What does it mean?

When you are studying at university you will hear and read lots of new words that you might not understand.

Learning the meaning of new words in English can be very difficult because often one word can have a lot of different meanings.

Students at university have to be very careful when they are learning a new word because if you choose the wrong meaning for a new word it can affect your understanding of the subject you are studying.

Furthermore, if you use the wrong meaning for a word in your assignment you will probably get a lower mark.

Let’s look at an example of a word that can have different meanings depending on the context.

Look at the following quote from Ian Dunn, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Student Experience) at Coventry University:

Independent learning is essential in order to succeed at university in the UK and to progress in your future career.

Substitution

Government-ruled learning is essential in order to succeed at university in the UK and to progress in your future career.

Your task

Look at the picture below and think about the context where the word ‘independent’ was used.

Thinking about the context in which ‘independent learning’ was used, do you think that ‘government-ruled learning’ is a good definition?

Reference

_{Macmillan Dictionary (2018) independent (adjective) definition and synonyms [online] available from https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/independent_1 [4 May 2018]}