READING AND VOCABULARY:
KNOWING, GUESSING AND LOOKING IT UP
by Susan Holzman
** This article was first published in the conference proceedings
of the Sri Lanka English Language Teachers'Association in 2006.
Introduction
The long-term goal of teaching L2
reading is to give learners the tools and skill to read authentic texts in the
L2 according to their needs and interests. Proficient independent reading is a
necessity in the global workforce of today. This is a concern for education
planners throughout the world, and Sri Lanka is no exception. A
Presidential Task Force on General Education Reforms (1997, cited in Raheem
& Devendra, 2007) states that:
…the education system must provide
its output with an adequate degree
of competence in the use of English
language in the world of work and
the technological international
environment of the 21st century. At present…most …pupils cannot
read, write or speak the language at an acceptable level. Thus they cannot find
suitable employment or to proceed easily into tertiary education. (P. 21)
In the light of this report, numerous
reforms in the Sri Lankan educational system were introduced and English language
teaching was increased. However, the improvement of English language teaching
is a work in progress (Raheem & Devendra, 2007) and Slelta’s theme,
“English for Equality, Employment and Empowerment” for its 2006 international
conference seems to be a grassroots contribution to the national effort to
prepare learners for “the world of work and the technological international
environment of the 21st century”.
Every language skill has its
importance for success in the world of today, but reading deserves particular
attention. Unlike speaking and listening, reading is a skill that is practiced
alone. Unlike writing and speaking, there is no product to examine to determine
proficiency. The “loneliness” of reading and the lack of a product to check
often leaves reading as a neglected or untaught skill. This paper aims to offer
background theory and practical suggestions for L2 reading teachers preparing
their students for the challenges to come.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
In a recent English for Academic
Purposes course book, the topics connected to learning about reading were
- identifying theme
- skimming
- scanning
- differentiating between main and supporting ideas
- identifying text types
- recognizing the purpose of the writer
- finding implied meaning
- interpreting information from charts and graphs
In fact, there were very few actual texts in the book, the
emphasis being more on speaking, listening and writing skills. It seems after
initial decoding has been acquired, the focus on reading diminishes. There are exercises
to practice reading strategies and skills, or to raise awareness about schemata,
world knowledge, inferencing, genre, the writer's purpose or attitude, but
these exercises do not appear consistently in every unit. The lack of reading
texts and activities surrounding those texts de-emphasizes the reading skill.
Reading ability should be a priority
in the syllabus of every English teacher. In order to increase reading ability,
speed, and comprehension, Krashen (1985) suggested that teachers challenge the
learners in their reading by giving them i + 1, reading input that was
“intelligible plus one”, language that was slightly above their level which
would allow them to learn in a natural way as a result of comprehending the
input. In other words, he believed that reading is a natural process that grows
without specific instruction by the teacher.
Eskey (2002) agrees with Krashen:
People learn to read, and to read
better, by reading. No one can teach someone else to read: The process is
largely invisible and thus cannot be demonstrated, and it mainly occurs at the
subconscious level and thus cannot be explained in any way that a reader could
make conscious use of (p. 8-9).
In fact, most experienced teachers
know that for many learners, reading is neither natural nor easy. A laissez-
faire attitude results in non-readers and poor readers, a dislike for reading
and a neglect of a most important subject. The paper proposes that teachers
take a proactive approach to reading and offers some suggestions for
implementing that approach.
Alderson (1984) asked the question
many years ago, "Is L2 reading a reading problem or a language
problem?" His answer was that below a certain level of language
proficiency, reading was a language problem. For many L2 readers, providing appropriate materials and teaching strategies
are not enough. How can reading rate be increased when language proficiency is
low? How can motivation be built when language is not adequate to understand
the text?
L2 reading teaching teachers should
have a more concrete agenda for teaching reading, especially at the lower
levels where it is likely that teaching reading involves teaching language.
Knowing
The question
which must now be asked is “What aspects of language should be taught for the
novice L2 reader to become a better reader?” Grabe's self-report case study on
his own learning to read Portuguese offers some insights on this issue:
An. . . observation with respect to
vocabulary learning involved the relative importance of vocabulary and
structure for learning to read. It is clear that learning to read requires some
knowledge of structure and grammar,
though how much knowledge is necessary is not clear. Bill's experience was that
a basic knowledge of structure was important; this included being able to
recognize a verb by familiar conjugation suffixes and sorting our common
irregular verb forms from similar looking short grammatical words. Beyond the
level of such a distinction, however, the finer points of grammar were usually unnecessary
. . . what was more crucial for comprehension was a continuous supply of new
vocabulary" (Grabe and Stoller,1997: 116).
