commit to user
21
g. The dictionary
Silberstein 1948: 110 states that dictionary is a source of many kind s of information about words. Students often benefit from instruction and practice
using an English dictionary. The elements of a dictionary entry should be introduced before students are asked to use dictionaries independently. Too often
teachers forget that it is the students who are learning and, in general, the more the students are involved in the process the more successful that is likely to be. Text
should not contain very large numbers of new words so there should not be a great number of new words at any one time. One technique for explaining these which
teacher s too frequently overlook is asking the class whether anybody knows the word-individual students do learn things outside the classroom. If not, asking one
or more students to look the word up in a dictionary at lower levels a bilingual dictionary; at higher levels a monolingual dictionary. In this way the process of
“learning a new word” also provides practice in important learning skills- dictionary using-and, for those using a good monolingual dictionary-ensures that
they do have other examples for words used in context, a note on its stress, etc.
h. Verbal explanatio n
Some language items are best explained by being used in a variety of contexts, with the teacher commenting on the use. It is important with such
explanation s to use more than one context to avoid any accidental features of that particular context.
This kind of explanation is particularly useful in dealing with lexical items common within functional teaching. Most “functional phrases” are best explained
commit to user
22
by two or three examples and description of the function performed. It is not usually necessary to add further explanation.
i. Translation
In this technique, the teacher explains the meaning of the new words using the learners’ mother tongue. Although some teachers over use this technique, it is
equally true that others under use it. To some it is seen as boring and traditional.
B. Graphic Organizers 1. The Definition of Graphic Organizers
One way to help make a curriculum more supportive of students and teachers is to incorporate graphic organizers. Basically graphic organizers are
instructional tools used to illustrate a student or class’s prior knowledge about topic or section of the text. Semantic Map, structured overview, web, concept
map, semantic organizer, story map, graphic organizer...No matter what the special name, a graphic organizer is a visual representation of knowledge. It is a
way of structuring information, of arranging important aspects of a concept or topic into a pattern using labels Bromley, Irwin-DeVitis, Modlo, p. 6. Hall
Strangman in
http:www.grapicorganizerGraphicOrganizersHTML.asp.htm states that graphic organizer is a visual and graphic display that depicts the
relationships between facts, terms, and or ideas within a learning task. Graphic organizers are also sometimes referred to as knowledge maps, concept maps, story
maps, cognitive organizers, advance organizers, or concept diagrams. Semantic
Kategori