How to improve your vocabulary
How to improve your vocabulary
How to Improve Your Grammar and Vocabulary
This article was co-authored by Grant Faulkner, MA. Grant Faulkner is the Executive Director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and the co-founder of 100 Word Story, a literary magazine. Grant has published two books on writing and has been published in The New York Times and Writer’s Digest. He co-hosts Write-minded, a weekly podcast on writing and publishing, and has a M.A. in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University.
There are 12 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.
This article has been viewed 46,934 times.
Having a good grasp on grammar and vocabulary is important for your writing, speaking, and general interactions with other people. Improving your skills in each area is a great personal growth exercise that can benefit your everyday life. Start at the beginning and review the basics of sentence structure, spelling, punctuation, and word roots. Grow your vocabulary by reading, looking up words, and committing to use those words in your normal speech. For more help, enroll in courses and use language games and apps to make learning fun.
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7 Sure-fire ways to drastically improve your vocabulary
Words are the basic blocks of the language, and one of the key predictors of someone’s education level, profession and social status. And when learning a new language, you must continually improve your vocabulary. Yet most students struggle to increase their vocabulary effectively, as new words go one into one ear and out the other.
It’s not that we have difficulties grasping the vocabulary when we see it. Rather, we struggle to recall when we get the opportunity to use it, or worse yet, forget to use frequently enough only to end up back where we begun.
Below I describe ten proven tactics to overcome this struggle and learn new words faster, recall them more effectively, and remember them forever.
How to improve your vocabulary
1. Make use of spaced repetition algorithms (SRSs)
Although the scientific community is still debating some aspects of learning, there is consensus on how memories form, and solidify in our brains.
The basic concept of spaced repetition is that memories begin to fade shortly after they’re formed, and disappear into oblivion lest we are exposed to the information again.
With each exposure, the ‘forgetting curve’ of the memory becomes longer, and longer until it eventually outlasts your lifetime. This is why reviewing what you’ve learned regularly is so important to effective learning.
The biggest benefit of using a spaced repetition approach to learning, whether you follow the Leitner system with your old paper flashcards, or go for spaced repetition software on your phone or computer (have you tried LinguaLift yet?), is that it prevents you from wasting time on vocabulary that is still fresh in your memory.
The way most students use flashcards is by adding more and more cards to the deck, and then reviewing them all together every day, or every week, or eventually never at all. No surprise, given how unmanageable the pile becomes after a few learning sessions.
SRS goes beyond regular flashcards by predicting the point when the memory is about to fade based on your past performance, and then reminding you at this optimal moment. In theory, if you review regularly every day, you shouldn’t see the word more than 4-5 times before it enters your long term memory!
2. Study vocabulary in context
Research shows that the vast majority of words are learned from context. I can’t emphasize this enough, as learning in context of situations and sentences has huge benefits for all three aspects of vocabulary acquisition: learning, recall and retention.
This means that you should never learn vocabulary from isolated lists of unrelated vocabulary, without seeing them as part of a wider picture.
Think of words as puzzle pieces–when they’re scattered around the table, it’s almost impossible to remember or use them for anything useful. But once you combine even just a couple of the pieces together, a more meaningful context begins to appear, and the end result no longer appears unattainable.
There are many ways of introducing context into your vocabulary learning, the simplest being to learn vocabulary in sentences. This has additional benefits of introducing you to several words at a time, and clarifying their meaning, which may not always be obvious from a simple dictionary translation.
Beyond sentences, you can experiment with learning words with stories, songs or just everyday situations. For example, rather than learning weather related words on their own, look up a weather forecast online, and try to imagine a conversation about weather next week, and how it’ll affect the fishing trip you’ve been looking forward to so much.
Finally, you can also embed the vocabulary right into your surroundings with post-it notes. You’ve probably tried this method with nouns, but there’s no reason to stop there! Simply prepend the label on the fridge with ‘white,’ the clock with ‘wall,’ and the notebook with ‘my.’