Other
researchers agree with Grabe's intuitions. According to Cobb & Horst, (2001),
“For the task of academic reading, the main knowledge type is lexical. Word
knowledge is the key ingredient in successful reading in both L1 . . .and L2. . ., contributing more to L2
reading success than other kinds of linguistic knowledge including syntax. . .”
(p. 318). Laufer (1997) states that “. . .it has been consistently demonstrated
that reading comprehension is strongly related to vocabulary knowledge more
strongly than to other components of reading” (p. 20) and, in fact, . . .
“syntactic complexity . . . was found not to affect the level of reading
comprehension” (p. 21). The importance of knowing vocabulary for reading is
paramount.
Guessing
The evidence does seem to indicate
that vocabulary is extremely important to L2 readers. However, does the
vocabulary have to be taught? Does the reader have to know the vocabulary
in order to read text? Guessing in context has often been suggested as a viable
alternative. As Birch (2003) notes, “The majority of training texts for ESL/EFL
students still focus fairly exclusively on top-down-concept driven reading
strategies” (p 4). However, research
indicates that guessing in context is not the solution to L2 vocabulary
understanding.
Grabe in his attempt to learn to read
Porteguese reported on the
". . . the role of guessing the meaning of
unfamiliar words and the impact of guessing on reading comprehension. He felt
that high levels of frustration develop when a reader relies solely on guessing
the meaning of unfamiliar lexical items: the readers have a need to know that
certain meanings are correct so that they can continue reading with some level
of confidence" (Grabe and Stoller, 1997:112).
Again, Grabe's intuitions can be backed
up by others:
. . "But there were two problems
with the guessing theory. First, there was little evidence for it and strong
evidence against it . . .second, the theory was probably harmless enough in L1,
where children, whatever their teachers' theories, made their guesses from a
well-developed linguistic knowledge base. But if L2 readers were not taught
vocabulary and syntax, then they were really guessing when they read, from
whatever world knowledge they happened to possess" (Cobb and Horst, 2001:
316).
"The
findings from the few reasonably well conducted studies of guessing by non-native
speakers have not shown large amounts of successful guessing and learning from
guessing." (Nation, 2001: 236).
Guessing
involves a great deal of cognitive activity. When readers try to guess, they
look at context, they ponder the grammatical structure of the word; they might
contemplate the morphology of the word; they could reflect on collocates and so
on. Considering the limited capacity of short term memory, the contemplation,
the pondering and the reflection all detract from cognitive activity that
should be directed at comprehension of text. Guessing could be excellent as a
classroom activity. It is an opportunity to focus various aspects of language
in context. It involves problem solving, and expressing opinions. It is an
opportunity to raise language awareness, review parts of speech, affixes and
roots. However, it is not the activity of choice for L2 readers while reading
on their own.
Looking It Up
What should
L2 readers do when they meet an unknown lexical item? Because guessing is not
usually successful and it is a taxing cognitive activity, dictionary use
should be an integral part of L2 reading. There are numerous types of
dictionaries and every one has its optimal use. There are monolingual
dictionaries, monolingual learners' dictionaries, quotation dictionaries,
thesauruses, etymological dictionaries; each one has its place and each one has
it uses. However, the dictionary of choice for reading a foreign language is a
bilingual dictionary (Holzman, 2000). Grabe found that he “ . .made reasonably
good progress learning to read with the primary input being extensive reading
and bilingual dictionary use" (Grabe and Stoller,1997:113) He found that
“. . the dictionary not only improved vocabulary learning,
but also contributed to increased reading comprehension" (Grabe and
Stoller, 1997:114) His experience demonstrated that “. . . the use of a
bilingual dictionary in a consistent and appropriate manner would appear to
have a positive impact on vocabulary learning and reading development" (Grabe
and Stoller 1997:119). Teachers should understand the place of the bilingual
dictionary in independent reading and validate its use through classroom activity
and instruction.
