NARRATIVES AND OTHER GRAMMAR RELATED WRITING

GRAMMAR RELATED WRITING: THE FUTURE TENSES

Write an essay discussing what sort of a country your home country will be in thirty years’ time.  Use all four future tenses and adverbial clauses of time while expressing your views.

A.      Write an introduction focusing on the recent past as it shaped the present. In the case of Turkey, for instance, that would be the rapid period of change the country has undergone since the founding of the republic and the current status of the country. Narrow down the topic and have a thesis statement indicating what specific areas of change you plan to focus on in your development.

B.      Your development may be one paragraph or more with each area of change being focused on individually and introduced with a topic sentence. This is a sentence which informs your reader of the content of the paragraph and how you plan to approach it. You could focus on a couple of the following areas: population, employment, literacy, standard of living, quality of life, the environment, welfare level, inflation and the like.

C.      In your conclusion suggest ways in which your prognosis can be avoided or how to achieve such an idyllic world.

Subject specific vocabulary you may need is as follows:

Overpopulation, a young population, a dependent population, an aging population, to be heavily / sparsely populated

Unemployment, to be unemployed, employee, blue collar/ white collar workers, skilled /unskilled workers, the boss, the management, to fire, to make redundant, to give early retirement, to raise the retirement age

Invest, to make investments, to invest in the future of a country

Pollution, polluted, pollutants, waste, rubbish, toxic waste, city dumps, sewage, contamination, to contaminate, contaminants

Low/ high/ hyper inflation

Unplanned urbanization, infrastructure, facilities, amenities

GRAMMAR RELATED WRITING TASK

Write a three paragraph essay detailing the reasons for the appalling grades you got for the grammar section.  In the introduction, discuss the necessity of tests as a vehicle to measure achievement and then include the following thesis statement: There are various reasons why I received the grade I did on the grammar section of the last test. In your development, discuss these reasons. Introduce each reason with the present perfect or the present perfect continuous (with the exception of 9 and 10) and then use a selection of past tenses to provide support. Select your reasons from the list below:

REASONS FOR THE LOWER THAN EXPECTED GRADE ON THE GRAMMAR SECTION

1.      Not do AZAR TEXTBOOK exercises or not do them when asked to

2.      Not do AZAR WORKBOOK or TEST BANK exercises when asked to

3.      Not attend class regularly

4.      Not do homework when asked to

5.      Not concentrate while in class

6.      Experience personal problems such as loneliness adaptation and the like

7.      Depend on the teacher too much

8.      Not do any extra reading or other exercises on a regular basis

9.      Need more time to absorb new stuff

10.  Feel nervous on the test

11.  Not understand explanations in class and feel too shy to ask

In your conclusion, state what you have learnt from this experience and what you propose to do about it in the future.

GRAMMAR RELATED WRITING TASK / WORLD AFFAIRS

Write a four paragraph essay on the various developments there have been in terms of political developments and the resolution of humanitarian crises in the last year. End your introduction with a thesis statement stating that there have been various developments in the above areas. Start your second paragraph with a topic sentence stating that various important changes have taken place on the political stage. Then select from the list below. Remember to provide at least one sentence of support for each point you make. Start paragraph three with a topic sentence stating that very little has changed in terms of the resolution of humanitarian crises in the last year. Then select from the list below. Again, do not forget to provide support. Remember to use the present perfect simple and continuous, the present tenses and the past tenses in the appropriate way. Finally, write a conclusion where you make predictions about the future, draw conclusions or make a restatement.

DEVELOPMENTS TO SELECT FROM FOR PARAGRAPH TWO (these points will need to be updated each year)

1.      Guantanamo Bay  close

2.      Deadline set for troop withdrawal from Iraq

3.      More troops deploy in Afghanistan

4.      Those accused of war crimes try at The Hague ( Slobodan Milosevic, Radovan Karadzic)

5.      Nuclear standoff with Iran and North Korea

6.      Conflict between Israel and Palestinians continue

POINTS TO SELECT FROM FOR PARAGRAPH THREE

1.      The AIDS pandemic continue ; Reasons ignorance and poverty

2.       The malaria pandemic continue;  Reasons: corruption ( bed nets not reach poor people as they are sold), the black-market for drugs ( resulting drugs substandard so do not cure and make the bacteria drug resistant)

3.      The Darfur crisis continue

4.      Starvation due to drought continue in third world countries ( Ethiopia this year)

5.      Swine flu epidemic start

6.      Refugee crisis continue ( Pakistan, to escape the Taliban; African refugees in Europe to escape political conflict and poverty)

GUIDED NARRATIVE: WHY LUKE DIED WITH A KNIFE THROUGH HIS HEART

Use the notes below, the appropriate tenses, narrative structures and connectors to reconstruct the story of Luke Walmsley’s death. When you have completed the task, your teacher will show you the original report of the murder which appeared in the Guardian.  The titles of the texts are as follows: "Handsome, sporty and popular: Why Luke, 14, died with a knife through his heart" and "School stabbing murderer gets life" Begin as follows:

           Yet another teenager has fallen victim to the ever increasing teenage crime in our schools. The murder of Luke Walmsley has shocked and devastated his family and friends. Luke Walmsley….