3. Make the vocabulary personal, and emotional
You’ve probably heard stories of car crash survivors who can remember every little detail before the accident. We’ve also all experienced how difficult it can be to forget something we’ve been told that touched us to the heart.
Neuroscientists have flashed different words and sentences in front of subjects, scanning their brain activity. Unsurprisingly, the heat maps lit up like a Christmas tree whenever the subjects were exposed to personally relevant and emotionally notable information.
This effect can be put to great effect in vocabulary learning when combined with the previous tip. Rather than settling for a boring sentence like “The photo is on the table,” try something like “The photo of my wife fell off the desk just when I got the call.”
The benefit is three-fold. There’s now a very visual story forming around the vocab, it is emotionally impactful, and assuming you keep a photo of your significant other on your desk, also immediately relatable!
Throw that sentence into your SRS, and I can guarantee that you’ll never forget the words photo, desk, or wife ever again!
Try to think of new vocabulary in context of the people you know, places you’re familiar with or important events in your life. Just make sure not to go overboard with the imagery, lest you get traumatized every time you need to use one of the words!
We incorporate this concept into LinguaLift’s language learning system by having our students use newly acquired vocabulary to talk about their daily lives. This makes the vocabulary relatable and memorable.
4. Read regularly, and from a variety of sources
Reading exposes you to the same vocabulary at regular intervals, integrated into the context of a longer story, personally relatable once you identify with the main protagonist… all central characteristics of effective vocabulary learning.
This makes reading one of the most effective ways to increase your vocabulary. The stereotype might portray bookworms as boring and asocial, but studies have in fact confirmed repeatedly that regular readers are much more expressive if you give them a chance to speak.
While you read, pay close attention to words you don’t know, but don’t try to look up everything right away or you’ll fail to appreciate the narrative and eventually burn out. Instead, highlight words that appear to be particularly useful or central to the story, then try to figure out their meanings from context before checking the official definition.
Make sure to engage with material on many different subjects, and in different formats. The language will be very different depending on whether you’re reading pulp fiction, a glamour magazine, or the daily newspaper.
If the book you’re reading is also available in audio form, you should also consider listening to each chapter before or after you read it. If the text and the audio match accurately, also make sure to try shadowing, an extremely effective learning method I’ve covered before.
5. Link vocabulary with mnemonics and word associations
Once you get a hang of the language, learning new words gets easier and easier as you can associate new vocabulary with homonyms, roots and other components you know already. But what about given names and locations? How do you remember what are often just random sets of letters?
Last month, I’ve asked this questions to Mattias Ribbing, a three-time Swedish Memory Champion, and Grand Master of Memory.
Matthias travels on speaking gigs around the globe, encountering hundreds of new faces every month, yet he never forgets a name! What’s his secret? Rather than putting pen to paper, or resorting to cheesy smartphone apps that would break the flow of the conversation, Matthias follows a simple, three-step approach every time he comes across a new name:
And that’s it! Follow these three simple steps and you’ll never be the one awkwardly thinking of a way to attract someone’s attention without admitting you forgot the name they mentioned just five minutes ago.
Mnemonics are a bit of a controversial topic in the language learning community, but they can be incredibly effective for some people. The key here is to use them as yet another tool, not the be-all, end-all learning method.
Like with example sentences, to make this method really effective, make sure that your mnemonics are both visually and emotionally powerful–hence the benefit of thinking of a funny visual, and enlarging the object in your memory beyond natural proportions.
6. Pool new vocabulary from a frequency list
Before you can use any of the above learning hacks, you’ll need a list of vocabulary to start learning. Ideally, much of that vocabulary should come from encounters in daily life, whether through reading, listening to songs, watching movies, or paying attention to conversations in the elevator. In reality, you’ll likely need to supplement these with more abstract words to target.
