Vocabulary
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Vocabulary
Help!! I am working through Steve Curran vocabulary books and some of the words just seem really difficult!!! ie Ornithology???I am just wondering will they have words like this in the Bucks VR exams??? I just hope we aren't spending too much time on these. I printed off the list from the forum and we have worked through these too.
I don't know whether to just start working through tests and papers and just working through vocabulary that way?? Though still have 5 series of the SC workbooks to go yet!!
I don't know whether to just start working through tests and papers and just working through vocabulary that way?? Though still have 5 series of the SC workbooks to go yet!!
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Sally-Anne
- Posts: 9235
- Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:10 pm
- Location: Buckinghamshire
Re: Vocabulary
The list on the site is far more representative of the overall standard for the Bucks 11+.
There is no harm in working through the SC books - after all, vocabulary never goes to waste in life, but make sure that you are using more appropriate materials for Bucks after Easter.
Sally-Anne
There is no harm in working through the SC books - after all, vocabulary never goes to waste in life, but make sure that you are using more appropriate materials for Bucks after Easter.
Sally-Anne
Re: Vocabulary
Hi! Sally-Anne will know much more than me about the detail of such prep. I just wanted to share two things about vocab and the value of reading and speaking.
I was raised overseas and English is not my first language; I reckon it was the sixth language I heard and maybe the fourth which I was formally taught. I have never used vocab books for myself. I initially learned English a little bit as a foreign language and then suddenly found myself in England.
Strangely, the English teacher at my semi-rural school in Kent was soon complimenting me on my vocab. What helped me was that, around that time, I started to read in a big way, pretty much anything my local mobile library brought: the Sherlock Holmes stories, the Ellery Queen Mysteries, some short stories by W. Somerset Maugham, Barbara Cartland (yes!), .... I also used to read a lot about sports. My Dad, bless him, cut a deal with me: he would let me read the sports pages at the back of his copy of The Times only after I had read and discussed an article on the front page.
My DD is now in Year 7. For a while, she did try to work through her literacy and VR books, including some recommended vocab books. But she was an insatiable reader from an early age and, I believe, what helped her most was being guided towards a range of fiction and non-fiction reading, my partner sharing their love of their own books, newspapers, magazines and lots of robust debate around the kitchen table. I believe this added invaluable context to the vocab books and made the words 'sing'. She found all her VR tests straightforward.
I hope this helps.
WH
I was raised overseas and English is not my first language; I reckon it was the sixth language I heard and maybe the fourth which I was formally taught. I have never used vocab books for myself. I initially learned English a little bit as a foreign language and then suddenly found myself in England.
Strangely, the English teacher at my semi-rural school in Kent was soon complimenting me on my vocab. What helped me was that, around that time, I started to read in a big way, pretty much anything my local mobile library brought: the Sherlock Holmes stories, the Ellery Queen Mysteries, some short stories by W. Somerset Maugham, Barbara Cartland (yes!), .... I also used to read a lot about sports. My Dad, bless him, cut a deal with me: he would let me read the sports pages at the back of his copy of The Times only after I had read and discussed an article on the front page.
My DD is now in Year 7. For a while, she did try to work through her literacy and VR books, including some recommended vocab books. But she was an insatiable reader from an early age and, I believe, what helped her most was being guided towards a range of fiction and non-fiction reading, my partner sharing their love of their own books, newspapers, magazines and lots of robust debate around the kitchen table. I believe this added invaluable context to the vocab books and made the words 'sing'. She found all her VR tests straightforward.
I hope this helps.
WH
