It is an excerpt of my book-to-be about improving students’ TOEFL vocabulary mastery. Currently, I am developing a language program that helps my students get engaged in TOEFL vocabulary questions, especially about guessing meanings in context.

1. STUDY SKILL
Sometimes you can guess the meaning of a word from the words around it, that is, the context.
Identifying the part of speech also helps. Look at the example, rotate:
Hurricanes rotate anti-clockwise around an ‘eye’.
The word hurricanes helps you identify the part of speech.
1. What part of speech is rotate:
a noun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb?
The words anti-clockwise, around, help you guess the meaning.
2. What does rotate mean:
get bigger, move in a circle, rain a lot?
#Day10
Read this passage carefully.
Video games are good for you!
For years video games have been criticised for making people more antisocial, overweight or
depressed. But now researchers are finding that games can actually change us for the better and
improve both our body and mind.
Gamescan helptodevelopphysical skills.Pre-school childrenwhoplayed interactive games such as
the ones available onWii have beenshowntohave improvedmotorskills,forexampletheycankick,
catch and throwa ball betterthanchildrenwhodon’tplayvideogames.A studyof surgeons who do
microsurgeryinBostonfoundthatthose whoplayedvideogameswere 27 per cent faster and made
37 per cent fewer errors than those who didn't. Vision is also improved, particularly telling the
difference between shades of grey. This is useful for driving at night, piloting a plane or reading X-
rays.
Read the passage again carefully. Guess the meaning of the underlined words. First identify the
parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb). Then choose meanings from the box to complete
the table.
medical doctor
/ˈmɛdɪk(ə)l/ /ˈdɒktə/
eyesight /ˈʌɪsʌɪt/ obtainable /əbˈteɪnəbl/
shadow /ˈʃadəʊ/ fat /fat/ area /ˈɛːrɪə/
No Vocabulary Part of Speech Meaning Sentence
1 overweight
/əʊvəˈweɪt/
For years video games have been
criticised for making people more
antisocial, overweight or depressed.
2 available
/əˈveɪləb(ə)l/
Pre-school children who played
interactive games such as the ones
available on Wii have been shown to
have improved motor skills,
3 surgeon
/ˈsəːdʒ(ə)n/
A studyof surgeons who do microsurgery
in Boston found that those who played
video games …
4 vision
/ˈvɪʒ(ə)n/
Vision is also improved, particularly
tellingthe difference between shades of
grey. This is useful for driving at night,
piloting a plane or reading X-rays.
5 shades /ʃeɪd/ Vision is also improved, particularly
tellingthe difference between shades of
grey. This is useful for driving at night,
piloting a plane or reading X-rays.