A common theme across my suggestions, and earlier blog posts, is that language should be learned in a way that allows you to use it at the earliest opportunity. That is a key value of learning in context, of learning vocabulary that is personally relevant, and generally engaging with words as blocks you can use to construct something bigger, rather than individual pieces of information.
It should then come as no surprise that my preferred source of abstract vocabulary are lists ordered by the frequency at which they are used in day-to-day language. I’ve rarely seen this approach in classroom settings, but found it extremely effective and popular among many successful language self-learners.
In many languages, learning just 1000 basic words will make you understand 90% of the spoken language, and even the first 250 most common words will give you a good sense of the conversation.
If you acquire just 10 new words a day, getting up to speed in a conversation will take less than a month of casual learning. Learning a language is a huge undertaking, and it’s misleading at best when edutech companies promise fluency in a matter of months or even weeks, but mastering a core vocabulary list will make you very comfortable in all day-to-day situations. And from there, it’s just a matter of faking it, till you make it!
7. Have some fun with the words you learn
Word games may not be enough in and of themselves, but they’re a fun and effortless way to increase the recall speed of the vocabulary you know already, as well as to pick up an occasional new word from your peers.
Crosswords and Scrabble are a good place to start if you’re learning Arabic or Indo-European languages. Boggle is also great fun and localized for several languages using the Latin alphabet. Quiddler is a good way to improve your vocabulary, but unfortunately only exist in English.
Languages like Japanese or Chinese are unfortunately not well suited for these types of board games, but looking through the app store on your mobile device should lead you to at least a few options adapted for phonetics and writing systems.
If you don’t want to spend money on board games, or prefer meeting with friends over coffee or hiking, you can try playing a spoken word game instead. Some old time favourites include Word-chain or Shiritori (reply with a word starting with the last letter of the one that preceded), Associations (quickly say the first word that comes to your mind after hearing the preceding word), and Metaphors (think of metaphors for things you see around you).
Bonus: Appreciate the language
You can try every learning method you want, but at the end of the day, you’ll only make rapid progress when you begin to truly appreciate the language… for its expressiveness, its intrinsic beauty, the subtle differences between seemingly identical words and phrases.
Find yourself using the same word again and again? Open the thesaurus and try to integrate a few nuanced alternatives into your language. Notice a pattern? Try looking up the word’s root, prefix, and suffix, and how they’re used in other vocabulary.
Rather than learning words as meaningless syllables, discover their etymology. More than half of English words come from Greek and from Latin, and most advanced Japanese vocabulary comes from Chinese.
Learning about the origins of the words you use can be very effective at solidifying the connections in your brain, and guessing the meanings of the vocabulary you come across in the future. Once you know that ‘ortho’ means straight, you can quickly guess the meaning of complex words like orthodontist (a doctor who straightens teeth) or orthography (the proper way of writing).
Beyond the practical benefits, etymology can also be inspiring, and incredibly fun! Did you know that the word dim sum (點心; small little dumplings from Hong Kong) means to ‘touch the heart’ or ‘dotted heart’? There are countless legends explaining the hidden meaning behind the word.
To Learn how LinguaLift has incorporated these concepts into our Language Learning Program, check out our Home Page.
And while you’re there, be sure to get a free copy of our e-book – Language Learning Secrets.
10 Ways To Improve Your English Vocabulary
Jasmin Alić
When learning a new language, your focal point should always lean more toward finding new ways to improve your vocabulary rather than grammar. Given today’s global presence of the English language, this is fairly easy to do. Do yourself a huge favor right now and put your mind into «vocabulary mode» because we’re going on a trip down English vocabulary lane. Regardless of whether you are studying English at school, enjoying your summer vacation or you’re not even a student, at all, these 10 methods are your secure path to growth and enrichment in the English vocabulary department.
1. Keep a personal dictionary
To kick off the list, we’re going old-school. Remember those early elementary school days when you had your first classes of English and each new word learned had to be documented either in a separate notebook or at the back of your current one? Well, this is actually one of the most efficient ways to learn new vocabulary and track your overall progress. Buy a new notebook or create a new memo on your phone where you will regularly update a word list of all the new English vocabulary you have mastered thus far.
