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aiMOOC

E9 M - Word formation for reading and writing

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Einleitung

Mini description: Use word families, prefixes and suffixes to work out unfamiliar words when you read and to widen your vocabulary when you write.

This aiMOOC is for English as a first foreign language, Year 9, M-level, Baden-Württemberg. The language is B1-oriented: you work increasingly independently with short authentic media, a longer short reading text and clear speaking and writing tasks.

Learning cycle: English first → understand → respond → ask → hint → improve → use again.

Deutsch-Hilfe: Du erschließt unbekannte Wörter zuerst aus englischem Kontext, Wortstamm und Wortbausteinen. Eine deutsche Hilfe öffnest Du nur, wenn Du sie wirklich brauchst. Es gibt keine Vollübersetzung.

Medien-Einstieg

Look at the image for 30 seconds. Which prefixes do you already know? Choose five and predict what they may mean.

Media task: Make three quick examples, for example re- + use → reuse. Then watch the video and check whether your idea about prefixes and suffixes was useful.

After viewing, say one sentence in English: A prefix can … / A suffix can …

I-can-Ziele

By the end of the course, you can say:

I can split many unfamiliar words into a base, prefix and suffix.
I can use context and word class to make a sensible meaning guess.
I can recognise useful word families when I read.
I can choose a suitable noun, verb, adjective or adverb when I write.
I can use common prefixes and suffixes in my own B1-level texts.
I can explain my guess, ask for a hint and improve my first answer.
I can check a dictionary, source or AI suggestion instead of accepting it automatically.

Vorwissen

Three-minute warm-up:

Build a word family around help.
What changes in happy → unhappy → happiness?
In the sentence She explained the idea clearly, what job does clearly do?
If you do not know unpredictable, what could you try before opening a dictionary?

Hint auf Deutsch: Suche zuerst den bekannten Kern des Wortes. Frage dann: Steht etwas davor? Steht etwas dahinter? Welche Wortart passt in den Satz?

Word formation: the useful core

A base word is the part you start from. A prefix comes before the base and usually changes meaning. A suffix comes after the base and often helps to show the word class. These patterns are useful, but they are not perfect rules. Your strategy is always: guess → test in context → check.

Base	Word family	What changes?
predict	predict, prediction, predictable, unpredictable	meaning and word class
success	succeed, success, successful, successfully	verb, noun, adjective, adverb
care	care, careful, careless, carefully	meaning and word class
employ	employ, employer, employee, employment, unemployed	role, status and word class
act	act, action, active, activity, actively	word class and meaning

Prefixes: meaning clues

Prefix	Useful clue	Example
un-	not, opposite or reverse	unhappy, unlock
re-	again	rewrite
mis-	wrongly or badly	misunderstand
dis-	opposite, not or remove	disagree, disconnect
pre-	before	pre-arranged
over-	too much	overcook
under-	too little or below	underestimate

Do not force a prefix meaning into every word. Understand is not simply under + stand in its modern meaning. If the guess does not fit the sentence, check a learner's dictionary.

Viewing challenge: Listen for three prefixes. Pause after each example and make one new example of your own.

Suffixes: word-class clues

Suffix	Often helps to form	Example
-ness	noun	happiness
-ment	noun	development
-tion	noun	information
-ful	adjective	helpful
-less	adjective	careless
-able	adjective	predictable
-ly	adverb	clearly
-er	person or thing connected with an action	writer

A suffix may also cause a spelling change: happy → happiness and possible → possibility. Learn useful families as whole sets, not only as mechanical rules.

Quick response: Choose one suffix from the video and create a correct sentence with a new word.

Listening and Viewing

This BBC Learning English video uses two speakers and gives you natural but learner-friendly input.

First listen – understand:

What is the main language point?
Which two suffixes are central?
Do you hear a word you already know?

Second listen – notice:

Write three base words and their new forms.
Mark the word class of each new form.
Say one example aloud in a full sentence.

