How do learners of English expand their vocabulary range?

[Karima-19]

Hello everybody! As an English student I try everyday as anybody else to learn more words in order to enhance my vocabulary range. I know that learners of the same language use different ways to learn new words. Some learners try to read more and more to expand their vocabulary range and their knowledge too; others learn words separately etc...Now what I'm asking for is to make learners via this post to discover new ways and techniques which may help them to learn a lot of vocabularies.

I'd like to be the first student to tell you my way of learning vocabularies:
I do learn them by reading a lot, you know books, magazines, and also by listening to news, music, and watching films too, I always look for the subtitles when watching films and I look for the lyrics when listening to music, especially when I listen to American English, you know they speak rapidly and I cannot catch the words almost of the time. I also started to make my own dictionary, I mean when I learn a new word, I write it down to help my memory and I try to use it many times to ensure that I'll remember it when I need for recalling my information.

Regards

KARIMA

 

[freezeframe]

When I'm learning German words, I keep a notebook where I write words and I make spider-web charts of related and derived words. I'm a highly visual learner, so writing, drawing, and using different colours helps me remember things. It also helps me greatly to make charts of words relating to the same topic -- I arrange them visually in a way that helps me remember.

I also use index cards to write down words with relevant information on the back: definitions, synonyms, etc.

I then try to recall some words when I'm doing my everyday things -- when I'm shopping for groceries, I can try to name things I'm buying in German, etc.

I think the most important thing is to learn what kind of learner are you -- visual, auditory, or kinesthetic. There are simple questionnaires that can help you figure it out. Then find out ways that will help you learn using your optimal learning style.

Hope this helps somebody.

 

[Karima-19]

Of course, it helps a lot! thanks a lot Freeze, I liked your way. I think that your ability to visualize things leads to creativity.

 

[birdeen's call]

Expose yourself to English as much as you can. When you have a choice between reading (or watching) something in English and din your native language, choose English, as long as you're able to understand enough to keep yourself satisfied. For example, instead of reading a newspaper in Arabic, read news on the internet in English (or an English newspaper if you have one at the moment). But don't push too much, if it's too tiring.

Talking to yourself also helps memorizing words and structures. When talk to another person, you have to conform to that person's way of talking to some extent: the pace, the topics, the style. And to yourself, you can say whatever you want, whenever you want, and you can think as long as you wish. I improved a lot by imagining conversations in English -- it helped me internalize expressions I had heard before.

 

[JTRiff]

not a teacher

You can also look up the word etymology, which refers to word roots and origins, and have a gander, it can help you see the similarities in, and building-blocks of, many words, absorbed into English from other languages.

 

[TheParser]

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


(1) I have just read an article on the British Broadcasting Corporation's news

website. It was written by Mr. Peter Jackson. He quotes Ms. Susie Dent as saying

that maybe the average English speaker knows 20,000 active words and 40,000 passive

words. That is, active words = words that we know and use; passive words = words

that we know but do not use. In other words, when I read something, I often find

words that I would never use in speech, or words that I can't define but that I

more or less understand.


So as the other posters told you, do not push yourself too hard. Just go with the

flow. That is, relax and enjoy learning more and more every day. Here's a game that

one of my beloved teachers taught me (in the 1950's !!!):

Choose a word. For example: "apple." Now read a newspaper, magazine, etc., and look

for that word. Chances are that you will find it -- maybe many times.

P.S. If you want to read that BBC article, just go to the BBC newssite and search for

"100 Words of English. How far can it get you?"

 

[Karima-19]

I do really appreciate all of this methods of learning more English words. I hope that the other friends here will use them as a guide or a new way too. Because I write down all of these messages on my notebook and I'm going to use them in addition to my way of learning new words.

Many thanks