2.10 Lexical fields
Just like hyponymy and meronymy are useful when it comes to teaching or learning vocabulary, lexical fields are also a handy tool for this purpose. A lexical field is the relationship between words in terms of their association with a certain theme, or, in other words, context. Usually, words belong to more than one lexical field, which is another advantage for this tool as vocabulary teaching technique: the same word + several lexical fields = more vocabulary in context.
LAS Activity 211. Lexical fields
Instructions
Read the joke and decide which words belong to the lexical field ‘school’.
Blonde Test
The blonde reported for her university final examination that consists of yes/no type questions. She takes her seat in the examination hall, stares at the question paper for five minutes and then, in a fit of inspiration, takes out her purse, removes a coin and starts tossing the coin, marking the answer sheet: Yes for heads, and no for tails.
Within half an hour she is all done, whereas the rest of the class is still sweating it out. During the last few minutes she is seen desperately throwing the coin, muttering and sweating.
The moderator, alarmed, approaches her and asks what is going on, and she says, "I finished the exam in half an hour, but now I'm rechecking my answers."
LAS Activity 212. FORUM Lexical fields
- Go to the forum LAS Activity 212 FORUM Lexical fields when indicated to compare your answers for this activity. Comment on other lexical fields with which you can associate words appearing in this joke.
- Remember that for forums you need to post your main participation and reply to two of your classmates.