Learning New Words

UNIT 2 from Your Reading

To learn words from your reading:

Read a lot. Research has shown that in order to learn a word, you must encounter it
many times. Each time you see the word in context, you build up a stronger sense of its
meaning. The best way to increase the number of encounters with words and to learm
how words are used is by reading extensively.
Work with a new word in a way that requires active thinking. Simply
noticing the word and looking up the meaning is not enough. You need to analyze
the word and use it in speaking and writing.
Note how a new word is used. If you look closely at the context and
write down the sentence where you found the word, you are more likely to remember it.

Choosing Words to Learn

Since it would be impossible to learn all the new words you encounter in your reading, you
should decide which ones would be the most useful for you and try to learn those.
A word will be useful for you if it is included in one of the word lists (Appendices 1
and 2), or if you have encountered it several times and think you will encounter it again.
In this unit you will practice selecting words from short passages.

Example:
A. Read the excerpt from a textbook and complete the tasks that follow.

Why Is Reading in a Second Language Sometimes Difficult?

Cross-cultural research shows that cultures have
varying attitudes about language in general and
that these differences are reflected in the printed
word. As a result, the way ideas are organized in
expository writing (e.g., in essays) varies across
cultures. Originally called to our attention by
Kaplan (1966), this suggestion has inspired
research in several different languages. Ostler,
for example, found that the patterns of
expository writing in a language "reflect the
patterns valued in the native culture."
Researchers have found significant differences
in text organization between English and the
Korean, German, Japanese, Arabic, and
Athabaskan languages. It is logical to conclude
from this that when people read in a second
language they comprehend best the texts that
meet their beliefs and expectations about the
patterns of written language. To the extent that
the patterns in the text of a second language are
different from those of the first language, the
reader is likely to have difficulty
comprehending.

Learning New Words from Your Reading 31

 Mark each statement T (true) or F (false).

1. Texts such as essays have the same form in every language. F

Different cultures have different ways of organizing texts. T

3. When you read in a second language, you can find the same patterns as in your first
language.
It is easier to read in a language that has text patterns similar to those in your first
language.
Compare your answers with those of another student.

B. Read the passage again and underline the words that are new to you.

C. Look at the word lists in Appendices 1 and 2 (pages 303 and 308) for the words you underlined.
Choose two of your underlined words that are on the lists and write them below. Then write the
part of speech and the dictionary definition that best fits each word as it is used in the passage.

Word Definition
1. research (noun) study of a subject to learn new facts about it
2. varies (verb) to change

3.

EXERCISE 1 --

A. Read the excerpt from a newspaper article and complete the tasks that follow.

How Culture Molds Habits of Thought

By Erica Goode
For more than a century, Western philosophers and
psychologists have based their discussions of mental life
on a cardinal assumption: that the same basic processes
underlie all human thoughf, whether in the mountains of
Tibet or the grasslands of the Serengeti.
Cultural differences might dictate what people thought
about. Teenage boys in Botswana, for example, might dis-
cuss cows with the same passion that New York teenagers
reserve for sports cars.
But the habits of thoughtthe strategies people
adopted in processing information and making sense of
the world around themwere, Western scholars assumed,
the same for everyone, exemplified by, among other
things, a devotion to logical reasoning, a penchant for cat-
egorization and an urge to understand situations and
events in linear terms of cause and effect.
Recent work by a social psychologist at the University
of Michigan, however, is turning this long-held view of
mental functioning upside down. In a series of studies
comparing European Americans to East Asians, Dr. Richard
Nisbett and his colleagues have found that people who
grow up in different cultures do not just think about dif-
ferent things: they think differently.
We used to think that everybody uses categories in the
same way, that logic plays the same kind of role for every-
one in the understanding of everyday life, that memory,
perception, rule application and so on are the same," Dr.
Nisbett said. "But we're now arguing that cognitive
processes themselves are just far more malleable than
mainstream psychology assumed."

(Source: The New York Times, August 8, 2000, excerpt, p. D1)

32 Vocabulary Building
Mark each statement T (true) or F (false).

1. People think about different things depending on where they live.

People all think in the same way.
3. A social psychologist has come up with a new idea about how we think.
Logic is the same in every culture.

Compare your answers with those of another student.

B. Read the passage again and underline the words that are new to you.

C. Look on the word lists in Appendices 1 and 2 (pages 303 and 308) for the words you underlined.
Choose five of your underlined words that are on the lists and write them below. Then write the part
of speech and the dictionary definition that best fits each word as it is used in the passage

Word Definition
1.

3.

5.

D. Write a new sentence for each word above. The sentences should show that you understand the
meaning of each word as it is used in the passage.

1.

3.

5.

E. Ask another student to read your sentences. Then discuss these questions.

1. Do the sentences make sense?

Do the sentences show the meaning of the words?

Learning New Words from Your Reading

 EXERCISE 2

A. Read the excerpt from a textbook and complete the tasks that follow

Symbols
Reality for human beings is not action or feeling
but meaning. Humans are symbolic creatures; a
is anything that carries a particular
meaning recognized by the people who share
culture. A whistle, a wall of graffiti, a flashing
red light, a fist raised in the airall serve as
symbols. We see the human capacity to create
and manipulate symbols in the various ways a
simple wink of the eye can convey interest,
understanding, or insult.
We are so dependent on our culture's
symbols that we take them for granted. Often,
however, we gain a heightened sense of the
importance of a symbol when someone uses it
in an unconventional way, say when a person in
a political demonstration burns a U.S. flag.
Entering an unfamiliar culture also reminds us
( Source: John J. Macionis, Society: The Basics, 4th Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998)
of the power of symbols; culture shock is
nothing more than the inability to "read"
meaning in one's surroundings. We feel lost,
unsure of how to act, and sometimes
frighteneda consequence of slipping outside
the symbolic web of culture.
Culture shock is both what travelers
experience and what they on others by
acting in ways that may offend them. For
example, because North Americans consider
dogs to be beloved household pets, travelers to
the People's Republic of China might well be
appalled to discover people roasting dogs as a
wintertime meal. On the other hand, a North
American who orders a hamburger in India
causes offense to Hindus, who hold cows to be
sacred and thus unfit for human consumption.

Mark each statement T (true) or F (false).

1. A symbol is usually written.

We always notice the symbols of our own culture.
3. In an unfamiliar culture, we feel confused by the symbols.
Culture shock is mostly about food.

Compare your answers with those of another student.

B. Read the passage again and underline the words that are new to you.

C. Look on the word lists in Appendices 1 and 2 (pages 303 and 308) for the words you underlined.
Choose five of your underlined words that are on the lists and write them below. Then write the part
of speech and the dictionary definition that best fits each word as it is used in the passage.
Word Definition
1.

3.

5.

34 Vocabulary Building
 D. Write a new sentence for each word above. The sentences should show that you understand the
meaning of each word as it is used in the passage.

3.

5.

E. Ask another student to read your sentences. Then discuss these questions.
1. Do the sentences make sense?
Do the sentences show the meaning of the words?

' EXERCISE 3

A. Write the words you chose in Exercises 1 and 2. Choose five or more of those words and make
study cards for them.

B. Review your study cards alone and then with another student.

Learning New Words from Your Reading 35