If you’re reading this post, it’s almost certain that thoughts and worries like…

“My vocabulary range is too poor”

“How can I boost my English?”

“How can I memorise English words

 easier and long-term?”

…and much more have been crossing your mind for a while.

Truth is that there is a great range of sources, books, online courses, tutorials and pages out there making it too much for you to handle. Even if you are determined to achieve your English learning goals, the situation just gets too overwhelming to handle having you becoming a procrastinator instead. Am I right?

If this relates in a way, continue reading to acquire the knowledge and efficient vocabulary learning strategies you deserve to have.

Life is too short to waste time, and truth is time is money.

And no one wants to lose money or time. Do you?

 

LET’S FACE THE FACTS.

Other sources report the size of the English language at a range of 400,000 to 600,000 words, half million to over 2 million and it goes with no ending (Schmitt, 2000). Not to mention that the term “word” is poor to encapsulate the variety of vocabulary formations, but that’s another conversation.

Furthermore, it’s estimated that the average educated adult native speaker of English has a vocabulary size of about 15,000 to 20,000 word families (Schmitt,2000). Yes, you really know a word if you know its whole word family.

So, with this in mind, it’s unreasonable not to trust research proving that “mastery of the complete lexicon of English (and probably any other language) is beyond not only second language learners but also native speakers”. Imagine that there are terms you don’t know even in your own language.

So, let’s start being realists, but not under-confident, and set realistic goals that we can achieve studying with a plan and following the most efficient, clever vocabulary learning strategies.

More mechanic strategies like memorisation, repetition, taking notes and keeping a copy notebook might work up to a point and this is why most language schools still focus on them.

 

However, in the long-term how do you actually make it happen? How do you put those strategies into practice?

There is a tone of strategies and methods that become difficult to handle and it takes a very experienced and effective tutor to incorporate them in the lesson plan. I tend to prefer self-studying and personal development on the other hand so what I am offering you here, is 6 simple ways to ease your life and your studying and make your everyday life easier without being a professional teacher yourself or needing one either.

 

Our goal is to become professional self-learners.
So let’s start. Yes, today.

6 vocabulary learning tactics that have worked for me:

1. Use the word in context OR…contexts!

When you first encounter a word, you might not know its meaning or you might know it. But do you know how to use it? Try to make an example in your head and link the particular word to this particular example. There are great sources out there that explain English words in context through examples, like online dictionaries.

After that, never forget that that word may have more than one meaning depending on the use. So, try to learn the rest of the meanings writing down one example for each meaning. Yes, you should keep a vocabulary notebook, or online diary. It has worked for me.

2. Repetition

The next day, have a quick read of the new words you learnt the day before. Then during the day, repeat the examples in your head while doing other activities, for example walking the dog or doing the shopping of the week. This is a tip to keep your memory working! According to studies, it takes “five to sixteen repetitions for a word to be learned” (Schmitt, 2000, 137). You can revise 5 words per day. Which brings us to the next step…

3. Recycle

Through reading, conversations, movies, podcasts etc., you will encounter words that you have learned and, in this way, keep your memory alive. Every time you read a text (and you should read around 5 a week in order to see progress – here’s a source I recommend), identify 5 advanced English vocabulary items that you don’t know or don’t remember. Then, of course, the process of learning starts at step number one all over again (you should always look for and find the meaning of the most frequently seen words).

However, there are some less common, less frequently encountered words that are more difficult to remember. Most of these words will finally be learned after extensive reading and learning the words in context. Don’t worry, you could never manage every single one of them so take it step-by-step. Do not search for every single word you don’t know!

4. Link new words to previously learned ones

Another good tactic is to link new words to previously learned items. This can happen in the form of synonyms or collocations. For example, I always link the verb “tolerate” to its synonym phrasal verb “put up with”. When you learn the verb “accuse”, you should know that we use it as: “accuse sb of doing sth” and that another related word is the word “deny”: “The woman accused him of stealing her bag but he denied the accusations”. Which bring us to the next tip.

5. Learn in word families

Did you notice that I used the verb “accuse” and “accusation” in the same sentence? That wasn’t random. Instead, it was definitely on purpose. And you should definitely on purpose do that when learning vocabulary.

1. Learn the whole word family as:

Accuse (v), accusation (n), accuser (n)

2. And its inflections as:

Accuse (v), accused (passive participle), accusing (active participle) etc.

• Here’s a great tool you can use when searching word families
• And another great tool for searching all different forms of a word, find sentences, translate and much more.

6. The power of topic vocabulary

Another tactic that works well is to keep lists of words under specific topics, e.g. Environment and Nature. In this way, every time you want to write an essay on a particular topic, you have a list of words that can also give you ideas on what to write about.

Plus, your studying becomes easier and your learning more effective when you connect words to a topic instead of learning extensive lists of vocabulary that you don’t know where or how to use. So, the next time you read a text, identify 5 key topic vocabulary items and then add them under the particular topic in your diary.

 

I hope these simple tactics and steps were helpful and comprehensive and that you can now work more efficiently and also manage your time effectively.

Let me know about your English journey and about your progress in the comments or contact me!

Your excellence – my inspiration

I KNOW I WORK WITH THE BEST!

Cheers,

Debbie

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