Picture Dictionary - Bilum Books

Picture Dictionary and Teacher Guide

The Picture Dictionary includes all the 300 common words and all the topic words listed in Annex 2 of the NDoE Elementary School ENGLISH Syllabus. Why is this important?

If students know these common words, it will greatly expand their ‘sight vocabulary’. It will enable students to read these words ‘by sight’ (without the need to ‘sound them out’). This will greatly improve their reading fluency, which in turn will greatly improve their ability to comprehend what they read.

In the Dictionary, words are explained in a PNG context, with a picture and a sentence (or phrase). All topic words (Family, Classroom, Animals, Weather, Village, etc.) are presented by topic in Part 1 of the book. All common words are in alphabetical order in Part 2.

The accompanying Teacher Guide gives teachers hundreds of ideas and activities for teaching the words in the Dictionary – these include:

oral work – to introduce each word and teach correct pronunciation
definitions – to make sure students clearly understand each word
usage – activities to make sure students know how to use each word correctly
using the Dictionary – teaching students how to use a dictionary
phonics – activities to teach the link between sounds and letters

The graphic pattern on the cover represents eyes. It is a design commonly used in north-east PNG.

Sample page from the School Picture Dictionary.