Classroom applications: Knowing
L2 Reading instruction requires more than just providing
appropriate texts and the teaching and practice of reading strategies. It
demands active teaching of language and specifically vocabulary. Teachers can
and should approach vocabulary instruction in a new light. The study of corpora
has brought new insights and knowledge about vocabulary and its authentic use. An example of an English corpus online is the Corpus of Contemporary American English:
which can be used to identify vocabulary items and collocations
worthy of classroom attention.
The text, Less is More
(Appendix 1), can be used to exemplify these points. At first glance, there do
not seem to be many lexical items to teach in this text for an intermediate
class. However, a closer examination presents some possibilities:
On Nov. 18, 1995, Yitzhak Perlman, the violinist, came on
stage to give a concert at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln
Center in New York City. If you have ever been to a
Perlman concert, you know that getting on stage is no small achievement
for him.
It is likely that students know the word achievement
and certainly they are familiar with no and small. However, the
phrase no small achievement is not the sum of its parts. Typing no+small
in the search box of the concordance sampler gives the following type of data:
It's an
affecting drama, and helped in no small measure by powerhouse
performances. David Sin
Hollywood''-era Go-Betweens.
This is no small compliment. Only, Luke's voice is way more
he summer months. Perhaps we benefit to no small
degree from the fact that all the plants are
Year, has
been solid as a rock, thanks in no small part to no-nonsense Irishman Kevin
Moran.
history
of every Vignale-bodied Ferrari-no small achievement. Hard facts such as
these are
now have grain surplusses. This is in no small way due to the
organisation SACCAR, the
all its
personnel and many of its arms, was no small matter. [o] The GRU, Military Security, had
attached to
mother tongues, therefore, was no small contribution to the advancement
of the cause
out the fruit at or below cost. This is no small
financial burden for the stores. [p]
More
panache, which played well on television, no small
consideration for an American public still
in the midst of the goo. In fact, it is no small
task for the toddler to get that spoon
over the last few years one feels that in no small
way er you have perhaps been reacting to
(See Appendix 4 for full concordance response)
This information offers teachers a source of information
about collocation which can inform vocabulary instruction. Based on this data,
the lexical phrase no + small can be taught together with other possible
insertions to complete the lexical phrase:
No small
|
achievement
|
measure
|
part
|
degree
|
consideration
|
matter
|
These expressions, because of their
double negative meaning, (i.e. no small really means to a large
degree) are likely to be sources of misunderstanding for the EFL reader. Further
investigation in the concordance (see Appendices 5 & 6) reveals the
variations: no mean achievement and no mean feat. Similar
searches for data on the lexical phrases went wrong and no mistaking would
also provide material for useful vocabulary teaching based on this text.
In the final evaluation, a text that seemingly is quite clear and
straightforward offers no small measure of opportunities for greater
understanding of complex collocational negatives used in authentic texts.
Classroom Applications: Guessing
Guessing in context is suggested as classroom
activity for the reading class, not as an option to be used in the real
activity of reading. There are a number of opportunities in this text to review
inflections, affixes, compounds and roots [See: Appendix 2]. This activity is
important for two reasons. For the words that appear in the dictionary, this is
an opportunity to review and differentiate. Talking about “memorable”
(Paragraph 10) reminds the students that the “-able/ible” adjective ending
means “able to be” like in avoidable, admirable, and likeable. Mentioning
“audience” lets the teacher bring into the classroom “audible,” “auditorium”,
“and audio-visual”. The goal of this review is not to have the students “dissect”
words while reading on their own in order to guess meaning. This exercise
simply offers an opportunity to review and discuss vocabulary with the hope
that many of the words will be learned and remembered.
There are also words in this text such
as “recomposing” and “de-tuning” (paragraph 10) which can only be understood
through knowledge of prefixes. Moreover, many compounds are productive and
allow myriad forms to be produced based on a given pattern. An example of this
is “fast changing” (paragraph 11). These are not words to be guessed. They must
be operated on to determine the parts, examined carefully and then put back
together again. These specific innovations of language cannot be taught because
they are often unique to the particular passage that is being read. Practice in
dealing with these lexical items is essential if our students are to deal with
authentic real-world reading.
Classroom
Applications: Looking It Up
Finally, looking things up in the
dictionary is another aspect of reading that should be taught in the classroom.
