Semantics

More than just studying a list of words, learners need to know the semantics, nuance, and power of the words they use.

Most likely we’ve all heard the expression, “It’s all just semantics” or some similar variation. This is true. It’s what words mean,  what the words mean to us, how the words are combined to make meaning in the content we are reading or writing.

There are two sub-categories of semantics: lexical and compositional.

Sometimes words are about things, sometimes they are about concepts.

When you think of chocolate, do you see dark chocolate? Milk chocolate? White chocolate? All of the above? None of the above because you, like many don’t like chocolate? Is it something very specific?  85% single-source couverture organic chocolate? (Yes, that’s a real thing.) In a more abstract way, what do you think of as “some chocolate”? Truffles? Candy bars? A more generic concept of a sweet piece of food? Or like a friend of ours who uses air quotes and “is just having some chocolate” when in reality it is chocolate vodka and chocolate liquor made into a chocolate martini? Polysemy, idioms, metaphors, specificity, similes, allegories, euphemisms, figures of speech, synonyms, antonyms and generalities all contribute to the lexical relationship or lexical field of a word (see below). Curzan and Adams (2012) sum it up nicely by saying that you understand a word by sorting through all of the meanings for the word and selecting the one that fits. So, yes, it is all semantics or if you prefer relational.

So what? ELs and other learners need explicit instruction on the meanings of words not when they are isolated, say in a spelling list, but when they are connected to other words in a text. Think about the different meanings of the word table in math, science or general conversation.      

What words mean plus how words are syntactically used in a sentence; how they are combined with other words to convey meaning. What words does a writer use to convey the meaning of a persuasive or descriptive text? How does the reader comprehend those words based on their definition of the words, background and personal culture?. 

So what? ELs need explicit instruction on which word’s definition to use in which setting. When they are reading, to solidify comprehension, they have to understand the syntactical meaning as well as the contextual meaning. When writing, to be able to clearly convey mastery of the content, they need to also be able to navigate the syntactical and contextual meanings and select the correct words, usage and parts of speech.