2. Repeat, repeat, repeat
For number 2 on the list, we’re digging deeper into the vaults. They say repetition is the mother of learning. It is – plain and simple. The way the human brain works is it actually utilizes repetition patterns to strengthen the meaning and usage of everything new that we learn. While it is crucial that you constantly learn new vocabulary, it is pertinent that you revise each and every new word to make the most out of your learning experience and always keep your head in the game.
3. Make each new word meaningful
Research has shown that our brain understands new verbal concepts better when they are linked to an image or another concept. For example, if you learn the word «temperament», you may link its meaning to «temperature» to memorize it easier, and more importantly, be able to recall its meaning based on that connection at any given time. The concepts you connect don’t have to be related in any way as long as they help you memorize new vocabulary.
4. Read
This one needs little to no explanation. Reading, in combination with a dictionary, is one of the best ways to come across new vocabulary. What is more, try to read as many different reading materials as possible, e.g. books, newspapers, magazines, etc. to be able to find a variety of new vocabulary.
5. Analyze vocabulary in context
When reading, try to test yourself by not checking the meaning of new words in a dictionary immediately. Instead, infer the meaning from context. Just continue reading after stumbling upon a new word and you’ll see that this particular task is, in fact, not that hard. It’s a more advanced method of mastering new vocabulary but it’s definitely worth a shot.
6. Make observations
Once you have a specific amount of words in your vocabulary list, try to look at the world around you to find examples of their usage, e.g. in songs, movies, newspapers, etc. This is highly beneficial because not only can you observe the context this new vocabulary is being used in but you can also see the collocations that can be formed, as well – something you cannot necessarily achieve by sheer flipping through a dictionary. Knowing when and how vocabulary is used is actually more important than just knowing its meaning.
7. Make use of games and apps
This is probably the most frequent method of learning new vocabulary and mastering new languages among the learners of today. Most language learning apps, such as Duolingo, Memrise or QuizUp are vocabulary-centric and utilize repetition and behavioral patterns to aid your learning process and help maximize your time and effort. They’re easily accessible and usually don’t have any time restraints so you can basically learn only when you want to.
This is highly important because you don’t need any extra motivation to learn; you’re just using your phone as you normally would while also learning something new. Playing board games such as Scrabble and Crosswords helps do the trick, as well.
In a nutshell, any interactive competition, whether it’s on a phone or with friends, will test your speed to recall and retain new words while making the overall experience of learning new English vocabulary that much more effortless and enjoyable.
8. Actively use what you learn
Don’t limit your practice of new words to mere app usage and simple repetition to check what you know. Your true mastery shines when you are able to use new vocabulary in a real-life setting. Engage in conversations. While doing so, try to include those new words where appropriate as a sign of confidence and for additional practice.
9. Stay motivated
This is actually the backbone of learning anything new, especially when it comes to languages. We’re talking about motivation. In order for you to improve your vocabulary as much as you can, you need to cultivate the curiosity to learn new words every day. It’s the inner motivation that can fast track your progress and get you way past your goals at any given day.
10. Set goals
The last one on the list is something most learners fail at, leading them to either lose the motivation to learn new words or even quit the learning process in its entirety. To avoid doing so, set a particular new word count as your daily or monthly goal.
Learning a new language is like planting seeds to grow a new plant while constantly watering it. It is a continuous process that requires all your attention and simply cannot happen overnight. Rather start small and increase your word count as you improve.
Moreover, this will provide you with the transparency to track your progress and have detailed insights into the exact number of words you wanted to learn and how many of your goals you’ve actually met.
Speech is silver, silence is gold.
That’s what they say, at least. However, knowing exactly what vocabulary to use and when turns this idiom on its head. Don’t settle for silence when you can practice what you preach and master what you learn in so many different ways.