 NOTES

Luke Walmsley: 14, student, Birbeck secondary school

                              parents separated

                              live with mother, stepfather, sister Lauren.

                              often stay with father    

                              cheerful, happy enjoy life

                              a sportsman( judo, climbing, sailing, football)

                              popular with girls

                              staff say: Luke positive role model

Some students: jealous  

                              a classroom feud start

                              teenagers not talk 

                              but Luke’s parents worried

                              possibility of bullying

Two days before the end of term: Luke fight

                                                              later make up   

                                                              head teacher give a talk to school on anger management

One day before stabbing: mother phone school

                                              Luke have rugby practice

                                               scared to come home after dark

                                               gang might jump him

The day of the stabbing: Luke talking to friends

                                      Allen Pennell; 16

                                      stab Luke outside classroom in front of friends

                                      use flick knife(7cm)

                                      stab in chest, thrust knife to hilt

                                      Luke stagger down corridor

                                      bleeding dying

                                      best friends think: Luke kidding

                                      Luke die

Allen Pennell: not talented

                         no charm

                         mother die when young

                         father lorry driver

                         difficulty expressing himself

                          so violent to everyone

                        warning from police previous year

                          attack policeman two months ago

                        Allen say just showing knife

                        Luke walk into knife

The trial: Allen get life

                  will serve twelve years

                  out on parole

Psychologist: ask Allen

                          three wishes ?

                          Allan say : bring back mother

                          turn back the clock

                           no third wish

NARRATIVES: SUGGESTED TOPICS

1.      The most stressful period of your life

2.      The happiest period of your life

3.      An embarrassing incident

4.      A childhood memory

5.      A dream or a nightmare

6.      A narrow escape and its consequences

7.      A celebration ( a birthday, a family gathering, a festival and the like)

8.      A story of success

9.      A story of regrets

TEXTS TO BASE REACTION ESSAYS ON 

“Overdose Kills Right to Die Man an” and “Vincent Humbert’s Letter to Jacques Chirac” bbc.co.uk/news (Simple)

“The Ethics of Climbing Everest” bbc.co.uk/news (Relatively simple)

“Chad Child Kidnapping Angers Sarkozy” bbc.co.uk/news (Relatively simple)

“Scary or Sensational? A Machine that Can Look into the Mind” guardian.co.uk (Intermediate)

“Put Your Children on DNA List, Urge Police” guardian.co.uk (Intermediate)

“Instead of Two States Side by Side, Why Not One Superimposed Upon the Other? guardian.co.uk (Advanced)

“The Turks Haven’t Learned The British Way of Denying Past Atrocities” guardian.co.uk (Advanced)

“Anti-Drugs Campaigner Barbara Harris Brings Crusade to Sterilize Addicts to The UK” observer.co.uk (Intermediate)

“Girl Starved to Death While Parents Raised Virtual Kid Online” guardian.co.uk (Relatively simple)

“Get a Life” guardian.co.uk; all about online fantasy games (Advanced)

“They’d Rather Die: The Brief Lives of Afghan Slave Wives” guardian.co.uk (Advanced)

“Julian Assange Should Be Awarded Nobel Peace Prize, Suggests Russia” guardian.co.uk (Intermediate)

“Invisibility Cloak: Now You See Me, But For How Much Longer?”  guardian.co.uk (Intermediate)

“Global Net Censorship Growing” and “China Defends Internet Censorship” bbcnews.co.uk/news (Intermediate; found and brought to class by a student: Yasin Almalıoğlu)

“The War on Drugs is not the War on Terror: Save The Afghan Poppy Fields” guardian.co.uk (Upper intermediate)

“It’s All about Me” guardian.co.uk (Advanced)

“The Truth about Torture” bbc.co.uk/ news (Intermediate)

“Is Working With Your Hands Better Than Just With Your Head?” bbc.co.uk/news (Intermediate)

“Do Grades As Incentives Work?” psychologytoday.com (Intermediate)

TEXTS THAT CAN BE USED FOR SUMMARY PRACTICE (USING THE CORNELL METHOD)

The texts whose names are provided below are listed in order of difficulty for summary practice using The Cornell Method. For information concerning this method and how texts should be selected, refer to the relevant paper on this blog. Alternatives will be added to each stage as appropriate texts are found. The list below is, however, tried and tested.

