Homeschooling French As a Second Language - Using a Dictionary to Build Vocabulary

When you have access to a good quality, comprehensive, French-English dictionary, you open up a world of possibilities to your French as a Second Language students. Vocabulary building is an important part of language learning, and having a good dictionary makes it easy and fun.

What dictionary should you buy? I highly recommend investing in the biggest and best one you can afford. Small paperback and pocket dictionaries just don't have all the information you will need. A larger version, on the other hand, will contain conjugations, grammar, word histories, examples of world usage, and even sample letters and phrases to help you in conversation and composition.

Having a comprehensive dictionary allows you to build your French lessons based on other topics that you may be studying. If you are studying the continents of the world, for example, you can look them up and label them on your map in both French and English.

As you work through your history or science lessons, you can also do themed projects in French, such as booklets, posters, and oral presentations using the vocabulary of the specific areas you are working on. You might assign, for example, a poster on the mammals of North America. Your students can label their projects in English and French to double up on the learning potential.

One favorite project, when I taught my middle school classes, was always a restaurant menu. In our unit on food, students would make themed menus, designing colorful covers, inventing interesting restaurant names, and listing off the various meats, vegetables, beverages, and other foods they were learning about. Some students chose a sports theme, some a garden theme, etc. As a follow-up we would use the menus to act out a visit to the restaurant.

Having a comprehensive dictionary allows you to follow areas of interest to your children such as soccer, basketball, animals, cooking, etc. For a few years, I taught a group of homeschooled boys in my home once a week. One of our projects was learning about hockey equipment. I brought out my son's smelly hockey gear and spread it around my kitchen and we named each piece. Then the boys drew pictures of hockey players, labelling their equipment. It was great fun, and the boys were motivated because it was a topic they were interested in.

Are you planning your vegetable garden for next spring? Map out where you will plant your beans, tomatoes, etc. and label it in French. Do you feed the birds in your backyard? Make a checklist in French of birds that are common to your area and check off each bird as you see it. Are you making a fun dessert for the family? Find the recipe in French and see if it tastes just as good!

With a comprehensive French-English dictionary, you can make French a relevant and fun part of your homeschool curriculum.

If you are interested in adding French as a Second Language to your homeschool, or are looking for teaching aids for your French classroom, take advantage of the free resources available at http://nallenart.org/. Norma Allen is a veteran homeschooler and curriculum writer who has also taught French either in the classroom or online for over 25 years.

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Use An Electronic Dictionary To Improve Your Vocabulary

George W Bush can't say 'nuclear'. Does it matter? He is the most powerful person in the world. But he is ridiculed for his vocabulary and use of words. Would you want power as well as respect? With the daily use of a good electronic dictionary you will begin to improve your pronounciation as well as your vocabulary.

From my research I know that with the latest sound technology pronounciations of difficult words are much more audible and copiable. The searches are that much quicker than they used to be and the handheld electronic dictionary now sits snugly in your pocket, unlike your old style paper dictionary.

There was a little boy who asked for a hamburger but he was never able to have it cooked the way he liked or with different kinds of filling due to his limited vocabulary. That little boy was all of us. Most of us are still unable to ask for things exactly the way we want them.

If you are like me and live in a foreign country, not having enough words to express yourself becomes even more problematic.

After consulting my paper dictionary I found out that microphone is spelt the same way as in English. I went up to the shopping assistant and asked for a 'microphone' for my PC in my best spanish accent but he didn't understand me. I then whipped out my PDA and got it to say the word 'microphone' to him as a test. I thought then that these things really work.

An electronic dictionary can now be used when ever you need it as they are small, fast and and audible. They can be standalone handheld, or downloaded to your PDA and cellphone or you can use free online dictionaries.

I suggest you try out some of the free resources available that can be found on the internet. Download some free, shareware or trial software and use a few of the free online dictionaries. There are dictionaries available for topics such as languages, legal, medical, science, technical, business and math to name a few.

If you have just 7 minutes a day, use an electronic dictionary. Then you can build an executive vocabulary that grants you instant credibility and persuasive power by knowing exactly what words to say and when to say them.

Daniel J Lesser is the creator of http://www.best-electronic-dictionary.com

A whole world awaits with the right words in your hands.

Find out how you can expand your horizons at best-electronic-dictionary.com

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Where to Find International Vocabulary Words: World Dictionary Lists

Before I explain how useful online dictionaries are, let me tell the whole truth: I must have several ancient dictionaries around me at home. For one, they are sometimes faster and offer the background story and language of many words. Also, they contain archaic vocabulary words. I love dying vocabulary words. When I picked Humdinger as the name of my e-zine, it was with the thought that the word humdinger is in danger of becoming archaic. I thought that in some way, I might preserve at least one word. Back to dictionaries, though. Writers need access to multiple vocabulary resources. If you write often, then you know this; if you don’t, you’ll learn soon. What I’d like to do is provide you with some great resources to check and bookmark if you find them useful.

