Appendices

Appendix A. Vocabulary Map

Are you able to gather ‘vocabulary items’ on the topic?

To speak effectively on any topic, it`s necessary to learn how to do it. So you need to speak on some topic. What is your first step? Start with thinking about the topic in terms of (1) the subject of communication (‘What is it about?’) and (2) the communicative situation (‘What are you in this communication and what is your audience? What are time circumstances, motive, goal; on other words, who with whom, when, where why and for what you ‘are’ communicating. We use here “are communicating” to underline that both interlocutors are active, important and involved). Only after this holistic vision you are to think about vocabulary items to choose.

Look for the language resources in terms of nouns to define people, objects and ideas; adjectives to define their characteristics, verbs for activities presentation, and adverbs for activity characteristics. Mind that an adverb is a universal part of any text content. You have a set of adverbs of manner, place and time which are suitable for any topic. New adverbs can be formed with the help of topical adjectives. For example, purposeful – purposefully, academic – academically.

Build a map that can help you to see all parts of speech systematically and at a glance. Then behind the words you’ll see reality as it is.

This Vocabulary Map helps you to building up your own mini-thesaurus – a set of necessary words (it’s your choice to list them alphabetically or otherwise). It`s possible to complete it with difficult word forms, phrases and stated expressions. The map is aimed at helping you recollect, systematize and conduct further search for necessary words. This thesaurus is your future capital.

Appendix B. An extract from Roget’s Thesaurus of English words and phrases (Penguin books, 2000)

539 School

N. academy, institute, educational i.; college,

lycee, gymnasium, senior secondary school;

conservatoire, ballet school, art s., academy of

dramatic art; finishing school; correspondence

college; university, campus; Open University;

redbrick university, Oxbridge, varsity; sixth-

form college, FE c., college of further or higher

education; polytechnic, poly; alma mater, old

school, groves of academe.

school, nursery s., creche, playgroup, kinder-

garten; infant school; private school, indepen-

dent s., public s., state-aided s., state s.;

preparatory school, prep s., crammer; primary

school, middle s., secondary s., high s., second-

ary modern s., grammar s., senior secondary s;

comprehensive s., sixth form college, FE c.;

boarding school, day s.; night s., evening

classes; Sunday s.; special s.; approved school,

List D s.; reform s., Borstal; remand home,

detention centre; catchment area, parent’s

charter.

In the given article pay attention to the following:

• at the very beginning of the article one sees the word in bold letters that organizes the article itself (the one around which its lexical-semantic field is built);

• the words in italics are thematic for the given dictionary, i.e. theme-building and in some cases field-building; the number added helps to find the correspondent thematic words or words belonging to the field);

• the paragraph signals the start of a new thematic group inside the field;

• the bold letter at the beginning of some paragraphs denotes the part of speech by which the thematic group is represented;

• within the paragraph the comma and semi-colon signal the distance in semantic relationship among the words: the ones that are closer in meaning (the comma) and the ones that are not so close (the semi-colon).

Appendix C. Cognitive Map

A Cognitive Map is a kind of ‘crib’ (a slang word for a Russian “шпаргалка”) which you build in order to ease retelling of the text. In other words, it is a kind of a content skeleton of the text. It presents all important themes and gives an idea how each of them is being developed by the author. It may show three dimensions of the text content organization: (1) a hierarchy one – what is most important, (2) a structural dimension – how this is structured, (3) a systemic dimension – what vocabulary the author uses to present the themes and to develop them. If we want to add a third dimension (i.e., to separate our vocabulary with which we want to present main ideas of the text from the vocabulary of the author (how s/he names the ideas), we need to make the words of the author somehow, for example with italics or bald letter (this is up to you). If you have this third dimension, then while retelling, you can add the author’s specific vision of the idea. If not, then you present the idea as it is without these nuances.