Looking up a word like "achievement" poses no problem because there
is one meaning and it is fairly straightforward. However there are a number of
aspects of dictionary use that should be practiced with the students. Many
students do not look up words that they recognize under the assumption that the
meaning is known to them. Phrasal verbs are a good example of this (See Appendix
3).
|
CANONICAL FORM
|
CONTEXT
|
Went off
|
Go off
|
Went off like gunfire
|
Left off
|
Leave off
|
He played from where he had left
off
|
Both “went off” and “left off” offer
several important dictionary reminders. One is to begin the search for a
phrasal verb from the canonical form of the word. The second is scan down the
entries for these words until the phrasal forms begin. Then readers must scan
down again until they come to “go off”. These elements are written in alphabetical
order, so “go off” comes after “go against and “go down” and “go into.”.
Furthermore, some phrasal verbs, like “go off” have several very different meanings:
The lights went off
|
stopped working
|
The bomb went off
|
exploded
|
The peace march went off peacefully.
|
happened
|
The alarm clock went off
|
made a noise
|
There are also other words with
multiple meanings. Dictionary work in class raises awareness of this problem.
Students learn the multiple meanings or at least realize that when the text
doesn’t make sense, it is often the result of a new meaning for a known word.
The words “bar” “bow” and “piece” permit a discussion of register and semantic fields.
Left” and “rose” are common words in themselves that are also irregular past
forms. Dictionary searches for known words open the students’ minds to the idea
of multiple meanings, give them practice in dictionary look up and in fact, provide
exposure and practice with words which could result in direct vocabulary
learning.
Although the
goal of reading instruction is independent reading, in-class activities can
contribute to this goal. The reading class is the ideal arena for direct teaching
of vocabulary and for instruction about the intricacies of the lexicon in
English. Every authentic text is rich in examples of collocation, words with
multiple meanings, lexical phrases and word formation. Every text offers
opportunities for teaching when to know, when to guess, and when to look it up.
References
Alderson, J.C. (1984). Reading:
A Reading
problem or a language problem. In
J.C. Alderson & A.H. Urquhart
(Eds.), Reading
in a foreign language (pp. 1-24). London:
Longman.
Anderson, N. (1999). Exploring second language reading.
Boston: Heinle
&
Heinle.
Biber, D. and Conrad, S. (2001). Corpus-based research in
TESOL,
Quantitative corpus based research: much more than bean counting. TESOL
Quarterly 35, (2)
Birch, B.M. (2003). Goodbye to guessing games. Applied
Linguistics Forum:
Official Newsletter of the TESOL
Applied Linguistics Interest Section 23 (2), 4-5.
Coady, J. and Huckin, T. (Eds.)(1997). Second language
vocabulary
acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Cobb, T. and Horst, M. (2001). Reading academic English:
Carrying learners
across the lexical threshold.
p. 315 in Flowerdew, J. and Peacock, M. (Eds.) Research Perspectives
on English for Academic Purposes.
Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press
Collins Wordbanks Online English Corpus retrieved from the
world wide web,
Coxhead, A. 2000. A new academic word list. TESOL
Quarterly 34 (2),
Coxhead, A. and
Nation, P. (2001). The specialized vocabulary of English for
academic purposes. P. 252- in
Flowerdew, J. and Peacock, M. (Eds.) Research Perspectives on English for
Academic Purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Eskey, D.E. (2002). Reading
and the teaching of L2 reading. TESOL Journal 11
(1), p. 5-9.
Flowerdew, J. and Peacock, M. (Eds.) (2001). Research
Perspectives on
English for Academic Purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press
Grabe, W. and Stoller, F.L. (1997). Reading and vocabulary development in a
second language: A case
study. in J. Coady and T. Huckin (Eds.),
Second language vocabulary acquisition. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. p.98-122.
Holzman, S. (2000) Reading
English as a foreign language with an electronic
dictionary:
An exploratory study of the processes of L2 classroom
reading by L1 Hebrew speaking college
students in Israel.
Dissertations
International. UMI number 9968464
Krashen, S. (1998). The input hypothesis: Issues and
implications. London: Longman.
Laufer, B. (1997). The lexical plight in second language
reading. In Coady, J.
and Huckin,
T. Second language vocabulary acquisition. Cambridge:
Cambridge
University Press, p. 20-34.
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. (2003). Harlow:
Pearson
Education Limited
Nation, P. (2001) Learning vocabulary in another language.
Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Nattinger, J.R. & DeCarrico, J.S. (1992). Lexical
phrases and language teaching.
Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Raheem, R. & Devendra, D. (2007). Changing times, changing attitudes: The
history of English education in Sri Lanka.
In Choi, Y.H. & Spolsky, B. English education in Asia:
History and policies. Seoul: Asia
Tefl. Pp. 181-203.
Appendix 1-Less is More
1. On Nov. 18, 1995, Yitzhak Perlman, the
violinist, came on stage to give a concert at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center
in New York City.
If you have ever been to a Perlman concert, you know that getting on stage is
no small achievement for him. He was stricken with polio as a child,
and so he has braces on both legs and walks with the aid of two crutches.
2. To see him walk across the stage one step at
a time, painfully and slowly, is an unforgettable sight. He walks painfully,
yet majestically, until he reaches his chair. Then he sits down, slowly, puts
his crutches on the floor, undoes the clasps on his legs, tucks one foot back
and extends the other foot forward. Then he bends down and picks up the
violin, puts it under his chin, nods to the conductor and proceeds to play.
3. By now, the audience is used to this ritual.
They sit quietly while he makes his way across the stage to his chair. They
remain reverently silent while he undoes the clasps on his legs. They wait
until he is ready to play.
4. But this time, something went wrong.
Just as he finished the first few bars, one of the strings on his violin
broke. You could hear it snap – it went off like gunfire across the room.
There was no mistaking what that sound meant. There was no mistaking
what he had to do.
5. People who were there that night thought to
themselves: "We figured that he would have to get up, put on the clasps
again, pick up the crutches and limp his way off stage – to either find another violin or else find another
string for this one."
6. But he didn’t. Instead, he waited a moment,
closed his eyes then signaled the conductor to begin again. The orchestra
began, and he played from where he had left off. He played with overwhelming
passion and power and purity.
7. Of course, anyone knows that it is
impossible to play a symphonic work with just three strings. I know that, and
you know that, but that night Yitzhak Perlman refused to know that. You could
see him modulating, changing, recomposing the piece in his head. At
one point, it sounded like he was de-tuning the strings to get new
sounds from them that they had never made before.
8. When he finished, there was an awesome
silence in the room. And then people rose and cheered. There was an
extraordinary outburst of applause from every corner of the auditorium. We
were all on our feet, screaming and cheering, doing everything we could to
show how much we appreciated what he had done.
9. He smiled, wiped the sweat from his brow,
raised his bow to quiet us, and then he said, not boastfully, but in a quiet,
pensive, reverent tone, "You know, sometimes it’s the artist’s task to
find out how much music you can still make with what you have left."
10. What a powerful line that is. It has stayed
in my mind ever since I heard it. And who knows? Perhaps that is the [way] of
life – not just for artists but for all of us. Here is a man who has prepared
all his life to make music on a violin of four strings, who, all of a sudden,
in the middle of a concert, finds himself with only three strings. So he
makes music with three strings, and the music he made that night with just
three strings was more beautiful, more sacred, more memorable, than any that
he ever made before, when he had four strings.
11. So perhaps our task in this shaky, fast-changing,
bewildering world in which we live is to make music, at first with all that
we have, and then, when that is no longer possible, to make music with what
we have left.
- Jack Riemer, Houston Chronicle
|
|
Appendix 2:
Guessing In
Context: In Class Activities To
Review Inflections,
Affixes & Roots
Inflections:
|
Canonical form
|
Context
|
undoes
|
undo
|
He undoes the clasps on his leg
|
Affixes
|
Affix
|
Other examples
|
Violinist
|
-ist
|
Dentist, scientist
|
Recomposing
|
Re-
|
Remarry, rewrite
|
De-tuning
|
De-
|
Desegregate, depopulate
|
Artist
|
-ist
|
Environmentalist
|
Memorable
|
-able
|
Readable, understandable
|
Compounds
|
Context
|
Other examples
|
Fast-changing
|
Fast-changing world
|
Slow-moving traffic
Nice-tasting food
Terrible sounding music
|
Roots
|
root
|
Other examples
|
Audience
|
Audio - hear [Latin]
|
Audition, auditorium, audible, AV
|
Appendix 3-Looking
it Up
Phrasal verbs
|
Canonical form
|
context
|
Went off
|
Go off
|
Went off like gunfire
|
Pick up
|
Pick up
|
Pick up the crutches
|
Find out
|
Find out
|
It is the artist's task to find
out
|
Left off
|
Leave off
|
He played from where he had left
off
|
Words with two meanings:
|
Canonical form
|
Part of speech
|
Context
|
sight
|
Sight
|
Noun
|
To see him . . .is a sight
|
left
|
Left
|
adjective
|
How much music you can make with
what you have left
|
Figured
|
Figure
|
Verb
|
We figured that. . .