1. “Do Elephants Kill Their Young?” bbc.co.uk/news
2. “Dolphin May Get A Prosthetic Tail” bbc.co.uk/news
3. “Forced to Take Part in Experiments” bbc.co.uk/news; “The Dying Art of Conversation” bbc.co.uk/news
4. “Boys Used for Human Sacrifice” bbc.co.uk/news; “The Wave That Destroyed Atlantis” bbc.co.uk/news
5. “A career as School Bully” bbc.co.uk/news and “Bullying Shifts To Mental Cruelty” bbc.co.uk/news ( Multiple text summary practice; the last stage in any summary program worth its salt)

DESCRIPTIONS AND NARRATIVES

DESCRIPTIONS: A PERSON / Descriptions of people were covered out of Successful Writing by Sue O’Connell

There is a woman who is very precious in every man’s life. That woman in my life is my mother. My family is very important for me and my mother is the one in charge now. She gave birth to me, she has brought me up and she is always there for me when I need her.

Physically, my mom is a short woman just like the average Turkish women. She is in her early fifties. She has short blond hair and pale skin. That is why dark colored clothes look good on her.  For me, she is the most beautiful woman.

As for her personality, she is one of the most protective people I know. Even though I am 18 and my sister is 21, she still treats us as though we are babies. She is a self sacrificing woman who can do anything for her family; not just for her family, for her friends as well. She is perfect.

One important thing I have to say about my mom is her talent for cooking. She can cook any food that you can imagine: Asian, European or American food are not a problem for her. My mom is very creative when she is cooking too and maybe one day she can write a cook book.

She was with me every single day of my life; not always physically but always spiritually. I owe my life and a lot more to her. Of course everybody loves their mother but mine is very precious for me.

                                                      SARP YILDIZOGLU /INT; Week two

DESCRIPTIONS: A PLACE / They were given a map and some figures

Iceland is a very inhospitable and impractical place to live. First of all, it is an island that is far from everywhere. It is 500 miles from The UK, 180 miles from Greenland and 606 miles from Norway. Second of all, it has a total land area of 39.000 square miles but that means nothing because 74% of the land area is rock, lava and wasteland so it is no good. About 25% of the land area is grassland and only 1% is cultivated. Third of all, Iceland has a cool, oceanic and temperate climate which causes the average annual rainfall to be 80.5 cm. Because of these, the density of population is just two people per square mile which is very low and this shows nobody wants to live there.  Icelandic is spoken in Iceland and that is why the language is so unknown.

               MELISA UZ/ INT; Week two

DESCRIPTION: A PLACE / A region of Turkey; the terminology had already been covered. Figures were provided.

We are living in a country which is a natural and cultural paradise. It is called “Turkey”. It is separated in to regions. The most crowded and most important region of Turkey is The Marmara Region.

The Marmara Region is also divided, like Turkey, in to four smaller regions and twelve provinces. It is surrounded by The Black Sea Region to the east, The Aegean Region to the south and The Central Anatolia Region to the south-east. The region has a total area of 67.000 square kilometers. The region is mainly flat but there are some high mountains like “Uludağ” and “The Yıldız Mountains” too. About 30% of the land area is devoted to farming and about 12% is covered with forests. The rest is devoted to urban development but there are also wastelands and empty districts. The region doesn’t have a permanent and obvious type of climate but if we try to generalize, we can say it has cool winters and mild summers.

In 2000, the estimated population of The Marmara Region was more than 17 million. The Density of population was more than 250 people per square kilometer. The most crowded city of the region is Istanbul (It is also Turkey’s most crowded province). It is home to more than half the region’s population. It is also the most famous destination for immigrants in Turkey because of the opportunities it provides for the working population. This is also a feature of The Marmara region. In places like İzmit, Bursa and Sakarya, there are many branches of industry to work in. We can say The Marmara Region is the heart of production and business life in Turkey.

Well of course there are six other regions in Turkey but I think The Marmara Region is the most suitable one to live in. In my opinion, it can also be interesting to live in a region that connects two continents.  

                                                                                                 BATIHAN TOSUN / INT; Week two

DESCRIPTION: A PLACE / Same as above. This student followed the plan for our handout on France.

The Marmara Region is in the north-west of Turkey. The sea, which makes the climate mild and temperate, also divides the region in to two. The connection between the two regions is provided by boats and bridges. However, pollution is a big problem because of industrial and vehicle emissions.

