4/16(W.)Building up Vocabulary & Playing Word Games (Kooper)

[Kooper]

Hello YoYos,

I’m Kooper Chen. I’ll be the host on 4/16. This is one of our planned specific English learning activities this year. The theme this time is English Vocabulary. Please don’t cower when hearing something like “English Learning” or “Vocabulary learning.” I promise you’re going to have as much fun as other meetings you’ve ever attended before.

Have you ever noticed how babies learn their mother tongues? They always start by saying single words. It will take them quite a while before gaining the ability to express short sentences, then more complicated sentences. Vocabulary is one of the basic elements to form a language. People often compare vocabulary to bricks and tiles of the language building. It is impossible for us to build high buildings without them. Therefore, the question is how to effectively and efficiently build your English vocabulary. Below are some steps and tips I found on the Internet.


Steps:
1. Love words. You have to really want to learn new vocabulary if you're going to succeed.

2. Look up words you don't know whenever you encounter them. After encountering and looking up a word several times, you should eventually be able to remember its definition.

3. There are many computer programs and websites that have ways of giving you a short "Word of the Day" list with new words every day. Try going to http://www.dictionary.com. Scroll down and click on "Get the Word of the Day e-mail". If you enter all of the required information, you will get a new e-mail every day with a word, its definition, and an example usage sentence.

4. Get a personalized Google homepage and click on "Add Content". Search for "word of the day" in the search box, and pick some of the content choices that you'd like to have on your homepage. The author recommends Merriam-Webster (http://www.m-w.com), Dictionary.com, and Wordsmith.org. When you log on to your homepage, there will be a list of new words every day.

5. Read. Read all genres of books. When you come across a word you don't know, read the sentences around the word and try to figure out what it means from the context. Check your guess with a dictionary. This doesn't mean you should start reading medical textbooks or other books with lots of new words on every page. Set aside time each day to sit down with your book. Enjoy yourself!

6. Play word games with friends. Try Boggle, Scrabble, or Catch-Phrase. There are so many great games out there to teach you new words. If a friend comes up with a word that you don't know, ask them what it means.

7. Use the words you learn when you're talking to people or writing letters or e-mail. Using your new vocabulary is not only fun, but a great way to remember all these new words. Try to use at least three new words a day when communicating with anyone.

8. Learn roots, prefixes, and suffixes. Many words in the English language come from Latin or Greek words. When you combine these Latin or Greek words, you get new words in English. For example: astro ("astron" meaning "star") + logy (logos meaning "speech") = astrology (meaning "telling of the stars"). Buy an etymological dictionary (meaning "a dictionary of word origins").

9. If you learn any romance language (eg: French, Spanish, Italian), or Latin or Ancient Greek, these will help you immensely with improving your vocabulary, especially the two ancient languages here because so many complicated English words are derived from words that are simple and used commonly in them.

10. Find a friend who speaks English. It's good to practice using your new words. With a web connection, your conversation partner does not need to live near you. You can email, chat, and even phone each other using your computers. A friend who understands that you are learning can help you practice, use new words in your conversations, and offer advice. Since talking to a friend is fun, it won't feel like work! If your friend wants to learn your language, too, it will be easier for both of you to understand each other's mistakes.

11. Listen to the radio, watch television, or find a podcast that you like in English, and practice understanding the language when spoken, too.


Tips:
1. Have fun with words. Try all of the ideas listed above, but don't think that you have to do all of them to expand your vocabulary. Pick the ones that you like the most or are most convenient for you.

2. Learning more words should be exciting and interesting. It shouldn't seem like an English lesson. If you feel stressed out or under pressure, you're being too hard on yourself. This doesn't have to be a daily routine, just something to do when you have time.

3. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. English is a very difficult, irregular language, and even native speakers have trouble sometimes.
Source link: http://www.wikihow.com/Enrich-Your-Engl ... Vocabulary


References:
1. Vocabulary Improvement: http://www.utexas.edu/student/utlc/lrnr ... _imprv.pdf
2. Learning Vocabulary Fun: http://vocabulary.co.il/index_main.php
3. How to Memorize English Vocabulary: http://www.19gei.com/jszx/jxlw/200801/4220.html


Questions for Discussion:

Session I
0. Warm-up: a small word game

1. When attempting to improve your English vocabulary, do you resort to a published word list or word book or simply develop your own, personalized one? If you’re resorting to a published one, what makes you choose it? Share your tips on how to use it or how to choose a good one. If you’re developing your personalized one, explain the reason why you don’t refer to a published one and how you decide to add a new word in your list.

2. When memorizing a new word, do you memorize its meanings only or memorizing the sentence including it, too? Explain your reasons for it. When the words have multiple meanings, how do you choose the one to memorize? Do you memorize word meanings in English or Chinese? Do you agree the claim that in order to “think in English,” we need to memorize word meanings in English?

3. While learning new words, do you classify them as active vocabulary (the words someone can use)or passive vocabulary (the words someone can understand but doesn’t use)? If so, do you learn them in different ways? Are you alert to the tones of the words, such as whether they’re old-fashioned or recent coinages, formal or informal, written or oral, offensive or euphemistic? Does it impact whether you would memorize the word and how you would learn it?

4. How do you make a new word stick in your mind and become truly “yours”? Do you use any tools, such as flashcards, computer programs, online resources, or dictionaries, to help you memorize them?

Session II
1. Share your tips on improving your vocabulary. Are you memorizing new words in a systematical and disciplined way or are you reading and listening a lot without putting much effort trying to memorize new words?

2. Learning vocabulary is an ongoing process. It continues throughout your life. How do you keep yourself stay motivated while struggling with endless new words or suffering from a short memory?

3. Learning vocabulary could be a lot of fun if it is just like playing games. Let’s play some word games and have some fun.

4. (Optional) Are you using roots, prefixes, and suffixes to help you memorize new words or guess unknown words during reading? How effective, in your experience, are they in learning English vocabulary?


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Agenda
6:45 ~ 7:00pm Greetings and free talk among members and guests /taking individual orders/getting newcomers' information
7:00 ~ 7:10pm Opening remarks/ Brief self-introduction/ Grouping
(Session I)
7:10 ~ 7:50pm First discussion session
7:50 ~ 8:00pm First summarization
8:00 ~ 8:10pm Regrouping and taking a break (intermission)
(Session II)
8:10 ~ 8:40pm Second discussion session
8:40 ~ 8:50pm Second summarization
8:50 ~ 9:00pm Concluding remarks/feedback from newcomers/ announcements

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聚會時間：2008/4/16 (星期三) 請準時 6:45 pm 到 ~ 約 9:00 pm 左右結束
聚會地點：日安。KAFFA 北市南京東路三段303巷24號 (02)2719-7895
捷運南京東路站（木柵線）
走法: 出捷運南京東路站後, 順著慶城街直走 3 分鐘到 "萊爾富便利超商" 時, 右轉直走 30 公尺即可看到 "日安。KAFFA"


給新朋友的話：
1. 請事先準備2~3分鐘的英語自我介紹；討論完畢後可能會請你發表1~2分鐘的感想(feedback)。
2. 請事先閱讀討論主題相關內容以及host所提的問題，並事先寫下自己所欲發表意見的英文。
3. 來之前請先讀一下討論主題，思考一下如何回答及討論。
4. 在正式加入之前（繳交可退還之保證金NT$1,000)，可以先來觀摩三次。

[Luis Ko]

it's too early for me to read it since this meeting is still many days to come. i guess i will then forget it easily.. getting older la

[Kooper]

it's too early for me to read it since this meeting is still many days to come. i guess i will then forget it easily.. getting older la

Don't worry about your amnesia. It has been moved to the coming Wednesday. Grace Yang will host on 4/30 instead.

