There are new improvements made in the English language every day. This provides you with the opportunity to expand and improve your vocabulary. If you know how to increase your knowledge of English, that can help you at school as well as in a professional setting. With a good vocabulary, you will be able to share your thoughts and ideas and also be able to better understand what others are trying to communicate with you.
The Importance of Vocabulary
Vocabulary is the foundation of language. Vocabulary is important because it is the basis of all languages. It is basically the raw building blocks that you will be able to use to express your thoughts and ideas, share information, and also understand others, thereby improving your personal relationships.
Benefits of Improving Your English Vocabulary
If you dedicate at least fifteen minutes every day on a regular basis, it will bring about a rapid improvement in your vocabulary. This will, in turn, enhance your ability to communicate by writing, conversing, or making speeches. If you are able to acquire a large vocabulary, this can benefit you wherever you go. It will enable you to understand the ideas of others much better, and you will be able to share your thoughts and ideas more effectively.
It is true that you already know thousands of words, and you will increase your vocabulary naturally, irrespective of whether you work at it or not. There are several benefits to improving your English vocabulary, and to know more about them, you can read the points given below:
Helps You Understand the Reading Comprehensions
Research has shown that kids have to at least understand 98 percent of the words that they read in order to get a clear understanding of what they are reading. If they improve their vocabulary, it will also help them improve their understanding of novels and textbooks.
Vocabulary Helps with Language Development
Children who develop a rich vocabulary will be much deeper thinkers, and they will also be able to express themselves better and read much more. Improving language and literacy skills early in life will help them be much more successful academically as well as communicatively.
Communicating Ideas
To communicate effectively, you must have a strong vocabulary. If you use the right words when talking, it will make you a better communicator.
Writing Allows You to Express Yourself
If you have a good vocabulary to draw from, you will be able to write much more effectively. Students need to use a much more formal tone when writing. They should not use a conversational language. To do that, they need a much richer vocabulary that will help them tap into those words that you do not use every day. If they have an extensive vocabulary, they will be able to explain their ideas clearly.
Better Vocabulary Helps You Become Professionally Successful
The vocabulary level of a person is a very important factor that will decide whether he/she will become professionally successful or not. Communication skills are also important for business success because they allow you to better explain yourself to clients, giving them more reasons to do business with you.
Improves Your English Language Fluency
You should know that the more vocabulary you know, the easier it will be to improve your language skills. For starters, this knowledge will help you to access a much wider range of learning materials that are designed for both native as well as non-native speakers.
It will also help you understand these words in their context. This will allow you to naturally expand your vocabulary and improve your language skills without having to spend time looking up words in a dictionary or asking someone for an explanation.
Moreover, the more words you understand, the easier it will be for you to decipher the meaning of new words by breaking them down into their morphemes (smaller parts). A good example of this would be the word “unhappy.” If we break down this word, we have the words “un” and “happy.” If we know that the prefix “un” is a derivational morpheme, then we will be able to work out the meaning of the word itself.
This helps you save a significant amount of time, boosts your confidence, and also helps you with improving fluency of the language so that you are able to tackle more complex texts or social situations. This exposes you to a much wider range of vocabulary and also allows you to improve your knowledge of the second language.
A Large Vocabulary Helps You Develop Other language SkillsÂ
When you have a wide vocabulary in your target language, it also helps you improve the four language skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. It also helps you improve your skills if you have a large vocabulary.
Better Vocabulary Enables Children to Retain What They’ve Learned
There is a higher possibility for the children to retain an advanced vocabulary and to also incorporate these words into their daily lives as they enter adulthood. This way, the kids can identify with the word as they grow older. The earlier they learn words, the higher are the chances that these words will become part of their everyday vocabulary.
Helps You Every Day, Everywhere
Some words are more difficult or obscure than others that we encounter in our daily lives, particularly in movies, video games, school, and at work. If you are able to build your vocabulary at an early age, it will literally prepare you for life. As kids grow, they will want to communicate well and also try to understand each new environment that they come in contact with. If they have a good vocabulary, it will help them navigate through any new setting, and they will also feel good about themselves during the process.
