7/29/2019 10 Sure-Fire Strategies to Improve Your Vocabulary

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10 Sure-Fire Strategies to Improve Your Vocabulary

T here are several proven benefits in improving your vocabulary, but how shouldwe go about learning new words in the most effective way? By using the followingten vocabulary-building strategies, you are guaranteedto develop a strong vocabulary and keep improving it every day.1. Read VoraciouslyIts undeniable that reading is the mosteffective way to get new vocabulary. Whenyou read, you see words beingused in context and thats what makes it much more effective than, forexample, merely memorizing word lists.With context information surrounding each new word, theres a good chance you canguess its meaning just by understanding the overall text. Finding out the meaning of words in such a way is the natural way of learning language and reading provides the best opportunity to get exposed to this natural way of learning.If youre not able to infer the meaning of new words when reading, its probably because there are too many unknown words in the text. In that case, try reading easier materials. The key to good reading is making it a pleasurable activity; so dont be afraid of coming across unknown words, but make sure the text is appropriate for your reading level.2. Make Friends with the DictionaryA dictionary is the first indispensible resource to improve your vocabulary. Itsonly by looking up a word in a dictionary that you will learn its precise meaning, spelling, alternate definitions,and find much more useful information about it. A thesaurus is also a valuable resource for learning by finding connections b

etween words, such as their synonyms and antonyms.Consider adding a good dictionary and thesaurus to your bookshelf. Here are somerecommendations:*. Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary ;*. The New Oxford American Dictionary ;*. The Oxford American Writers Thesaurus .For online dictionaries, there are many free options with great extra features.Even if you have a good dictionary in print already, you cant miss having a goodonline dictionary at your disposal:*. OneLook : Has a reverse lookup function (get the word from its definition) and works as a meta-dictionary, showing you definitions from other major online dictionaries. Irecommend you try OneLook and explore its results to decide which dictionary you prefer;

*. Merriam-Websters Online Dictionary :An old-time favorite of mine, although theblinking ads are gettinga bit annoying lately;*. Ninjawords : It searches the free dictionary Wiktionary . What makes this site interesting is that you can look up multiple words simultaneously. Moreover, the resultspages can be bookmarked making them good personal reference pages;*. Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus : If yourea fan of mind mapping , you will certainlyenjoy viewing related wordsrepresented in a visual map format;*. Answers.com , Dictionary.com , The Free Dictionary and many others: All of them are good resources try each one at least once to help you make up your mind.3. Use It or Lose ItDont settle after you learn a new word by reading it or looking it up in the dictionary: these are good starts, but its by using the new words thatyou truly commit them to your long-term memory.

Be creative and try to use your newly learned words in as many ways as possible:*. Write them down;*. Say them aloud;*. Create sentences with them, mentally or in writing;*. Try to use them in a conversation;*. Discuss them with friends.Its also important to be aware of your own language style: every time you catch yourself saying common or nonspecific words such as nice , try coming up with richer and more precise expressions instead.4. Learn One New Word a Day

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If you learn just one new word every day, youll soon notice they add up pretty quickly. I like to think of it as the kaizen way of growing your vocabulary" and what makes this strategy stand out is that it can be used by anyone, no matter how busy ones schedule is. In the same way I grow my collection of favorite quotesinbaby steps by receiving a new famous quote every day , I also learned to enjoygrowing my vocabulary by committing myself to learning at least one new word each day.There are many websites that provide free word-of-the-day services, delivering them in many formats suchas e-mail, RSS feeds, podcasts and even text messages sent to your cell phone. Here are my favorites:*. Merriam-Websters Online Word of the Day : This is the website that delivers the most useful words of all. Its also the most feature-rich: it provides audio explanation, pronunciation and word history. The service is available by e-mail, RSS feed, podcast, and SMS;*. WordSmart Wordcast : Provides difficulty level, comprehensive details and audio pronunciation for the word. Just like Merriam-Websters Online, its available bye-mail, RSS feed, podcast and SMS;*. Dictionary Word of the Day : Anotherfine service, not as complete as Merriam-Websters or WordSmart, but still worth checking out.5. Understand the True Meaningof WordsBy deeply understanding words, you can make your vocabulary grow exponentially.Instead of just memorizing words, try to really understand them by looking at their etymology , word roots , prefixes and suffixes . At least half of English words are derived from Greek and Latin roots , so there are enormous benefits in b