The Marmara Region isn’t very large geographically but the population density of the area is very high due to good circumstances. Also, women are more active in the work force than in other regions so the total fertility rate is low. Moreover, there are many universities that have good facilities for students. This shows how developed the education system is.

As regards the economy, the people who are employed usually work in industry. Prevalent industries include machinery, automobiles, chemicals and electronics. Also, tourism is developed in The Marmara Region because there are many historical places dating back to the Ottoman Empire. If you want to feel the spirit of The Ottoman Empire, I recommend that you visit Istanbul and Bursa; you’ll enjoy it.

In The Marmara Region, you can find many kinds of people who come from different regions and countries. When you get on a bus or a boat, you can hear different languages. You can see different cultures and different styles. That is why it is very difficult to be close to people.

In conclusion, The Marmara Region is a good place to live. It has good facilities for students, tourists and locals. I am really happy to live here despite all the problems like traffic and the cost of living.

                                                                                               HATİCE SAPMAZ / INT; Week two

DESCRIPTION: A PLACE / A city you know well. The description of London was covered out of Successful Writing by Sue O’Connell

Set in the heart of Turkey and the Middle-East, Istanbul is one of the biggest, busiest and most cosmopolitan cities in Turkey. Every year, six million tourists visit this city and research shows that one in five people wants to see the capital city of history and culture.

Istanbul is a very mystical city which has many ancient places to see. Every tourist should visit The Grand Bazaar and inhale the secret air of the bazaar. Furthermore, located in the best place in Istanbul, The Topkapı Palace should be seen by every person. Also, we should add Yıldız Park to our list of places to visit to see small squirrels running.

Istanbul is also the capital city of our culture. I think there is no other city like Istanbul which is home to so many ethnic groups. Due to this, there are lots of tastes which await you. You can try hundreds of different Turkish dishes in Taksim, Sultanahmet and Sirkeci. There are also lots of modern shopping malls where you can find the designer labels.

Istanbul is a very successful city and captures visitors’ hearts so every person should come to this city and fill his heart with Istanbul’s beauties.

                                                                                        Ilgaz Çakın / INT; Week two

NARRATIVE: THE LIFE OF JAMES COOK / Penguin Advanced writing Skills; notes are provided.

James Cook, whose father was a farm worker, was born in a village in Yorkshire on the 28^th of October 1728. Despite never having seen a book until school, he was very good at arithmetic which is probably what prompted his parents to send him to a fishing village to learn shop trade at the age of twelve. This was very exciting for young James as he had never left his village before. He had his first ever sight of the sea from a hill overlooking the village and was bewitched. Bored by shop work, he started spending more and more time at the water side. Finally, at the age of fifteen, he could stand it no longer and ran away to sea by trading ship.

It was some years later that he volunteered for The Royal Navy which wasn’t the profession of choice as life there was terrible. He took an interest in studying charts and maps and gained a quick reputation for efficiency. A few years later he got his lucky break when he was asked to sail ahead making charts for the British fleet going to Quebec. The charts being perfect, every ship was safe.  About ten years later, he went on the first of three famous voyages into unknown seas.  Sadly he was killed in Hawaii during his third voyage.

Cook was normally very popular both with crews and local people. Despite being very strict and quiet, he was an expert seaman who was concerned for his crew’s welfare. For instance, he made them eat well so they wouldn’t die of scurvy which was commonplace in those days. It was because of all this that the crew refused to leave Hawaii until cook’s body was returned. It was a great pity that he insisted on going on this third voyage as it was completely unnecessary. He had a wife and children in England and he was rich and famous but his love for the sea stayed with him until the end.

                                                                   Yours truly writing student-speak.

NARRATIVE: AN ACCIDENT / Penguin Advanced Writing skills; notes are provided.

Having spent the weekend in London, I was returning to Oxford for an important meeting the following morning. It was late a Sunday night in February and bitterly cold. To make matters worse, there was a biting wind.  No sooner had I got out of London than my windscreen wipers stopped working. I decided to improvise and drove with one arm out of the window wiping the windscreen with a cloth. The system seemed to work quite well.

It around then that I got to a crossroads. There was only one car on the main road and as it was in the distance, I thought I could get across easily. Things didn’t go to plan though: in the middle of the crossroads, the engine stalled. Meanwhile, I noticed that the other car was much nearer than I had thought. Naturally, it couldn’t stop and hit me. As I spun round on impact I had this crazy feeling that I would be alright. The whole windscreen did come out though and went sailing across the road. When things had settled down, I got out of the car to talk to the other driver. Typically, the other cars went speeding past.

