LESSONS
Relate Words To Increase Vocabulary
Do you frequently have trouble finding the right words to supplement your sentences whenever you are speaking with someone or making impromptu speeches? Being completely at a loss for the right words to say can make a person feel vulnerable, not to mention insecure.
Having a good vocabulary is essential not only in improving performance at work or at school but also in holding good conversations, constructing good e-mails and letters, and interacting with the variety of people you come in contact with every day.
You can increase vocabulary easily if you know what to do. There are a lot of useful and effective techniques that can help speed up vocabulary improvement. Here are a few more:
Use Relevant Words To Increase Vocabulary
Memorization alone is not an effective way to increase your vocabulary. There are only so many things that your brain can hold in short-term memory, and if words are memorized by themselves, they will be difficult to quickly pull out of long-term memory. Using elaboration and repetition will help create links to make this recall easier, but think about the things that you learned in school as a teenager, especially in a class you weren't particularly interested in. How much of those textbooks do you recall? Things that didn't interest you didn't get a lot of attention, and your brain received the unconscious signal to treat that information as unimportant. If memorized information is not used or recalled regularly, the brain will set it aside.
One way to improve retention is to relate information to your personal life. Making vocabulary words relevant to you will make recollection significantly easier.
How To Make A Word Personally Relevant To You
Analyze the meaning of the word. If it is a noun, think about if you have seen something like what the noun describes before, or have been to a place similar to that described, or have met a person whom you would describe as being "just like" that word. If the word is an adjective, does it describe the people you know or the people you have met in the past? If it's a verb, is it something you have done before or something you have seen other people do?
Perhaps you have met a person who is "irritable", "exuberant", "melancholy" or "affluent". Your new flat screen television set might offer "vivid" images. It might be difficult to understand a "bipolar" person. You might find "kayaking" a challenge. Find a way to relate the words to your personal traits or experiences.
Create examples using the words. Make your own example sentences and pattern them to the examples you might find in your experience. This will also help increase your vocabulary as you search for synonyms and new ways of saying things. Again, you can use people you know or experiences you have had as starting points. If you have encountered the word "finicky", you might want to relate to a slightly fastidious neighbor who always keeps his yard tidy. "My neighbor is finicky about his lawn" would be a good example for this word.
Don't just rely on the dictionary. After checking the meaning in your dictionary or other resources, come up with your own definition. It is easier to remember a word if you create a way of defining it yourself. In addition to that, the ability to use your own words to express the definition of a word means you have fully understood what the word really means. You might also want to use synonyms to elaborate on your word relations.
Increase vocabulary using relevant words and you can enrich your vocabulary in no time at all. But make sure you combine this technique with other tried and tested techniques as well.
NEXT LESSON: Use Images To Increase Vocabulary