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Learning vocabulary in context

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Latest post Sat, Jan 27 2007 11:52 AM by Elisia_elf. 5 replies.
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Elisia_elf  +  319702 Thu, 25 Jan 07 11:16 AM

Hi everybody!!!

As you all well know learning vocabulary is one of the most strenuous tasks Elementary students have to face. What's more, Advanced students come upon the same problem as they pile up set of new words with each lesson.

 I read somewhere that you have to come across a single word at least 7 times in different context in order to properly get its meaning. Do you know a good link to a dictionary or other kind of source where you can type a word and get its usage in different context (like extracts from literary sources, etc.)? My concern is not with the meaning of the word but with its usage.

Thank you!

Elisia_elf
Joined on Wed, Jan 24 2007
New Member 03
Marius Hancu  +  319711 Thu, 25 Jan 07 11:38 AM
I'd strongly suggest buying these books:

Oxford Collocations
The BBI Dictionary for English Word Combinations

Also, consider this site:
http://www.answers.com/library/Idioms
(both word and idiom searches)
as they provide many examples

For literary context, I'd suggest searches at:
http://www.google.com
on the literature.post site, say search with:
site:literaturepost.com "struggle with"
(quotation marks are important)
Marius Hancu
Joined on Wed, Apr 26 2006
Veteran Member 11,673
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Elisia_elf  +  319947 Thu, 25 Jan 07 08:12 PM

Thank you very much Marius,

Google.com is one of the possible decisions but, most of the times, when you search through the address bar you get a lot of name domains containing the word you're searching for, and have nothing to do with the usage of the word (i.e. names of firms, advertisement products, etc.)

Answers.com is a very good web site, but still it doesn't attend to my needs.

Literaturepost.com doesn't have an address bar at all, so I didn't quite get what you mean. Please elaborate on that last one some more.

You see, what I want is extracts from newspapers, books, articles, etc. with the respective word I'm searching for.

Elisia
Elisia_elf
,
Marius Hancu  +  319965 Thu, 25 Jan 07 09:01 PM
Go to
http://www.google.com

Type in the search box:
site:literaturepost.com "struggle with"
(quotation marks are important)
start the search (click on Google Search)
and see what you get.

This way, the Google search machine will look for pages at literaturepost.com that contain the string "struggle with."

Marius Hancu
,
Selecter  +  320448 Fri, 26 Jan 07 10:43 PM
Sometimes asterisks around the search query words help a lot too.
P.S. I love the look-in-the-google bit Smile [:)]
Selecter
Joined on Fri, Jan 20 2006
Slavic Russia
Full Member 297
Please correct my mistakes if there are any.
Elisia_elf, 2 yr 299 days ago
NOW I get what you mean. Useful one. Thanks a lot!
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