Steps in Learning New English Words
If there is one aspect in language learning you need to acquire first, it is vocabulary. Vocabulary is words or a set of terms with specific definitions in a language. Proper use and choice of vocabulary when expressing yourself are essential for clear and effective communication.
Learning and adding new vocabulary to your schema is not easy, but you can do something to make it easier. You need to incorporate a few learning techniques, and one way you can do is to start reading an English book everyday. By doing this technique, it can sharpen your mind and help with the familiarization of words and in this way, you can understand 65% of English with just 300 words and your mind can pick up words that you can use to understand your reading material.
“Absorb what is useful. Discard what is not.” -Bruce Lee
To help you start learning English vocabulary, you might want to consider the following steps.
- Search for the most common words used in English, and you will get an idea of what you should learn first to what is not.
- List down the words you have searched together with their meaning.
- Start practicing the pronunciation first on your own. If you find it difficult, watch tutorial videos for proper articulation.
- Put in a little effort by searching for sentences using the top words on your list. In this way, you can see how it is used in a context.
- You might want to create flashcards to memorize each word better. In creating flashcards, only write the words and not the meaning. Challenge yourself by guessing the meaning of each or the other way around.
- Do not skip a day without practicing the words on your list. You might want to recite these words with the proper pronunciation and try creating your own sentences with them.
- In addition, you can add ten more words every day to enrich your vocabulary and word bank faster.
If you are curious about how these words were compiled as the top terms you need to learn, well these are the common words found on books, newspapers, and magazines. Then it was ranked according to the frequency or number of uses in various resources. Once you succeed in learning the most common words, then you can surely understand 65% of a reading material, which is quite amazing to witness.
Vocabulary is everything.
Whether written or oral, vocabulary is the building block of communication. You cannot communicate if you are lost on what to say or write. Words are your power, and learning English terminologies is hard and impossible in a short time, so it would be better to employ some techniques such as chunking lessons, memorization, and application strategies.
In the end, learning a language depends on your learning style and pace. There are also lots of ways to start your language learning journey. However, it would be better and effective if you will begin to traverse basic vocabularies before going further. It is essential that you know where you are going and what should be prioritized first for goal-directed learning.