Do not write a full transcript. Listen for meaning, patterns and reusable language.

Optional deeper viewing

Choose a short section. Stop when you can explain one rule or example in your own English. You do not need to watch the whole lesson in one go.

Reading

Read the text once for the main idea. Do not stop at every unknown word.

Repair Day: small changes, useful skills

Last month, our class joined a community repair day. At first, the plan seemed impractical because we had little experience and only a few tools. Good preparation changed that. Local volunteers showed us how to check broken lamps, repair bags and make old objects reusable. Some problems were unexpected, so we had to work carefully and ask for help.

The most useful part was not the repair itself. It was the development of confidence. One student who was usually quiet became an excellent organiser. Another explained a difficult task so clearly that two younger visitors could do it by themselves. By the end, our group had completed most jobs successfully.

We also noticed that throwing something away can be an irresponsible first reaction when a simple repair is possible. Our next idea is to create a small repair guide for school. It will include pictures, short instructions and a list of useful tools. We hope it will encourage more students to reuse things and solve simple problems independently.

Reading mission:

Underline eight words that contain a useful prefix or suffix.
Split them into parts where possible.
Guess the word class.
Explain the meaning from both word parts and context.
Check only after you have made a reasoned guess.

Authentic web reading

Skim the headings and examples on Cambridge Grammar: Word formation.

Find one prefix example.
Find one suffix example.
Choose one example that could help your own writing.
Explain it in one English sentence instead of translating the page.

Reading strategy: LOOK – SPLIT – CLASSIFY – GUESS – CHECK

Use the picture only as a visual model: a longer word can contain several meaningful parts.

Step	Question	Example with unpredictable
LOOK	What does the sentence tell me?	plans may change
SPLIT	Can I see useful parts?	un + predict + able
CLASSIFY	What word class fits?	adjective
GUESS	What meaning fits?	not easy to predict
CHECK	Does the whole sentence still make sense?	yes

Deutsch-Hilfe: Eine gute Erschließung ist keine Wort-für-Wort-Übersetzung. Du verbindest Kontext, Wortbausteine und Satzposition zu einer begründeten Vermutung.

Kontextwortschatz und Dictionary Skills

A dictionary is for checking, not for replacing your first thinking.

Check four things:

meaning in this sentence
word class
spelling
one useful example or collocation

Keep a small word-family notebook:

Base	New form	My sentence	Checked?
decide	decision	We made a difficult decision.	yes
rely	reliable	This source looks reliable.	yes
improve	improvement	My second draft shows improvement.	yes

Aussprache und Fluency

Word endings are important for listening and speaking. Do not swallow the final syllable. Say the whole word clearly: help – helpful – helpfully, success – successful – successfully.

Fluency routine:

Read one word family slowly.
Mark the stressed syllable.
Put one family member into a sentence.
Repeat the sentence at a natural speed.
Change to another family member and adjust the sentence.

Your goal is understandable speech, not accent imitation.

Recordings are optional. If you record yourself, keep the file private unless you actively choose to share it in a safe school setting. No unrequested upload is needed.

Speaking

Pair task – Choose and defend:

Your group is writing a school blog. Complete and discuss these ideas:

The project was a great ___ . Base: succeed
The instructions were very ___ . Base: help
We finished the task ___ . Base: careful
The weather was ___ . Base: predict

Do not only give the answer. Say why the word class and meaning fit.

Spontaneous follow-up: Your partner asks, Could another family member work here? Why or why not?

Mini-presentation: Speak for 60–90 seconds about one useful word family. Include at least four related forms and one example from real school English.

Writing

Datei:Typewriter-writed paper.jpg

Task: Write a 120–150 word blog post called “A skill I improved”.

Use:

at least three different word families
at least two prefixes
at least three suffixes
linking words such as because, however, so, although
one sentence in which you replace a basic word with a more precise family member

Revision move: Highlight your derived words. Check whether each one has the correct meaning, spelling and word class.

