ANTONYM QUESTIONS TEST KNOWLEDGE OF VOCABULARY

The teacher must be sure of his vocabulary. . These questions obviously test vocabulary. So if yours could use some work, spend time improving it. Apart from having a great vocabulary, you can also do well on antonyms by using test-smarts and strategy.

Antonyms present you with a single word followed by five answer choices containing words or short phrases. Your task here is to find the answer choice that’s most nearly opposite in meaning to the original word. If you’re stumped about the meaning of a word, try to think of a context where you’ve heard the word before. You may not be able to recite the definition of the word covert, for instance, but you’ve probably heard the phrase “covert operation” to describe some type of cloak-and-dagger activity. Also, use your knowledge of foreign languages and word roots to help “decode” the meaning of a tough word. For instance, you may not know what benediction means, but you may be able to determine that the root bene means “good” from knowing the more common word “benevolent.” That may be all you need to answer a question if you spot a word like “curse” among the answers.

Although antonym questions test knowledge of vocabulary more directly than do any of the other verbal question types, antonym questions measure not merely the strength of your vocabulary but also your ability to reason from a given concept to its opposite. Antonyms may require only rather general knowledge of a word, or they may require that you make fine distinctions among answer choices. Antonyms are generally confined to nouns, verbs, and adjectives; answer choices may be single words or phrases.

Here are some approaches that may be helpful in answering antonym questions:

· Remember that you are looking for the word that is the most nearly opposite to the given word; you are not looking for a synonym. Many words do not have a precise opposite, so you must look for the answer choice that expresses a concept most nearly opposite to that of the given word.

· In some cases more than one of the answer choices may appear at first to be opposite to the given word. When this happens, try to define more precisely or in greater detail the meaning of the given word.

· In weighing answer choices, it is often useful to make up a sentence using the given word or words. Substitute the answer choices in the phrase or sentence and see which best “fits”. The best answer will be the one that reverses the meaning or tone of the sentence or phrase.

· Remember that a particular word may have more than one meaning.

· Use your knowledge of root, prefix, and suffix meanings to help you determine the meanings of unfamiliar words.

WORD RETRIEVAL ACTIVITIES FOR CHILDREN

What is a word-retrieval problem?

The terms “word retrieval problem” or “word finding difficulty” imply that the person knows and understands the word, and has used it correctly before. However, they have difficulty retrieving such known words at times. Children and adults with language disorders are frequently found to have word retrieval difficulties. Often when a person (child or adult) is having difficulty retrieving a word they will have the sense that it is “on the tip of their tongue”: a state of affairs familiar to all of us; at other times they seem simply to “go blank”.

ABOUT THE ACTIVITIES

These activities are intended for children .

Not all of the activities will suit all children - so be selective.

Put the emphasis on listening, thinking and speaking.

The activities are aimed at having the child retrieve known words - not at extending the vocabulary by teaching new words.

Use a minimum of visual cues. If the word to be “retrieved” does not come easily for the child, provide an auditory cue (e.g., say the first sound or syllable of the word) or a verbal clue (e.g., “it rhymes with...).

Give the child time to think, but don’t leave it so long that they are struggling to find the word. Rather than letting them persist unsuccessfully, tell them the answer, and go on with the next few items. Then ask them the one that was difficult again.

Aim for a high success-rate to encourage motivation and confidence.

Adapt the tasks to suit the (developmental) age of the person. Talk about words and word-meanings.

As natural opportunities arise talk about such topics as “Why is Big Bird called Big Bird?” Talk about people being named after other people. Talk about why certain names might have been chosen for pets and TV characters (Cookie Monster, Vinny the Poo, Uncle Scrooge, The Fat Controller, etc). Try to work these conversations in around topics of genuine interest to the child.

PLAYING GAMES INVOLVING ANTONYMS

Do this as a sentence completion (cloze) activity (e.g., “The opposite of hot is...”) or use a question-and-answer format (e.g., “What is the opposite of hot?”), or as a confrontation naming task using pictures in which the child has to name “opposites pictures” as rapidly as they can (e.g., hot cold, wet dry, big little, fast slow, deep shallow, apart together).