TEFL Vocabulary Terminology 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is 'semantic prosody'?
- The rhythm and stress patterns found in vocabulary-rich poetry
- The consistent positive or negative associations a word acquires through its typical collocates (Correct answer)
- A learner's emotional response when encountering new vocabulary
- The prosodic features that distinguish content words from function words
Correct answer: The consistent positive or negative associations a word acquires through its typical collocates
Semantic prosody refers to the attitudinal or evaluative coloring a word takes on from the company it typically keeps, e.g., 'cause' often collocates with unpleasant events.
Question 2: Which vocabulary teaching approach uses a 'word wall' in the classroom?
- Grammar-translation method
- Total Physical Response
- Communicative approach with environmental print (Correct answer)
- Silent Way
Correct answer: Communicative approach with environmental print
Word walls display key vocabulary prominently in the classroom environment, supporting communicative approaches by providing constant visual reference for learners.
Question 3: What is the Academic Word List (AWL) designed to do?
- List the 2,000 most frequent words in everyday English
- Identify vocabulary common across academic disciplines not covered by basic word lists (Correct answer)
- Rank vocabulary items by syllable count for academic writing
- Provide vocabulary for IELTS and TOEFL test preparation only
Correct answer: Identify vocabulary common across academic disciplines not covered by basic word lists
Coxhead's AWL (2000) contains 570 word families that appear frequently across a range of academic subject areas and are not already in the most common 2,000 words.
Question 4: What is 'circumlocution' as a vocabulary communication strategy?
- Borrowing a word directly from the learner's first language
- Describing or talking around a word the speaker doesn't know (Correct answer)
- Mispronouncing a word to fit a known sound pattern
- Using a related word from the same lexical set instead
Correct answer: Describing or talking around a word the speaker doesn't know
Circumlocution is a communication strategy where a speaker describes the concept or function of an unknown word rather than using the word itself.
Question 5: What does 'derivational morphology' involve in vocabulary instruction?
- Tracking how word meanings derive from cultural context
- Teaching how prefixes and suffixes change a word's meaning or grammatical class (Correct answer)
- Analyzing how words evolve historically through language change
- Using root words as prompts for creative writing activities
Correct answer: Teaching how prefixes and suffixes change a word's meaning or grammatical class
Derivational morphology focuses on affixes that alter a word's meaning or part of speech, such as adding '-tion' to 'communicate' to form the noun 'communication.'
Question 6: What is the term for words that are opposite in meaning?
- Synonyms
- Homonyms
- Antonyms (Correct answer)
- Hypernyms
Correct answer: Antonyms
Antonyms are words with opposite meanings, such as 'hot/cold' or 'expand/contract,' and teaching them together can reinforce understanding of both words.
Question 7: What is a 'hypernym' (superordinate) in vocabulary taxonomy?
- A word with an intensely strong connotation
- A general word whose meaning includes more specific words (hyponyms) (Correct answer)
- A compound word formed from two hyponyms
- A word that exceeds normal frequency in a text
Correct answer: A general word whose meaning includes more specific words (hyponyms)
A hypernym is a broader category word (e.g., 'vehicle') that encompasses more specific hyponyms (e.g., 'car,' 'bus,' 'truck').
TEFL Vocabulary Terminology 5
What is 'semantic prosody'?