How to learn vocabulary

Introduction
Learning vocabulary is a very important part of learning a language. The more words
you know, the more you will be able to understand what you hear and read; and the
better you will be able to say what you want to when speaking or writing.
Which words to learn
Every day you hear or read many new English words. You also find them in your
dictionary when you are translating from your own language. You cant possibly learn
all these new words, so your first problem is to decide which ones to concentrate on.
Here are some suggestions:
learn the words that are important to the subjects you are studying
learn the words that you read or hear again and again
learn the words that you know you will often want to use yourself
do not learn words that are rare or not useful (your teacher can help you with
this)
How to learn words
Once you have chosen which words to learn, you next have to decide how you are
going to learn them. Here are a few ideas:
write the words in a notebook (with their translations or definitions)
write the words and definitions on small cards
(advice on how to do this)
say the words many times (if you have an electronic dictionary you can hear
how the word is pronounced)
put the words into different groups (you could use a graphic organiser)
write them in a file for use with a computer program (such as Quizlet or
the one on this site)
make associations (in pictures or with other words)
ask someone to test you
use the words in your own speaking or writing
Some students put a tick or cross in their dictionary next to every word they look up.
The next time they turn to a page with a marked word, they quickly check to see if
they remember the meaning of that word.
In all of the above ways, you are doing something with the words. Its usually not
enough to just read through a list of words with their definitions or translations and try
to remember them. Most students find that they memorise words better if they do
something with them. Even better is to try and learn the word in a typical combination
with other words. Learning that to apologize means to say sorry is a good start, but
it's much better to learn a whole expression containing the word, e.g. He apologized
for being late. Not only is this often easier to remember, but you are also learning
some very important information on how the word is used.
Learning for vocabulary tests
The previous section on this page gives general advice on how to learn the words
that you have chosen as important for you. Often, however, you will be given a set of
words by your teacher and told to learn them for a vocabulary test. In this case you
need to be sure exactly how you will be tested, because this will influence how you
learn the words. There are several ways that the teacher might test your vocabulary
learning, but the ways are broadly divided into two categories:
You will be given the word and have to:
o write a definition
o use it in an example sentence
o translate it into your language
You will be given:
o a definition
o a gapped example sentence
o the translation in your language
and you have to write the English word.
If you do a vocabulary test from the second group above, then in most cases you will
need to learn the exact spelling of the word and will lose marks if you misspell it. As
with all tests, be sure to ask the teacher exactly how you will be tested and exactly
how you will be graded. You will then avoid wasting time studying something that
you will be not be tested on.
Learning vocabulary by reading
The way you learned very many of the words in your own language was by meeting
them in the books and magazines you read. The context of a new word in a
sentence or story was often enough for you to guess the meaning. Meeting the word
again and again in your reading helped you learn it for use in your own speaking and
writing. Doing lots of extra reading for pleasure - both fiction and non-fiction - is an
excellent way to learn new English words, too. But choose books that you find quite
easy to read. Difficult stories or texts that you struggle to understand will not help you
to develop your vocabulary the natural way. But remember: to learn new words from
reading you have to read A LOT!
More on the importance of reading.

More information about learning words
The vocabulary you know can be divided into two groups - passive vocabulary and
active vocabulary. Passive vocabulary contains all the words that you understand
when you read or listen, but which you do not use (or cannot remember) in your own
writing and speaking. Active vocabulary is all the words you understand, plus all the
words that you can use yourself. Your active vocabulary, in English and your own
language, is probably much smaller than your passive vocabulary.
The more you work on learning a word, as suggested above, the more likely it is that
it will become part of your active vocabulary.
Things to know about the words you learn
Usually the first things you learn about a new English word are what it means and its
translation in your own language. But there are other things you need to find out
before you can say that you know a word like a native speaker does. For example,
you have to learn:
how it is spelled
how it is pronounced
how it is inflected (i.e. how it changes if it is a verb, noun or adjective)
other grammar information about it
how it collocates (i.e. what other words are often used with it)
More on collocation
if it has a particular style or register
the context in which it is most likely to be used [ Types of Vocabulary ]
Native speakers learn these things about words by hearing them and reading them
again and again. This is the best way for you to learn them, too.
http://esl.fis.edu/learners/advice/vocab.htm
http://esl.fis.edu/vocab/index.htm
Types of vocabulary
The graphic below shows the different types of English vocabulary and the situations
in which they are likely to be found. The vocabulary types are shown vertically down
the left and the situations in which they are used are shown horizontally along the
bottom:

Note: The words in the coloured boxes above are examples of those that would
normally be found only in the situation under which they are placed.
For example: it would be unusual to meet in everyday situations the academic
word hence (meaning therefore or so) or the subject-specific
word denominator (meaning the number below the line in a fraction). Conversely, it
would be surprising to read the informal word cops (meaning police) or the idiom a
piece of cake (meaningeasy) in an academic text. Neutral words (orange box) are of
course found in all types of situation.
Important: Phrasal verbs, idioms, informal (colloquial) language and euphemisms
are useful for learners who want to understand everyday spoken English. However, I
do not recommend that ESL students spend a lot of time trying to learn these
vocabulary types. Much better is to learn neutral and general academic vocabulary,
together with the key subject-specific words.
http://esl.fis.edu/learners/advice/vocab_types.htm
Collocations: http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/choose/colloc1.htm
1. I did / made my homework on the bus.
2. My grandmother is a tall / high woman.
3. The Ferrari is a very quick / fast car.
4. When does your sister make / take her driving test?
5. She got / went in the car and drove off at high speed.
6. I need a strong / powerful computer. This one is too slow for games.
7. She's a heavy / strong smoker. No wonder she coughs so much.
8. You are making a very big / large mistake.
9. My grandfather is a beautiful / handsome man - even at the age of 70.
10. There was only a light / weak wind, but it still blew a tree down in my garden.
11. Everest is the tallest / highest mountain on earth.
12. If you want to get there by this evening, you'll have to take / use the train.
13. I wish you would stop doing / making such a mess in the kitchen.

earning vocabulary with cards
An excellent* way to learn new words is to make vocabulary cards. The diagrams
below show an example using the word cat

Here's how you do it:
Write the word you want to learn on the front of the card (e.g. size A7 or A8).
On the back of the card, write either the translation of the word in your
language, or a definition of the word, or a gap sentence. If you write 2 or all 3
of these you will learn the word more quickly, and give yourself extra English
practice. You could of course copy the definition and example sentence from
the web page, but writing your own is the better choice.
(If you write down a verb, it's best to put its infinitive form. So for example it's
better to write "to purchase" than "purchased" or "to strike" than "struck".)
Now imagine you have a stack of 20 words that you want to learn. To do this,
you can test yourself in many different ways. For example, you can look at the
word and try to remember the translation or definition; you can look at the gap
sentence and try to think of the word that fits in it; you can look at the word in
your language and see if you know the English.
If you get the answer right, write a tick in the left corner on side one of the
card, put the card at the back of your "To learn" stack, and take the next card.
If you get it wrong, write a cross and put the card ten places from the front of
your stack. When you have three ticks in a row on your card, you know the
word and can put the card into a second stack, called the "Done" stack. You
should try and look at about 10-20 words each week in your "To learn stack";
and every few months you can look at some of the cards in your "Done" stack,
just to make sure you haven't forgotten them. If you have, then you can return
the card to the "To learn" stack and start the process again!

* Paul Nation, one of the most renowned researchers in the field of vocabulary
learning, states:
"There is a very large number of studies showing the effectiveness of such
learning (i.e. using vocabulary cards) in terms of the amount and speed of
learning."

Nation, P. Vocabulary size, text coverage and word lists". In: Schmitt, N. &
McCarthy, M. (eds.) Vocabulary: Description, Acquisition and
Pedagogy. Cambridge University Press. 1997.)

An article highlighting useful techniques for autonomous vocabulary learning.

