Short answer
Semantics is the study of meaning in language. Learners need to understand not only what individual words can mean, but how context, tone and the speaker’s intention help us decide which meaning is active in a particular situation.
In S06E19, we look at examples where a sentence can be understood in more than one way. That’s so cool might be praise, or it might literally describe something cold. He was an angel usually describes somebody as extremely kind rather than claiming they were a supernatural being.
Try this in your next lesson
Your friend tells you they got a new job.
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Listen to the whole S06E19 discussion in our podcast episode guide here🔊.
This is why dictionary definitions are only part of vocabulary teaching. Learners also need situations. Who is speaking? What happened just before the sentence? What tone is being used? What interpretation makes sense in that context?
Teachers can make this visible by giving the same phrase two different mini-situations. For example, That’s great can express genuine enthusiasm, but with different intonation it can also communicate frustration or irony.
Figurative language is another useful area. If somebody says My inbox is a nightmare, learners should not search for a literal nightmare. The speaker is using a familiar word to communicate an emotional judgement about the situation.
The goal is not to make every sentence mysterious. It is to help learners become comfortable asking a useful question: What does this mean here?
How can teachers make meaning clearer?
Put ambiguous language inside short dialogues, pictures or situations. Ask learners to explain which interpretation fits and what clue helped them decide. Context makes meaning easier to reason about than a list of definitions.
Our suggested classroom adaptation of the episode discussion.
Gav and Em suggest: Same words, different meaning
Give learners the phrase That’s great and three situations:
- ☐ Your friend tells you they got a new job.
- ☐ Your train has just been cancelled.
- ☐ Someone hands you a hot drink on a cold day.
Ask learners how the meaning or tone might change. Then choose a second phrase and let them invent two contrasting contexts.
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