On that note, we are OUT! Happy studying!
Speechling is a nonprofit app and website that combines human coaching with technology to improve your foreign language speaking.
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How to Answer the Phone in English
Phone calls. Love them, hate them, you have to admit: even the biggest texter needs to make a phone call at some point. You’ve surely done it a bunch—you often need to use the phone for: Doctor’s appointments Technical support Interviews Customer service requests Making reservations And so much more.
How to improve your vocabulary
Use the links below to jump directly to any section of this guide:
Your vocabulary is comprised of all the words you know: words you can read, write, speak, define, and recognize. Improving your vocabulary provides access to a broader range of verbal expression, and helps you perceive the nuances of the English language. When reading a novel or a newspaper article, your grasp of uncommon words allows you to understand the writer’s finer points. When writing a paper or essay, your careful articulation makes you sound insightful, original, and authoritative. While using a dictionary or thesaurus can help you vary diction on the go, study tools can help you expand your word retention and recall. This will help you in the classroom, on standardized tests, and in everyday conversation. This guide is a collection of dozens of links to vocabulary resources that we have researched, categorized, and annotated in order to help you improve your vocabulary and test-taking skills.
Vocabulary Fundamentals
What does «vocabulary» really mean in practice? Why is it important in real-world situations? How does vocabulary acquisition and development work? This section contains blog posts and articles that introduce you to the basics of vocabulary, from its definition to its relevance.
Wikipedia’s article defines «vocabulary» and discusses cognitive assessments, types of vocabulary, the process of vocabulary growth, and methods of vocabulary enhancement.
This blog post from Elevate’s Gray Matter talks about how vocabulary improves your life outside of reading and writing—by making you a faster thinker, a more productive worker, and a better citizen. It also offers five lifestyle tips for improving your vocabulary.
This excerpt from an English-as-a-second-language teacher’s handbook is helpful for thinking about the abstract benefits of vocabulary, as well as showing what vocabulary knowledge is and how it can be measured in practice.
In this blog post, you’ll find definitions of vocabulary, links to related topics like etymology, word roots, and regional English dialects, and links to worksheets and games to improve your vocabulary.
This article from a popular writing blog explains how having a good vocabulary makes your writing more descriptive, more suited to your audience, and more varied. It ends with simple tips to improve your vocabulary.
How to Improve Your Vocabulary
If you’re looking to expand your vocabulary, you’ll need to go through a few steps. First, you need to find a list of words. Second, you need to devise a way to review these words and their definitions, until you memorize them. Finally, you’ll want to read widely so that you familiarize yourself with these words—and new ones—used in context. Explore the resources in this section for a more in-depth look at vocabulary-building strategies.
This A-Z list, curated by one of the United States’ most popular dictionaries, is available both online and in an expanded book format.
Hundreds of vocabulary lists—both general and geared toward particular classes and exams—are available for free download on this website.
This website is much more complex than your average flashcard drill or interactive game (though those are good, too). Here, you’ll find a wide array of question types and activities to test your vocabulary knowledge. You can even upload your own vocabulary lists into the site; it will generate content for you.
In this blog post, you’ll learn how to use a dictionary and thesaurus, how to navigate synonyms and antonyms, how to create vocabulary trees and themes, and how to use technology to help you improve your vocabulary.
This illustrated, step-by-step guide expands upon ways to read for vocabulary, write with vocabulary, and build your vocabulary. Its suggestions include reading the newspaper and studying Latin roots.
This article, though geared toward those learning a new language, talks about scientifically proven strategies to improve your retention of vocabulary words: spacing review sessions out over time, using mnemonics, etc.
This newspaper article deals with the problem of forgetting words you’ve learned. The author—a professional memory coach—recommends studying «little and often,» making connections, developing visual associations, and using active recall.
