If you want to be a fluent English speaker, you need to have an extensive English vocabulary. You can skip grammar but you can never skip the building blocks of the English language- that is words. You will however not be able to memorize the English dictionary in a day. So how can you expand your English vocabulary? You can improve your English vocabulary by learning new words daily.
Tips to Learn New English Words Daily
To learn new English words daily, you will have to follow the steps that are mentioned below:
Study for Ten to Twenty Minutes Everyday
You can start with learning just about 20 words a day, which means that you can learn 10 words twice a day or 5 words 5 times a day. The best way to learn a new word is to look at the word for a few seconds, memories the spelling and read out its description aloud. Repeat this process till you feel that you feel that you have a proper grip on the word. Once you complete learning at least 10 words, you can repeat the entire process but this time, it will be a little faster. This way on average you can learn about 10 words in 15 minutes. So if you want to learn 20 words, you will just need around 30 minutes.
You need to set a realistic target and follow it. You can start with learning one word a day and gradually increase it to two to five words a day. You have to ask yourself, what is the maximum time that you can devote to learning new English words? You must make learning English daily a habit. You need to remember that dedicating 15 minutes a day to learning new English words will give you better results than dedicating continuous 2 hours once every week.
Get Vocabulary Notebook
You need to keep a notebook, where you will be able to take note of the words that you learn each day. You need to develop a system wherein you can record the new words that you have learnt. This will allow you to go through the words at least once in a couple of weeks and review the words that you have learnt.
Revise Periodically
Irrespective of how good you are at learning new words or how fast you can learn new words, all your efforts will be wasted if you do not periodically do not review what you have already learnt. Revision should not take a lot of time. The best way you can test yourself is by covering the definitions. This will help you to understand which words you are not able to remember and you will be able to focus your time and energy on learning those words.
Use Words in Proper Context
The best way that will help you build a vocabulary is by using the words that you have learned in the right context. Therefore, when you are building your English vocabulary, you should learn the prepositions that also go with the expression. For example, the words, “get away with” and “get away from” mean two different things. The first word means to avoid something and the second word means to escape the punishment or the blame. If you join a reputed spoken English course, you will be able to learn new words and also learn to use those words in the right context.
Read More
You must read not only novels but also magazines and newspapers. This will help you learn more words. As you come across new words, you also need to note down the meanings of those words. If you are unable to understand the meaning, try looking it up in the dictionary. These days’ people read less but reading helps you learn new words in context. So, you know how exactly to use these words and thereby maximize the chances of using these words during your conversations.
Play Games
Certain word games throw challenges and help you discover new meanings and new words. These games are excellent tools that help in expanding vocabulary. Some of these games include anagrams, word jumble, scrabble, boggle and crossword puzzles. Apart from these, certain other games also help you learn new words and these are online quizzes, scrabble etc. You can also practice backward spelling. Try to spell the new words that you have learnt backwards. Another very good game that will help you learn new words is memory games. For this, you will have to write down as many words as possible on a piece of paper. Look through those words for about 40 seconds and then flip it over. Try remembering those words and write them on the sheet.
Build Up Your Memory Gradually
Once you get familiar with the process of learning 20 English words daily, you can increase the target from 20 to 30 and then 40 to 50 words a day. The best thing about learning words this way is that though you increase the number of words you learn each day, you are still able to learn them within 30 minutes. The reason for this is that since you practice this consistently, your memory gets stronger with daily training and to keep it strong you must keep increasing the number of words a day.
Try Reading Definitions in English
If you learn each word by reading the definition in English it will greatly benefit you as you will know about each of these words in both its linguistic as well as cultural contexts and this will help you to use the word intuitively.
Have A Routine
You need to maintain a proper routine if you want to learn new English words daily. This will make sure that you learn around 150 – 200 new words in two months. If on the other hand, you do not follow a timetable, there are chances that this will not become a regular practice and therefore this learning will no longer be consistent.
Know Your “Why”
A good memory is not built in just a day. You need time and you will have to consistently practise with intense desire. Desire will only come if you know the exact purpose of wanting to improve your vocabulary. If you know your purpose you are sure to put in consistent efforts.