Do you write freelance articles about surprising topics? Need specific words for a certain country, cuisine, or culture? Try this website, which provides pages of links to very unusual dictionaries and glossaries:

Glossarist World Glossaries and World Dictionaries at:

http://www.glossarist.com/glossaries/world-regions-countries-travel/

Do you need to know how to pronounce that odious word you copied from a dictionary and now have to read aloud for an audience?

MSN Encarta (claims to have 100,000 entries):

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/dictionaryhome.aspx

Would you like to access dictionaries to Spanish, French and Italian?

WordReference.com

http://www.wordreference.com/

Do you need to translate whole portions of text from one language to another (without having to hire someone to do it)?

Try one of my all-time favorites, AltaVista’s Babelfish:

http://babelfish.altavista.com/

At Babelfish, you can copy and paste up to 150 words at a time. What a wonderful tool! Mind you, this isn’t for perfect translations, but it will provide enough for you to understand the meaning of the document in question or communicate something important. Incidentally, if you want to provide others with the opportunity to translate your site into multiple languages, Babelfish offers that too at:

http://www.altavista.com/help/free/free_searchbox_transl

Now that I’ve given you so many great resources, let’s add one more unusual one: a slang dictionary list website. Now you can find words people really wish you didn’t know. How authentic you can make your characters sound!

The Alternative Dictionaries

[http://www.notam02.no/~hcholm/altlang/]

Note: Some of the slang dictionaries at the above site are pdf. files and some aren’t. Each dictionary varies in size, but the first language listed, Acadian, is not a great example of all the language available there. Keep in mind, though, that the slang provided is of the most colorful variety (not for the innocent).

Revitalize those lethargic manuscripts you have decorating desk space for a final polish, or write new articles, books, or novels with accurate, exuberant, bewitching vocabulary.

Good luck word hunting!

Pen to Paper~

Chris Goebel

Editor, Humdinger Literary E-zine

http://www.humdingerzine.com

Subscribe to Chris Goebel’s newsletter, Jack of Genre: Newsletter for Writers, at:

http://user98512.websitewizard.com/Jack-of-Genre.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Would you like to use this article in your e-zine or on your website? Just include the author’s blurb (above) with the article.

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Teachers - Build Vocabulary With a Variety of Different Dictionaries (Not a Class Set)

Why in the world would you have 'class sets' of dictionaries?  Because that's what everyone else does?  You are  smarter than that, right?

To explore that further, please answer the following questions:

Do all of the students in your class read at exactly the same level? 
Does any dictionary have ALL the features, words, tools, and resources that you need?
Are you capable of - and interested in - differentiating instruction for your students?

Here are the answers I'd predict for anyone reading this article:

No.
No.
Yes.

Given those answers, let's think about making the case with other teachers in your building about using a variety of dictionaries instead of the proverbial 'class set.' 

Students read at a range of reading levels, no matter whether they are in first grade or are juniors in high school.
Students need dictionaries that are appropriate for their reading level or there is little or no chance that they will access them.
If students don't use the dictionaries that are in a classroom, then there is little reason to have them in the classroom.
Students need dictionaries that are challenging enough to make them interesting but not inaccessible because the reading level is too high.
If everyone in the classroom is using a different dictionary (or at least it appears that way) when students are doing dictionary work, then no one feels singled out because s/he is the ONLY one with a higher or lower level of dictionary.  The idea is for all students to feel included in the learning event.

Let's hope you can use some of these reasons/arguments with some of your colleagues.  When you do, then have a dictionary 'swap.'  Have all the teachers (who 'get it') bring their dictionaries to a central location (like your classroom).  Whatever number of dictionaries that a person comes in with is the number s/he will leave with.  Everyone can wander around the classroom choosing from the piles of dictionaries that are displayed. 

An additional way to differentiate your dictionary selection is to go to garage sales (normally I'm not a fan) and buy dictionaries that are available.  Old, new, battered, whatever...buy them for 50 cents or thereabouts.

Another way is  to check out the discount tables at bookstores.  I'm stunned at the fabulous, brand new dictionaries that one can purchase for a few dollars.

And yes... yet another way is to ask parents, friends, or local libraries to donate dictionaries for your classroom.  MANY people will say yes - and this adds to the array of choices your students will have the next time you say, 'Good news, it's time for some word play and dictionary fun!' 

Have you "traded" some dictionaries with grade levels above or below yours so that you have a wider range of dictionaries?

Make the dictionaries in your classroom irresistible and then students will clamor for opportunities to just enjoy them.  I know because I was one of 'those' classroom teachers who did things like that.  I'll bet you are, too.  Hooray for us!!!

And if you would like to access scores of free resources that you can use to support the learners in your classroom, including PowerPoints, PDFs, and Word documents, just go to

** http://www.OwningWordsforLiteracy.com - and you can click on the Downloads tab.

To get numerous articles with teaching tips (for free), just go to http://www.ArticlesforTeachers.com and see what's there for you to use in your classroom.

(c) 2009 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., "The Ph.D. of Productivity"(tm). Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do. Sound interesting? It is!

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