Everyone has their own way of learning vocabulary. For some people random word
lists will seem to be the most appropriate, usually with a translation into the mother
tongue. Others will favour some kind of organisation, perhaps organising their
vocabulary through topic, word category or word frequency. Some learners will find it
effective to use vocabulary exercises in order to acquire new vocabulary, while
others will use vocabulary cards and regularly test themselves to check whether new
items have been learnt. All of these methods are effective in their own right and will
suit different individuals in different ways. What they often do not take account of,
however, is the usefulness of the relationships between words themselves within the
target language. Exploiting such relationships can be a very effective additional
method of organising and storing items of vocabulary and may help learners to learn
and remember new items. Examples of such relationships are:


Hyponymy

Chair, bench, armchair, bar-stool, pew, rocking-chair and deck-chair are all types of
seat. Thus, they are related to each other as examples of a type and have a one-way
relationship with the head-word, seat (a chair is a seat, a bench is a seat and so on,
whereas a seat is not necessarily a chair). Similarly, car, bus, van, tram, lorry, motor-
cycle and taxi are all types of vehicle. Learners may find it productive to store items
of vocabulary under head words like these in the form of simple diagrams or "spider-
grams", as follows:

These diagrams can, of course, be added to whenever a new word in this category
crops up.
Antonymy

Associating words through their opposites appears to be quite a powerful
relationship. When asked what word they associate with hot, many people will
immediately answer cold, rather than, say, desert, sun or weather. Learners may
find it useful to store words with words that convey an opposing concept, for
example:

Clines

Many adjectives, though close in meaning, are not synonyms but are related through
degree, with their meaning expressing a greater or lesser degree of a particular
concept. Once again, learners may find it helpful to store words in this way. Gaps in
the diagrams can be filled as new words are learnt. For example:

In the case of adjectives applied to weather,
the words boiling and mild could be added
to the diagram.
Collocation

It is clearly useful to learn words which typically "go together", as in perform a task,
make a suggestion and do ones homework. Words can also be stored in this way
in the form of diagrams or mind maps and this may aid recall and memorisation. In
the case of verb + noun collocations, they can be organised around the noun as
follows:

It can be worthwhile pointing out to learners the advantages of storing items of
vocabulary in the above ways. Using such diagrams and mind maps will probably
appeal to the more visual type of learner (particularly if different colours are also
used) but storing items of vocabulary in a more systematic way should be of benefit
to most learners.
What are Phrasal Verbs?
To quickly review phrasal verbs: Phrasal verbs are verbs made up of a verb plus one
or more particles (generally prepositions such as of, to, with, etc.). Phrasal verbs can
be separable or inseparable, meaning that they can stay together or be separated.
Phrasal verbs are some of the most commonly used verbs in everyday English used
by native English speakers. Phrasal verbs can be very confusing, so it is important to
begin by understanding some phrasal verb. This phrasal verb activity provides a
great place to start. If you are unfamiliar with phrasal verbs, this guide to what are
phrasal verbs explains everything. Teachers can use this introducing phrasal verbs
lesson plan to help students become more familiar with phrasal verbs and start
building phrasal verb vocabulary.
Choose the correct definition for the phrasal verbs in the second list from the first list.
recover from
discover
escape
wait
think of a solution
inherit characteristic
arrive
connect on the phone
reduce
make sense
continue doing something
care for
search
postpone
find out _____
get on with _____
hold on _____
get away _____
take after _____
cut down _____
look after _____
come up with _____
add up _____
put through _____
look for _____
get over _____
turn up _____
put off _____

Use the correct phrasal verb you have learned to complete the phrase. Once you
have decided on a phrasal verb, check your answers on page four.
find out
get on with
hold on
get away
take after
cut down
look after
come up with
add up
put through
look for
get over
turn up
put off

1. Have you _____ if you won the competition yet?
2. I need to _____ from work and take a holiday.
3. She still hasn't _____ the death of her cat.
4. My daughter is a great cook, she really _____ her mother.
5. Could you _____ a moment while I see if Peter is in his office?
6. Extension 286? I'll _____.
7. She promised to _____ her cigarette smoking to five a day.
8. He spent the entire night thinking and in the end _____ a brilliant idea.
9. I'm afraid your story is not believable. It just doesn't _____.
10. My sister _____ my cats while I was away on vacation.
11. We're not ready yet, we are going to have to _____ the meeting until next week.
12. I'm _____ Tom's address. Do you know it?
13. Mary _____ thirty minutes late for the party.
14. I'm tired of waiting for Jack. Can we _____ our work?