TEACHING RESOURCES FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN EXAMINATIONS

The Hellenic American Union

Lesson Plan for Vocabulary Exercise

By Lyn Waldie

Level: Proficiency
Materials: Paths to Proficiency, pp. 61, 62. Naylor & Hagger, Longman, 1992

2.1 Warm-up Before distributing handout have students brainstorm adjectives that describe
people. List them on the board and then decide as a class if the words have a negative or
positive connotation.

2.2 Distribute handout

2.3 Have students work in pairs to decide the opposites of the positive and negative aspects of
the listed adjectives. Have the students complete the exercise as best they can even if they are
not sure of the meanings.
After matching is complete and the words are gone over, have the students analyze how they
were able to guess meaning and find the opposites of some of the words they weren’t sure of. They
may mention things like: tact is a Greek word, the suffixes –ful, -less indicate positive or negative.
Note the opposite of cautious is reckless but there is no reckful so not all words can work this
way. We have careful, careless; then ruthless but no ruthful. The “rule” here is that neither ruth
nor reck stand alone, yet care and tact do. Note that it is important to avoid translation of
unknown words, have a student who knows the meaning of a word explain it in English. If no one
knows the word then the teacher can explain it.
2.4 Have students read the poem by Nadine Starr then look at the list of adjectives that follow,
and have the class decide how the author would define the connotations of these words.
Students should then decide for themselves in pairs how they view the connotations of these
words and discuss why they feel that way.
2.5 Look through the list of vocabulary termed “strengths” and “weaknesses”. Go over any
unknown vocabulary or lexical items. Able to stand my own ground is a lexical item, while the
student will no doubt know what each individual word means, they may not know the meaning of
the entire phrase. It is important for students to be aware of these types of lexical items, able to
establish a good rapport is another example. Some of the words are Greek words like sarcastic.
Note also that there are some “false friends” from Greek to English, such as sympathetic. If they
are unsure of a word like judgmental have them look for the word judge which they should know
and see if they can determine its meaning.
Once the meaning of all the words is determined have the students follow the instructions on the
handout, that is note which adjectives they think apply to them and then which ones apply to
their partner. The partners then compare and discuss. If the partners don’t know each other
very well, the views might be “impressionistic.”
Have students decide if they agree that the terms defined as “strengths” or “weaknesses” would
be thought of in these categories in their culture.

Teaching Resources for the University of Michigan Examinations page 1 of 2

Lesson Plan for Vocabulary Exercise May 15, 2002
Hellenic American Union
Wrap-up: Find short descriptions of each astrological sign. Have students look at their sign and
see if the descriptive adjectives apply to them. Then they can compare each other’s signs and
descriptions in groups of 3 or 4. The previously learned vocabulary should be used as much as
possible. Circulate and make sure that students are using the new vocabulary appropriately.
Make a note of any errors in usage and then write these on the board. Students should then
correct the errors as a class. For homework students should write a brief description of why they
agree or disagree with their astrological description.

Additional follow-up: (optional)

Have students discuss whether or not assertiveness is a good thing, compare this to
aggressiveness and where the line is between the two.
Have students discuss whether or not one can be too nice.

Teaching Resources for the University of Michigan Examinations page 1 of 2

Lesson Plan for Vocabulary Exercise May 15, 2002
Hellenic American Union