This book is designed as the first step to improve your ability to live and work in the United States by communicating in freshman college level English, which may also be called formal English or standard English.

 

Whether you are

 

• a high school student or graduate who is considering attending college, 

 

• a college student seeking to improve your English language communication skills: reading, writing and speaking,

 

·             an immigrant to the United States, who seeks to learn better understand better and communicate better in standard English,  

 

• an adult, with or without a high school diploma, who is considering college or launching a new career, 

 

• an employee who wants to improve his or her ability to communicate in English on the job,

 

• a professional or student professional who needs to ‘brush up’ on his or her standard English, 

 

• or any combination of the above, an ‘American Dream” is what you seek.

 

The American Dream is what all Americans aspire to! For many people, it is an education, a house, a car, a family, and a career with a good salary. It could be different for you; your personal American Dream might have different components. But whatever your American Dream is, it will take hard work to achieve. Learning English and becoming more familiar with American culture are two basic steps for succeeding in American society and achieving your American Dream. 

 

In America, all of us are supposed to look out for ourselves; while, at the same time, we all depend on each other all the time. Even while we are looking out for our loved ones and ourselves we need the cooperation of others to succeed. And to cooperate, we need to be able to communicate.

 

Here’s what I mean: Did you know that every subway car in New York City, has an emergency brake handle that anyone can pull at any time? (It is reserved for an emergency.) Every day, every individual on every train has the power to stop that train at any time. Of course, to pull the emergency brake on the train without an emergency is illegal (it is against the law, a crime) and would cause inconvenience for many people, who would be late to their destinations (and perhaps worse).

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Every day, thousands of subway cars carry millions of people, and no one ever pulls the emergency brake except in a true emergency. Why? Because for any one of us to succeed in society, we must consider each other – we must cooperate.

 

Another example, familiar to all in America: on every major highway on every road in the United States, there is a white line down the middle. Sometimes it is dotted, sometimes it is solid, and sometimes it is a double solid line.  Sometimes the white line is yellow.  But that line means that you, as a driver, do not cross. You stay on your side of the road!

 

Millions of cars, millions of people, take their lives into their hands every day, TRUSTING that everyone else will do the same and stay on their side of the line.  Millions of people driving extremely fast resting secure in the knowledge that the other drivers will cooperate and stay on their side of the line. Each of us trusts strangers so completely that we risk our lives. Why?

 

It is because, as Americans, we depend on each other to cooperate, to act in our own self-interest, and to be loyal to the nation as a whole so that we can all achieve our personal American Dream!

 

Most importantly, to succeed, we must all obey the law. In America, one of the conditions of life is that everyone is subject to the same laws, rules and regulations. The country was founded on these principles. In the United States, to achieve the American Dream, each individual gives up very little to participate and gains a lot: the opportunity to succeed and achieve the American Dream. 

 

Achieving your American Dream depends on hard work, so, you must think as you read!  

Learning the language means learning the culture!

 

It is not enough to learn some English vocabulary, some phrases and some grammar. 

To communicate effectively in the United States, especially in formal situations, one must understand and be able to recognize and use many American cultural references. In this book, along the way, I shall refer to (and teach you) some of the basic references and symbols that will be useful to you in your effort to adapt to and/or understand American society, advance at work and/or pursue a college career. Right now, we will begin with words, move to word tools, sentences, paragraphs and then essays.

 

What is a word?

 

Students give me many answers to this question, but let us agree that a word is a symbol. To communicate, whether by speaking or in writing, we must use words. These sounds (and written marks) are symbols: they stand for other things. 

 

For example, the word symbol “dog” stands for a four-legged animal, said to be “man’s best friend’. Even when they are without a voice, human beings use words to communicate with their hands and fingers using standard sign language.

 

 (In formal language, one should refer to such persons as ‘mute’, do not use the word ‘dumb’, which is slang and insulting, because it also means ‘stupid’.) 

 

Many of you may feel that you know a good number of English words already. This is likely true; but there are just as likely many words that you think you understand (but don’t), and many words that you think you use correctly (but don’t). Therefore, one task you have is to be sure that you ‘own’ all the words that you use.

 

Own Your Words

 

By ‘own’ the words, I mean that you completely understand all the aspects of the word: the meaning of the word, the proper use of the word, and the symbolism of the word. 

 

How do you do this?

 

You do this by what I call ‘close reading’. It is hard work, but also rewarding.

 Close reading requires that you put all of your language skills together in an attempt to understand what someone else is trying to communicate. 

 

WORDS COUNT: Do you speak a language other than English? Do you know how many words there are in your native language? Do you know how many words there are in this language? 

