Teaching Structures in ESL (Chapter 4)

In chapter 4, it is shown that one important aspect of accessing knowledge is to grasp disciplinary structures. Instead of memorizing a collection of facts and theories, understanding the patterns can help students make connection between concepts and acquire the disciplinary knowledge more easily and effectively. It can also be applied to foreign language learning where memorization is emphasized a lot. When learning English vocabulary, it is helpful for students to know how words are structured ---- the concept of morphemes. With the database of lists of familiar words, teachers may assist students to analyze, categorize, and define what roots, suffixes, and prefixes are. By learning what common suffixes and prefixes mean, students are able to apply to unfamiliar words and infer their meanings. For example, “re” is a prefix added before a root,meaning “repeatedly” or “again.” Grasping it, students can get the big picture of what “reforest” or “reframe” mean even if they have not learned these words. Another example is the antonym. By analyzing the occurrence of prefixes “ir” “in” “im” and “il” used to make antonyms, students will find the rule of assimilation --- “ir” appears before words starting with the letter “r,” like irregular and “im” appears when the words starting with bilabial sounds. By grasping these basic patterns, L2 learners can remember English vocabulary more efficiently and guess the meaning of new words approximately. Therefore ESL teachers should teach students these underlying structures, which equip them with the ability of handling plenty of new but highly related information.

Related Links: Teaching Prefixes "ir" "im" "il" and "in"