Persuade for Success
If you want to be successful in life, the first and most important step is to make a good impression. If you have an advanced vocabulary, you will be able to communicate your thoughts and ideas much better. You will be able to choose your words with much greater precision. This will serve you throughout your life in situations such as job interviews, personal relationships, business settings, etc. If you have an advanced vocabulary, you will be more likely to get that great job over someone else who has less command over the language. Vocabulary will aid your success because:
- It provides you much better comprehension.
- If you know more words, it will add variants to your speech.
- When you know more words, people will consider you to be more sophisticated and well-read.
- You are also able to hook your audience much better.
- There is a link between vocabulary and IQ.
- You are also able to communicate with much fewer words.
- You are able to achieve professional success.
The point is not only about knowing the words but also about using the words in the right context and with precision.
How Do You Improve Your English Vocabulary?
Vocabulary is one of the most important keys that will help you speak fluent English. Despite your grammar being correct, if you are not able to use the correct words to express yourself in English, it will be difficult for you to speak in English fluently.
The tips that are mentioned below will help you improve your English vocabulary:
1. Learn Words From Different Resources
A thesaurus will help you find similar words to ones that you might know already. When you read something online, you might be using an online dictionary and thesaurus. If you have a print dictionary and thesaurus, they can be immensely helpful when you’re at home or at the office. This is because this might provide you with more comprehensive entries for each word.
Apart from the general English texts, you might also want to find sources that are specific to your industry or field of study. If you want, you can also check the back of textbooks, technical manuals, and non-fiction books for a glossary that will help in explaining the words that have been used within a specific text.
If you are able to use the online dictionaries and thesaurus properly, they can prove to be very resourceful. These can also jog your memory about synonyms that would actually be better words in the context of your writing. A full dictionary definition can also educate you about antonyms, root words, and related words, which is another way to learn the vocabulary.
2. Read Newspapers
Reading newspapers can be one of the best ways to learn new vocabulary. This can also help you understand new words more quickly by giving you context for each word so that you also learn how to use it in a sentence or paragraph. Reading the news is an excellent way to read and learn words efficiently.
3. Listen to Podcasts or Watch Movies and Other Sources
As you learn new vocabulary, it is also important for you to understand how to pronounce each word. There are several online dictionaries that have sound recordings that will help you with some words. Podcasts can also help you hear words in their appropriate context. There are also several podcast apps that have speed settings so that you can slow down the speech and also hear each word more clearly.
You might also learn new vocabulary by watching movies or tutorials and adding closed captions. These captions show you the spelling of each word. Moreover, you might also search for professional conference recordings or excerpts from different geographic areas to hear how people with different accents pronounce certain words.
4. Learn New Vocabulary Every Day
If you try improving your vocabulary regularly, that will aid your memory and also help you include new words in your conversation. You might also practise writing sentences using new vocabulary or incorporate these terms into your daily conversation. You might also try to create a sentence in your head each time you see a new word. Word game apps might make learning new words quite exciting and might also help you feel much more accomplished as you pass the different levels.
5. Speak with Others
If you start practising with others, that can also help you learn how to pronounce English words and use specific words properly. You might also research conversation groups in your area or meet with friends or co-workers that will help you enhance your vocabulary. If you’re learning words in a new discipline, you should try asking questions on an online forum, writing short explanations, or doing writing exercises that will help you understand how to use them in context. Group word games and solving puzzles can also be quite a lot of fun. These will help you think about the spelling, and you will also learn about the roots of words.
6. Develop a Reading Habit
Vocabulary building is quite easy when you encounter words in context. When you see the words appear in a novel or a newspaper article, it can be far more helpful than seeing them on the vocabulary lists. You are not only able to gain exposure to unfamiliar words, but you will also be able to understand in what context you will be able to use them.