How to Comprehend Unfamiliar Words
Whether you’re reading a novel, newspaper article, or Tweet, at some point you’ll come across a word you don’t know. Rather than skip the word (and miss important information), you can use context clues—and even the word itself—to grasp its meaning. This section contains resources to help you comprehend vocabulary words while reading.
This blog post shows how context clues work with an example; it also includes an exercise (and answer key) for you to practice. The page links to additional practice worksheets.
This video tutorial from Love Your Pencil introduces the idea of context clues and help you understand why they’re important (and easy to use). It uses SAT-style reading passages to demonstrate how to figure out a word, then walks through worksheet examples to simulate an in-class experience.
By reading this blog post from a teacher-to-teacher website, you’ll learn how to use prefixes and suffixes, synonyms, explanations, examples, antonyms, analogies, and appositives to work out what an unknown word means.
WikiHow, with its customary illustrated how-to, suggests using context clues, educating yourself in basic etymology, and building your vocabulary through note-taking, reading, games, and resources like a dictionary or thesaurus.
This video tutorial from CliffsNotes may use a popular young adult novel as its example text, but the techniques the tutor applies are widely applicable. These include using synonyms and information embedded in the sentence.
How to Prepare for Vocabulary Questions on Standardized Tests
The most likely place for your vocabulary to be tested is on college entrance exams such as the SAT or ACT. Typically, these exams will either ask you to deduce a word’s meaning from its context in a passage, or will ask you to choose the best word to communicate an idea. This section contains resources to familiarize you with the ways vocabulary is tested on the SAT and ACT.
This blog post compares the new (post-2015) SAT to the old one, and outlines the types of questions that test vocabulary: words in context, rhetorical usage, and word choice. The post includes examples.
This post from Magoosh also compares the new SAT to the old, emphasizing the importance of context to the types of questions asked. The post suggests a list of words to familiarize yourself with.
The definitive, official practice questions from the College Board, available here, are the best way to acquaint yourself with vocabulary-based questions on SAT.
This blog post from Kaplan introduces you to the types of questions in which you will encounter vocabulary on the ACT; it includes examples of each.
By working through these official practice questions from the makers of the ACT, you’ll get a sense of the structure and feel of the test’s vocabulary-based questions.
How to Answer Vocabulary Questions on Standardized Tests
Now that you’re familiar with the standardized test formats, you need to figure out how to answer vocabulary-based questions on the SAT and ACT. Besides simply strengthening your vocabulary according to the guides and strategies listed above, test-specific strategies can help you improve your performance in these areas. This section links to tips, guides, and video tutorials relating to vocabulary questions on the SAT and ACT.
This blog post from PrepScholar is a thorough introduction to the vocabulary questions on the SAT Reading, as well as a treasure trove of tips, example questions (with answers), and common mistakes to avoid.
The Khan Academy is an official, free, College Board-sponsored site on which you can find practice tests, games, and guides for vocabulary as well as the other skills tested on the SAT and PSAT.
This recent video tutorial from Chegg uses real material from the new SAT to show you how to work out «vocabulary in context» questions, a particular type of question that relates to a short passage.
Magoosh’s video tutorial demonstrates how to answer a particular subset of «vocabulary in context» question—those in which a familiar word (in this case, «support») is used in an unfamiliar way.
This blog post from PrepScholar is a thorough introduction to the vocabulary questions on the ACT Reading exam, as well as a treasure trove of tips, example questions (with answers), and common mistakes to avoid.
In this video tutorial from Veritas Prep, you’ll learn how the format of ACT vocabulary questions is designed to trick you; the tutors suggest tips (like defining the answer choices you know before reading the question) to keep yourself from falling into the test-makers’ trap.
How to Use Your Vocabulary in Writing
On standardized tests and everyday assignments, you have a chance to demonstrate the vocabulary you’ve learned. A wider range of expression will increase your score on the SAT and ACT, as well as allow you to communicate your ideas more effectively (thus showing your teacher that you really did read and understand The Great Gatsby!). This section contains links to tips and guides for using vocabulary in writing.