Know Synonyms
When you are trying to learn a new word, you tend to keep a dictionary with you so that whenever you come across a new word, you can look it up in the dictionary to find its meaning. You however do not follow this process when you are trying to find a word in your mother tongue.
When you come across a new word in your mother tongue you try searching for other words that express the same emotion rather than finding its meaning in the dictionary. This is how you can learn synonyms and it is this method that you should use to improve your English synonyms. Once you learn the synonym of a word, you should try adding it to your conversation and improve your English vocabulary.
Engage in Conversations with Others
If you simply talk to other people, you will be able to discover new words. You can engage in conversations about something that interests you. You will come across many new words and remembering those words will be easier for you because they are related to the subject that interests you. By joining English-speaking classes you will be able to interact with others and learn new words.
Use Morphemic Words and Etymology
Morphemes are similar to prefixes, suffixes and base words. These are important for phonics and help you improve your vocabulary and comprehension. These are the base or the root of a word that gives the word its primary meaning. An example of a free base morphemic word is “woman” in the word “womanly”. These kinds of words help you learn more words in a day.
Knowing the history and origin of a particular word will help you remember everything about the word starting from the spelling to the meaning. This way of learning new words is referred to as Etymology. Pursuing a spoken English course with a certificate will benefit you greatly as you will get to know about the origin of words.
Use Mnemonics
This is a system of internal writing. It helps you remember important information. To learn words this way, you need to follow the steps mentioned below:
- Take either the first letter or the key letter of a particular item and write it down.
- Repeat the same method for all the other items.
- Create a sentence.
- Write the sentence a few times while speaking out the words that the acronym refers to.
- Practice reciting the items and creating sentences together till you memories them.
The following is an example of Mnemonic:
Please – Parenthesis
Excuse- Exponent
My- Multiplication
Dear- Division
Aunt- Addition
Sally- Subtraction
Here, rather than trying to remember all the words, you can simply create a sentence that will be easier for you to remember. This will help you to increase your vocabulary and this is a wonderful way that helps you learn English daily.
Record Yourself
When you hear a new word, first repeat the word to yourself and then repeat it aloud. Record yourself while repeating this word aloud. Listen to the recording and try to figure out if the word that you have pronounced and the word that is in your mind sound the same. If you find that there is a lot of difference in both the sounds, you should work on the pronunciation. There are various translation services available these days and most of them have a listening function. If you do not know how to pronounce a word correctly, you can use these functions.
Watch English Movies and TV Shows
This is the most enjoyable way that will help you learn new English words daily. Foreign movies help you get used to the foreign accent and the dialogue in movies help you understand new words better as those words are said according to a context. If you see a movie daily, you are certainly going to increase your English vocabulary.
Include New Words in Your Daily Vocabulary
Try incorporating the new English words that you have learnt in your everyday conversations. This will help you to remember those words and will also improve your pronunciation skills. Try to replace the new words that you have learnt with the words that you already knew before.
Learn New Words Using Your Senses
Words are memory boosters and improve the visual areas of the brain. The resulting mental images help you memories what you have learnt better. Here the upper part of the brain controls the limitations of the lower part which is the sensory output. This type of processing helps the information move from general to specific. We first form abstract information about a particular item and gather more details through the senses. One experiment proved that if you repeat the name of the product to yourself, you will be able to find those items quickly hidden in the pictures of a crowded supermarket shelf. If you know the name of something, you will be able to locate it easily.
For example, if you already know the name of a particular plant you will be able to quickly find it in the garden. This means that an item helps you to perceive better with your senses. It will therefore be good for you to incorporate as many senses as possible at the time of learning new words. Listen to yourself saying the word. This will increase the linkages of the word and the network of the brain. These networks of the brain will be able to mirror the networks that you are trying to find in terms of knowledge.
Conclusion
Learning new words is the most important component of memory enhancement. Therefore try learning as many new words as possible. When you are trying to learn a new word it would be good to know about the language of origin and the root of the word. Break the word into its parts and use the word in a sentence. You should pronounce the word and review its meaning. Spell the word to yourself and try matching it with its sound. If you can picture the words mentally, that helps you to bring more structures into play. You must improve your vocabulary as this will help you express yourself beautifully and clearly.
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