Planeacion Use Of The English Dictionary

MATERIALS/RESOURCES

bilingual dictionaries

photocopies of “list of abbreviations” from dictionary being used with entries checked according to appropriate grade level

Quiz: Using bilingual dictionaries (one copy per student)

TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES

access to the internet

Pre-activities

(L1 — first language, L2 — second language)

Have an easy sentence to translate in L1 on the board that includes the word “time,” assuming that you have not yet taught that word in a L2 vocabulary.

Pass out dictionaries and explain the two parts of the dictionary, where to find the list of abbreviations (other helpful sections such as lists of verb tenses can also be observed) and then challenge children look up the word “time” in L2 and choose a word from the various definitions that could be used in the sentence. The students will find a multitude of choices. Explain that they will now learn how to choose.

Tell them that they will be able to play The Dictionary Game at the end of the lessons on Fun-filled Friday or whatever you want to call the reward day or time and offer whatever reward for winning the game that is appropriate.

Activities

Words in bold will be on the assessment and students should make note of them.

Call for a volunteers to review the parts of speech. Explain that it is essential to know which part of speech you are attempting to translate. They are to write their own list of abbreviations as you explain them because they will be tested.

Starting with nouns, explain that many languages give a grammatical gender to their nouns, unlike English, and that the abbreviations /f/ and /m/ identify feminine and masculine, which will help in choosing all of the modifiers that will also be either /m/ or /f/.

Explain that nouns can be either singular or plural, and introduce the abbreviations for number agreement explaining that it means that modifiers of the noun will also be either singular or plural in certain languages that have number agreement. This is the time to pull together that the language has (or has not, if you are teaching ESL) both gender and number agreement for noun modifiers (Help students identify with modifiers by comparing this to modifying a race car or a dress with color dye.)

Write the words “walk” and “roast” on the board and ask what part of speech they are. The students will probably answer “verbs.” Offer the words as nouns in sentences such as: The walk through the woods was beautiful. The roast in the oven smells wonderful. Repeat the question: “Now what part of speech are these words?” This will demonstrate the need for examining which part of speech is needed in the sentence.

Tell them that they have only learned to look up nouns. Now they need to add verbs. There are two types of verbs: transitive and intransitive. In order to teach transitive, ask for words that begin with “trans-.” Expect responses such as transportation, transmit, and transfer. Write two sentences on the board: “I walk.” and “I walk the dog.” Explain the difference with an arrow going from walk to dog that transmits the action, thus being a transitive verb. A second example is: “With the heat in her class, I roast.”

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