Functional grammar for better word choice

Word formation works together with sentence structure.

Sentence clue	Likely form	Example
a or the + word	noun	an improvement
be, seem, feel + word	adjective	was helpful
action verb + word	often adverb	worked carefully
can, must, should + word	base verb	can improve

This is a clue, not a machine. Always check meaning too.

Mediation

Situation: An English-speaking exchange student wants to understand a short German school notice.

Deutsch-Info: „Die Klasse 9 organisiert einen Reparatur-Nachmittag. Schülerinnen und Schüler können kleine Alltagsgegenstände mitbringen. Freiwillige helfen bei einfachen Reparaturen. Ziel ist nicht Perfektion, sondern gemeinsames Lernen und Wiederverwenden.“

Your task: Give the important information in 60–80 English words. Do not translate sentence by sentence. Use useful families such as repair, helpful, reusable, organisation where they fit naturally.

Deutsch-Hilfe: Frage Dich: Was muss die andere Person wirklich wissen? Fasse Sinn zusammen, statt Formulierungen nachzubauen.

Hilfestufen

Start without help. Then open only the level you need.

Hint 1 – Context: Read the whole sentence. What meaning would make sense here?

Hint 2 – Word parts: Circle a known base. Box a possible prefix. Underline a possible suffix.

Hint 3 – Word class: Ask whether the sentence needs a noun, verb, adjective or adverb.

Deutsch-Hilfe: Wenn Du noch festhängst, formuliere Deine Vermutung auf Deutsch in einem kurzen Stichsatz und kehre sofort zum englischen Satz zurück.

Feedback und Fehleranalyse

Use this simple code when you revise:

Code	Check	Question
M	meaning	Does the new word mean what I want?
F	form	Is the word class correct?
S	spelling	Did the family change spelling?
C	context	Does the whole sentence sound logical?

Error lab: Improve these forms and explain the problem.

The instructions were very help.
She completed the task successly.
It was an unpossible plan.
We need more prepare before the event.

Keep your first version and your improved version. Your own text should remain visible so that you can see what changed.

AI, Quellen und sichere Nutzung

AI tools are optional. A suggestion can sound confident and still be wrong.

Check new word forms in a reliable learner's dictionary or another trusted source.
Check factual claims before using them in a presentation or report.
Do not paste private profiles, real application data or private social-media information into an external tool.
For job-writing practice, use fictional data only, for example Alex Morgan, alex@example.invalid.
Keep your original draft. Use feedback to improve your text instead of replacing your writing with a generated text.
Follow your school rules before using an external AI service.

Transfer

Use the same strategy outside a vocabulary exercise.

Subject or situation	Word	Possible route
Science	renewable	re + new + able
School report	disagreement	dis + agree + ment
Instructions	carefully	care + ful + ly
Careers	unemployment	un + employ + ment

Transfer rule: Do not ask “Do I know this word?” first. Ask “What can I work out?”

Can-do-Check

I can …	Yes	Nearly	Not yet
split a useful word into meaningful parts	□	□	□
use context before a dictionary	□	□	□
choose the right word class in a sentence	□	□	□
use word families in my own writing	□	□	□
explain and improve a wrong first guess	□	□	□
mediate key information without full translation	□	□	□

If you mark Nearly or Not yet, return to one media task, improve one answer and use the same word family again in a new sentence.

Folgekurs

Continue with E9 M - Word choice and cohesion for writing. Reuse at least five word families from this course in the next writing task.

