{"id":292,"date":"2011-01-27T03:33:03","date_gmt":"2011-01-27T03:33:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sandbox.bridge.edu\/bridgetefl.com-2017\/blog\/?p=292"},"modified":"2011-01-27T03:33:03","modified_gmt":"2011-01-27T03:33:03","slug":"teaching-vocabularly-gradable-opposites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/teaching-vocabularly-gradable-opposites\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s the Opposite? It Depends! Teaching English Vocabulary with Gradable Opposites"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p><em>This post was written by Denise Kray.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong> What\u2019s the opposite? It Depends!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Before reading, watch this video for more tips on Teaching Vocabulary with Gradable Opposites:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Y4z4rUEvwa0\" width=\"511\" height=\"415\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>What happens when you ask a student, \u201cWhat\u2019s the opposite of \u2018hot\u2019\u201d? Most likely the student says, \u201ccold.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0One way we English teachers deal with meaning is to teach with synonyms and antonyms. Let\u2019s look at antonyms \u2013 antonyms are basically \u2018opposites.\u2019 This is a common technique in the ESL\u00a0classroom. Why do we do that? Does it really work? Does it make sense to do this? One explanation is that the meanings of words are understood in relation to other words in the language. This provides context and clarity to the word in question.<\/p>\n<p>In general, we can categorize antonyms as gradable or non-gradable. For now, we are specifically looking at adjectives and adverbs.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Non-gradable opposites<\/strong>\u00a0can be referred to as \u2018complementaries.\u2019 These are words that cannot be graded because they are truly opposite in meaning. So, what does THAT mean? They are opposed states. If one of the words is true for X, then the other is not. If an animal is male, then it is not female. The words in the pair are \u2018mutually exclusive.\u2019 For example, if X is alive, then Y is dead. Or, true vs. false and imperfect vs. perfect.\u00a0<strong>Consider:<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol>\n<li>Non-gradable opposites are not usually modified by adverbs of intensity. However, we have some fixed expressions we use, for example almost dead (=about to die), half-dead (=very tired), so alive (=feeling very well), stone dead and dead as a doornail (emphatic\/hyperbolic), but these expressions do not represent points on a scale, or continuum.<\/li>\n<li>There are usually no adjectives representing intermediate states between non-gradable antonyms.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li>Another kind of opposite is referred to as\u00a0<strong>converseness<\/strong>. In this case the pair of words show a reciprocal relationship. For example, if X sold the car to Y, then Y bought the car. Or, husband vs. wife, and near vs. far. In this case, we can\u2019t really ask, \u201cwhat\u2019s the opposite of bought?\u2019 Didn\u2019t buy?\u201d Students may have learned relationship words before, or have experience with a pair of words in context of their first language. In this case, a student may say the opposite of far is near. For beginner students, word pairs are often limited to these kinds of opposites. However, confusion arises without clear context for the sense of the words. Converse pairs often exist in family and social relationships along with space and time relations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Gradable antonyms<\/strong>\u00a0can be referred to as \u2018polar opposites\u2019. What does that mean? We often teach \u2018hot\u2019 and \u2018cold\u2019 as opposites but there are few things to consider:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol>\n<li>They are not opposites in the same way as \u2018male and female\u2019, or \u2018happy and unhappy.\u2019 Why?<\/li>\n<li>We need to ask the question, \u201ccompared to what?\u201d My coffee may be hot in relation to your coffee, but not in relation to John\u2019s coffee. There is an element of \u2018relativity.\u2019<\/li>\n<li>These kinds of statements are subjective and depend on the speaker\u2019s opinion or experience. There is often a change in our pronunciation of words as we go to the \u2018extreme\u2019 ends; our emotions get involved! Can you say, \u201cI loathe you,\u201dor, \u201cI despise going to the dentist\u201d with a smile and normal voicing? Ok, may be you can, but should you?<\/li>\n<li>Non-gradable opposites cannot be represented on a scale, a continuum. Gradable opposites can \u2013 and should be! There are often other adjectives that fall between and around the original pair.<\/li>\n<li>Going back to our example? Exactly how \u2018hot\u2019 is hot? This depends on what you are talking about: a hot day, a hot cup of tea, hot noodles, a hot shower, hot oil, hot air, etc.<\/li>\n<li>We often modify adjectives with adverbs, e.g. extremely hot, very hot, too hot, so hot, and quite hot. By adding adverbs we are trying to show the concept of gradable \u2013 that\u00a0these kind\u00a0of opposites\u00a0can be placed at different points on the continuum, or scale.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>So what do we do about all of this? How do we teach opposites in ESL? The best tip is to teach them together \u2013 as much as possible. Show the relationships between the words (see above) and definitely include the\u00a06 points to consider (see above)!<\/p>\n<p>I find that including a visual whenever possible in any English language lesson is helpful! For gradable opposites, you can vary the continuum or scale. For hot and cold, you could have a line with pictures representing each level of \u2018hotness,\u2019 e.g. torrid, scalding, scorching, hot, warm, tepid, lukewarm, cool, chilly, freezing. For size adjectives use different sized letters, e.g. Enormous, gigantic, huge, big, little\/small, tiny, miniscule, microscopic (can you actually \u2018see\u2019 microscopic? Just sayin\u2019).<\/p>\n<p>A few more teaching tips:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Make sure to provide context for the words.<\/li>\n<li>Get students to debate their opinion for where words should fall on the scale\/continuum.<\/li>\n<li>Give students the words and let them \u2018discover\u2019 where they should be placed, and get them to come to a consensus (this really proves points 2 and 3 above).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, have some fun, and check out these sources for more information:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Y4z4rUEvwa0<\/li>\n<li>Gains, R. &amp; Redman, S. (1986). Working With Words: A Guide To Teaching And Learning Vocabulary. CUP: Cambridge.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><em>If you\u2019re new to teaching, you\u2019ll want to get initial training and qualification with a <a href=\"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/courses\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">TEFL certificate<\/a>. You can explore our <a href=\"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/online-tefl-certification\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">online TEFL courses<\/a> to get started!<\/em><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post was written by Denise Kray. What\u2019s the opposite? It Depends! Before reading, watch this video for more tips on Teaching Vocabulary with Gradable Opposites: What happens when you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":294,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[332,352,396],"post-language":[],"popular_posts":[],"class_list":["post-292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pedagogy","tag-teaching-grammar","tag-teaching-tips","tag-tefl-teaching-tips"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/night-and-day.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Bridge","author_link":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/author\/bridgetefl\/"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292"},{"taxonomy":"post-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-language?post=292"},{"taxonomy":"popular_posts","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/popular_posts?post=292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}