Eventually, I started off again and realized immediately how useful a windscreen is. It was absolutely freezing. There was no garage or phone nearby so I kept driving. I still haven’t shaken the chest cold I developed as a result.

                                                                          Yours truly writing student-speak.

 GUIDED NARRATIVE: WHY LUKE DIED WITH A KNIFE THROUGH HIS HEART?

The students are provided with a set of notes based on a couple of texts out of The Guardian and asked to reconstruct the murder of Luke Walmsley by a classmate. The notes follow the format used in the Cornell method of summary writing. When the students are done, it is a good idea to distribute copies of the texts, which you can find on The Guardian website (guardian.co.uk). The titles of the texts are as follows: “Handsome sporty and popular: why Luke,14, died with a knife through his heart?” and “School stabbing murderer gets life”. This activity also teaches students a method of studying and is therefore invaluable. A student reconstruction would go something like this:

Yet another teenager has fallen victim to the ever increasing teenage crime in our schools. The murder of Luke Walmsley has shocked and devastated his family and friends. Luke Walmsley, whose parents were separated, was a fourteen year old secondary school student. Although he lived with his mother, stepfather and sister Lauren, he often stayed with his father too. He had a cheerful and happy disposition which meant he was a social success: he was popular with girls and the staff thought he was a positive role model. This was also due to the fact that he was a keen sportsman enjoying judo, climbing wrestling and football. Being so much in the limelight did have its disadvantages though: some students were jealous of him.  Although teenagers don’t, as a rule, talk, there were rumours of a classroom feud; so much so that his parents were worried about the possibility of bullying. Two days before the end of term, Luke got in to a fight but later made up after which the head teacher delivered a talk on anger management. This, however, didn’t seem to be of much help as became obvious later on. Luke was obviously still uneasy as his mother phoned the school a day before the stabbing to explain that Luke was afraid to go to rugby practice as he was scared to come home after dark. He was afraid of being jumped.

On the day of the stabbing, Luke was stabbed by Allen Pennel outside the classroom in front of his friends. Allen used a flick knife which he thrust to the hilt after which Luke staggered down the corridor bleeding and dying. His friends, meanwhile, thought he was fooling around. Allen, the murderer, lacked Luke’s talent and charm and had a chip on his shoulder as his mother had died young and his father, a lorry driver, was often away. He is said to have difficulty expressing himself and to often resort to violence.  He had even received a warning from the police for attacking a policeman the previous year. Allen claimed to be innocent in the case of Luke’s murder claiming that he was just showing the knife and that Luke had walked into it.

At the trial, Allen got life but will serve twelve years after which he will be released on parole. During his psych assessment, he was asked what he would wish for if he had three wishes. Allen replied that he would want his mother back and he would want to turn back the clock. He couldn’t think of anything else to say.

                                                                                  Your truly writing student speak

PROCESS ESSAY / How to prepare for the proficiency; the students follow the plan posted in the writing file on this blog.

Studying at Boğaziçi University is every student’s dream in Turkey. However, the fulfillment of this dream requires some skills besides passing ÖSS. The main skill is learning academic English to tackle the lessons at Boğaziçi which is an English medium university. Therefore, there is a proficiency to assess the students’ English. However, it is not the kind of exam which can be passed without careful preparation. All this means there are various things a student needs to do both in class and after class in order to pass the proficiency.

There are various things a student needs to do in class in order to pass the proficiency. One of these requirements is regular attendance which is also important in ones department. Unless a student attends regularly, he falls behind. On the other hand, if a student doesn’t pay attention to the lesson while in class, his presence will count for nothing except sitting on a chair. Paying attention involves concentrating on the lesson and asking the teacher questions provided they are necessary and relevant. All of these enable learning in class rather than at home which is very hard.

On the other hand, there are also various things a student needs to do after class in order to pass the proficiency. Although learning in class is essential, language learning is a continuous activity and requires studying at home after class. Doing homework and revision consolidates the learning that takes place in class. In addition, one can always do extra listening and reading activities from sources such as films, music, novels and newspapers. These can be more fascinating for the student and help eliminate any weaknesses.

In conclusion, although the proficiency is a hard exam, preparing for it is not very hard if the advice that is provided is followed. Of course all this requires diligence and perseverance but one can achieve success without facing any trouble with the right approach.