 

In English, there are over 1,000,000 (one million) words. This number was surpassed a few years ago. Think about this! An average American, who learned English as a child and has gone through years of education, has a vocabulary of about 30,000 words. A college professor, who has spent his entire life time reading and studying, might have a vocabulary of 70,000 words (if I am very smart!). This means that I may know as few as 7% of the English language, and that I likely don’t know 93% of the words in the English language! How many words do you think you know in English? 

 

You must build your vocabulary and you do this by close reading. To own your words, you have to “purchase” them. You have to buy these words with your effort. You need to invest some of yourself in learning about the words you want to own. In this way, the words will become yours to use to write (express) whatever you want to say, and when used by others, you will understand them thoroughly (completely).

 

• This is necessary (imperative) because words are important. When you are writing or speaking, each word that you choose is important. 

 

• When you are reading or listening, you are reading or hearing words that the writer or speaker has chosen as important. 

 

• The words chosen by a writer create a path for the reader to follow; a reader follows the writer’s path by reading the words.

 

It is not enough (insufficient) to think that you understand words when you read them. Often, you can understand words when used in the context (situation) of a sentence, but when you want to write or speak, you cannot recall these words because you do not own them. You must use the dictionary and the thesaurus (see below) to help you purchase the words so that you can use them when you are writing or speaking.

 

The result of owning your words can be illustrated by something one of my students once said to me.  She was taking a reading class and it was about halfway through the semester. We were just chatting before class and talking about words, what they mean and how they are used. My student observed that, while she had been reading the other night, she had noticed that a word was not correctly used in a sentence. She noted that she felt good that she could see that a word was misused by someone else. In the past, she had to read slowly through the passage, look up words in the dictionary and would frequently struggle to figure out what was been said. But now, she expressed to me that she was fascinated that she was able to catch someone’s mistake and that made her feel very good about her progress as a learner.

 

For me, this was proof that this student was learning and owned her words. Rather than continuing to speak, listen and understand in the same way she always had, this student was actively thinking about what she was reading. This student was able to connect what she had learned in class about language usage, word definitions, and word order in sentences and was actively applying this knowledge in her everyday life.  

 

You should strive to be such a student! Every day, you should be aware of the words you hear and read and whether the way they are being used (their usage) fits with your understanding.

 

Word Tools for Vocabulary Skills

 

When we are speaking with someone, there are numerous clues, in addition to the actual words, which help us to understand what the speaker is saying. What is most important is that, when speaking with someone, if we don’t understand something we can ask questions!  Unfortunately, when reading there is no one to ask!

 

This is especially true for those who have learned English by listening to other people speaking, or from the radio, or from the television and not by reading!

 

There are many words in the English language that sound the same as other words (such words are called ‘homonyms’). There are also many other English words that are pronounced by people in such a way as to sound like other English words. For this reason, there are word tools that will help you. Some of these tools will be very familiar; others might be new to you. Many of these tools use alphabetical order, which means that they are arranged according to the alphabet by the first letter of each word listed (that is, A,B,C,D,E…).

 

A. The Dictionary: The first tool for you to master is the dictionary. 

 

What is a dictionary?  What information does the dictionary provide us with?

 

When I ask this in class, I often receive the answer “A dictionary tells you the meaning of a word.”  This is basically (essentially) correct; one of the main goals of the dictionary is to let you know what words mean.

 

However, the dictionary does much more than this, and, as a new user of the formal parts (aspects) of the English language, you will want to take advantage of what the dictionary has to offer.

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Here’s a list of what a dictionary can help with:

 

The Meaning of words: as noted, this is one of the main tasks of the dictionary.  However, you will notice that sometimes words have more than one definition (or denotation).  When this is the case, dictionaries will list the definitions, usually by number, with the first being the most widely accepted use of the word.  When reading, however, you will come across words that are used for the second, third or even fourth definitions listed in the dictionary.  You will need to decide which definition fits the context of your reading. This is done by substituting the different meanings listed until you find the one that makes the most sense given what you are reading.

 

For example, you may read the sentence,

 

            “That man knows the difference between a shovel and a spade.”

 

Let us say that you need to know what the words “shovel” and “spade” mean. So, you look them up in the dictionary. The dictionary listing (entry) for the word “spade’” should look something like this: 

 

Spade

 

1. A long handled digging tool with a pointed blade. 

 

2. (Cards) One of the black suits with a pointed symbol resembling a spade.

 

Notice that there are two listings for spade. One indicates that a spade is a digging tool and the other defines spade as a term used with a deck of playing cards. Which one to use? 

