Vocabulary Practice, Elementary

 Vocabulary Practice, Elementary, is for students in a beginner’s English course who wish to check and expand their still-basic vocabulary. The book presents essential terms from a variety of common, everyday topic areas, and provides practice in general English that enables learners to understand and communicate in English in general situations.

 How is the book organized?

This book is arranged into thirty units. Vocabulary is presented in a regular, controlled fashion. Target words are explained using a variety of techniques:

1. short definition; 2. short explanation; 3. related words (derivations) 4. synonyms and/or

antonyms; 5. example sentences; 6. pictures (where appropriate); and 7. parts-of-speech.

In addition, word-formation boxes are provided to emphasize the importance of having sound knowledge of the meaning and significance of various affixes – prefixes, suffixes, and infixes. Such knowledge is an invaluable tool in helping students guess the meanings of the many unknown words they will inevitably encounter in their textbooks and on the job. Explanations, varied exercises, and illustrations are provided to aid, motivate, and test students’ learning. All this will help students develop strategies for learning new vocabulary on their own when they have finished using the book.

The Answer Key at the back of the book gives correct answers to the exercises. The key sometimes has more than one answer. This is because often there is not just one correct way of expressing something.

To the Student

Read, practise, and learn is the key to getting the most benefit from this book. Read through each entry very carefully, studying the definitions, explanations, and examples which illustrate the meaning of the word. Then practise them by yourself aloud (or at least silently) and/or with others until you have learnt what the word means and how to use it in context. At the end of each section, exercises are provided so you can get extra practice, and you can check how well you remember the vocabulary you have been studying. When you have finished an exercise, you can look up the correct answers at the back of the book.

If you are studying without a teacher, do not simply go through the book “filling in the blanks.” When you learn new words, practise them and note the spellings before you do other exercises. It is not enough to understand new words; you must use the words for them to become part of your active vocabulary.

Remember to study carefully the information in the word-formation boxes. Learning the meanings of prefixes such as dis-, anti-, hyper-, and over-, and suffixes such as -er, -or, -less, and -able will make it possible for you to successfully guess the meaning of many unknown words. For example, recognizing word endings such as -ion, -sion, -ation, -al, -y, -ize, and -ify will help you decide if a word is a noun, an adjective, or a verb.

Try to have a dictionary with you when you use this book. This is because sometimes you may want to check the meaning of a word, or find a word in your native language to help you remember the English word.

To the Teacher

The vocabulary items in this book are presented systematically, following principles of learning that lead to successful language acquisition. The items are divided into thirty units that cover the most commonly used words in general locations and situations.

The principal aim of this book is to ensure that students build up a solid lexical base. This will solve many of the difficulties learners have with both receptive and productive language. For learning to occur, the learner must pay attention to the new material and make an effort to learn it. Every attempt has been made to include definitions and examples in language simple enough that students will understand, and exercises are provided for each unit. Vocabulary items, once introduced, are recycled as frequently

as possible in later exercises. It is suggested that weekly quizzes be given to test the items covered. Such achievement tests not only inform the teacher about the progress of his/her students, they also assist the language-acquisition process by motivating learners to study and by giving yet another meaningful repetition (recycling) of the vocabulary items.

When students have worked through a group of units, it is a good idea to repeat some of the work (for example, the exercises) and to expand on the meaning and use of key words and phrases through extra discussion in class, and find other examples of the key words in other texts and situations. This repeated exposure helps students to truly acquire the vocabulary.

When your students have finished all the units in this book, they are ready to move on to higher-level books in this series: Vocabulary Practice: Lower Intermediate Vocabulary Practice: Intermediate; Vocabulary Practice:Upper Intermediate; and Vocabulary Practice: Advanced.