Page 216 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

202 CHAPTER 8
ably interesting to present and explain in class (adapted from Webster's Dictionary, 1996). Discussionpoints have been added to the definition in- side square brackets.
occur/pronunciation symbols/v.i.[verb intransitive,i.e.not takinga di- rect object], -curred, -curring [the spelling of the past and -ing forms re- quires two -rr-'s.
1. [the first and common meaning] to happen; take place; come to pass [these can be used as replacements/synonyms]:When didtheaccident occur?[the teacher can provide additional examples of phrases and sentences for this meaning, e.g. The event occurs/takes place annually/frequently/in the summer.]
2. [the second most common meaning] to be met with or found; present it- self; appear [possible replacements for the second meaning].
3. to suggest itself in thought; come to mind (usually fol. by to); An ideaoc- curred to me.
L [from Latin] occurrere to run, to meet, arrive, meet, equiv to oc- + currere to run.
—Syn. 1. befall [somewhat dated]. See happen [this is an important syn- onym] 2. arise, offer.
occurrence /pronunciation symbols/ n. [this is a derived noun] 1. the ac- tion, fact, or instance of occurring.
2. something that happens; event; incident [these can be possible noun synonyms];Weweredelayedbyseveralunexpected occurrences.
—Syn. 1. circumstance. See event.
In learners' dictionaries, additional information can be found, such as attendant prepositions (occur in/among, as in Viral infections occur mainly among school children) or collocations (it occurs to somebody that, as in It oc- curred to him that new sports drinks may bepopular among baseballfans), or dis- tinctions between formal and informal registers (occur isformal and not common in spoken English).
In general, dictionary exercises can provide learners with the necessary skills to navigate English-English dictionaries, which are daunting for many academically bound students even when they have outgrown their bi- lingual dictionaries. Such teacher-guided dictionary practice can also help learners notice occurrences of important words in reading.
(2) Building Semantic Clusters and Sets of Lexical Substitutions
(a) A list of verbs with various clusters of similar meanings can be pro- vided in random order. W orking in pairs or small groups of three or four, learners need to sort out verbs into the clusters according to the similari-
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