Non-dictionary ways of learning new vocabulary

• Vocabulary building using prefixes and suffixes (affixes)

A lot of English words we use today come from other languages. There is a lot of material about
the etymology of English words, on the internet. There are lots of Latin and Greek influences on
most European languages like English, French and Spanish.
You would be surprised at how this basic awareness of the origin of the English language can be
of great help to your students. Many English prefixes and suffixes are derived from Latin and
Greek. A basic knowledge of commonly used affixes will help students learn English vocabulary
much faster without the need to always look up words.
So what are prefixes and suffixes?
A prefix is a letter or group of letters added to the beginning of a word to make a new word: In
the word '”UNHAPPY”, 'UN-' is a prefix added to HAPPY. UN- is a Latin word for NOT.
A suffix on the other hand is a letter or group of letters added to the end of a word to make
another word. The suffix NESS added to the end of the word TOGETHER creates another word
TOGETHERNESS.
Prefixes and suffixes are generally known as affixes. Affixes create new words, usually by
modifying or changing the meaning of a root word. If we take a root word like HAPPY, we can
see how affixes can change the meaning as in this example: prefix = UN, root word = HAPPY
and suffix = NESS.
The end result is UNHAPPINESS.
Sometimes raising awareness to this word formation aspect of English can be the light that
dispels the darkness of dictionary worship.
Or, drawing similar examples from the student’s native language further raises this awareness of
word formation in languages as a whole. In Chinese for example, the prefix BU is added to many
root words to create an often negative version of a root word. For example HAO in Chinese
means GOOD. The opposite is simply formed by adding the prefix BU at the beginning of HAO:
prefix=BU root word HAO and result is BUHAO which means BAD. Tons of word opposites
are formed in Mandarin Chinese by simply adding this prefix to root words.
If a teacher can make similar references from a student’s native language background, it provides
a springboard for the understanding of word formation in English as well. Most often you would
realize that the student had not even thought of this in terms of his or her own language.
Since English is a language that has thousands of words from other languages, a brief etymology
of commonly used prefixes and suffixes would do much good.
For example the OCT prefix comes from the Latin OCTO which means EIGHT. If you look at
most English words beginning with OCT, the meaning is never too far from eight. So ask
yourself for example: What is an octopus, octogenarian, octagon, octave, and octet?
In a similar line, TELE- has its roots in Greek, which means far or distant. So what do words
like telecommunication, television, telephone and telex have in common?
For worksheets to teach basic ESL prefixes & suffixes, refer to: http://www.esl-galaxy.com/
Of course there are other methods of word formation in English such onomatopoeia, truncated
words Read more at http://www.takeourword.com/theory.html &
http://www.pearsoned.com.au/LinkedFiles/Free/0733917283/eo3lang.pdf .
 • Trying to understand words in context through reading
Another way to improve vocabulary is to read more. When students read, they should put their
dictionaries far away and try to understand the word from within the context of that text they are
reading. To start understanding the text, an understanding of the subject of the text is a giant step.
When students come across a new word or expression, they should not just look it up, but first
try to figure out what that might mean within that context.
If they cannot understand the meaning after reading the sentence and paragraph of the new
vocabulary, they should read the text to the end. Somewhere down the text, the meaning is
usually clarified by other words. The dictionary should be the last point of reference when all
else fails. Reading a lot is of course one of the best ways to increase vocabulary. Reading helps
to define words in context and therefore provides a clear understanding of how to use the new
vocabulary; whereas, the dictionary might not provide the context for understanding the new
vocabulary.
Teachers should try reading activities in class. One great reading activity for your intermediate to
advanced learners would be to bring four news articles on a similar topic to class- these articles
should come from different sources. Brainstorm the topic of the articles. For example if your
four articles were about earthquakes, ask your students to tell you what happens during and after
an earthquake. As they discuss, write down key words on the board. Later, give them the four
articles and ask them to do a content analysis of the key words. They should work in teams and
count how many times a particular word or its affix modification occurs in one article. This skill
teaches students to always associate words with a particular reading context. Take this further by
asking students to summarize the articles in writing, using the key words.
• Word Association Exercises:

As earlier mentioned, words do not exist in isolation. They usually fall under a heading and have
a specific role to play. Putting together words in the same group creates a systematic and often
easy way of remembering vocabulary.
For example, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism, Hinduism = Religion. One way of
doing word association is to brainstorm a topic. Usually the students would most often have
heard something about the topic. If your lesson is about earthquakes for example, ask your
students to give you as many words associated with earthquakes as possible. Further group the
words into verbs, adjectives and nouns. This systematic approach to vocabulary learning helps
arrange words in a systematic and easy-to-access order in the brain. If defragmentation of your
computer’s hard drive and memory chip is the computer way of optimizing speed, then word
association is the brain’s method of optimizing memory of words.