Did you know that the French word for “potato” is “apple of the earth” (pomme de terre)? Or that the word for “showerhead” is “apple of the shower” (pomme de douche)?

Did you know that the Chinese word for “sad” is “wounded heart” (shang xin) and the word for “happy” is “open heart” (kai xin)?

As tutors, we can actually provide our students with little surprises like these in every lesson. After all, our students are on a long journey to fluency, and need some delightful discoveries to keep them going!

An easy way to do this is by revealing the core concepts behind new words.

What Is A Core Concept?

When we look up a word in a dictionary, seeing all of its meanings at once can be overwhelming. This is especially the case with the most frequently-used words.

Some of the meanings are so different that they can be treated as two separate words. For example, the word “bat” means both the animal and the stick used in baseball, and these two definitions have separate origins: “bat” (the animal) has Germanic roots, whereas "bat" (in baseball) comes from French.

However, on many occasions, the different meanings of words are actually related and reflect one core concept.

Let’s look at the word “raise” for example. We can use it in the context of “raising a child,” “raising your hands,” or “raising a price.” The underlying concept behind the word “raise” is to make something higher or bigger.

While this may be obvious to us, it’s not necessarily clear to learners — nor mentioned in dictionaries. For example, in the vocabulary exercises in our materials, we often have room to include only the definition that is most relevant to the lesson. For example, here’s the entry for “raise” from a Daily News article on raising endangered animals:

So it’s up to us as tutors to reveal the word’s core concept: “You know the phrases ‘raise your hand’ and ‘raise the price,’ right? This ‘raise’ is related. It means to ‘care for a living thing’ so that it grows bigger and taller.”

You can then watch your student’s face light up in amazement and gratitude.

How To Reveal Core Concepts

In general, the shorter and easier the word, the more likely it is to have a variety of interrelated meanings and, by extension, a core concept.

For example, in this Daily News lesson on small talk, the vocabulary list includes the words, “tip,” “recently,” “dream,” and “knowledge.” The only word that I can identify a core concept for is “tip,” which we define as “a piece of advice about how to do something; suggestion.” Reading the definition, your student is probably thinking to themselves, “I wonder what the difference between ‘tip’, ‘advice’ and, ‘suggestion’ is”

We can then enlighten them with the core concept behind the word tip. You can start by defining “tip” as “a small edge of something” (e.g. “tip of the iceberg” or a “tip of the pen”) to show them that “tip” sounds like something small, so it’s essentially a small piece of advice.

Chances are, your student may already know another meaning for the word “tip”: that small amount of money you give to someone as a token of appreciation for their help. In that case, you can help them see that these two meanings are related since both refer to a small amount of something.

👋 That’s it for now!

So what do you think about the “core concept” technique? Do you think you’ll be able to apply it to vocabulary exercises?

If you need help coming up with core concepts, the Vocabulary.com dictionary is a good resource. For example, think about how you can explain the core concept behind the word “desert” (as in the “Sahara Desert” and “he deserted his friends”) and then see how Vocabulary.com does it: desert.

Finally, we hope you find core concepts as fascinating as we do! Happy learning and teaching!