|
Bars
|
Bar
|
Noun
|
He finished the first few bars
|
Rose
|
Rise
|
Verb
|
People rose and cheered
|
Piece
|
Piece
|
Noun
|
Recomposing the piece
|
Bow
|
Bow
|
Noun
|
Raised his bow
|
Appendix
4
No +small
It's an
affecting drama, and helped in no small measure by powerhouse performances.
David Sin
stay is so completely enjoyable. This is in no small
measure due to the Platzers whose 4 star
performance. [p] This is due in no small part to the cost
effective performance of
is a certain
Phil Fielding - a writer no small talent and no large bank balance,
having
Before Hollywood''-era
Go-Betweens. This is no small compliment. Only, Luke's voice is way
more
the summer
months. Perhaps we benefit to no small degree from the fact that all the
plants are
Year, has been
solid as a rock, thanks in no small part to no-nonsense Irishman Kevin
Moran.
history of
every Vignale-bodied Ferrari-no small achievement. Hard facts such as
these are
now have
grain surplusses. This is in no small
way due to the organisation SACCAR, the
all its personnel
and many of its arms, was no small matter. [o] The GRU, Military Security, had
concentration", according to Barrow, `was to no small
extent accountable for the dwarfing of his
he is holy, and
immaculate, and can worke no small wonders. May not he [f] change
himselfe into
service in St Paul's." Of
course, there was no small measure of personal pride in the desire
to
attached to
mother tongues, therefore, was no small contribution to the advancement
of the cause
Fox" by his people, is ahead in the polls is no small
achievement for a head of state who has
out the fruit
at or below cost. This is no small financial burden for the stores. [p] More
from the first whistle, being helped in no small
measure by the weather. The gale at their
to a different moral code. [p] This is all no small matter. In a
letter to The Times on Thursday,
generally. It
will have been helped in no small part by a full first-time contribution
from
five birdies on
the inward nine, helped in no small measure by his choking rivals. Most notable
ever since. Her
decision to remain was in no small part influenced by a love of American
native
expansion of the
navy. For another, it was no small order to convince the British of the
wisdom
panache, which
played well on television, no small consideration for an American public
still
in the midst
of the goo. In fact, it is no small task for the toddler to get that
spoon
that had starch
in these extremities, made no small use of it; yea, even the very skins
of our
thin end of the
wedge where there has been no small degree of drama where there has been
no small
about being selfish and I think that that is no small
achievement. Erm I think that also erm in the
got to do this then although it may cause FX no small
degree of problem you will lose FX because
over the last
few years one feels that in no small way er you have perhaps been
reacting to
given I think
that there is in your future no small degree of solidarity and security
er given
build up over the last two or three years at no small
expense to yourself must now be risked
that you
have yet to meet depends in no small way on the events the circumstances
the flow
the early
half of this year does in no small way depend on two things erm one of
those
to [ZF1] be [ZF0]
be a year where there is no small degree of change both in the nature
the depth
harmony. Given that in your history there is no small
degree of disillusionment disappointment and
Appendix 5
no =2achievement
of every Vignale-bodied Ferrari-no small achievement. Hard facts such as these are always
him to a
tearful wreck. This is no great achievement. Just being nasty to the
poor sod should
and Cultural Change. All of this was no mean achievement
for an economist writing at a time when `
text it `implemented", but that was no great achievement,
and anyway in 1969 it was still in the
disinterestedly put them on the map. No mean achievement.
Yet for Paul, getting outside Europe in
people, is ahead
in the polls is no small achievement for a head of state who has
presided over
lifted
profits by 54 to £ 472m no mean achievement by any standards. [p] One PO
worker wept
sites on Cyberia
computers, it is no mean achievement.
[p] [h] Leading the way to the future;
is architecture's latest rising star no mean achievement
for a man of 50, says HUGH PEARMAN.
