Improving Vocabulary

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• Improving Vocabulary
• through
• Fairy Tales

Simone Reis January 27-28,2009
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If language structures make up the skeleton of
language, then it is vocabulary that provides
the vital organsand the flesh (Harmer,
1996)
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Overview
? A theoretical proposal ?Vocabulary
improvement ?Nouns, Adjectives and Verbs
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Once upon a time...
Fairy Tales may be wonderful tools for vocabulary
improvement
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Magic Mirror
Nouns
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? Characters( Roles) / Action
(Functions)Rumpelstiltskin
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?. Mandatory ElementRapunzel
Damage or Lack/Shortage The wife wishes
some rapunzel from her neighbors garden (she
doesnt have it lack). To satisfy her wish, her
husband steals the vegetable from his neighbor
that happens to be a sorceress, who demands his
first-born child in exchange (damage).
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? Word FrequencyPuss in Boots
?in 3 tales 7 (child, king, gold, forest, man,
door, hands) ?in 2 tales 9 (miller, castle,
sorcerer, servants, people, country, cat, land,
queen) ?semantic constellation 4 (lake,
partridges, estate, kings wife)
Total of 20 words in the 3 tales
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? Proper Nouns
Rumpelstiltskin ? Rumpelstiltskin
Syndrome Rapunzel ? kind of lettuce (lambs
food). Puss in Boots ? girl or young woman.
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Magic Wand
Adjectives
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Adjectives
Other meanings/ connotations (Thesaurus) Puss
in Boots Puss is the favorite cat in the
country ?
beloved popular
Puss is a smart cat. ?
stylish
bold
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Suffer Act - Win
Verbs
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Speech Acts
What will you give me if I spin it for you?
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Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair for me.
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Listen to me. The king will be driving by, and
when he asks who the owner of this land is,
I want you to answer,' The count. If you dont,
youll be killed.
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Roundup

• Lexicon (nouns, adjectives and verbs) ? culture
  and extra linguistic reality.
• ? Fairy Tales ? tool of linguistics studies
• intercultural studies
• interdisciplinary studies
• psychoanalysis, psychology
• ?
• It could be worthy trying this because

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The words of a language are a treasury of
thoughts, ideas, perceptions and interpretations
of the world, and much more. But a language is
far more than a collection of words. It is a rich
repository of cultural wealth, historical
tradition, social bonds, and modes of individual
self-realization.
Noam Chomsky August 28, 2007
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...and hopefully this might work out happily
ever after. The End
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