Read, Write, and Practice to Strengthen Your Vocabulary
Do you ever come across words you don’t understand? Or maybe English is your second language and you want to build your vocabulary? Whether you’re a native speaker or a language learner, having a strong vocabulary is an important ingredient for success in business. But building that vocabulary requires strategy. Lisa B. Marshall, aka The Public Speaker, gives you a strategy that will reap great rewards.
Lisa B. Marshall
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Read, Write, and Practice to Strengthen Your Vocabulary
I recently received this email:
Hello Lisa,
I have been going through your blogs, and I need some help regarding building vocabulary. Many people suggested that I read books, and some suggested I read a dictionary and newspaper. I find it hard to remember those words and sentences, as I am not able to reproduce them. So how can I increase my skills to communicate better by using better words? Please help me regarding this.
Thanks, Nithin.
Hi Nithin,
Thanks for your question. Learning new vocabulary is important and, at the same time, can be difficult. The key to learning new words is understanding that you need to go beyond reading the definition. You also need to hear examples of how the word is used in a variety of contexts; you need to analyze and process the new word, and then use it yourself.
Read to Build Vocabulary
The advice you received to read more was good advice. However, as I’m sure you know, learning vocabulary through reading is not a fast process. It’s something that occurs slowly over time. You mentioned that for you, it’s hard to remember new words. Are you reading at the right level? When it comes to reading and learning new vocabulary, it’s critical to consider the reading level. Choosing the “right” material is an important factor for vocabulary building. If the material is too advanced (or too simplistic), learning new vocabulary is difficult, if not impossible.
You may now be asking, “Well, then, how do I know if a book is good for me or not?” Read the first few pages. If it is a good vocabulary level for your learning, there should only be one or two new words per page. If too many words are new, it’s too difficult and you’ll need to look for something easier. (By the way, you can find books at the right level by using Lexile scores or by using the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL) and the Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) ratings.) If English is your second language, sometimes it can be hard to find books with interesting, meaningful “adult” content but that are at the correct reading level. Especially in the beginning, you may want to use materials that are specifically designed for language learning that use vocabulary in a repetitive and progressive manner. (I used this type of material when learning Spanish and I really enjoyed learning in this manner. It made vocabulary building natural.)
Get in the habit of looking up the words you don’t know. (If you are an ESL learner, look up words both in your translation dictionary and also in an English dictionary—even if that means you need to look up more words.) My kids usually prefer reading a hard copy book, but when it comes to vocabulary building they prefer reading kindle ebooks. Why? Because they can easily look up the definition of words they don’t know. My kids and I take advantage of that feature to learn new vocabulary. In fact, just this week while reading the book Humble Inquiry, I looked up a word. Basically, the more words you are exposed to, the better vocabulary you will have.
The reason you need to read, read, read is because research shows that the best way to learn vocabulary is to learn the word from context—the way a young native language reader does. As you may know, when children encounter a new word, they are encouraged to guess at the meaning based on the words around it before they look it up. You should be doing the same thing. To improve your vocabulary using context clues, I recommend The Learning Network, which is associated with the New York Times. It gives a Word of the Day plus a Quiz. Besides the definitions of the words, it also links to published articles in the Times that previously used the word. That can be a great way to learn new words in context (and the reading level of the New York Times varies quite a bit).
But, as you mention, even if you do read and look up words, it’s very easy to forget new words. The trick is to take more steps. For example, I can’t remember the word I looked up just two days ago because I didn’t take any further action! My excuse is that it was late at night, in bed, and I was tired! So another tip is to do vocabulary building when you are fresh in the morning and have made time for some follow-up activities.
Write to Build Vocabulary
Did you know that research has shown that hand writing out notes helps you to remember the ideas better? So perhaps consider keeping a hand written vocabulary log in which you write the word, the sentence that you found it in, and the date. You might want to keep track of what you thought the word meant before you looked it up, then write out the definition that you found. If you’re artistic (or maybe even if you aren’t), consider drawing a picture of the definition. Often pictures will help you to remember the word and it’s meaning—this is particularly useful for ESL learners. Other things to consider adding to your vocabulary journal are connotations, synonyms, antonyms, the part of speech, and the word family. The act of writing out all this information will help you more deeply understand and process the new word, and writing it in your own handwriting will also help make the new word and its definition more memorable for you.
Did you know that research has shown that hand writing out notes helps you to remember the ideas better?
See Also: Using Pictures and Images, as Described by Verizon and T-Mobile
Practice to Build Vocabulary
As I mentioned in the introduction, in addition to reading as much as possible, you also need to practice, practice, practice. Research suggests that it takes anywhere from 10-20 repetitions to make a word part of your vocabulary. So take time to review your vocabulary log each day or each week. Perhaps write out a new sentence using the new vocabulary. Each day, choose a word or two to try to use that day. Put it on your phone to remind you to try to use that new word. In addition, be on the alert—listen for the word being used ‘in the wild” that day. It’s funny how when you learn a new word you begin to hear it used everywhere. The idea, again, is practice through repetition, but repetition within a context.
Another fun way to practice your skills is to take online vocabulary quizzes or play vocabulary games. There are so many different options I couldn’t even begin to list them all. The idea, however, is to try to have some fun reviewing and assessing your word usage in complete sentences.
Another option is to consider listening to vocabulary podcasts, the ones that are used to study for SATs. And by the way, the new SAT doesn’t quiz students on 50 cent words anymore. They’re removing all the obscure, rarely used words in favor of what they are referring to as “Tier Two” high utility words. Quizlet, a great quiz site for students, has an existing list of Tier Two words, which you can test yourself on with flashcards.
Words that have multiple meanings or which have very similar spellings can be particularly difficult for ESL learners, but they should definitely be on your list if the goal of your vocabulary building is for professional development. Again, Quizlet is a great resource.
The bottom line is that reading allows you to learn new vocabulary words in a variety of contexts, writing helps you solidify them in your mind, and practice helps you to move them from new words to words incorporated into your daily vocabulary. Learning new vocabulary is something that requires consistent and persistent efforts over many years so be sure to celebrate your successes along the way!
This is Lisa B. Marshall, moving you from mediocre to memorable, from information to influence, and from worker to leader! I invite you to read my best-selling books, Smart Talk and Ace Your Interview, listen to my other podcast, Smart Talk, and invest in your professional development via my online courses Powerful Presenter, Expert Presenter, or Influence: Maximize Your Impact.
As always, your success is my business!
Image courtesy of Shutterstock.
About the Author
Lisa B. Marshall Lisa holds masters with duel degrees in interpersonal/intercultural communication and organizational communication. She’s the author of Smart Talk: The Public Speaker’s Guide to Success in Every Situation, as well as Ace Your Interview, Powerful Presenter, and Expert Presenter. Her work has been featured in CBS Money Watch, Ragan.com, Woman’s Day, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, and many others. Her institutional clients include Johns Hopkins Medicine, Harvard University, NY Academy of Science, University of Pennsylvania, Genentech, and Roche.