eing familiar with them.Just to pick an example, when you understand that the prefix ortho means straightor right , you start to find connections between seemingly unrelated words, suchas orthodontist (a specialist who straightens teeth) and orthography (the correct, or straight way of writing).Understanding the logic behind words always pays off in terms of learning andrecalling. Consider the examples: breakfast meaning interrupt the nights fast; or rameaning bow or arcg caused by rain: while these meanings may be trivial to nativeEnglish speakers, having such insights about words, foreign or otherwise, never fails to delight me.6. Maintain a Personal LexiconBy keeping a personalized list of learned words, youll have a handy reference youcan use to review thesewords later. Its very likely youll want to go back and ref

resh your memory on recent words, so keeping them in your own list is much moreefficient than going back to the dictionary every time.Even if you never refer back to your lexicon again, writing words down at leastonce will greatly enhance your ability to commit them to your permanent memory.Another excellentlearning aid is to write an original sentence containing the word and using your lexicon to do that is a great way of enforcing this habit. Youcan also add many other details as you see fit, such as the date you first cameacross the word or maybe a sequential number to help you reach some word quotayou define.There are many ways you can keep your personal word list; each one has its own advantages and disadvantages so make sure to pick the format thatworks best for you. You may prefer to keep it as a simple text file in the computer, or in a regular paper notebook; or maybe as flash cards in a shoe box.

My format of choice is a computer spreadsheet, for its handy features such as searching, sorting and filtering. For each word, I have columns for the date I learned it, a sample sentence, along with a link to its definition in an online dictionary. Lately, Ive also been experimenting with keeping my personal lexicon ina concept map . This has been working particularly well so far, and I plan to explore the technique in more depth here when I get more conclusive results.7. Follow a ProcessTo make vocabulary improvement a permanent habit in your everyday life, you should make it as habitual, automatic and tightly integrated in your daily workflowas possible otherwise you wont do it when your days get too busy.

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If you already adopt some kind of structured workflow for your life such as David Allens Getting Things Done youre probably familiar with the idea of organizing all input that comes to your life in buckets: virtual inboxes that get processed ina similar way to your e-mail inbox.In that regard, one particularly useful concept is the one of maintaining a WordInbox . By having a predefined place you use to capture the words you come across, you can process them much more efficiently. For example, my word inboxes, which Itry to empty once a day, consist of myword-of-the-day feed and of notes on myPDA which I use to capture any new words I discover during the day.Your process can be as simple as you wish the key is to define it beforehand andthen follow it. By knowing exactly how and how often to process your inbox, youstay on topof your vocabulary improvement process, even when there are other pressing matters crying out for your attention.8. Play and Have FunPlaying games and engaging in group activities are useful in any kind of learning, but particularly effective for language-related learning. Gather your familyand friends and play word gamestogether. Some interesting options are Quiddler ,as well as the classics Scrabble and Boggle .If you dont want to spend money on boxed games, its easy to come up with your ownword activities. You may, for example, try your own variation of Word Evening: ata specific day of each week, a different person brings a new word to the meal.The person reads the word, defines it,and the others must come up with a sentenceusing the word.If you dont have time or dont want to engage in group activities, there arenumerou

s options of word games in the Internet. You can either play themwhen youre bored, or integrate them in your daily routine, such as playing a quick game after lunch, for example. Consider the following recommendations:*. Merriam Websters Daily Word Game ;*. Merriam Websters Daily Crossword ;*. Word Games on Yahoo! Games .9. Leverage Every Resource YouCanThe Internet is a gold mine of resources for vocabulary building. The links I collected here are just my personal recommendations and dont even scratch the surface of whats available online.There are plenty of vocabulary applications you can try. There are many vocabulary-related books you canexplore. There is a wealth of free literature on sites such as Project Gutenberg . If you use the Firefox browser, there are many ways t

o integrate dictionary lookup functions, such as the plug-ins Answers.com and DictionarySearch . You can find specialized vocabulary lists, such as these feeling words or descriptive words . Damn, you can even learn some classy, Shakespearian insults !The point is that youre only limited by your willingness to learn: let curiositybe your guide and you will never run out of resources to learn from.10. DiversifyDo something different from your daily routine: hunting, fishing or blogging anyactivity that is not a part of your normal life can become a great way to learnnew words, as every niche has itsown jargon and unique ways of communicating. Read different books and magazines than the ones youre used to. Watch foreign-language movies. Take up new hobbies, hang out with different people.By doing things out of the ordinary youwill not only improve your vocabulary but

also make your life much more interesting.