This post recommends varying your word choice, replacing generic words with specific ones, using powerful verbs, and using language appropriate for your audience. It also gives you a starter list of verbs and adjectives to broaden your usage.
This short chapter, excerpted from a longer textbook, walks through the importance of formal vocabulary (over colloquialisms), transitions, and avoiding redundancy (repeating yourself). It is stuffed with examples, as well as a list of commonly misused words.
If you’re hoping to troubleshoot your writing when using new vocabulary, this is a great guide. Besides warning you of cliches, wordiness, and unclear terms to avoid, the page also offers questions to ask yourself in order to use new words successfully.
From this well-known standardized test prep blog comes a post about frequent blunders on the SAT essay. Here, you’ll find a list of commonly confused words (like «accept» and «except») and exercises to help you practice distinguishing between them.
Vocabulary Games
In this digital age, hundreds of apps, online games, and widgets are available to help you improve your word retention and recall skills. This section contains links to some of the best free downloads that will help you learn while having fun, too.
From pre-established vocabulary lists, Quizlet generates online flashcards, fill-in-the-blank exercises, audio clips, practice tests, matching games, and more. This is one of several lists available on the site.
Choose your grade level on this webpage, and you’ll find tons of online tests (using question types like reverse definitions, synonym practice, and spelling fill-in-the-blank) and games to help you work on vocabulary.
This highly-rated app is loaded with 1,600 strategic vocabulary words known to appear on the SAT, ACT, GRE, and AP exams. It will help you memorize these words through the «spaced repetition» strategy.
For the visual learner, this app pairs over 1,000 words with individual illustrations. Track your progress with mastery charts, review what you’ve learned with word sheets, and test yourself with in-app assessments.
This app from the SAT and ACT preparation experts uses multiple choice questions to test your retention of over 1,200 crucial vocabulary words. As you complete levels within the app, you’ll unlock even more words and games.
Vocabulary.com’s app contains over 12,000 words and ten times as many vocabulary-testing questions. An in-app dictionary helps you learn about each word’s etymology, usage, and connotation, and the addicting games incentivize you to work on your vocabulary daily.
Resources for Teaching Vocabulary
Classroom Activities for Vocabulary
This complete lesson plan has five steps: introduce context clues (with a helpful mnemonic), practice context clues, introduce semantic gradients, practice combining semantic gradients with context clues, and give take-home homework.
On this handout, you’ll find innovative games like «Anything Goes» (teacher asks rapid-fire questions about known vocabulary words) and «Brainpower Words» (students work to decipher unknown words in small groups) to help students have fun learning and practicing vocabulary.
A veteran English teacher suggests a version of «3 Truths and a Lie,» as well as interactive activities that use everything from posters to film to social media.
This complete lesson plan details the supplies, preparation, and step-by-step execution of a vocabulary poster activity, including a follow-up game that allows students to learn from their peers’ posters.
Familiar household games like Charades, Pictionary, and Boggle can become tools for vocabulary acquisition and retention if you follow the simple guidelines in this blog post.
Homework Exercises for Vocabulary
The five free, downloadable worksheets on this page pair vocabulary-rich passages with SAT-style questions. They require students to deduce the meaning of unknown words in a setting similar to that on most standardized tests.
On this page and through the clickable links, you’ll find free, downloadable lessons and worksheets for more practice with context clues. The site even has videos with mnemonic songs that, though a little silly, will help you remember definitions.
At the bottom of this page, you’ll find links to ten free, downloadable PDF worksheets for practicing synonyms, antonyms, and analogies with SAT vocabulary words.
This worksheet pairs with the «Solving Word Meanings» lesson plan above; it’s a take-home exercise of the «semantic gradients» technique, which requires students to place words on a spectrum or to choose between them.
How to improve your vocabulary in English
Words form the building blocks of any language and the more you know, the more freedom you have when expressing your thoughts and ideas.
