It is only logical that the
teacher who's teaching English should allow her students to use
a dictionary.
Think of a dictionary as an essential learning
tool. The students can find the definition of a word as
well as secondary definitions.
Example: to mar……to detract from the wholeness or
perfection of.
to spoil
There's the possibility of finding a synonym or
homonym for the word.
Synonym of the verb to mar….to damage, to
harm, to impair
If it is a verb, we can see the past tense, the past participle
and the gerund
To mar……Past tense and past participle, marred,
gerund, marring
The word is put into syllables, and the accent is
marked.
'mar…..the first syllable is stressed
When a student looks up a word in the dictionary
he can find all of the above information as well as seeing what
part of grammar it is: a noun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb,
a preposition.
Many dictionaries also give etymology of the word.
June…..L. (Latin) Junius
Sport….ME (Middle English) "sportum" to divert
It is a good idea to have the students try
writing on their own. To do so they definitely need the help of
a dictionary.
Looking up a word in the dictionary helps the students to
visualize the word. (We know that students have problems in
correlating the spoken to the written word.) Thus seeing the
proper spelling aids them in their ability to write the word
correctly.
As I wrote once before, "Seeing is remembering!"
A small pocket Italian-English dictionary can be
used at first. There are sufficient vocabulary words in these
abbreviated editions to introduce the students to this important
learning tool.
As an activity to stimulate dictionary use, the
teacher can request information.
Find the meaning of the word…….Insurance
Drowsy
Chimney
Paw
Thong
Find the verb to make to work
to come to look
to put to give
and list the various usages ( with prepositions…)
The students' ability to use a dictionary
properly will stimulate them when having to write short
dialogues. Their vocabulary will surely increase!
A Nice Thought
"As sheer casual reading matter I still
find the English dictionary the most interesting book in our
language."