WORKING WITH HEADWORDS
43
2.4 Word sets
LEVEL
Elementary and above
TIME
20 minutes +
AIMS
To practise word formation and vocabulary development.
MATERIALS
List of words (see the example on the next page); pieces of card.
PREPARATION
Decide which word sets to use. Copy the list of words overleaf or
make a similar one at your students level. Make enough copies
for each player to have two sets of four words. Cut out the words
and write or stick each one on to a separate card. If you use card,
or can laminate it, the game can be re-used, and that will reduce
the cutting and sticking in the future.
PROCEDURE
1 Put the students into groups of 56. Explain that they are going
to play a game and that each person will receive eight cards,
each with a word on.The players have to collect two complete
word sets. Each word set has a noun, a verb, an adjective, and
an adverb (some with negative forms). Shuffle and deal out the
cards, face down, so that each player gets eight.
2 Tell the players to look through their cards and decide which
word families to collect. Before the collecting starts, ask each
person to predict what the missing members of the word
families should be.They can use dictionaries to check their
guesses and they should write down their ideas.
3 Now the game starts: each player must choose one word and
pass it, face down, to the left. If a player receives a card he or
she wants to keep, he or she must pass on a different one from
his or her hand.
4 When someone has two complete word sets, they shout stop!
And the game is at an end. (The quick version of the game is to
stop with one complete set.)
5 How close were the others to finishing? Can they predict which
cards they needed to complete their hands? How many of their
guesses in step 2 were correct?
6 Give the groups 510 minutes to try to put as many of their
words into the context of a story as possible, using a dictionary
for guidance. (This can also be done for homework.)
VARIATION
Instead of each person choosing one card to pass on to their
neighbour, each player in turn asks another player for a specific
card to complete a set: for example, Have you got width? If they
have, they must hand it over. If not, its the next players turn.
DICTIONARIES
Oxford University Press www.oup.com/elt
44
WORKING WITH HEADWORDS
Example (Lower-intermediate level)
wide
width
widen
widely
entertaining
entertainment
entertain
entertainingly
nominal
name
nominate
nominally
basic
base
base
basically
decisive
decision
decide
indecisively
productive
product
produce
productively
receptive
reception
receive
receptively
comparative
comparison
compare
comparatively
friendly
friendship
befriend
in a friendly
way
argumentative
argument
argue
arguably
Photocopiable Oxford University Press
DICTIONARIES
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WORKING WITH HEADWORDS
45
repetitive
repetition
repeat
repeatedly
various
variety
vary
invariably
agreeable
agreement
agree
disagreeably
believable
belief
believe
unbelievably
criminal
crime
incriminate
criminally
enthusiastic
enthusiasm
enthuse
enthusiastically
different
difference
differ
differently
satisfied
satisfaction
satisfy
satisfactorily
apparent
appearance
appear
apparently
bored
boredom
bore
boringly
Photocopiable Oxford University Press
DICTIONARIES
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46
WORKING WITH HEADWORDS
reliable
reliability
rely
unreliably
high
height
heighten
highly
impressive
impression
impress
impressively
soft
softness
soften
softly
Photocopiable Oxford University Press
2.5 Affixes
LEVEL
Intermediate and above
TIME
1520 minutes
AIMS
Raising students awareness of word formation; facilitating
vocabulary development.
MATERIALS
One dictionary per pair.
PROCEDURE
1 Write the word happy on the board. Ask the class how many
words they know that have the same stem, for example:
happily, unhappy, unhappily, happiness.Tell the students that
they can double their word power by knowing how to use
affixes (beginnings and endings) such as un-, -ly, -y etc.
2 Put the class into pairs and ask them to think of endings which
make nouns from other words. Give them two minutes to think
of as many of these endings as they can.
3 They call out the endings they have thought of.Write them up
on the board or overhead projector. Ask for examples of words
with these endings.Which suffixes refer to people? (-er, -ee, -or,
-ian, -ist) Which refer to abstract qualities? (-tion, -sion, -ment,
-ity, -ness, -y)
DICTIONARIES
Oxford University Press www.oup.com/elt
