Read every text of the material very carefully and many times
- read some parts of the text aloud with special care of the pronunciation and intonation
- Be aware that in a sentence every word is important. Memorizing a sentence is a very effective way to learn a set of related words at the same time and improve your mental lexicon.
- after every sentence you read ask some questions and try to answer them; e.g. in case of the sentence A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations automatically. the following questions can be asked:
- What is a computer? What does it mean 'to program a computer'? What does a 'program' consist of? (e.g. instructions) What are the main parts of a computer system? What kind (or sort) of computers do you know? What data types can a computer handle (or use)? What types of operations can a computer carry out?
- What does the word 'automatically' mean? What is the opposite of the expression 'to work automatically'? (e.g. 'to be controlled manually') What synonyms do you know for the verb 'to carry out'? Can you tell the sentence 'A computer carries out sequences of operations automatically.' in another way?
- Could you give some examples of 'arithmetic or logical operations'? What is the difference between 'an operation', 'a set of operations' and 'a sequence (or a series) of operations'? Could you explain the relationship between an 'instruction' and an 'operation'?
- try to learn the content of the material; create mind maps of the keywords and use your visual memory
- watch and listen to the attached videos
Increase your vocabulary
- try to understand the text from the beginning to the end; translate every unknown word (both technical terms and words belonging to the basic vocabulary)
- create your own vocabulary⇒, and add new items to your vocabulary
- hunt for new definitions on the Internet, e.g.
= A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations automatically. (Wikipedia)- try to find good examples for each term, e.g.
~ ENIAC was the first programmable, electronic, general-purpose digital computer, completed in 1945. (Wikipedia)- collect useful example sentences, e.g.
-- A broad range of industrial and consumer products use computers as control systems. (Wikipedia)- Collins Example Sentences is a database of authentic English examples extracted from Collins resources. Whilst a definition can help you understand the meaning of a word, example sentences show you how to use the word in a sentence. They can also help you check that you've understood the meaning correctly, as well as enabling you to see and learn the linguistic features of the word. If you're looking to improve your writing, example sentences can also give you ideas for other words that naturally occur in similar contexts. (Collins English Sentences, 2023-02-20)
- use the Notepad (or another text editor) to create your own vocabulary, e.g.
- ...
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computer
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= A digital computer is a digital electronic machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of operations automatically.
= A computer is an electronic device that manipulates information or data. (Tutorial)
= A computer is an electronic device designed to accept data, perform prescribed mathematical and logical operations at high speed, and display the results of these operations. (Webster 2009)
= A digital computer is a universal electronic data processing equipment.
= A computer is an electronic machine that can store and deal with large amounts of information. (Collins 2023)
= A computer is an electronic machine that can quickly make calculations, store, rearrange, and retrieve information, or control another machine. (Collins 1997)
~ ENIAC was the first programmable, electronic, general-purpose digital computer, completed in 1945. (Wikipedia)
-- This tutorial will help you understand how computers work and how to use them. (Tutorial)
-- If you are just looking to learn more about how computers work, you will find all of the information you need in this tutorial. (Tutorial)
-- We'll talk about how to set up a new computer, the difference between hardware and software, and so on. (Tutorial)
-- A broad range of industrial and consumer products use computers as control systems. (Wikipedia)
...- use the excellent monolingual English dictionaries that are freely available on the Internet
- links to the translation services on the Internet can be also very useful
- Google Translate (2023-02-08)
Learn and memorize the definitions and example sentences of the vocabulary
- try to analyse the definitions and example sentences word-by-word
- (1) the definition of the keywords usually follow a general structure including three main parts:
- the keyword, that is, the term (word or phrase) to be defined
[e.g. A digital computer* is a digital electronic machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of operations automatically.]- a generic or broader term (the class of objects, concepts etc.) to which the keyword belongs; sometimes the meaning of the generic term is restricted or narrowed (e.g. by an adjective)
[e.g. A digital computer is a digital electronic machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of operations automatically.]
→ computer BT machine
→ machine NT electronic machine
- sometimes this part of the definition is omitted
[e.g. A digital* device [is a device that] uses sequences of digits to represent data that are used during its operation.]- the specific or differentiating characteristics that distinguish the keyword from the other terms that belong to the same generic term
[e.g. A digital computer is a digital electronic machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of operations automatically.]
→ computer RT program
→ computer RT (arithmetic, logical etc.) operation- (2) the example sentences provide a valid context for the selected term
- the words that come before or after the selected term suggest what the actual meaning of the term is
- every example sentence makes a small contribution to the meaning of the selected term (note that a sentence is the smallest building block of texts that describe certain pieces of the world)
- every example sentence belongs to one or more topic
- from the example sentences we can get clever ideas about which words can naturally occur together with the selected term and how can you combine them; there are a lot of possible collocation patterns, e.g.
→ [adj+computer] digital; electronic; general-purpose, universal; local; remote; desktop, laptop; home, personal; mainframe; etc.
→ [vt+computer] use (to do sth); switch on, switch off; reboot, restart; set up, configure; program (to do sth); control; etc.
→ [computer+vi] work; freeze, crash; etc.
→ [computer+vt] manipulate, process (data / information); calculate, work out (value / sum); store, rearrange, retrieve (data / information); do, carry out, perform (operation / instruction / task); run, execute (program); control (computer / robot); etc.- use the test at the end of the course material⇒ and practise as much as possible
- generate new sentences; select a sentence or a sentence pattern (i.e. a verb pattern), and try to change it by
- replacing certain words with new ones, e.g. synonyms or antonyms (e.g. machine ∼ device; hardware ↭ software), related or contrasted terms (e.g. machine ≼ instrument), narrower or broader terms (e.g. machine ≺ equipment) etc. (tip: use the 'Thesaurus' sections of the lexicon below which give semantic information about the corresponding terms)
- adding new linguistic elements, e.g. adjectives, adverbs etc. (tip: use the 'Collocations' sections of the lexicon below which give semantic and syntactic information about the corresponding terms; collocations can be considered as patterns which help you to create a particular sentence)
- compose short texts and/or create presentations around randomly selected keywords using the definitions, the example sentences, the texts of the tutorial and other relevant sources (e.g. Wikipedia entries)
- try to find connections between the keywords in order to build the theme-rheme relationships between the sentences
- draw a graph where the nodes of the graph are the keywords, and the arrows show the connections between them
- collect relevant keywords that belong to the same topic and add new sentences to the text (tip: use the 'Related terms' sections of the lexicon which provide information at text linguistic or textological level)
- and so on :-)