Throughout my life in America, as a student, they have preached to us the necessity of reading books that challenge us cognitively. When I was in intermediate school, they rated books for A-Z with A rated books being easiest and Z rated books being the most difficult. But most books don't have these ratings. When your choosing a book to read, find one where you can read a paragraph of the book, but you might not understand every word in it. Highlight the words you missed and then you can go back and look up the definition of the words for you to remember. This is a strategy I used while reading Spanish novels in high school. It will drastically improve your ability to comprehend english writing and improve your writing abilities.
After you are done reading, try to remember at least five of the words you have learned and used them throughout your day. Try to integrate them into your daily language and eventually they will become automatic like muscle memory. You can use the vocabulary talking to your friend, teachers or parents. Image how impressed your parents would be hearing you speak at a higher level than
them.
English is considered one of the most difficult languages to learn, but by reading almost daily you will begin to pick up on the language quickly. These words will need to be spoken and understood for them to become part of your daily vocabulary.
Good job Brock! These are wonderful strategies to improve one's vocabulary. I will definitely give it a hit. However, I just have few things to add. Almost all languages are somewhat difficult to learn especially when it is being learned as a second language.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Brock, for the insights from a native English speaker's perspective. I love the idea of reading and applying what you read in order to learn - on any level, really. And learning is a never-ending process, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteNice job Brock! I also think reading a book is one of the good ways to improve vocabulary. I think it is good if I know the book rate to A to Z. So I can start with easy and overcome one by one. I also read a many book but usually I read with Korean. I usually read science book but reading english is really hard for me. But I'll try after I learn some theory in this college.
ReplyDeleteThank you Broke, great job for providing us these ways. for us as international learning new word it always hard. but of course there is many ways to make it easy for us. the same as you mentioned in your Blog. However, the best way for me, is to rewrite it again. Because for me it easier to remember is to do use my hand. I do not know my but it always works for me. great job again
ReplyDeleteNice work Broke. I totally agree with your ways of learning new vocabulary. For me, using new words everyday would be the best option in improving my vocabulary. I think I would try your method of highlighting words I don’t know and then looking up the definitions of the words. I would also try to practice using the vocabulary new words in my daily language, this may probably have a good effect on me. I will definitely try to read more so that I can improve my vocabulary.
ReplyDeleteHi, Brock it was really interesting reading your blog. I agree with you there are a lot of strategies to improve your vocabulary and the strategies that you mentioned reading challenging books, and using new words daily are two of the most important strategies. Also, I want to mention another strategy, which is using vocabulary cards as a game and make it more fun and this thing make your brain remember things very quickly.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot Brock for the insights. I should try and read more complex books from now on in order enrich my vocabulary. I also read academic articles that have a plethora academic vocabulary.
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