[Sherry Liao]

Wow, that means all the participants have got to share their experience and knowledge about how to extend and build up vocabulary. That's intriguing.

Looks like we'll learn a lot in the meeting!

[Sherry Liao]

The website of the source link is informative. It contains lots of articles regarding English-learning topics.

[Gloria Lo]

Kooper,
the website you post is really useful.
Dictionary.com's "word of the day" today is "PIN-MONEY".
That reminds me of asking my husband for my pin-money. YA!

Sherry, do you think so?

[Sherry Liao]

To be honest, I never asked my husband for pin money before; but I've got some tips on how to make him foot the bills.

Maybe we can talk about this someday and exchange the information and intelligence that we've learnt.

[Gloria Lo]

To be honest, I never asked my husband for pin money before; but I've got some tips on how to make him foot the bills.

Maybe we can talk about this someday and exchange the information and intelligence that we've learnt.

Good idea!

[Kooper]

You may refer to previous discussions on vocabulary learning here: http://122.116.234.216/forum/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=1985

[Kooper]

The article of the 1st reference has gone, so I put the contents here.

Vocabulary Improvement: Considerations, Ways and Means

Know The Odds And Determine Priorities. There are more than 700,000 words in the English language, and no one ever knows them all. Above the 50,000-100,000 words needed for average adult communication, you'll have to determine which words you need to actively use (or at least passively recognize) according to your own current interests and priorities.

To Improve Usage Vocabulary:
Develop your own, personalized list of words you want to use - just one or two new words a day.
Be alert for "good" words when listening or reading - both in academic coursework and extracurricular pastimes. Get out of your rut and deliberately expose yourself to new environments, new experiences, new books. Read parts of magazines and newspapers you normally skip. New words worth using should become stop signs for detailed attention - not just sloppily and vaguely inferred from context to keep moving.

When you've encountered a word a few times and still don't really use it yourself, chances are you'll be needing it again and it's worth your attention. Keep a small notebook, scraps of paper or cards handy at all times wherever you go just to jot down new words and their contexts whenever they occur. You can look them up, learn all about them, and deal with them later.

Personalize your dictionary. Every time you have to look up a word in your dictionary, mark it in the margin and indicate the context and occasions which caused you to look it up. If you do this consistently and cumulatively over a long period of time, the pages of your dictionary will become records of words you've personally needed. When your dictionary indicates that you've had to look up a word several times in new contexts over a period of months or years, it's time for that word to be made a part of your usage vocabulary.

If you must resort to a published word list or word book for new words, at least personalize it. Go through to mark out all words you've never seen and all words you already use; those left will be the vaguely familiar words you've encountered before and may therefore need in the future.

Use and reinforce a few new words each day - cumulatively for several weeks. It's been estimated that you must need and use a new word at least 10 times before it's really "yours."

Make flashcards. Write the word and sentence (context) in which you noticed it on the front; write the definition and another original sentence with a personally meaningful context on the back. Thumb through the cards (back and front) and test yourself at odd moments during the day.

Expose as many senses as possible to a new word - i.e., see it, say it, hear it, write it.

Above all, use new words in writing and conversation - even if slightly contrived at first. Enlist the aid of a friend to hold you responsible for daily conversation with several new words.

Seem like long term work and a lot of it? Yes ... usage vocabulary acquisition should be a lifetime process anyway, but you may as well start now, bit by bit, rather than being stymied into complete inaction by the awesomeness of the ultimate possibilities.


To Improve Recognition Vocabulary:
Enhance your chances of making better educated guesses about the meanings of unknown words you hear and read by becoming familiar with common word parts. Examine unknown words for parts similar to words you do know.

