 1 ACTIVITY (3 minutes)

Give each student a copy of Worksheet 1. Point out the box which summarizes the twomeanings of the word valuable. Then point out Box 1, which contains the first question.

Ask students if they know which verb is the correct collocation for valuable. After you have

established that the answer is proved, ask students the following question:


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estab s ed t at t e a s e s p o ed , as stude ts t e o o g quest o :


adj.stands for adjective. This is the part of speechor word class. 1and 2are the meaning numbers. They show the different meanings of the word.

~(the swung dashor tilde) represents the headword. So here it stands for

valuable.

sbis short for somebody, and sthis short for something.

bold wordsin example sentences (e.g. prove valuable) show that these wordsform a collocation.

OPPstands for opposite, or antonym.

When students have had a chance to look at the dictionary entry, go through all the

questions on the Worksheet together and, if necessary, point out where in the entry

students can find the answers.

Answers to Worksheet 1 (valuable)

1 The advice that his teacher gave himproved valuable(= was valuable).2 a The book provides valuable informationon recent trends.

b Going to university was a valuable experiencefor me.

c The thieves took three pieces of valuable jewellery.

d That vase used to belong to my mother. Its a valuable antique.

3 Please tell us what you think. Your opinions are valuable tous.

4 Things that are worth a lot of money, especially small personal things such as jewellery,

cameras, etc., are called valuables.

When you go on holiday, you should look after your valuables.

5 a I have many precious memoriesof our time together.

b Please dont resign - this company needs you. Youre totally irreplaceable.


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Synonyms precious, priceless, irreplaceable (and also invaluable) Related noun valuables

Point out to students that a good dictionary not only gives you information about

the word that you look up, it also gives you information about related words (such

as prepositions, collocations, synonyms and opposites). So by using a good learners

dictionary, you can actually improve your vocabulary very quickly.

For homework, give students a copy of either Worksheet 2 or Worksheet 3. Ask them to

complete the Worksheets using their OALD8.

FOLLOW-UP Worksheets 2 and 3 (angry and trip)

If you wish to extend the lesson and give your students more practice at finding

information in the dictionary, you can use worksheets 2 and 3 in class. Please see below

for two different ways of doing this.

FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITY A (1015 minutes)Ask students to change partners, so that they are not sitting beside the same person they

worked with earlier.

Give each student a copy of Worksheet 2 (angry) and a copy of the dictionary. Ask them

to work in pairs and answer the questions on the Worksheet. Monitor carefully and deal

with any queries that students might have.When the students have had enough time to attempt all the questions, check the answers

together. You may then wish to do a summary on the board of the all the things that

students have learnt about the word angry from this exercise (as explained above for the


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Student B: Is it made me angry? Student A: Yes, well done!

Students should continue like this until all the questions have been answered.

At the end of the activity, give each student a copy of the Worksheet that they did not have

before, and ask them to write in the answers for the questions that they have just done

orally, checking again with their partner if necessary.

All students should now have completed copies of Worksheets 1, 2 and 3.

Answers to Worksheet 2 (angry)

1 Her behaviour really mademe angry.

2 I was very angry with(or at) myself formaking such a stupid mistake.

3 angry angrily

Some senators reacted angrilyto the Presidents remarks.

4 American English She is mad atme for being late. (This is also sometimes used inBritish English)

British English I was cross withhim for being late.

5 She was very indignantat the way she had been treated.

6 This sentence is not grammatically correct. Irateis not usually followed by a preposition.

Possible alternatives might include:

She was irate.

It made her irate. / I made her irate.

She was very angry with me about it.

7 Possible collocations for irateinclude: irate customer, irate letter, irate email, irate

phone call


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PHOTOCOPIABLE Oxford University Press 2011

WORKSHEET 1

Oxford 3000

VALUABLEadjective

VALUABLE (adjective)

The word valuable has two

meanings:

1 very useful or important

2 worth a lot of money

Collocations: VERB + VALUABLE

Choose the correct word:

The advice that his teacher gave

himproved/showed/ turned

valuable (= was valuable).