                                                                           BAYRAM AKDENİZ / INT. the first week of November

PROCESS ESSAY / How to become a successful sportsman; the students use the thesis statement and topic sentences posted in the writing file on this blog

Kobe Bryant, Cristiano Ronaldo, Rafael Nadal… The most famous sportsmen in their own fields, earning millions of dollars every year yet these people worked really hard to get to this point in their careers.  They have a luxurious life, sports cars and other trappings of wealth. However, why do these men earn hundreds of thousands of dollars while others can? What makes them so strong and successful?  Becoming a successful sportsman depends on both certain physical and certain psychological factors.

Becoming a successful sportsman is closely linked to certain physical factors. Of course successful sportsmen are talented but they train really hard too. They all spend most of their time at the gym. For example Ronaldo does two hours of extra abs exercises and Kobe does an extra hour of training each day. Doing extra work is their advantage; it keeps them on form and better than others. Although these people have the money to eat any kind of food, they will be dieting until their retirement. It may seem like they have an easy life but their lives involve a lot of hard work and is very stressful. They prefer a regular life to be good sportsmen.

Becoming a successful sportsman is also closely associated with certain psychological factors. There are not a lot of sportsmen who come from rich families. So, all these men are really ambitious and determined people. What’s more, they all get plenty of help from their families because their sports lives began in childhood and not on pitches or tennis courts. The worst thing that can happen to a sportsman is injury. With the right attitude, resilience and patience, any injury can be overcome. One of the most important footballers, Ronaldo, played perfectly after his leg was broken while playing for Inter. The Brazilian striker worked really hard and never dropped his guard and now he is a legend in football. A strong mentality can always keep a sportsman ready for all kinds of trouble.

Of course chance and talent are required to be successful but neither is enough on its own. Working hard and remaining motivated will bring great success to a sportsman. All these things will help anyone in all walks of life not just in sports.

                                                                        SARP YILDIZOĞLU / INT. the second weekof November.

          

        

          

   

                                                                                                         

      

I'M IN HEAVEN! I'M IN HEAVEN! I'M IN HEAVEN AND I CAN HARDLY SPEAK! I'VE GOT VOCABULARY TO TEACH!

The excitement engendered by a vocabulary exercise – i.e. words; rechristened to make them look more with it – in the case of the healthy English teacher is rather hard to fathom for the uninitiated. Assuming that the readers of this paper do, in fact, belong to the former category, I would like to demonstrate. At this point, the correct thing to do is to ask the subject to recline on a sofa or day-bed, close his eyes and listen to the sound of your voice; however, until that wonderful and somewhat maddening program “Dragon Dictate” (thanks James!) also starts reading out loud on tap, that is not going to be possible so instead, just get yourselves a cuppa or your favorite poison and read the following: there is this dear little grid divided into these charming little boxes and down the left, you have the root form of a word; in the little boxes, you have the adjective form, the adverb form, the verb form and the like. There is a neatness and intrinsic beauty about this that the layman just doesn’t seem to understand. Then, you hear someone else whispering in your ear: “economics, economical, economically, economize…” You whip round and say, somewhat feebly:”Satan, get thee behind me!” This remark, you must admit, carried far more weight when it was initially uttered. Satan, who has been at this far longer than “the vocabocholic”, knows very well when someone actually means something so he settles down for a cozy chat: “you can always put words together; you could be the world’s greatest vocabulary creator” he croons; “curtain-twitcher, jay-walker, rubber-necking” he adds – after all he is the Devil. “Bottle opener” you volunteer; “Light bearer” Lucifer responds slyly and you start down that slippery slope. Before you know it, prefixes and suffixes all come tumbling out in a torrent and you are both chanting together:

Singing in class!

Singing in class!

What a glorious feeling!

It’s vocabulary again.

I am dancing with words…

“Sign on the dotted line” he says sweetly – I am pretty sure there must be a dotted line – “No pens necessary; this is really very simple.” he adds before clip clopping off with your soul. This is not the end of the story though; it is only the beginning. You will get a far better seat in that pit and even be given your own pitch-fork if you can procure converts so enter the eighth deadly sin: you need to spread the word.

Did Oscar Wilde get it right?

