Stage 2 guidelines for writing: Vocabulary

Here is a vocabulary objective for Stage 2 for writing:

• To acquire enough vocabulary to express yourself simply, with some circumlocution, on concrete topics of need and interest

Here are some vocabulary strategies for Stage 2 guidelines for writing:

Analysis List the topics you need to be able to write about. You will need to gain vocabulary items that fit into these specific topics. Within each semantic domain group words in ways that show the relationships among the words. Practice Reading about your favorite subjects is one of the best ways to learn vocabulary you can use in writing. While reading, put down new words or words which you think would be useful to your writing. Afterwards, check it out with a language associate (LA) for acceptability and clarification. Selective attention Work with one topic at a time. As you learn new vocabulary, try to incorporate it in your writing and speaking. Also listen to conversations with a new awareness of those words and how they are used in interactions.

Here are some vocabulary techniques for Stage 2 guidelines for writing:

• Try writing summaries or paraphrases of what you read. Get an LA to check what you write to see if you are using the vocabulary correctly. Ask the LA for other words (synonyms) you could have used. Group words by semantic category or topic.
• The Look and Listen techniques

Here are some informal vocabulary activities for Stage 2 guidelines for writing:

• Use your writing skills in everyday life: to take phone messages, to write notes or letters to friends, and to summarize what you are reading, seeing, and doing.

  If you use writing at work and it is important that what you write be accurate, get someone to edit it for you, but do the draft yourself. Writing is hard work at this stage, but the more you write, the better you will be. Do not let fear of making mistakes keep you from writing.

• The Eating Out activity
• The Reading the Signs activity
• The Telephone Procedures activity

• Generic module: Stage 2 guidelines for writing: Vocabulary
• In overview module: Stage 2: Writing modules
• In modular book: Guidelines for a Language and Culture Learning Program, by Carol J. Orwig
• In document collection: Other Resources
• In bookshelf: Language Learning

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 3.5, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 8 December 1998

© 1999 SIL International