DICTIONARY SKILLS / dɪkʃənri skɪls/

1. DICTIONARY SKILLS/ dɪkʃənri skɪls/ Group members: • LuiChai Ying • MohdIszwan Bin Isnin • Yong Fee Sim

2. What is dictionary? • Reference book containing words, usually arranged in alphabetical order. • It gives information about their meaning, pronunciation and uses.

3. 7 Special Forms 6 Part of Speech 4 phonetics symbols

4. 1 • Guide Words • Different dictionaries have different numbers of guide words on the top of each page. • At the top of each page of the dictionary, there is one GUIDE WORD. • The first word is the same as the guide word at the top of that page • Using alphabetically order, you will find all the words. • Example: • Page 588 in the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary shows the first word is same with the guide words, “forgive”.

5. 2 • Headwords • The words you look up on a page are printed in bold type. • Example: “Rubber” (on page 1292). It is written in bold type and found toward the middle of the right hand column.

6. Words divided into syllables by placing a dot (•) or slash (\) between them. • Knowing where to split a word correctly • Examples: • 3 • Syllabication • rab·bit • re·flec·tion • pre·sen·ta·tion

7. symbols that follow the headword and are set off with slashes (/) • Help to pronounce words correctly • Most consonants are pronounced only one way • Example: “Can you tell me what is the first sound is in fish?” “It’s /f/” • 4 • Phonetic Symbols

8. It tells you to put a little more stress on the syllable that follows the accent mark than on the other syllables. • Examples: husband – primary stress / ˈhʌzbənd / continue – secondary stress / kənˈtɪnjuː / presentation – tertiary stress / ˌpreznˈteɪʃn / • 5 • Accent marks

9. 6 • Parts of speech • The short forms printed in italics are useful. Here’s a simple explanation. • Some words can be used in several different places in a sentence. • This means that the word can be used as a noun, a word that names a person, place, or thing, or it can be used as a verb describe an action. • Examples: • The light is not bright enough. (noun-naming a thing) • I always light the oil lamp when power goes off. (verb-shows an action) • Mary usually decorates in a light style. (adjective- describes something)

10. Continue… • The part of speech abbreviations are listed here. • n..................noun • pron.............pronoun • adj...............adjective • adv..............adverb • vb................verb • conj.............conjunction • prep.............preposition • interj............interjection

11. 7 • Special Forms • Some words in English are inflected . • If a word has some special forms, they are listed after the part of speech. • Examples: • What is the plural of “tomato”? (tomatoes) • What is the past tense of “rise”? (rose) • If a word has more than one acceptable spelling, it is also listed here. • Usually the preferred spelling is given first.

12. References • Anonymous. (2008). Retrieved 25 June, 2012 from http://www.tlsbooks.com/dictionaryskillsreview.html. • Anonymous. (1998). Dictionary Skills. Retrieved 26 June, 2012 from http://www.nald.ca/library/learning/ academic/english/diction/module1.pdf. • Barry & Scholes,A.( 2001) Collins Junior Dictionary Skills. London, England: Harper Collins Publisher Ltd • Wright, A. (1998), Dictionaries, Oxford University Press, Hong Kong.