Improving your vocabulary in English can be a challenge if you are living in your home country and have little contact with English. However, a little time and dedication goes a lot way and by making small changes to your daily routine, you can expand your English vocabulary each week.
Adult native English speakers usually have a vocabulary of 10,000-21,000 words depending on their age and level of education. Reading is an important factor that tends to expand a person’s vocabulary size. Non-native speakers of English should aim for a vocabulary 3,000-5,000 words. This is enough to understand 99% of everyday conversation and communicate freely and without compromise. Building towards this target takes time and effort but is achievable for all learners of English who really want to know the language well.
5 USEFUL TIPS FOR LEARNING NEW ENGLISH VOCABULARY
Always learn vocabulary in context
Whenever we use words, they are always in a context so it makes sense to learn them in the situations in which they arise. This approach has several advantages. You gain a better understanding of how to use words in a real language situation and learn them in combinations and as collocations. If you do not know a particular word, you can often guess its meaning from the context in which it is found. Therefore, context is important and should not be ignored when learning English vocabulary.
Thematic vocabulary
Some learners acquire vocabulary more easily when it is arranged in lists by topic. For example, you might have a list of airport vocabulary with 20 words connected with the topic of air travel. This is a good approach but bear in mind that there are many “cross-over” words that fit into multiple categories and topics. These words are no less important and should appear on a general vocabulary list of their own with examples of their usage in context. Try this list of 1580 commonly used words in English. If you know all of these words, then you are already half way towards your initial 3,000 word target!
Read more in English
Native speakers who have large vocabularies are often big readers. This makes sense as they have more contact with complex literary and scientific language. You can expand your vocabulary by reading too. Set aside 30 minutes a day to read in English and make sure you have a good dictionary to hand. You will also need an English book (or article) and a pencil. As you read, try to understand the general meaning of the text but also underline any new words, phrases, and unfamiliar idioms as you go. When you reach the end of a chapter or your 30 minutes is over, look up the new vocabulary in your dictionary and make a note of it separately. Over time you will build up a small personal dictionary of words that you need to learn.
Learn through association and logic
Many words follow logical patterns both in their structure and application. Learning one root word can lead to an understanding of several other lexical units derived from it. It is also worth taking the time to learn Greek and Latin roots in English. For example, if you know that “bi-” means two and “ann-” means year, then you can work out that “biannually” logically means twice yearly. Try to see the bigger picture – take the smallest unit you can find (the root) and work outwards from there. By adding prefixes and suffixes, you can alter the meaning of a root word, creating several other lexical units in the process. Associating words with one another can also be a good way of expanding your vocabulary by logically grouping similar items together.
Use it or lose it
The funny English expression “In one ear and out the other” applies well to vocabulary acquisition. Imagine the temporary files folder on your computer or laptop. It stores information for a limited time only before deleting it. This is done so that your computer does not slow down or get filled with unnecessary information. The same is true of your brain when learning English vocabulary. Words that you often use are in your active memory and you can use them fluently, often without thinking too much about their translation in your language. On the other hand, words you are still unfamiliar with and use rarely are harder to remember and use because they form part of your passive vocabulary. The key here is to force yourself to have more contact with the words you want to remember. This can be done through reading and repetition.
If you read 10 articles about keeping goldfish, then you will probably need to use the dictionary quite often up until article 5. Once you have translated and learnt the unfamiliar vocabulary, the following 5 articles will be much easier to understand and by article 10 some of these new words will have been retained. This is a simple approach but an effective one. Concentrating on one subject area at a time can lead to better vocabulary retention.
Perhaps the hardest task of all is learning to use your new vocabulary when speaking English. This takes times and practice because you need to remember words and constructions quickly in order to use them during a flowing conversation with few pauses. OTUK offers one-to-one classes via Skype with British English teachers. We help our students expand their vocabulary and retain it through real conversation on interesting topics. If you would like to improve your English with OTUK, drop us a line to arrange a trial consultation today!