Collocations: VALUABLE + NOUN

Choose the correct word to complete each sentence:

antique experience information jewellery

a The book provides valuable___________________on

recent trends.

b Going to university was avaluable___________________

for me.

c The thieves took three pieces of valuable

___________________.

d That vase used to belong to my mother. Its a

valuable___________________.VALUABLE + PREPOSITION

Fill the gap with the correctpreposition:

Please tell us what you think.

Your opinions are valuable

___________________us.

RELATED NOUN

What do we call things that are worth a

lot of money, especially small personal

things such as jewellery, cameras, etc?

Complete the example sentence:

When you go on holiday, you should look

after your ___________________.

SYNONYMS for VALUABLE

In each sentence, choose the correct word:a I have many irreplaceable/precious/

pricelessmemories of our time together.

b Please dont resign this company

needs you. Youre totally irreplaceable/

precious/priceless .

c Irreplaceable/ Precious/ Priceless

stones, such as diamonds, are often used

in jewellery.

OPPOSITES of VALUABLE

Fill the gap with the missing

word:

The opposite of valuable is

valuelessor ___________________.

INVALUABLE

Be careful! The word invaluable

means very valuable or extremely

useful. For example:

This dictionary is invaluablefor

learners of English.

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WORKSHEET 2

Oxford 3000

ANGRYadjective

ANGRY (adjective)The main meaning of the

word angry is having strong

feelings about something that

you dislike very much or about

an unfair situation.

Collocations: VERB + ANGRY

Choose the correct verb:

Her behaviour really caused/ did/

mademe angry.

ANGRY + PREPOSITION

Fill each gap with a preposition:

I was very angry ___________________myself

___________________making such a stupid mistake.

ADVERB

What is the adverb form of the wordangry? Fill in the missing word:

sad sadly

happy happily

angry ___________________

Now complete the example sentence:

Some senators reacted ___________________to

the Presidents remarks.

BRITISH and AMERICAN ENGLISH

Which of these sentences is British

English and which of them is more

common in American English?She is mad atme for being late.

I was cross withhim for being late.

Collocations: IRATE + NOUN

Can you think of any words that collocate

with (= are often used with) the word

irate? Try to guess the missing word ineach of these sentences:

a The worst thing about working in a shop

or restaurant is having to deal with irate

___________________.

b She was so unhappy with the airline that

she wrote them an irate___________________.

SYNONYMS for ANGRY

Which word in this sentence means

very angry? Choose one word.

She was very indigent/ indignant/

undignifiedat the way she had been

treated.

IRATE (= very angry)

Is this sentence grammatically

correct?

Why / Why not?

She was iratewith me about it.

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WORKSHEET 3

Oxford 3000

TRIPnoun, verb

TRIP (noun)

The main meaning of the noun

trip is a journey to a place

and back again.

Collocations: VERB + TRIP (noun)

Correct the mistake:

Welcome home! Did you do a good

trip? SYNONYMS for TRIP (noun)Choose the correct word to complete

each sentence:

day out expedition journey

a The first successful___________________

to the South Pole was made by

Amundsen in 1911.

b It was a long and difficult

___________________across the mountains.

c We had a ___________________at the

beach.

Collocations: VERB + TRIP (noun)

Choose the correct word:

Next summer she wants to do/ have/

go ona trip to the mountains.

Collocations: NOUN + TRIP (noun)

Fill the gap with a suitable word:

Are you visiting China on holiday,

Mr Jones?

No, my company sent me here. Im

on a ___________________trip.

TRIP ... (phrasal verb)

Choose the correct phrasal verb:

Read the questions carefully,

because the examiners sometimes

try to trip you on/ over/ up.

PHRASAL VERB + TRIP (noun)

In the following sentence, which

phrasal verb is not possible?

Theyset off/set out/set upon their

trip early in the morning.

TRIP (verb)

The main meaning of the verb to trip is to catch

your foot on something and fall or almost fall.

Fill the gap with the correct preposition:

Someone will trip ___________________that cable. It

shouldn t be lying on the floor.

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Owl Lesson1 Mar11

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