• Unit 3: Reading to Improve

    In Unit 3, you'll learn to find synonyms and antonyms and create word families with suffixes. Building your vocabulary with synonyms will help you avoid repetition and be more specific when you explain yourself. In this unit, you'll practice finding multiple meanings for words and their synonyms. This unit concludes with an activity where you'll build your vocabulary using the strategies we'll cover.

    Completing this unit should take you approximately 3 hours.

    • Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

      • identify suffixes that change the part of speech; and
      • select synonyms and antonyms for previously learned vocabulary.

    • 3.1: Building Vocabulary – Let's Study

      In ESL001, we learned about many different ways to improve our vocabulary.

      Reading a lot in English and collecting the new words you find will help you increase your vocabulary. This unit in ESL 002 will review some vocabulary strategies to help you use the new words you learn. Be sure to complete the practice activities to learn how to continue to increase your vocabulary. As a college student, improving your vocabulary skills helps improve your reading and writing.

      These materials include reviewing vocabulary-building strategies commonly used for learning new words in Standard English. After reading the lessons, you will be able to test your understanding by completing different practice activities.

      • Synonyms and Antonyms Page

        Reading a lot in English and collecting the new words you find will help you increase your vocabulary. This reading will review some vocabulary strategies to help you use the new words you learn.

      • Multiple Meanings and Suffixes Page

        In ESL001, we also learned about using a dictionary to look up the meaning of new words we collect while reading or listening in English. It's also important to keep in mind that words often have more than one meaning. Therefore, when learning new words, you should try to match the meaning of the new word to the context it was used in when you heard or read it.

    • 3.2: Building Vocabulary – Let's Practice

      The activities below allow you to find out how well you understand the vocabulary-building strategies discussed in the lesson. If you have a difficult time recognizing and using these strategies, you may return to review the information in the Let's Study section and then try these practice activities again.

      • Vocabulary Building Practice Book

        Now that we remember how to use a dictionary and suffixes to improve vocabulary skills, let's put this knowledge into practice.

    • 3.3: Building Vocabulary – Let's Apply

      Now that you know some vocabulary-building strategies, let's see if you can easily use them to learn new English words.

      • Let's Go on a WebQuest! Page

        To complete this activity, you'll review three links related to writing an email message and complete three tasks that require vocabulary and sentence building. These tasks will help you build a stronger vocabulary by showing you how a thesaurus and suffixes can help you use new words.

    • Putting It All Together

      You have learned some vocabulary-building skills to help you communicate more easily, clearly, and accurately in English. This section will help you review what you have learned in Unit 3.

      • Let's Review Unit 3 Page

        Go through the video presentation, which reviews the vocabulary skills you learned in this unit.

    • Unit 3 Assessment

      • Unit 3 Assessment Quiz
        Receive a grade

        Take this assessment to see how well you understood this unit.

        • This assessment does not count towards your grade. It is just for practice!
        • You will see the correct answers when you submit your answers. Use this to help you study for the final exam!
        • You can take this assessment as many times as you want, whenever you want.