Learn Greek, Latin, and Anglo-Saxon roots and affixes which comprise "word families" in the English language. Knowledge of relatively few word parts can unlock the meanings of many unknown words - especially when contextual clues are also helpful. One author has even asserted that knowledge of the word parts in only 14 English words can aid in recognition of 100,000 other words.
Make use of context clues to approximate the meaning of an unknown word.
Use what you already know: Is the word a form of one you already know? Is it similar to a word in a foreign language you know? Does knowledge of its literal meaning help you decipher a new figurative use of the same word?

Read further for possible restatement of the word in another, more familiar way. Is an example used later to illustrate the word? Are there other words and details later in the sentence or paragraph which reflect the meaning of the unknown one?

Read further for words and/or ideas which seem to reflect contrast with the unknown one.

[Luis Ko]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

http://edition.cnn.com/

http://www.nytimes.com/

the above are some news websites for your reference. i like reading on line because it's convenient for me to use online dictionary helping my understanding. i always log on to these websites to see if there are something interest me. but because i'm lazy enough so that i don't like to read to much. i might read those titles or go through half the article only, unless it's really interesting haa.

in my opinion, it's quite useful i f you can read as many articles as you can and read it out loud. it's not just a good way for you to learn new words but also you can practise your speaking. and if you are like me short of memory then it's recommended you read the same article more than twice after you check all those words you don't know, of course you have to look up those words you want to know on dictionary first. but, instead of memorizing those words hard you would remember them by nature. because it will make you impressed a lot after several times reading. later on, you will find you don' t have to really memorize any word but somehow you have already remembered them even you don't really use them often. i still remember the word anthrax(炭疽病) now, also the word steroid that i seldom use or will never use it in my daily life. i bet that's because during the period of post-911 there were a lot of news mentioned it. everytime when i loged on news website i would see this word on news titles so that i don't have to force myself to memorize it but just remembered it naturally, the same way i memorize other new words if there's any. it works really.

actually my teacher recommended i read the new york times says the words they use are more beautiful or what i forget, but it means it's worth reading. the thing is it's a bit too difficult for me, it's too tiring so i find some others haa(and also want to read something other than from USA). anyway, just for your reference, choose a way more suitable for you loh.

seems talk too much and hope you'll understand what i'm trying to say haa

[chiron]

For Rock:
This is the on-line version of "longman dictionary". As you can see, the website attachs a lot of pictures for nouns. I think it will help to a large degree FYI. At times, I will skip the explanation and check the picture directly. In the same way, I find that you could actually take "serch engine" as dictionary too. Just Key the unknown words in "the search engine of picture", and the system will show you the photo of that word. But this only suits to concrete nouns, not abstract ones.

For Kooper:
It takes me a while to clarity where the conept of "semantic web" comes from. And finally I found an article you posted monthes ago. I think the first game you led comes from this website. BTW, I love 2 games you designed in the meeting. Well done! Mr. Everyone loves to play game, including adults.

[Kooper]

Participants(16): Lynn, Brooky, Chiron, Grace Yang, Johnie, Vicky, Chris Lin, Gavin, Arthur, Luis, Gloria, Rock, April, Claire, Tommy, Kooper

Johnie joined YOYO last night. Let's welcome him!

Words used in the 2nd game:
stress, refugee, sculpture, joke, jungle, kidnap, examine, struggle, unwilling, chaos, mental, knowledge, notorious, outspoken, palace, pajamas, citizen

I admire all the participants last night for attending a meeting on such a boring topic. Hopefully everybody had some fun and felt it was worthy of the time they spent.

I'm glad to see Vicky and Brooky again, who have been absent for quite a while.

[Vicky Wu]

To Kooper
The meeting is informative, and it's obvious that you made abundant effort for preparing this meeting.

You are a good host and a devoted president, and I think I should keep abreast of your working as well as learning spirit.

[Gavin]

Hi, Kooper:

This topic is good. People got opportunity to share their real experiences.

In addition, the games in the meeting were good practice. Thanks for your devotion.

Gavin