To decide, you need to go back to the sentence (context). A spade is being compared to a shovel. So, you look up the word shovel, and the dictionary listing looks something like this:

 

Shovel

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A long handled digging tool with a broad, flat blade.        

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From the dictionary listing, you learn that both can mean long handled digging tools. This is the definition to use, because it makes logical sense in the sentence. Who would not be able to tell the difference between a digging tool and a playing card? 

 

Just for your information, these tools are for different jobs. The difference between them is that one has a pointed blade (the spade) and the other has a flat blade (the shovel). A spade is for digging down into the earth (that is why it has a sharp point) and the shovel is for moving piles of dirt (and, for that, a flat wide blade is best.

 

Some words, in addition to a denotation (common definition), also have another meaning’, called a connotation (that is, a nuance, or suggestion, or implication, or association, or undertone, or overtone’. This means that many common English words have different more than one meaning, depending on the context or the way the word is being used in the sentence.

 

For example, in the 1950’s, in the United States, when the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union was at its height, when people used the word “red”, they could just as easily be referring to a communist as to the color red.

 

 

So be very careful about understanding how a word is being used in a sentence you are reading. Be aware of the fact that many words have more than one meaning. 

                                                                                                                        

Spelling: the dictionary indicates (shows) the correct spelling.  As a writer, this is critical for you. Spelling counts. Always. Especially at the college level when you are attempting to show that you have command of the language. There are many words in English that only have one letter that is different from another English word. Sometimes these words can have opposite meanings, as with except (leave out) and accept (include).  [Look them up!] These words are homonyms and have exactly opposite meanings.

 

Students always complain that they can’t look up words in the dictionary if they don’t know how to spell them.

 

That is one reason that you should look the words up when you come across them in your reading. The word is right there and you know the correct spelling.  You also have a context within which the word is used to refer to, in case you need to decide among different possible meanings.

 

Again, for those of you who have learned most of your English vocabulary from speaking and listening to others speak English, spelling is even more important. As noted, there are many, many (numerous) English words that sound the same and are spelled differently: they are different words. These homonyms: words that sound the same, are spelled differently, and mean different things [Some of the most common are listed in Chapter IX.] 

 

The incorrect use of homonyms is a common indicator of someone who does not know English very well.  Any college professor who sees that you use the wrong homonym knows that you don’t have sufficient command of the language until you learn more English!

 

Syllables: each word has one or more syllables or parts of a word:

 

In the dictionary, the entry for the word shovel should appear similar to the following:

 

Shovel (shuv-el) or Shovel (shuv / el)

 

This shows that there are two syllables for the word shovel: the first syllable is shov and the second syllable is el. Shovel is a two-syllable word.

The words I, me, and you are all one-syllable words.

The words garden (gar-den), children (chil-dren) and college (col-lege) are two syllable words.

The words syllable (syl-la-ble) is a three-syllable word. 

The word encyclopedia (en-cy-clo-pe-di-a) is a six-syllable word.

And so on.

 

Pronunciation: the dictionary indicates how to pronounce (speak) each word. This is indicated by accent marks and pronunciation symbols. Every dictionary has a pronunciation chart or listing (called a key) that allows you to understand the accents and letter combination options. When speaking a word with more than one syllable, for example, one must know which syllable to emphasize when speaking (which part of the word to state more strongly).

 

For example, in the dictionary, the entry for the word shovel in the dictionary will be similar to what follows:

 

Shovel (shuv` l) The accent mark ` indicates that the two-syllable word shovel should be pronounced (spoken) with the emphasis on the first syllable shov. 

 

The spelling of shov as shuv indicates that the o in the word carries the normal sound of the u. It is a short o (as in on) and not a long oooooh when spoken (as in hello).

 

The spelling of el as l indicates that the e is a short e and not a long eeeee when pronounced.

 

Other words will require that a different syllable be emphasized. In the sentence, for example,

 “The child propelled the toy across the room.”

 

The word ‘propelled’ is the past tense of the verb to propel, which means to push or to shove, and appears in the dictionary as:

 

            Propel (pra pel) showing that the emphasis is on the second syllable when spoken.

 

The spelling of pro as pra indicates that the o should be a short sound, as the first letter a is spoken in paraprofessional, rather than a long oooooh sound.

 

Derivation: this is where the word comes from or the history of the word. English is composed of words from many languages, chiefly Old English, Latin and German.  Many English words also derive from Greek. Some words are built on roots (stems) from Latin, German or Greek.

