Today's lesson is meant to show you ways of increasing your vocabulary.
I know some of the other teachers on engVid.com have done these lessons, I just want to throw my two cents in.
If you know what that means, it means I want to give my own piece of advice.
I have few ideas for you, we're going to start with these, we'll look at a few others, more practical ones as well.
The most important thing that you can do to increase your vocabulary is read, read a lot.
What should you read? Anything and everything, but the most important thing is: read what you are interested in, okay?
If you like sports, read a sports magazine. If you like movies, read a movie magazine, even better, read the script of the movie. If the movie is based on a novel, read the novel.
For example, recently the movie "Life of Pi" was very famous in the theaters, it's based on a novel, read the novel, it's a pretty good book.
My favorite movie, "Shawshank Redemption", based on a novela by Stephen King, read it. Best way to increase your vocabulary.
Also, don't just learn new words and try to remember them. Write, write a lot. Use the words you're learning, right?
Every time you learn a new word, you should have a notebook with you all the time anyway,
write the word in a sentence, but not just in any sentence, make sure that the sentence clearly shows that you know the meaning of the word.
So lets- For example, I know everybody knows this word, but "beautiful". Everybody knows this word, but let's say it's a new word for you.
Don't write "the sky is beautiful", it doesn't tell me anything about the word "beautiful", the sky is also blue, does beautiful mean blue? No.
Make sure you're using something. I love to see a beautiful sky that has pretty clouds and a sunshine and a nice color, a nice shade of blue because it makes me feel happy.
Not the best example, it's a very long sentence, but you get my idea.
Now, again, coming back to that notebook, always have a notebook with you, always have a pen with you,
and don't limit yourself to one new word. When you learn a new word, make sure you learn different forms of the same word, okay?
So, for example, the word 'beautiful', let's say this is a new word for you, you learned the word 'beautiful'.
Put it in your adjective column, it's an adjective, that's what you want, but why not learn the other forms.
For example, what is the adverb form of "beautiful"?
I think most of you know it, it''s "beautifully".
So, you have now two new words. What is the noun form of "beautiful"? It's "beauty", you now have three new words in your vocabulary.
Isn't there a verb form of "beautiful"?
Yes. As a matter of fact there is.
'Beautify', means "to make beautiful".
You now have four new words. Think of other words, 'beautician'. A beautician is a person who works in making people more beautiful.
Uh, she does facials and manicures and pedicures and wax and whatever else these beauticians do.
Anyways, try to find other forms, learn many words instead of just one word, okay.
Now, some people like to study roots and suffixes and prefixes.
Personally, I'm not a huge fan of this recommendation, but first let me explain what a root is.
For example, you have the root "-ject"
So you learn: inject, eject, object, subject; all the different words that come from the root, so many people only study the word, or the root, "-ject".
and think that that will help them understand all the words with this root. It's a good idea if you have the patience, I think most people who are studying English don't like to study roots
because it's like studying another language. If it works for you do it; if it doesn't, don't.
Okay, and now another thing you can do: Listen, listen to any spoken English that you can.
I think some of you may have heard of ted.com. It's a good website, people give talks and lectures about different topics. Listen, listen carefully.
Anytime you hear a word that you don't recognize, write it down. If you don't know the spelling, no problem.