Study skills Unit 1 VOCABULARY: Using a dictionary Dictionaries can be very useful. Here are some ideas for using them well. • Don’t just look at the first definition for a word. Many English words have very different meanings. Look at them all and choose the right one for your context. • Don’t just think about the meaning of the word that you look up. Think also about the type of word, the form and spelling of the word, and the other words it often goes with (eg, listen to). • Look at the introduction to your dictionary to find out how it gives information about types of word, pronunciation, etc. • Dictionaries give much more information than just explaining words. For example, the dictionary in the Workbook marks the most common and useful words with stars. • Dictionaries are very useful but it is not a good idea to depend on the dictionary too much. Practise guessing words from context (see page 6). You can use your dictionary to check later. • When you are reading, don’t use the dictionary to look up every word you don’t know. You don’t need to understand every word in a text to do the exercises or to understand the general meaning. Only look for words which appear important or appear frequently.
SPEAKING: Accuracy and fluency
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Spoken language is different from written language. With writing we have more time to plan and prepare what we want to say. We have to be more precise because we cannot see or speak to the person we are writing to. If they do not understand us, we cannot help them. When we speak we have less time to prepare and so we sometimes make mistakes. Sometimes we begin a sentence and stop, go back, and change or clarify what we were saying. We use expressions like ‘mmm’, ‘errr’, ‘erm’, ‘the thing is’, ‘what I mean is’. We use these expressions simply to give us time to think of what we want to say. Normally we repeat ourselves more in speaking than in writing. We use the word ACCURACY to talk about how correct our use of grammar is when we speak. If we speak quickly in English but we make lots and lots of mistakes it will be difficult for people to understand us. We use the word FLUENCY to talk about whether we can speak continuously in English without stopping frequently to think about what we want to say next. If our use of grammar is perfect but we have to stop again and again to think of what we want to say, then people will get tired of listening to us. To speak English well we need to have a balance between accuracy and fluency. To do this we need to practise speaking as much as possible and try to correct any frequent mistakes.
Unit 2 VOCABULARY: Learning phrasal verbs
WRITING: Paragraphs
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Phrasal verbs are verbs that consist of a verb and one or two particles (particles can be prepositions or adverbs). The meaning of a phrasal verb is not often obvious from the verb or the particles. Look at the context or use a dictionary to find out the meaning of phrasal verbs. But be careful when looking in the dictionary. The same verb (eg, get, come, take) may have lots of different phrasal verbs, and the same phrasal verb may have more than one meaning. In your vocabulary list or notebook, make a note of the meaning of new phrasal verbs as you meet them, the same as with any new vocabulary. Sometimes it can be confusing to write all the phrasal verbs together because in the end we can’t distinguish between them. Find out which is the best way for you to learn them.
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A paragraph is made up of several sentences which are grouped together. They are grouped together because they talk about, and develop, one main topic. Paragraphs help to make your writing more organized and structured. This makes your composition easier to understand. When there are no paragraphs, compositions can become confusing and repetitive. When you have brainstormed the content of what you are going to write, stop and organize the content into logical paragraphs. You should do this before you start to write, not while you are writing.
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