Have you ever wondered whether Oscar Wilde would have written “Lady Windermere’s Fan” in quite the way he did, had he been an English teacher? It occurs to me that he probably would have scratched out the word temptation, for one thing, and said “I can resist everything except vocabulary exercises.”  Many would, in fact, approve of this revised version of Lady Windermere’s words and the proof of the pudding is in the eating: a casual glance along the book shelves of any reputable store and you will see the plethora of vocabulary books. The reasoning that led to vocabulary books spreading across book shelves like a rash goes something like this: words are the smallest units in a sentence – electrons and atoms; cells and tissue; you get the picture – so analysis of the said units will guarantee comprehension of the sentence they all come together to form, which when dissected and examined under an electron microscope, will enable perfect understanding of the text as a whole. If you believe that, you will believe anything; sorry folks.  The human mind grasps the whole, the general, the complete unit first; the details come later – not the other way round. Playing lab technician with sentences or words will have a most undesirable result: lack of comprehension, intense boredom, lack of motivation, a healthy hatred for “vocabulary books” and consequently, little learning. The use of one of these books in class does have some benefits however, in that the teacher leaves the class replete; as if he has just downed a frightfully healthy but supremely insipid meal. He feels he has done right by the students, which, after all, is his mission in life. In short, he feels GOOD. There are a few other people in the class, the masochists; i.e. the masters students, who share the same delusions as some teachers and writers of vocabulary books and who think they “ought” to be feeling good. They have, after all, been through the rather scholastic and painfully mind numbing state education system. However, unlike the teacher, they don’t feel satisfied; they feel bored but guilty about it, and convinced that they will never learn the language. That frightfully healthy but insipid meal gives them indigestion. The rest of the class probably passed out as the teacher introduced the tedious text that particular unit started with. It is my experience that a lot of writers of vocabulary books seem to have gone to enormous trouble to make the reading texts as soporific as humanly possible. One universal favorite, for instance, is “Language Change and Development of English”.  A vocabulary book is yet to be printed that doesn’t cover this topic. There is always some hopelessly out dated text on computers; the reasoning being that students “like” such things.  The list goes on and on… Another one I recall concerns the history of telecommunications; riveting you must admit.  What follows the text is a set of little grids followed by neat little bunches of words which need to be placed in dear little three or four sentence paragraphs and similar stuff.  The whole thing is rounded off with a “delightful” little writing task which nobody ever does.

Sylvia Plath got it right!

Latterly, some vocabulary books have been produced which are vaguely “doable”. The books that work are more akin to reading books than anything else, which is as it should be. “Focus on Vocabulary” is such a book and does work although I personally don’t see the need for it, provided there is a well thought out, balanced reading program. There are also innumerable books which include vocabulary games and puzzles; one word of caution though: these books are time fillers rather like songs and although useful and fun, don’t constitute the core of the program. Peter Watcyn Jones’ wonderful series of five books printed by Longman would constitute a good example for such books and I have used them at the ends of hours or to keep those good students who complete their work early busy. I must confess though that in all my years of teaching, I never, ever used a vocabulary book of the sort described in the previous paragraph in class; even when it was part of the syllabus. I agree with Sylvia Plath that on their own, words are “dry and riderless” (see the poem Words out of The Colossus). Words have shades of meaning that only become obvious in the right context with the help of which the reader can “feel” the word as well. This latter function of context is especially important in the case of the English language with its rich and varied vocabulary. I would like to demonstrate what I mean by this with a series of examples involving words I have selected randomly the first of which involves the teaching of the word mute. The Longman English Dictionary states that the word mute means “silent, without speech”, which seems straightforward enough but now take a look at a section of this brilliant little poem by Thomas Hardy:

Snow in the suburbs

Every branch big with it,

Bent every twig with it;

Every fork like web-foot

Every street and pavement mute:

Some flakes have lost their way, and grope upwards when

Meeting those meandering down, they turn and descend again.

On reading this poem and observing the use of the word mute, one suddenly realizes that there is a lot more to the word and it only becomes obvious in the correct context. The silence of the snow is something we can all relate to; it isn’t just any silence. Before discussing what exactly is meant by the correct context and how to determine it, let us consider another word: intimidate for instance. The Longman English Dictionary states that the word means “to make someone fearful enough to do what he wants”.   The word means a good deal more than this though as becomes obvious on reading the following diary entry concerning a visit to an elderly relative:

I have always hated having to visit Great Aunt as we called her; none of us really knew her name. We found her terribly intimidating and would drag our feet all the way to her house. Her house was full of dark, cumbersome furniture which seemed to share her grim view of life. The long heavy drapes came right down to the thick dark carpets so that the house was dusky even at mid day. Great Aunt was a giant and towered above us all. I remember she was always dressed in black as she had never recovered from seeing her son hanged….

It is true that intimidate does mean to make one fearful but the relationship between the victim and the source of the fear only becomes clear on reading this entry. The author of the diary is a child and the source of the fear is a fearsome, elderly relative. A junior clerk may be intimidated by the boss; a new recruit may be intimidated by a vicious drill sergeant or a first former may be intimidated by a sixth former.  This unequal relationship only becomes obvious in the correct context.

