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Everyone knows how important learning English is nowadays in order to improve yourself as a student or employee. Accordingly, it is clear that one of the most important stages of learning a new language is undoubtedly improving your English vocabulary. Improving your word treasury is almost a necessity to find a good job or study abroad. Of course, in order to achieve this goal, the first rule is to believe yourself and want to learn English. You have to believe in yourself from the very beginning and you should really want to improve your English. After that, everything will come by itself. Now, we will tell you about the 7 easiest and practical ways to improve your English vocabulary and learn English words faster.
- 1- Read, read, and read! English reading habit is important!
- 2- Learning words with groups (group words)
- 3- Preparing new word lists (excel list if possible)
- 4- Playing word games
- 5- Recording the new words with your own voice and listening to them again and again
- 6- Do small writing exercises with new words
- 7- Sticking stickers living or working places
Reading is important!
The simplest and most well-known first method of learning English vocabulary is to do practice reading often. But what to read? What you like and what you understand! Yes, you got it right, you should read whatever you like first. Then, of course, you need to understand what you read. For example, if you like history, you can read the life of a historical character. To give another example, if you are fond of football, you can read magazines or content related to football. By doing that with this way, your brain will learn new words and practice English without even realizing it. Understanding what you read or reading what you understand is also very important in learning new words. Because, it is clear that if you do not understand the content you read, you will get bored after a while and stop reading.
At this point, it should be emphasized that if you understand at least 70 or 80 percent of what you read, you will both enjoy reading and learn new English words easier.
Groups Words English Vocabulary
Like people, words also cannot live alone 🙂 At this stage, we need to emphasize that English words live in groups like people. In other words, while learning a new word if we learn other words that are usually used together with that new word, our vocabulary learning process could be accelerated. To give an example, while learning the verb “drink”, if we learn it not alone, but together with other words used together, such as “drink water” or “drink tea”, we will achieve two goals at the same time. By the way, if you want to improve your English Grammar, learning new word will be useful for you. Additionally, while preparing for the proficiency exams like TOEFL or IELTS, English vocabulary is also important.
Word lists (excel lists)
While learning new words, we should keep every word we learn in an excel list if possible. Later, this list will be very useful while we repeat the words. In fact, there are some mobile phone applications that allow us to keep a list of English words and remind us by asking them from time to time. On the other hand, unfortunately, most of these mobile phone applications are paid. There are also some important restrictions on the free versions. Instead of using these expensive or limited applications, even a simple excel list will do the job for memorizing English words. Finally, it is clear that you can reach a sample excel list with macros by clicking here. If you are a white-collar employee, you can work on your list and repeat the words by taking only 10 15 minutes every day during the day or during lunch break.
Word Games English Vocabulary
Just like little children, the easiest way for adults to learn is through games. In other words, you should make studying English vocabulary process a game, not a lesson or an obligation. The learning process, which becomes a game, will be easier and faster. For example, write the English version of the word on one side of the small papers and your native language version on the other side and put it in a little bag. Then, with a friend, take turns pulling paper from the bag and try to say the meaning of the word written on the back of the paper. Will your friend or you know more words? For example, if the other person buys ice cream for the person who gets 10 correct words, wouldn’t the game become much more fun?
Voice for English Vocabulary!
As it is known, human is a multidimensional creature. For this reason, there are many dimensions also in the learning process, as in every stage of his life. There are four dimensions to learning English such as speaking, writing, listening and reading. In this context, if we use speaking or listening dimensions in the English word learning process, our learning process will be faster and faster with the time. For example, take your newly learned word list and use your phone’s voice recording feature to say it in your own voice, both in English and in your native language. Then take a moment and move on to the next word. Continuing in this way, record your own voice by saying as many words as possible, for example, for 15 minutes. Here, you have read these words into your mind by both vocalizing and listening.
Then, on the way to work or on the subway, wear your headphones and listen to this list of words you recorded from your own voice. You will see that your speed and ability to learn English words will improve to a degree that will surprise even you.
Writing exercises new words
As we mentioned in the fifth item, human is a multidimensional creature. Just as recording and listening to our own voice while learning English will improve us, doing writing activities with the new words we learn will speed up our words learning process also. For example, if you want to learn finance terms vocabulary, you can try to write a small article with the finance terms which you have learned. For example, after learning words such as “stock market”, “price”, “stock” or “barter”, writing even a short meaningful paragraph by using these words will accelerate our learning of words. The aim here is to make the English vocabulary learning process more efficient by removing it from a boring and one-dimensional activity and making it a multi-dimensional and hands-on activity.
Stickers and English Vocabulary
Incorporating English into our daily lives will accelerate our learning process. In this context, we can stick newly learned words in the form of stickers to the places we see every day in our office or home, in our working or living spaces. Thanks to this method, which can also be called passive learning during the day, the words written on the stickers that we occasionally catch our eye will settle in our minds. On the other hand, if we exaggerate the number of these stickers, we will risk getting lost in too many stickers this time. Instead, it will be much more beneficial if we work on a certain number of words and stickers weekly and add new words and remove old ones every week. Improve Your English Vocabulary with these ways!
Of course, you can add new ones to the recommendations we mentioned above. Additionaly, please remember that learning a foreign language is actually learning the culture to which that language belongs. Naturally, learning new cultures will also expand your vision and world of thought. In this context, please always keep in mind the relationship between learning new words, getting to know new cultures and your mind palace.
