Teaching Word Formation

For your vocabulary lesson, you need to teach students the word prediction.

You have 9 other words to teach along with prediction, and thus you have introduced 10
new words to the students. But what if you could quadruple that without taking more
time? By teaching students basic word formation skills early in the term, you can teach
them prediction, predict, predictable, and predictably all at the same time. Once youve
taught students how to manipulate parts of speech in a sentence, they now have
increased their vocabulary by four words instead of just one.
Teaching word formation can be challenging, and students can often get confused as to
whether they should use the adjective or the adverb. Yet, if you teach them these
simple guidelines below, youll be ready to start increasing their vocabulary four-fold
with every new vocabulary list you provide.

How to Teach Word Formation and Parts of Speech

1. 1

Charts

Create a chart/table that has four columns for

noun/verb/adjective/adverb and as many rows as new vocabulary words

you introduce. Its beneficial to give students their own individual chart so

that they can use it for studying, but it would also be helpful to keep a large

chart in the classroom so students can easily be reminded of the patterns

found within.

Dont feel obliged to complete all four columns for every word as not every

word in English neatly breaks down into these four word forms. Sometimes a
 word wont have all of the forms, or the forms may be rarely used in English.

Having gaps in the chart will reinforce the idea that they cant always apply

these patterns.

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Teach common suffixes

By using a chart as recommended above, students will also begin to

see similarities among word endings. Help them to discover the most

common endings for parts of speech and even relationships between parts of

speech. For example, guide them to figuring out that adjectives ending in

able/-ible often take the noun ending ity. (e.g. responsible- responsibility;

possible-possibility; capable- capability)

Here are some other patterns to help your students discover within the chart:

o Common endings

Nouns for things = ment; -ity; -ness; -tion

Nouns for people = -er; -or; -ist

Verbs = rarely have special endings because they get manipulated for

tense; usually the shortest word form

 Adjectives = -ous; -able/-ible; -al; -ed/-ing; -ful/-less; -ic; -ive

Adverbs = -ly

o To form an adverb, add ly to the adjective form (not the noun/verb form)

o If two word forms are the same, it will usually be the noun and verb (e.g.: parent,

answer, guess).

o Nouns ending in tion will usually take the al suffix for adjectives.

Be sure to stress to your students that these are patterns, not rules, and

that there will be some exceptions to most of these patterns. However, by

establishing these patterns concretely, students will be able to vastly improve

their vocabulary quickly, and they will more readily notice and remember

exceptions to the pattern.

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Teach Common Guidelines for usage

Knowing the correct part of speech for a word form is important, but its

less than half the battle. The real challenge comes with being able to know

how to use it appropriately in a sentence. Below are some (but definitely not

all) of the most common usage patterns. Again, emphasize that these are just

guidelines because there are many exceptions in English. Once you have
 taught students these patterns, they will be able to use most word forms

immediately in their writing.

Nouns

o Nouns are people, places, or things.

o Nouns always come before verbs and after verbs.

o Every sentence will have at least one noun.

Nouns are usually in these positions:

o a/an/the ___________

The prediction came true.

o adjective ___________

Wrong predictions are dangerous.

o Possessive (my, your, his, her, Johns) ________

Their prediction was wrong.

o have ____________

I have a prediction.

o ________ Verb

Predictions make peoples lives easier.

Verbs
o Verbs show the action or state of being in a sentence.

o Verbs usually arent the first word in a sentence.

ExceptionCommands: (Go to class.)

o EVERY sentence MUST have a verb!

Verbs are usually in these positions:

o Subject ________________

Jessica predicted that she would win the game yesterday.

o Adverb _______________

He always predicts the weather.

o can/should/might/must _________

She cant predict what he will do.

o didnt/dont ____________

Dont predict something unless you know it is true.

o to ________

Im going to predict your future.

Adjectives

o Adjectives describe nouns (people, places, and things).

o They answer the question: What kind of person/place/thing?

 Adjectives are usually in these positions:

o am/is/are/was/were _______________

The game was predictable.

o _________ noun

Predictable people are easy to understand.

o very __________________

Tony is a very predictable person.

o adverb _______________

Tony is always predictable.

o a/an/the ______________ noun

The predictable answer was yes.

Adverbs

o Adverbs describe verbs or adjectives.

o They answer the question How did he do it?

o Usually, you add -ly to the adjective to make an adverb (but not always!)

Adverbs are usually in these positions:

o _____________________ ,

Predictably, Tommy was late again.

 o __________________ Verb

He predictably walked in late.

o Verb __________________

He walked quickly.

o very _________________

He walked very quickly.

o ________________________ Adjective

Tom is predictably late.

How to Practice Word Formation and Parts of Speech:

1. 1

Word Up Review Game

Write each word form on two different note cards (or make things easy on

yourself by printing the word forms on the computer and then cutting them

into individual words). Divide students into two equal teams and have them

sit in two lines facing their opposing team. Distribute one whole set of word

forms equally amongst each team such that for every word form, a student on

Team A has the word and a student on Team B has the word. Stand in front

of the students and call out the word and part of speech you want for that
 word (e.g., The noun form for predict). The first student to raise their hand

with the word prediction earns a point for their team. Continue until youve

gone through all the word forms; keep in mind that going back and repeating

word forms you have already called out will help keep all students on their

toes and engaged in the activity.

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Grab the ___________

Print off sets of all of your word forms; make sure you have enough for as

many groups as you want. Put students into groups of three or four and have

them arrange their desks in a small circle with each other. Arrange the word

forms evenly on all the students desks. At the front, call out a command

Grab all the adverbs and students must race the other members of their

group to collect as many adverbs as possible. Alternatively, you can follow

the pattern of the Word Up game in this small group fashion and have

students grab the individual word forms that you call out as well.

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 Go Fish

In groups of three or four, distribute one set of all of the word forms to each

group. Each student should have four words in their hand with the remaining

words spread out face-down on a desk. Students must ask each other for the

appropriate forms that they need to complete a set (i.e. adverb, adjective,

noun, and verb). For example, Student A might ask Student B if he has the

Noun form of predict. If he does, Student B must give Student A the form; if

Student B does not have it, Student A draws a word form from the pile on the

desk.

While not all of a learners target vocabulary will be applicable to word formation

(prepositions, idioms, phrasal verbs, etc), teaching students basic word

formation skills will help them to not only build their vocabulary faster but also be

more confident with how to use words in sentences.