Kokand state pedagogical institute named after mukimi foreign language and literature

I.2. Importance of lexical resouces

While we’re on the subject of lexical differences between speaking and writing, I should say a few things. As I already mentioned, the speaking rubric specifies “idiomatic language.” That is because you are meant to speak English at a lower level of formality than you would write it. In your essays, you should aim to use a very high level of formality, but in the speaking test you can use informal language like idioms, slang, and contractions.

Don’t go overboard, though. It can be a little disrespectful to use incredibly informal words and phrases. It is also worth noting that idioms are not hugely useful and that there is a slight distinction between idioms and idiomatic language. An idiom is a set group of words whose meaning could not be determined by its component parts. Idiomatic language is similar but it can be more naturally incorporated into everyday speech. A 1998 paper by Paul Lennon asserted that “non-idiomatic” language can be described as “non-nativelike” – in other words, any language that is very natural to native speakers is inherently idiomatic.

To make this easier to understand, a good example is the phrase “can’t stand,” meaning to really dislike something. Whilst we may not consider this an idiom, it is certainly idiomatic.

Anyway, the point is that idiomatic language is important for your speaking but not for your writing. To continue with the idea of crime, we would say in an essay:

Violent offenders ought to be incarcerated for the protection of society, perhaps being granted parole only decades later, when the likelihood of them reoffending has substantially declined.
Both the vocabulary and grammar here are very formal. There are various clauses strung together and words like “offenders,” “incarcerated,” “parole,” and so on are topic-specific and also rather formal.

If this subject arose in your speaking, we might instead say:

I think criminals should be locked up for as long as it takes. Maybe we could release them much later after they’ve learned their lesson.

The vocabulary is more natural and less formal, with the ideas broken into two sentences. It’s more personal as well, and slightly idiomatic. The phrases “locked up” and “learned their lesson” are certainly examples of that.

Different standards for the machine-readable edition of lexical resources exist, e.g., Lexical Markup Framework (LMF) an ISO standard for encoding lexical resources, comprising an abstract data model and an XML serialization, and OntoLex-Lemon, an RDF vocabulary for publishing lexical resources as knowledge graphs on the web, e.g., as Linguistic Linked Open Data.

Depending on the type of languages that are addressed, a lexical resource may be qualified as monolingual, bilingual or multilingual. For bilingual and multilingual lexical resources, the words may be connected or not connected from one language to another. When connected, the equivalence from a language to another is performed through a bilingual link (for bilingual lexical resources, e.g., using the relation vartrans:translatableAs in OntoLex-Lemon) or through multilingual notations (for multilingual lexical resources, e.g., by reference to the same ontolex:Concept in OntoLex-Lemon).

It is possible also to build and manage a lexical resource consisting of different lexicons of the same language, for instance, one dictionary for general words and one or several dictionaries for different specialized domains.

Lexical resources in digital lexicography are often referred to as machine-readable dictionary (MRD), a dictionary stored as machine (computer) data instead of being printed on paper. It is an electronic dictionary and lexical database. The term MRD is often contrasted with NLP dictionary, in the sense that an MRD is the electronic form of a dictionary which was printed before on paper. Although being both used by programs, in contrast, the term NLP dictionary is preferred when the dictionary was built from scratch with NLP in mind.

Constantly build your passive vocabulary word lists by reading and listening. Then move these words into your active vocabulary by using them when speaking or writing.

To improve faster, when reading, listening or watching English material, try to capture new words in a phrasebook. If you have time add the context too.

The next time you write an essay, review it and look for opportunities to add the words from your list into your text.

Likewise, when speaking try to incorporate your new vocab into your conversations, don’t force them though because it will sound odd!

Idioms can be extracted from films and English podcasts, however, I’d recommend audio material because there are no visual clues, making listening a little harder.

Active reading is a great habit to develop and a vital exam preparation skill. Active reading is where you circle, underline and mark the text you are reading, so as to ease comprehension.

If you want to accelerate your learning, have a look at some tutorials about vocabulary acquisition. This page includes how to use a vocabulary phrase book and flashcards.

Take a look at our article which will provide tips and strategies to improve your vocabulary.