THE SEMANTIC ASPECT OF THE ACQUISITION OF SYNONYMS, HOMONYMS AND ANTONYMS IN THE TEACHING PROCESS OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Bisera Kostadinovska-Stojchevska

Abstract


The adoption of synonyms, homonyms, and antonyms is inevitable when studying English as a foreign language. Acquiring, mastering and practicing of these types of words and the essence of the mutual relationships that they pose amongst them are of essential importance to any existing or potential speaker of the English language. Given the morphological productivity, as well as the changing nature as a characteristic of any language, their referential and poetic function also develops. Learning vocabulary is a key element in the study of any language and its wealth is seen precisely in the number of synonyms, homonyms and antonyms represented in it. On the other hand, the recognition and proper usage and practice of these types of words are considered as one of the most proficient characteristics and level of knowledge of foreign speaking skills language. This paper starts from a theoretical consideration of the semantic aspect of the adoption of synonyms, homonyms and antonyms in English teaching as foreign language. In order to determine the problems that might arise in their adoption in teaching in English as a foreign language, the factors that affect the general adoption of the language are given first and comparisons are made between the adoption of mother tongue and any other foreign language. The results of the research show that certain problems in the adoption these types of words can cause not only the differences between Macedonian as mother tongue and English as foreign, but also the very way of their adoption. The problems in teaching when adopting synonyms, homonyms and antonyms stand as a subject of this research.

 

Article visualizations:

Hit counter

DOI

Keywords


semantics, language acquisition, sense relations, EFL

Full Text:

PDF

References


Brinton, L.J., The structure of modern English: a linguistic introduction, Illustrated edition, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2000

Bucă, M., Cu privire la aplicarea metodei substitutiei în cercetarea sinonimelor, in AUT, seria Ştiinte filologice, IX/1971

Bulgăr, Gh., Dictionar de sinonime, Bucureşti, Editura Palmira, 2000

Dulay, H.C., Burt, M.K., Errors and strategies in child second language acquisition, TESOL, 1974

Egan, R.F., Survey of the History of English Synonymy, Spingfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1968

Hurford, J.R., Heasley, B., and Smith, M.B., Semantics: A Coursebook, 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, 2007

Jones, S., Murphy, M.L., Paradis, C., Willners, C., Antonyms in English: Construals, Constructions and Canonicity, Cambridge University Press, 2012

Krashen, S.D., Principles and practice in second language acquisition, University of Southern California, 1982

Krashen, S.D., Terrell, T.D., The natural approach: language acquisition in the classroom, Pergamon Press, 1983

McArthur, T., Oxford Companion to the English Language, Oxford University Press, 1992

Николовска, В., Македонски јазик со култура на изразувањето, Универзитет “ Гоце Делчев”, Штип, 2012

Novikov, L.A., Sinonimičeskije funkcii slov, in “Russkij jazyk v škole”, 1/1968

Occhipinti, A., Foreign language anxiety in in-class speaking activities, Oslo University, 2009 vii

Puşcariu, S., Dictionarul limbii române, București, 1993

Rothwell, D., Dictionary of Homonyms, Wordsworth, 2007

Rusiecki, J., Adjectives and comparison in English: a semantic study, Longman, 1985

Willners, C., Antonyms in Context, Universitetstryckeriet, Lunds Universitet, 2001

Yule, G., The Study of Language, 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, 1996




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejfl.v0i0.1555

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright © 2015 - 2023. European Journal of Foreign Language Teaching (ISSN 2537-1754) is a registered trademark of Open Access Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

This journal is a serial publication uniquely identified by an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) serial number certificate issued by Romanian National Library (Biblioteca Nationala a Romaniei). All the research works are uniquely identified by a CrossRef DOI digital object identifier supplied by indexing and repository platforms.

All the research works published on this journal are meeting the Open Access Publishing requirements and can be freely accessed, shared, modified, distributed and used in educational, commercial and non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).