lesson link TEACHER’S NOTES The Oxford 3000™ – A Lesson about Crime Introduction In the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 8th edition, you will find a key symbol [ ] in the entries for the most important words. These keywords, the Oxford 3000™, are the most useful ones to know, and the entries give students a lot of information that will help them not only to understand those words but to use them correctly and build their knowledge of related words. Level Time Aim Materials Upper-Intermediate to Advanced 1 hour To revise vocabulary related to the topic of ‘crime’ and to familiarize students with collocational and grammatical information in the dictionary. One copy of the worksheet per student; one copy of the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 8th edition per pair. PROCEDURE Warmer (5 minutes) Ask the class whether they enjoy reading crime novels or watching detective series on television and ask them to name any famous fictional detectives they know. Explain that in this lesson they will be revising vocabulary to do with crime, and that they’ll be doing a little detective work with the dictionary, using Oxford 3000™ keywords as the starting point. Activity 1 (10 minutes) Explain that as you’re going to be using these words a lot, you need to be sure of how to pronounce them. Write the symbols on the board: / e / pronounce them. / aɪ / / əʊ / /ɪ/ / iː / and ask the class to Give out Worksheet 1 to all the class, and give out dictionaries to half the class (Group A). Ask the class to look at the words in Activity 1 and decide which vowel sound is correct for the first syllable of each word. Group B, the half without the dictionaries, must use their own knowledge or guess. The group with the dictionaries should check the phonetic transcription of the words in the dictionary. When both groups have finished, elicit answers from Group B and ask Group A to confirm or correct them. Answers /e/ / aɪ / / əʊ / /ɪ/ / iː / weapon crime stolen criminal legal The Oxford 3000™ – A Lesson about Crime PHOTOCOPIABLE © Oxford University Press 2012 lesson link TEACHER’S NOTES Activity 2 (10 minutes) Now pair up the students so that all of them can see a dictionary and ask them to look at the words in Activity 2. Where does the stress fall? On the first syllable or on the second syllable ? Ask the students whether they know how to find this out from the dictionary and if necessary remind them about the primary stress mark [ ˈ]. Thus / ˈwɪtnəs / has the stress pattern . The class should use the dictionaries to allocate the words to the correct column. Answers legal, suspect (n), victim, witness police, admit, arrest, suspect (v) Activity 3 (10 minutes) Remind the class that they can use their dictionaries to build on their knowledge of vocabulary by finding a network of related words. Look at the entry for crime and show them the words following it including the related adjective and noun criminal. Answers criminal (adjective) crime criminal (person) suspicious (adjective) suspicion suspiciously (adverb) murder (verb) murder murderer (person) investigation (noun) investigate investigator (person) Activity 4 (15 minutes) Now ask the class to complete the gap-fill exercise, using the dictionary to help them. Answers 1 victim 4 suspicious 7 investigation 10 evidence 13 court 2 witnesses 5 weapon 8 suspects 11 criminal 14 lawyer 3 crime 6 police 9 officer 12 legal 15 stolen Activity 5 and 6 (10 minutes) Focus the class’s attention on the entry for crime again and ask them what information they can find in the examples. Point out the bold type in the examples that highlights common combinations of words. Then remind them that the entries can also help them with grammar information. Do the first sentence of Activity 6 with them, focussing on the structure shown in bold type suspect sb of doing sth. Ask the class to complete the remaining sentences. Answers Activity 5 commit a crime / a murder give evidence pass judgment Activity 6 1 of taking 2 of poisoning 3 (to) breaking 4 with defrauding Extension (Activity 7) For homework, you could ask the class to write a paragraph on the topic. Point out that in several of the entries they have looked at, there were useful boxes of extra vocabulary, such as the Topic Collocations box at crime, or the Synonyms box at witness. The Oxford 3000™ – A Lesson about Crime PHOTOCOPIABLE © Oxford University Press 2012 lesson link WORKSHEET WORKSHEET The Oxford 3000™ – A Lesson about Crime Activity 1 Pronunciation What is the vowel sound in the first syllable? Put the words under the correct symbol. stolen weapon crime legal criminal /e/ / aɪ / / əʊ / /ɪ/ /iː / _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ Activity 2 Word stress Put the words in the correct column. police admit legal suspect (noun) suspect (verb) arrest witness victim Activity 3 Criminal networks Fill the gaps with the correct form of the word in bold. adjective crime person adjective suspicion adverb verb murder person noun investigate person The Oxford 3000™ – A Lesson about Crime PHOTOCOPIABLE © Oxford University Press 2012 lesson link WORKSHEET WORKSHEET Activity 4 The next Agatha Christie Read the story and fill the gaps with a word from the box below. You may need to change the form of the word to make it fit the sentence (for example, make a noun plural or put a verb into the correct tense). court crime criminal evidence investigation lawyer legal officer police steal suspect suspicious victim weapon witness She closed her book, balancing it on top of the basket next to her on the park bench and closed her eyes in the warm sunshine. How she wished she could write something like that – a murder mystery. Surely it couldn’t be so difficult – after all, she had read so many crime novels, watched so many films and detective series on TV... At first it would seem like the perfect murder. The 1_______________________ lived alone and received very few visitors – there were no 2_______________________ to the 3_______________________ . No one had been seen acting in a 4_______________________ way in the area. The 5_______________________ with which he had been killed had not been found, but it was clear that he had been dealt a heavy blow. He was a man who had had many enemies, and so when the 6_______________________ began their 7_______________________ , they had a number of 8_______________________ to question. However, a brilliant young _______________________ , 9 sharp-eyed and even sharper-witted (based on herself, of course) would find a vital piece of 10_______________________ which would lead to the arrest of the murderer. But would she be able to tell the story convincingly? Did a crime writer really need a the 11 _______________________ 12 _______________________ mind? And she knew very little about system, apart from the in those films. She would have to find a 13 _______________________ 14 _______________________ scenes to help her get the details right. Suddenly sensing a slight movement in the bushes behind her, she opened her eyes and looked around for her book and basket, but they were gone – 15_______________________ from under her nose! The Oxford 3000™ – A Lesson about Crime PHOTOCOPIABLE © Oxford University Press 2012 lesson link WORKSHEET WORKSHEET Activity 5 Collocations Find the right verb to go with each of the nouns in the box on the right. commit ________________________________________________________ give ________________________________________________________ pass ________________________________________________________ a crime judgment evidence murder Activity 6 Verb Patterns Fill in these sentences with the correct form of the verb in brackets and, if necessary, a preposition. Use the information in the keyword entries (in bold type) to help you. 1 They suspected him _____________________________ (take) the money. 2 The police accused her _____________________________ (poison) her husband. 3 The boys admitted _____________________________ (break) into the house. 4 He appeared in court charged _____________________________ (defraud) the company. Activity 7 Writing Describe your favourite crime novel or TV series, explaining why you like it. Write about 100 words. Or Write a paragraph explaining why you think crime novels and TV series are so popular. The Oxford 3000™ – A Lesson about Crime PHOTOCOPIABLE © Oxford University Press 2012
