How To Learn New Words Quickly and Efficiently

Here is a recent study that looks at how people (such as ESL students) learn new words. As an ESL teacher, this is important knowledge to have.

The brain is able to learn words so quickly because it remembers how the whole word ‘looks’, a new study finds.

The researchers found that a small part of our brain is holistically tuned to recognizing words as a whole, rather than as parts or through individual letters.

Dr Maximilian Riesenhuber, a neuroscientist at the Georgetown University Medical Center who led the study, said:

“We are not recognizing words by quickly spelling them out or identifying parts of words, as some researchers have suggested.

Instead, neurons in a small brain area remember how the whole word looks — using what could be called a visual dictionary.”

A part of the brain called the ‘visual word form area’ is vital to how we learn new words.

Close by in the visual cortex is the fusiform gyrus, an area which helps us recognise faces.

Dr Riesenhuber said:

“One area is selective for a whole face, allowing us to quickly recognize people, and the other is selective for a whole word, which helps us read quickly.”

For the study, 25 participants were asked to learn new words that were actually nonsense.

Their brains were scanned before and after the training to look at how it had changed.

The results showed that after learning the visual word form area began to respond to the nonsense words as though they were real words.

Dr Laurie Glezer, the study’s first authors, said:

“This study is the first of its kind to show how neurons change their tuning with learning words, demonstrating the brain’s plasticity.”

People with reading disabilities may find it easier to learn words as a whole, anecdotal evidence suggests, rather than breaking them down.

Dr Riesenhuber said:

“For people who cannot learn words by phonetically spelling them out — which is the usual method for teaching reading — learning the whole word as a visual object may be a good strategy.

The visual word form area does not care how the word sounds, just how the letters of the word look together.

The fact that this kind of learning only happens in one very small part of the brain is a nice example of selective plasticity in the brain.”

The study is published in The Journal of Neuroscience (Glezer et al., 2015).

Source: http://www.feedspot.com/?dadi=1#feed/f_79245

A Centenarian is Probably Not a Centurion

This article is from Daily Writing Tips - a source of many good grammatical tips for teachers of English: 

A reader was startled when a television announcer misused the word centurion:

Perhaps one of your columns could cover the meanings of “centurion” and “centenarian.” A news anchor on KTTC-TV, Rochester, Minn., just announced “There is a new centurion in Clear Lake, Iowa.” (This “new centurion” is a woman celebrating her 100th birthday. A centenarian centurion?)

I was amused, but assumed that the anchor’s error was unique and that I wouldn’t be able to find enough material to write a post on this misuse. My assumption was that any English speaker who has read a book or watched a movie set in ancient Roman times, or who has a superficial acquaintance with the New Testament knows the historical meaning of centurion.

I was wrong. 

The use of centurion in the place of centenarian is widespread in discussions of longevity on the Web. Here are just three examples:

In this article we take lessons from the centurion communities of the world to gain priceless insight into how we too can live the longest.

In Okinawa, where the life expectancy is the highest on earth, 803 of 920 centurions who were alive as of September 2011 were women.

Daisy McFadden, a longtime resident of New York, will celebrate her 100th birthday this November. Still active, she believes her eating habits have greatly contributed to her longevity, as do most centurions.

I found an article in a Canadian publication in which the writer acknowledges that centenarian is the word usually used to describe a person who has reached the age of one hundred, but seems to think that centurion is a better word to describe a centenarian who remains in good health:

There are more than 4,600 Canadians now 100 or older. Estimates are that the United States might have a million people 100 or older by 2050. If those estimates are accurate, 43 years from now, many of those Boomers you see every day will be the new “centurions,” which strikes me as a better way to describe centenarians. Just as 60 is the new 50 today, 100 will be the new 90! 

Note: Joseph Wambaugh titled one of his novels The New Centurions. As it is about the lives of Los Angeles policemen, I don’t get the connection. Neither did Wambaugh’s British publishers, apparently. In the UK, the book was published as Precinct 45: Los Angeles Police. 

Centurion and centenarian are among several English words derived from the Latin word for one hundred: centum. 

In the ancient Roman army, a centurion was the officer in charge of a century, a unit originally comprised of 100 men. 

In the context of cricket, centurion refers to a player who has scored 100 points (a century):

 

Surrey teenager Dominic Sibley becomes youngest double centurion in County Championship history

Dominic Sibley swapped school books for record books by becoming the youngest batsman in County Championship history to score a double century. 

This is a valid extension of meaning in a modern context.

Using centurion to replace centenarian is unnecessary. Centenarian already exists with the meaning “a person who has reached the age of one hundred.”

Source: www.dailywritingtips.com

Teaching the Passive Voice

Here is a good example on teaching the passive voice from esl.about.com:

Passive Voice

It's important to study the passive voice to place the focus on the object of an action, rather than the person doing that action. 

English students should learn how to use the passive voice for explaining processes and for business situations. Here are some examples:

Somebody made my car in Detroit. -> My car was made in Detroit.

Somebody painted this beautiful picture. -> This picture was painted by George Smith.

A number of people in company ZYZ have designed this recorder. -> This recorder was designed by the ZYZ Company

Study the passive voice below and then practice your writing skills by changing active sentences to passive sentences. Teachers can use this lesson plan on recognizing the differences between active and passive sentences.

Passive Voice Grammar

The passive voice is used when focusing on the person or thing affected by an action.

• The Passive is formed: Passive Subject + To Be + Past Particple

The house was built in 1989.

• It is often used in business when the object of the action is more important than those who perform the action.

For Example:

We have produced over 20 different models in the past two years. Changes to: Over 20 different models have been produced in the past two years.

• If the agent is important (the person, company or thing that does the action) , use "by"

For Example: Tim Wilson wrote "The Flight to Brunnswick" in 1987. Changes to:"The Flight to Brunnswick" was written in 1987 by Tim Wilson.

• Only verbs that take an object can be used in the passive voice. 

SOURCE: http://esl.about.com/od/grammarstructures/a/passive_voice.htm?utm_source=exp_nl&utm_medium=email&utm_term=list_esl&utm_campaign=list_esl&utm_content=20150421