Tips for using the MED CD-ROM

The following tips will give you ideas on how to use the Macmillan English Dictionary CD-ROM for language practice and extension. You can do these activities in the classroom if you have access to a computer or you can ask your students to do the activities at home or in a language lab.

We’ve put together a list of common problems teachers and students face and provided ideas for how to deal with these. If you have further questions or suggestions, please fill in the contact us form and send it to us.

The tips cover the following areas:

Tip 1 grammar

Tip 2 pronunciation

Tip 3 pronunciation and spelling

Tip 4 vocabulary consolidation

Problem: My students are very confused by adjectives that look like adverbs because they end in -ly. How can I find all these adjectives?

1. Click on SmartSearch

2. In the search box, type *ly

3. Tick More search options

4. Tick Headwords

5. Tick part of speech

6. Tick adjective

7. Press Go

• A list of the adjectives that end in -ly is displayed in the Search Results panel in the bottom left corner of the screen.

• If you would like to narrow your search to the most frequent of these adjectives, tick Frequency, then tick very high frequency, high frequency and quite high frequency. Finally, press Go.

Problem: My students have difficulty pronouncing the diphthong e. How can I find words containing this phoneme for pronunciation practice?

1. Click on Sound Search

2. In the Search for box, enter * and click on the symbol e. (Now you have *e appearing in the search box.)

3. Press Go

• A list of words will appear in the Search Results panel. All these words will end in the sound e. Select a few of these and practise their pronunciation with the class.

Problem: My students are bewildered by the illogical variations in English spelling. Can you suggest how the MED CD-ROM could help me teach some of the differences between spelling and pronunciation?

The MED’s unique SoundSearch facility is ideal for teaching spelling, because it allows you to search for phonetic characters. You can use wildcards to find words that contain particular combinations of sounds. For example:

1. Click on SoundSearch

2. In the Search for box, delete any characters that have been inserted automatically

3. Under Consonants, click on s

4. Under Vowels and diphthongs, click on a

5. Under Wildcards, click on *

6. Press Go

• A list of the words that begin with these sounds is displayed in the Search Results panel in the bottom left corner of the screen. This list includes cider, cycle, psychic, science, and sight.

• Any number of phonetic characters and wildcards can be combined in any position for infinitely flexible searching.

Tip 4 vocabulary consolidation: phrasal verbs

Problem: My students are finding it difficult to remember phrasal verbs. How can the CD-ROM help them to revise phrasal verbs and learn new ones?

The wordlist and flashcards functions on the CD-ROM are ideal for learning and revising vocabulary. Students can for instance put together a wordlist with phrasal verbs and then run flashcards to check if they can remember them. If they can’t, they can ask for the definitions and examples.

1. To put together a wordlist, highlight the word or words you would like to add in the Search Result box in the left corner.

2. Click on Edit and then Add to wordlist.

3. Click on New wordlist and enter the name for the list, then press OK.

4. To practise with flashcards, go to View and Wordlists and select the list you would like to revise.

5. Click on Run flashcards and select the option you prefer. You can choose for instance the full entry without the actual word. When you are ready, press Go!

6. The flashcards function will take you through the wordlist and will confirm if your answers are correct.

For a demonstration of the main features of the CD-ROM and for more tips on how to use the CD-ROM for studying and teaching, click here.

A series of ‘Top tips for the CD-ROM’, written by Mairi MacDonald and Jane Bottomley’ appears in the MED Magazine, the unique monthly webzine of the Macmillan English Dictionary. When you register for MED Magazine, you’ll receive access to a fascinating monthly magazine on words and language, and the complete back issues of the MED Magazine, all free. Click here for more information.