Interaktive Aufgaben

Quiz: Teste Dein Wissen

Where does a prefix usually appear? (Before the base word) (!After the base word) (!Only at the end of a sentence) (!Between two complete sentences)

Where does a suffix usually appear? (After the base word) (!Before the base word) (!Only before a noun) (!Only at the start of a text)

What does un usually suggest in unhappy? (Not or the opposite) (!Again) (!Before) (!Too much)

Which suffix often helps to form a noun from an adjective? (ness) (!ly) (!un) (!re)

Which form is usually an adverb? (carefully) (!care) (!careful) (!careless)

What should you do before translating an unfamiliar derived word? (Use context and word parts) (!Skip the whole sentence) (!Guess from the first letter only) (!Replace it with a German word immediately)

Which word belongs to the same family as predict? (prediction) (!protect) (!prepare) (!private)

Which word fits after very in the phrase very helpful? (helpful) (!help) (!helpfully) (!helpfulness)

What does re often mean in rewrite? (Again) (!Without) (!Wrongly) (!Before)

Which reading strategy is most useful for an unknown word with clear word parts? (Split classify guess and check) (!Translate every word first) (!Ignore the sentence context) (!Choose the longest dictionary meaning)

Memory

Prefix	letters added before a base
Suffix	letters added after a base
Word family	related forms built around one base
Context clue	information from the surrounding sentence
Noun	word for a person thing idea or event
Adjective	word that describes a noun
Adverb	word that often describes how an action happens
Base word	starting form for building related words

Drag and Drop

Ordne die richtigen Begriffe zu.	Thema
unpredictable	cannot easily be predicted
misunderstand	understand wrongly
reuse	use again
helpful	giving useful help
development	noun formed from develop

Kreuzworträtsel

Prefix	What do we call a word part placed before a base?
Suffix	What do we call a word part placed after a base?
Context	What surrounding information helps you guess meaning?
Family	What group contains related forms such as act action active and actively?
Adjective	Which word class often describes a noun?
Dictionary	What reference tool can you use to check meaning spelling and word class?

LearningApps

Lückentext

Offene Aufgaben

Leicht

Word Family Card: Create one visual card for a useful family such as act, predict or care. Include at least four forms and one example sentence.
Prefix Picture Hunt: Use the prefix word-cloud image from this course. Choose six prefixes and add one correct English example for each.
Reading Marker: Return to the repair-day text and mark bases, prefixes and suffixes in eight words. Explain two of your choices.
Private Pronunciation Practice: Choose four derived words from a video, say them in short sentences and compare your second attempt with your first. Recording is optional and stays private.

Standard

Context Detective: Take five unfamiliar words from an age-appropriate English school text. Guess meaning and word class before checking.
Mini Blog: Write 120–150 words about a school project and use at least six correctly formed family members.
Word Choice Negotiation: In pairs, create eight gap sentences and negotiate which family member fits each sentence best.
Mediation Challenge: Summarise a short German school notice in English without sentence-by-sentence translation. Use at least three derived words.

Schwer

Rewrite for Precision: Improve a simple 150-word text by replacing repeated basic vocabulary with accurate word-family choices without changing the message.
Fictional Application: Write a short application email and mini-CV for a fictional youth project. Use only invented names and contact data and include useful forms such as reliable, organised, experience and successfully.
Word Family Presentation: Give a two-minute presentation on one productive word family, then answer two spontaneous questions from classmates.
Source and AI Check: Compare word-formation suggestions from two permitted sources. Verify each form in a reliable dictionary, record any errors and explain which source evidence you trust. Do not use private data.

Lernkontrolle

Unknown Word Transfer: You receive a new paragraph with three unfamiliar derived words. Infer each meaning and justify your answer with context, word parts and word class.
Form in Context: Rewrite five sentences in which the base word is given but the wrong family member is used. Explain why your revision fits the sentence.
Meaning Shift: Compare two related forms such as careful and careless or employ and unemployed. Show how the affix changes the message in a new context.
Revision Task: Improve a short first draft by adding five useful derived words. Keep the meaning clear and avoid adding words only to meet a quota.
Mediation Transfer: Turn the key information from a short German notice into a concise English message and choose word-family forms that fit your reader.
Explain Your Strategy: For one difficult word, document your path from first guess to checked answer and explain what made you change or keep the guess.