 

When learning English words, it is sometimes very useful to be able to recognize the root of a word, such as 

 

Philosophy   philo is translated as love of from the Greek language

                        sophy is translated as wisdom’from the Greek word ‘ophia

 

Thus, the word philosophy derives from (comes from, originates from) a Greek root meaning love of wisdom. This word was first used by the ancient Greek mathematician, Pythagoras.

 

 

Part of speech: the dictionary will indicate the part or parts of speech or how the word is used. (There will be some more discussion about parts of speech in the next chapter.) This is important because some words can be used differently, for example, the same word may be used as either a noun or a verb, and you will need to be able to distinguish its usage. 

 

For example, in the sentence: 

 

“I express myself well in writing.” The word express is used as a verb indicating action.

 

Compare this with the sentence: 

“The Canadian express train leaves at midnight tonight.” The word express is used as adjective to indicate a train that doesn’t make local stops.

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Usage example: dictionaries also provide an example of proper usage.  This is usually a sentence illustrating the correct way to use a word in a sentence. 

 

Such examples are useful when you want to own the words: you can try to remember the usage example sentence provided by the dictionary. Remembering the entire sentence can help you to recall the proper meaning of the word whether you are writing, reading or speaking.

 

B. Grammar text 

 

A grammar text will help you understand English grammar rules. This textbook will provide you with everything you ever needed to know about English grammar. Often, I will ask you to use your grammar book to better understand a particular English language issue. You should read the grammar book and then use it for reference when you need help understanding something that you are reading or writing.

 

C. The Thesaurus

 

A thesaurus is a book that is organized alphabetically (as is the dictionary) but lists synonyms (words with the same meanings) and antonyms (words with the opposite meanings). For either reading or writing, the thesaurus is an excellent tool. You can look up words and find others to use in their places. Students with a limited vocabulary tend to use the same words over and over again. This is both boring and shows the reader that the writer does not have a very broad vocabulary. When speaking, you may seem uneducated and, therefore, not worth listening to. Close reading and using the thesaurus when writing can cure this deficit by providing you with alternative words to help you to become a more interesting speaker and writer. 

Use of a thesaurus is similar to the use of a dictionary. You can find new words and substitute these into your sentences to see if they make sense and communicate what you want to say. You could purchase a used thesaurus for a dollar, I am sure.

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D. Vocabulary Builders

There are many aides on the market that can help you increase your vocabulary. Different techniques work for different people. You should try to use some of these vocabulary-building strategies to see what will work best for you. There is no substitute, however, for reading, reading and reading. You will always be learning new words and you never stop building your vocabulary.

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E. Encyclopedias 

A standard encyclopedia has alphabetically listed entries. A general encyclopedia tries to list all knowledge. 

One of the first modern encyclopedias, the Encyclopedie, was compiled by Denis Diderot (1713-1784) a French Philosophe (or philosopher). 

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An ancient Greek Philosopher named Aristotle (384-322 BC) also compiled an encyclopedia in his day. You may have heard this name. He called his work “The Physics” meaning ‘all about the physical world’. The story is that, after he completed this book about everything, he realized it was incomplete! He wrote another book about all the things he left out and placed it on the shelf next to his book “Physics”. He called the new book “The Metaphysics” (in Greek, the word meta means next to). That is the derivation of the word metaphysics which refers to all things not of the physical world, that is, that is, of the human mind.

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In addition to general encyclopedias, there are special encyclopedias (sometimes called dictionaries).  These books and other reference books will be useful to you later on in your college or professional career. You can find them for free at your school or local library (on-line access for many articles is also free).

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WE ALL MUST LEARN WORDS:

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Here’s a story about a famous American author, Jack London. When he first began writing short stories, he set himself the task of learning a certain number of new words each day. To accomplish this, he would write down the words and their meanings on small scraps of paper and hang them up around his apartment in convenient places (such as over the sink where he would shave or by his desk where he would work). He would see these words and definitions all day. The next day he would take those words down and hang up new ones. In this way, he successfully learned many new words.

 

On your own, you need to devise (create) a way (method) to learn new words. Jack London had a daily goal of a certain number of words. Setting a goal for yourself is a good idea as well. Your goal might be to learn 5 new words a week.

To learn these words, be sure to write them down with their definitions. Some people do this on an index card (3 inches by 5 inches). On one side is the word and definition, and on the other side is a sentence that helps you to remember the meaning and usage of the word. Many students find it useful to carry the cards around with them and study them whenever they have a chance: at work at lunchtime, traveling on the train or bus, waiting in line, and so on.

Whatever method you devise, stick to it! Keep learning new words! Own them!

Do not continue reading this book until you have a dictionary available!