Knowledge of a word exists on various levels (Richards, 1976). Hoey (2003) gives five questions that learners need to ask about any word. These are:

• What does the word mean?
• What words does it associate with?
• What meanings does it associate with?
• What grammatical functions does it associate with?
• What positions in the text does the word favour?

Our main concern is with teaching knowledge of denotation, ie what we commonly term meaning. It is relatively easy to teach concrete items such as 'plate', or 'banana' by simply bringing the objects into class, or providing pictures of these objects, but synonyms, paraphrase and definition can be helpful with abstract items. Antonyms are also useful, since it is necessary to know what a word does not mean, as well as what it does mean. A particular problem for learners of English is that a single word may have a wealth of different meanings associated with it. For example, three meanings of the word, 'still' are expressed in the following three sentences:

1. 'I'm living in Nottingham now, but my father is still in London.'
2. 'Stand still or I'll shoot.'
3. 'A still is needed in the production of whiskey.'

It may be appropriate for learners to have knowledge of the mother tongue equivalent of a word, and translation may save time, especially in monolingual groups. Using the mother tongue can make a discussion point of difficulties, especially where there are false friends, such as 'sensible' and 'sensitive' for English learners of French. Sometimes, though, there is no direct equivalent, and we should be wary of overusing translation as a means of making meaning clear.

Activity 9

We have discussed several ways of conveying meaning. Consider the three classroom extracts below and say which of these ways the teachers are using.

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In addition to denotation, semantic knowledge involves knowing what the word connotes. For example, in Western culture the word 'slim' has positive connotations. We have many euphemisms for the negatively evaluated 'fat', such as 'plump', 'portly', 'well-built'. In some countries, however, 'You've put on weight' is a common compliment. Certain words may have strong feminine or masculine connotations: an example in English is the word 'blouse', which cannot be worn by a man, though its equivalent, 'shirt', can be worn by a woman. An implication of this for teaching is that we should not take it for granted that our students will attach the same connotations to a word as we do.

Metaphor is the term used for when we describe something using words normally used to describe something else. Lakoff and Johnson (1980) were the pioneers of metaphor research, showing how dominant metaphors are inextricably linked with the culture we live in, and how they permeate the language we use. Unfortunately for us as teachers, metaphorical usage is often more frequent than literal meaning. In the use of authentic texts for teaching purposes, especially with adults, the metaphorical use of a lexical item may need to be taught along with, or even before the literal meaning. 'He opened a whole can of worms' was once an innovative or live metaphor, but some might argue that it is now dead and has passed into the realms of idiom. Prodromou (2003) discusses why correct and natural use of idiomatic expressions is so difficult for learners to master. He states, after McCarthy (1998), that native speakers use idiom in the following ways:

• to sum up a narrative sequence or anecdote;
• to evaluate or comment on something someone has said;
• to establish an informal atmosphere and rapport between speakers;
• to co-construct the dialogue (one speaker starts to say an idiom, the other finishes it);
• to create humour.

Activity 10

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