加拿大思博國際學院

How to increase your vocabulary!!

Great suggestion from SACLI Academic Director, Judy MacKinnon.

 Every language learner wants a bigger vocabulary, but many language learners have difficulty remembering new words.  If this sounds like you, here are some tips that might help.

Decide what words you need to talk about your interests and study them rather than learning words that you encounter as you read or listen to English.  This will be help expand your vocabulary quickly because you will have likely have opportunities to use the new words in real life.  That is truly the best way to firmly implant the new words into your English vocabulary.

Of course, you will also see and hear new words in English that you’ll want to know, but if you try to remember them all, you will have a problem.  You have to decide which ones to study and which ones to forget.  You should study words that are more common.  When you see a word that you don’t know but you do know that you have seen before, you should learn it.  If you encounter a word you don’t know and you think you have never seen or heard before, than it is probably safe to forget about it.

Paying attention to how you study is also important.  Studying actively and using more of your five senses (taste, touch, sight, smell, and hearing) will help you remember more vocabulary.  Draw a picture to represent the word you want to remember.  Sing a song using the word, or move your body in a way that represents the word.

In addition to using your senses, write the vocabulary and the definitions in a way that will help you study.  Instead of just writing lists of vocabulary in your notebook, take notes about the vocabulary in a way that will make your brain work harder.  For example, list the vocabulary down the left side of the paper and write the meaning down the right side.  Now fold the paper so you can only see the words on the left.  Test yourself.  If you are unsure, just look unfold the paper and check.   Flashcards can be used in a similar way.  Write the vocabulary on one side and a sentence using the vocabulary word on the other, but replace the word with a blank space.  You can then use either side to test yourself and check your recall by turning over the card.

Finally, don’t spend a long time studying.  Instead, study for short periods of time but study more frequently.  If you study several times throughout the day over several days, you will remember more than if you study the same list once a day for a long period of time.