How to
enrich your vocabulary
What is
meant by ‘our vocabulary’?
Our
own individual vocabulary refers to all the words we know. It includes both
our:
·
active
vocabulary – the words we understand and use regularly when speaking
or writing, and our
·
passive vocabulary –
the words we understand when we hear them, but do not or cannot use them.
We often recognize a word before we can use it. It
takes a long time before we fully know a word.
Why is it important to improve our
vocabulary?
A
wide vocabulary helps you to understand what you read or listen, and to write
and speak well. It is far more difficult to communicate with no vocabulary than
with no grammar.
You will improve your English very much if you learn
more words and expressions instead of spending most time studying grammar.
What is meant by really knowing a
word?
Really
knowing a word means knowing all its different kinds of meanings. Knowing a
word also involves understanding its form, i.e. what part of speech it is, how
it works grammatically, and how it is pronounced and spelt. In order to
pronounce new words correctly you can use the phonetic alphabet for help with
pronunciation. You can also use an online, talking dictionary that tells us how
to say a word (i.e. includes a sound clip of the pronunciation).
You need to say new words a number of times; listen
to what you are saying. You need also to use your new words in conversation, in
emails and other writing many times before you can be said to have learned
them. Make sure you check with your teacher if there is anything you are not
sure about.
It takes a lot of practice before you really acquire
/ learn / know a new word. You should be systematic about studying and review
new words at least once every couple of weeks.
Useful tips to help students improve
their vocabulary
1. Record your vocabulary
systematically
As
far as vocabulary learning is concerned, one of the main problems is recording
your vocabulary in a way that will help you remember it. It is a very good idea
to have a vocabulary notebook and
to organize it into themes or topics (e.g. appearance, food, clothes, health,
holidays, relationships, travel, traffic, etc.). Have one theme per piece of
paper and create headings to sort out your words and phrases into really useful
‘word maps’.
Try not to note down single words. Try and find
out what other verbs, adjectives, prepositions etc. go together with each word.
2. Learn vocabulary in chunks
The
best way of learning new words is to gather together words and phrases in
clusters that make sense, that connect with each other – because, simply, it
helps the brain remember them.
The term collocation means
a natural combination of words; it refers to the way in which English words are
closely associated with each other. For example, we talk about: heavy
rain and heavy traffic but not about: heavy
sun or heavy roads; or we say that we make a
mistake, but we don’t do a mistake. If we say: My father is a
very high man, our language will sound very unnatural,
because high goes with mountains and tall goes with
men/women. So, heavy rain and make a mistake, as well
as high mountain and tall man are often referred to
as collocations, and we
say that heavy collocates with rain, or
that heavy and rain are collocates of each other.
Let’s look at the next example:
If
you say: “I forgot my passport and lost the plane”, this will sound very
unnatural, because a native speaker of English would say: “I forgot my passport
and missed the plane”.
Apart
from helping you to expand your English vocabulary, you need to learn
collocations because they will help you to speak and write English in a more
natural and accurate way.
3. Use a dictionary
You
need to have access to a couple of good dictionaries. If you read or hear
a word you don’t understand, look up the meaning of the word and write it down
in your ‘vocabulary notebook’. Good learner dictionaries give students so much
help with getting a grasp on vocabulary. Most dictionaries have a key at the
beginning to explain the codes. Example sentences are useful for showing you
how a word is used in practice. Phrases and collocations show you the different
uses of a word and help to further increase your vocabulary. If students are
taught how to use them properly they will increase their depth of
understanding. With correct usage of a good dictionary, such as the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary or
the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s
Dictionary students will know how vocabulary is pronounced. They’ll
also be able to identify which words are from the academic word list, learn
synonyms and antonyms etc.
Remember
that English is changing every day. The more recently a dictionary was
published, the more up-to-date the language will be.
4.
Range of contexts
Students
need to use new vocabulary in various contexts outside the classroom. They can
listen to the news, read books or listen to their favourite music in
English. The more that language is seen in different contexts, the more
students will be intrinsically motivated as they will want to know more. This
is much more interesting for students (and teachers) if the focus is on the
topic, not the language.
Read something
you enjoy and choose a variety of topics; include texts that are a bit
challenging and which include words that are unfamiliar. If you come across new
words while you are reading:
·
Try to work out the meaning of the word from the
context.
·
Don’t keep stopping to look up words you don’t
know as this breaks the flow and makes it more difficult to concentrate on, and
understand, what you’re reading.
·
If you’re really struggling to understand what
you’re reading, look up one or two words that you don’t understand, then reread
the passage and keep going.