7. Play Word Games
Classic games like Scrabble and Boggle are fun ways to help you expand your English vocabulary. Crossword puzzles can do that as well. If you really want to be efficient, you should play these word games and keep taking notes as and when required. You should also keep a list of different words that you have learned while playing the game, and keep studying that list from time to time.
8. Use flashcards
A quick way to build a large vocabulary is to study several words using flashcards. In the digital age that we live in today, there is a wide array of smartphone apps that make flashcards convenient and easy to organise. If your goal is to learn at least one new word a day, it will be helpful. You can always learn more words; however, it might not be reasonable to learn dozens of English words every single day.
You can make flashcards using the new English words. On one hand, you will have to write the word in English, and on the other hand, you will have to write the meaning in English. Flashcards are quite an efficient and convenient method that allows you to repeat and memorise English words. You should try to take a look at the flashcards anytime and anywhere.
9. Keep A Vocabulary Journal
Every time you hear or read a new word or phrase, you should take note of it. You should keep a small pocket journal for new vocabulary. This allows you to write the new words and phrases down before you forget them. It will be good if you write the new word with its English definition, an example sentence from a dictionary, and your own example sentences. You should then note if it’s a noun, adjective, verb, preposition, conjunction, or any other part of speech. If the new vocabulary is difficult to understand based on the English translation, you must include a note that includes the translation in your mother tongue. The translation is best avoided because, at times, using it might be more harmful than helpful.
10. Make Word Associations
Studies have proven that the human brain tends to remember a lot more if the new information that we learn is linked to the information that we already know. It helps you make a connection between the new vocabulary and a context or a picture. However, you must be cautious of false friends in this situation. These are words from your mother tongue that sound almost exactly the same as the new vocabulary in English, but in reality, they have a different meaning.
If you are aware of the false friends, you can make a funny association between the two words. For example, the word “pregnant” in Spanish means “embarazada.” This is a word that is very close to the English word “embarrassed.” So, if you try associating these two words based on their definitions, it would be a mistake.
11. Learn Phrases, Phrasal Verbs, and Idioms
Native English speakers love to speak idiomatically. This makes English a particularly difficult language to learn. It is therefore important to learn some words, phrases, phrasal verbs, and idioms in full sentences. This will help them to have a proper meaning. Phrasal verbs are particularly tricky. This is because using the wrong preposition can change the entire meaning of the phrasal verb. Some phrasal verbs can also have three or more words, and it is important to use all of them correctly. If you break these phrases into smaller parts, it will be more confusing for you to understand the meaning, and it will lead to errors when you try to use them in your own sentences.
12. Get Yourself a Mentor
You can pursue an English speaking course that will conduct live lessons for English learners who are interested in improving their English speaking skills and vocabulary with the help of professional teachers.
You can have live sessions with them. You can also watch all the recorded lessons. In these courses, all the students have chat support. Here, the students will be able to speak with other students. If you hire a mentor through these courses, you will learn the following:
- How to become fluent in English quickly?
- What do you need to do to perfectly pronounce English words?
- What should your goals be to get better results?
- Mistakes that you should avoid.
- What are the free resources that will help you learn English?
- The best resource that will help you improve your speaking skills and vocabulary.
Conclusion
You will often feel that the English language lacks rhyme and reason. It is also full of synonyms, homophones, homonyms, and other confusing words. These words frequently make learning vocabulary difficult. Luckily, you can use the same skills to improve your English vocabulary as you did when you tried learning your first language: reading, listening, writing, and speaking. One of the easiest ways that will help you enhance your existing writing skills is to add new words to your written vocabulary.
The English language is a high-volume language, and this means that you will never run out of vocabulary words that you can learn and use. Vocabulary aids all forms of writing, including fiction, journalism, essay writing, and poetry. Your listening, reading, and speaking skills are also improved. So, the time that you spend improving your vocabulary is actually the time that you invest in improving all of these skills.
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