Word tools

Word ToolsCC-BY Alannah Fitzgerald

Session One Overview

• Tools:– The Flexible Language Acquisition project (FLAX)– The Compleat Lexical Tutor (Lextutor)

• Language Focus:– Definition (usage + frequency)– Derivatives / word families– Collocation– Register

Let’s start with three questions about English

1.What is the meaning of goalless?2.How many forms of the word economy can you think of? E.g. adjective form3.Which word goes before the following phrases?

a. _________ the effects of…b. _________ the likelihood of future…c. _________ the cost of…d. _________ the number of people…e. _________ the poverty in…

Adapted from Hoffmann et al., 2008

Where do you start?

10/04/23 http://www.flickr.com/photos/60810582@N04/galleries/72157629220721347/ 4

Definition

What is the meaning of goalless?

Google *FLAX language*http://tinyurl.com/7ea4tzq

Meaning + Usage + Frequency

*goalless* search in the FLAX Web Phrases collection

Web Phrases OER

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n67FBqBFm6I 9

FLAX Web Phrases Collection Search (http://flax2.nzdl.org/greenstone3/flax?a=p&sa=home&module=) 10

Web phrases checking activity (a)

Original:

The variation of these ratios presents some insights about the financial intermediary role of banks.

(sourced from the dissertation of a Farsi-speaking student of Economics)Adapted from Tim John’s EAP Kibitzers http://lexically.net/TimJohns/Kibbitzer/revis012.htm

Web phrases checking activity (b)

Revision:

The variation of these ratios presents some insights into the financial intermediary role of banks.

(sourced from the dissertation of a Farsi-speaking student of Economics)Adapted from Tim John’s EAP Kibitzers http://lexically.net/TimJohns/Kibbitzer/revis012.htm

Derivatives / Word families

How many forms of the word economy can you think of? E.g. adjective form

Highlighting aspects of lexical knowledge

tellmake

listen tolaugh at

do

a joke

Economy

Economies

economical

uneconomical

economically

economist

take a photograph

convince sbyof sththat ... to do sth

He tried to convince me that it wasn’t his fault.She convinced him to lend her $100.

make sby believe sth is true

persuade

notorious (for ~)(-) famous for sth badRome is notorious for pickpockets.

notoriously

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Typical lexical errors

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…demanded that they do economic sanctions and revoke all commercial and trade agreements signed with…

They conversated for almost one hour.

…it seems that the widespread utilization of informatics…

impose/enforce

collocationconversed

word families / derivatives

can be observed

register

Reporting verbs analyses/analysed compares/compared comments/commented concludes/concluded criticises/criticised demonstrates/demonstrated discusses/discussed illustrates/illustrated indicates/indicated notes/noted investigates/investigated evaluates/evaluated estimates/estimated

observes/observed points out/pointed out reports/reported shows/showed suggests/suggested validates/validated verifies/verified argues/argued disputes/disputed concedes/conceded believes/believed recognises/recognised predicts/predicted

Web Pronouns Phrases OER

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns4nXsZQmUA 17

FLAX Web Pronoun Phrases Collection Search (http://flax2.nzdl.org/greenstone3/flax?a=p&sa=home&module=) 18

FLAX Web Pronoun Phrases Collection Search (http://flax2.nzdl.org/greenstone3/flax?a=p&sa=home&module=)

Noticing Text Types – Issues of Register and Genre

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FLAX Web Pronoun Phrases Collection Search (http://flax2.nzdl.org/greenstone3/flax?a=p&sa=home&module=)

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Collocations

Which word goes before the following phrases?a. _________ the effects of…b. _________ the likelihood of future…c. _________ the cost of…d. _________ the number of people…e. _________ the poverty in…

Compleat Lexical Tutor (Tom Cobb)

http://www.lextutor.ca/

Web Collocations OERhttp://www.lextutor.ca/vp/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyZgZhHMovI 23

Collocation guessing game in FLAX

AWL Exercises (Nottingham)

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~alzsh3/acvocab/index.htm 25

UEFAP (Andy Gillett)

http://www.uefap.com/index.htm 26

Specific EAP vocab (UEFAP)

http://www.uefap.com/vocab/vocfram.htm 27

Preparation (session two)

• More FLAX collections• Focus on specific subject language

• Samples of your own writing • Soft copy versions

• Reading, writing and vocabulary exercises

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