Saturday, November 12, 2011

Visualizing the Power of Word Associations




Occupy. This ordinary verb (which means to take over, full; to invade) has taken on a whole new meaning in the past month with the bold movements of Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Oakland, which made national headlines as it captured the attention of people worldwide. “Occupy” has become a powerful phenomenon that represents the 99% of regular citizens against the 1%, labeled as the wealthy members of society. It is quite fascinating how this verb has become associated to many people as a call to justice regarding the economy, employment, and fair treatment.

We learn to associate words to abstract meaning from the time we can comprehend the distinctions from one word to another, whether through phonemic difference or written character patterns. One of the prominent challenges faced especially by English language learners is understanding that several different words can be used to represent one meaning, the same meaning, also known as synonyms. It can be hard to keep track of what words mean what just talking about them, but do you remember the saying that “seeing is believing?” Visuwords makes this saying a reality.

Explore the relationship of different words to each other. Enter the word into the search bar and...

Discover the meanings of all kinds of words. Hover your mouse over each node for the meaning or a sample sentence.

Drag, pull, and play with the elasticity of word connections!

Visualizing words will help you develop easier methods to remember word meanings and allows you to have fun while doing so. One question to be further explored is: Can students retain vocabulary words more effectively through the growing trend of interactive, spatial learning as opposed to linear text study habits?