The last word is eerie and is clearly stated to mean “causing fear because strange” in our trusty friend The Longman English Dictionary. Now consider, if you will, the use of the word in an appropriate context: The New Yorker magazine describes this section of Che Guevara’s Motorcycle Diaries as eerie. ” (The last section of the Motorcycle diaries is eerie.)

I knew that when the great guiding spirit cleaves humanity into two antagonistic halves, I will be with the people…Howling like a man possessed, I will assail the barricades and trenches, will stain my weapon with blood and consumed with rage,  will slaughter any enemy I lay hands on.

This quote sends shivers down one’s spine and most certainly dispels any romantic image of the man. The latter is, however, beside the point; what it also does, according to The New Yorker is correctly exemplify the word “eerie". There is simply no other word that better describes the feeling produced by this quote.

So what is the problem? I hear you say; vocabulary books provide context too. Nobody disputes the need to contextualize; it is finding the perfect context that will give something close to an MRI image that is the problem.

The perfect context

Discovering the perfect context necessitates looking in the right place to start with but this is far from being sufficient: the teacher must also be able to recognize the perfect context when he sees it.  When a housewife goes to market, she can tell, at a glance, whether the fish is fresh or not. Likewise, a doctor can tell just by observing you as you enter his surgery that you probably have a thyroid problem – firsthand experience I assure you.  They are able to do this because they are experts and have had lots of experience. Getting back to our field of expertise, have you any idea how many phrases we have in English relating to the Dutch for instance? You have probably heard of Dutch ovens but how about a Dutch auction or a Dutch uncle? Did you know that speleology involves the scientific study of caves and has nothing to do with spelling? How about the word travesty? It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with transvestites I assure you. If you are hooked on scrabble and crosswords like myself and my family, you will run into these and a very odd assortment of other words as well. I remember some years ago, when I was back in the UK, I forget which daily suddenly decided not to run their regular crossword. The furore that followed caught the editor by complete surprise:  hundreds phoned in to complain – including yours truly – others descended on Fleet Street en masse. Needless to say, the crossword reappeared the next day with a note from a very contrite editor. I seem to have wandered off again; crosswords are a sensitive topic for the vocabocholics among us you see. Ideally of course, the good teacher needs to be an avid reader with a keen eye!   At this point, having realized what I am driving at, some of you may have started brisling but just hear me out. Did you know that educated native speakers use approximately 5000 words in speech and up to 10.000 in written communication? Did you know also that Shakespeare used 33.000? He was sort of special but how about this: the largest English language dictionary in the world is the Oxford English Dictionary and is 20 volumes; 20 volumes of vocabulary… Can anyone honestly claim to know anywhere near all of them? Yet, as English teachers, we do, at least, need to match the prowess of the educated native speaker. It is unfair and well nigh impossible to expect this feat to be accomplished by graduation, if the prospective teacher is training in a foreign country. Assuming that all learning is complete as soon as one lands one’s first teaching job is, however, sacrilege.  It is true that Doctor Johnson famously said “What I know not is not knowledge” Considering what he had achieved, that was, perhaps, acceptable; it most certainly isn’t for anyone else.  Sadly, there are many who have the very responsible job of educating the younger generation who have made little or no effort to better themselves in their many years at the helm.

Assuming that the teacher is an educated native speaker or as proficient as one, the next thing to do is to look in the right place. Logic dictates that one consults works where the chances of having misused words are slim.  The works of reputable writers or academics are a good place to start. Magazines and newspapers with strict standards are also good, safe sources of material; The Economist, the Guardian and The Times for instance.  The level of English in all these publications is of a certain standard and level of sophistication; they won’t let you down.  Then there is that parallel universe: the internet but one needs to remember that there is no editor there; what you see is what you get. It is a great mistake to assume that everything on the internet is correct or well written so the teacher needs to pick and choose taking on board what is useful and well written, and avoiding the gibberish or trash.  In short, we are surrounded by reading material galore so why have vocabulary books?

Off with their heads!

The Queen of hearts was a little too fond of summary executions perhaps, but I do honestly feel that a lot of writers of vocabulary books could make better use of their time writing decent reading books where the texts and tasks get progressively harder – not at snail’s pace but at a brisk trot. The market has been craving such reading material for years and no amount of plain speaking to publishers seems to help – believe me, I have tried. If such books were available, our job as teachers would be simple indeed as all we need to be able to teach vocabulary is decent reading material and the know how to work with it ( see the papers on the teaching of reading). That not being the case, it is back to the grind stone for us; we have to do it ourselves. Hopefully, one day, the penny will drop and we will have, at our finger tips, the ideal reading book. Now, wouldn’t you like that for your next birthday!  On that happy thought, I will leave you …