[p]
s poetry into colloquial blank verse no mean achievement.
His work is sound and crammed with
of modern British
politics. It was no mean achievement, even if he has been treated pretty
meanly
of dad's horses,
Passed Pawn. [p] No mean achievement
for a young man who, at 6ft 4in - his
he was
gone. [p] There's no escaping his achievement
in guiding Swindon to promotion, but
reaching it by whatever route -- was no mean achievement.
The lake which lies on an empty plain
say about each child. We heard no talk about achievement
scores, homework, or college preparation.
of
effectiveness [M02] [ZGY] no sense of achievement [M01] Yeah [M02]
Yeah. [ZGY] [M01] Er and
selfish and I
think that that is no small achievement. Erm I think that also erm in
the process
literally er and
erm that would be no small achievement. I think that between now and the
end of
October of
this year that is no small achievement. I'm aware of the fact that there
are
from the corn
which in itself is no small achievement but with the greater achievement
being the
that would be quite frankly no small achievement.
If on the other hand no pun
Appendix 6
no+mean
up to a
theatrical and dance festival of no mean depth and diversity. [p] [h]
CLASSICAL MUSIC
advantages over
its predecessor the 200b no mean feat given the 200b's reputation for
build
geninality has
made him a star worldwide. No mean
guitarist, his repertoire of rhythm tricks
least Huggy Bear
shook this f ing town up (no mean feat, believe me). And that's one
glorious
off your face retorts Ian. As Ian mcculloch, no mean
judge of pop icons, remarked a few days ago
acquire the feel
of a Greatest Hits package-no mean feat for a debut. [p] The Suede
backlash
with Tia Carrera
for the lead female role, no mean feat. In the end Carrera got the part
but
follow the
example of Abduzhaparov, who is no mean sprinter and has finished in Paris quite a few
s strangled but emotional vocal signature is no mean
feat. [p] The cloudy, unspecific, partially
into The Right
Stuff MK II, which may be no mean feat, but it's certainly not a
productive one.
support of
the Labour Party leadership-no mean feat, as the Labour Party's Black
Sections
the depression
years in America.
These are no mean achievements, but history has not been kind to
Baran's decisive influence on him, which was no mean
compliment. R. B. Sutcliffe credited Baran
and therefore Braudel's rejection is no mean
move. But the differences go much deeper.157
and
Cultural Change. All of this was no mean achievement for an economist
writing at a time
Frost cut in with a shrug of his shoulders." No mean
feat in terms of body language. When we got
hung nets above
our beds. The Bayano was no mean obstacle, a 1 50-yard-wide
coffee-coloured
s visit disinterestedly put them on the map. No mean
achievement. Yet for Paul, getting outside
a temple to
tolerance in London,
a city of no mean tolerance itself.
[p] Somewhere in Neasden
year lifted profits by 54 to £ 472m no mean
achievement by any standards. [p] One PO
and 34 goals in
10 qualifiers is certainly no mean record. But is it misleading? The
Russians
Web sites on
Cyberia computers, it is no mean achievement. [p] [h] Leading the way to the
match lasting 31
consecutive hours. Gleason no mean pool player himself in real life
showed off a
Rosa's poetry into colloquial blank verse no mean
achievement. His work is sound and crammed
the modern American filmgoer. [p] Cleese is no mean comic talent
himself, but it is advice he may
Ruby was
temporarily struck dumb, in itself no mean feat. `Is she your
size?" Mrs Marcos now wears
seas of modern
British politics. It was no mean achievement, even if he has been
treated
1 DERBY CO 0 [p] THIS WIN for Norwich was no mean feat. Recently,
and against their manager's
on one of dad's
horses, Passed Pawn. [p] No mean
achievement for a young man who, at 6ft 4in -
studied
composition with Dvorak, himself no mean slouch at putting together a
tune or two.
[p] Sandell
provided it with grace and no mean ability, turning Colin Hendry 30
yards from
and harmonize
it for human purposes is no mean feat. The harnessing requires
singleness of
In their wrath,
Gilded Age insurgents made no mean contribution to the era's reputation
for
stupid by
Trotsky and an ape by Pound was no mean accomplishment.27 [p] [p] At the
very time
whole rig is one piece of plastic, which is no mean
feat in the molding business. The one piece is
