College Vocabulary

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College Vocabulary
STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS

• By Richard Shepardson
• Palm Beach Community College

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Vocabulary Facts
There are over One MILLION WORDS IN THE ENGLISH
LANGUAGE!

• We use about 20 of the words we know.
• High school students recognize about 50,000 words
  and use only 10,000 of them.
• College students may recognize around 70,000
  words and use about 15,000 of them.
• You will need to learn more than 20,000 new words
  in college, many from specific disciplines.

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Word Meaning

• Without increasing our vocabulary, well struggle
  with our college texts!

Joe and Ann went to school in Portland. They
were antagonists. They saw each other often. They
had lots of altercations. At the end of high
school, Ann maligned Joe. Then Ann moved away.
Joe stayed in Portland. He got a job as a
bailiff. One day Joe was working, and he saw
Ann. Ann did not see Joe. Ann looked
apprehensive. She was being incarcerated.
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Word Meaning

• and be limited to relatively simple vocabulary.

Joe and Ann went to school in Portland. They
were enemies. They saw each other often. They had
lots of fights. At the end of high school, Ann
said bad things about Joe. Then Ann moved
away. Joe stayed in Portland. He worked for a
judge. One day Joe was working, and he saw Ann.
Ann did not see Joe. Ann looked afraid. She was
under arrest.
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How am I going to build my vocabulary?
Take a minute to create a list of vocabulary
building strategies
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Vocabulary Strategies
What do the experts say?
Read, talk, and learn new strategies

• What is needed to produce vocabulary growth is
  not more vocabulary instruction, but more
  reading. (Nagy, 1988)
• As students have opportunities to see, hear, and
  discuss words in contexts, language comes
  alive. (Janet Allen)
• There has been a trend to eemphasize the teaching
  of vocabulary
• however, the NRP (NICHD,2000) showed that
• - direct, explicit instruction and
• - learning from the context are important

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read
write
. . .
Vocabulary Strategies
collocations
context
Word parts
relations
synonyms
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Vocabulary Relations
variations of the word telescopes telescopic teles
coped telescoping
root/part of speech scope/noun
telescope
picture
definition A device used to look at the solar
system
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Words in Context
vertebrate
A cold blooded animal that lays eggs and has
scales or horny plates
mammal
cold-blooded
bird
reptile
animal
insect
snake
alligator
turtle
whale
lion
cow
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STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS

• Make up a novel sentence with the word
• Classifying the word with other words (e.g.,
  concept maps, word maps, semantic maps)
• Write down (brainstorm) all of the words that
  come to mind (synonyms/antonyms)

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Making novel sentences
Which word goes with comprise - example of
Definition to consist of particular parts or
include. The World Trade Organization
comprises more than one hundred nations.
Europeans comprise a majority
of beach goers during Floridas winter
months? The United States comprises fifty
states. Fanel thought the pizza was comprised
of yeast, flour, salt, and oil.
Prior Slide
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Classifying the word with other words
Other Europeans
Pennsylvania is comprised of
Germans (Amish)

Italians
African Americans
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Relating the definition to ones own experience
My family is comprised of many
nationalities. PBCC comprises a significant part
of our education. Students comprise the
majority element at PBCC.
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Collocations Findings words that follow and
precede the word
What words go before and after the word comprise
society, a country, automobiles, house, cake,
classroom
Of (passive)
Examples
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Word Parts
Strategies for Expanding Vocabulary

• Recognizing
• Prefixes
• Suffixes
• Roots

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Word Parts

• Antiretroviral therapy has made a tremendous
• impact on HIV patients.

(Prefix) Anti attacks
(Prefix) Retro backwards
(Root) Viral relating to a virus
antiretroviral something that attacks
retroviruses
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Word Parts
Hyperglycemia is a condition in which an
excessive amount of glucose circulates in the
blood plasma.
(Prefix) hyper too much
(Root) glyc sweet
(Suffix) emia of the blood
Hyperglycemia means high blood sugar.
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Common Prefixes

• Prefixes referring to amount or number
• Example micro - small -microscope
• Prefixes meaning not (negative)
• Example anti -against -antiwar
• Prefixes giving direction or location
• Example sub -under -submarine

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Common Roots

• Examples
• bio - life example biology
• port - carry - example transport
• path - feeling - example sympathy

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Roots Suffixes

• Our college is one of the most prestigious in the
  state.
• Root prestige
• Suffix ious
• New Word prestigious (having prestige or
  distinction)

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Common Suffixes

• Suffixes that refer to condition or quality
• Example ness -kindness
• Suffixes that mean one who
• Example er -teacher
• Suffixes that mean referring to
• Example ship -friendship

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Working with vocabulary
Lets get to work on improving our vocabulary
skills!