Whether you're speaking in your mother tongue or in a second language, a broad vocabulary can help you in many different ways.
Today, let's see why you should improve your vocabulary, how you can, and some of the best resources to help you do it.
Why You Should Expand Your Vocabulary
While simply wanting to know more words is a good enough reason to improve your vocabulary, a broader vocabulary comes with more benefits than just that.
Let's explore seven compelling advantages for expanding your vocabulary as an ESOL learner.
1. Communication Skills
Increasing your vocabulary will do more than just allow you to know more words or win at Scrabble.
With a broader vocabulary, you'll be able to find the right word in more situations, use appropriate language for several different situations, and communicate better.
A good vocabulary allows you to be comfortable across a range of different linguistic situations and articulate more effectively what you mean. It doesn't mean just constantly using the highest register of words you know so that people think you're smart.
2. Enjoy Literature and Media More
The better your vocabulary, the more you'll enjoy reading and any other form of media. Understanding the subtle nuance in a passage in a book or following the story in a movie is much easier when you're familiar with most of the words being used.
You can broaden your vocabulary through literature and media, but you can also enjoy more content with an expanded vocabulary.
3. Exercise Your Brain
Learning new vocabulary is a way to give your brain a workout and it's been shown to be an effective way to boost your cognitive ability.
Vocabulary and comprehension go hand-in-hand and you'll see that it's much easier to understand concepts if you know what the words describing them mean.
4. Improved Academic Performance
Since learning new words and boosting your vocabulary exercises your brain, it makes sense that this can also help in school.
A better vocabulary can help in academia whether it's simply participating in your classes, completing an assignment, writing an essay, or taking a test like the TOEFL, which is a language exam to test you English comprehension ability.
5. Increased Confidence
Knowing the right word at the right time will make conversations less work, writing easier, and reading a breeze.
Situations will become less stressful and you'll be more confident because you'll have less to worry about.
With a broad vocabulary, you'll be comfortable in multiple situations, too. Whether it's in conversations with friends, at school, or in professional settings, you'll feel more comfortable.
6. Make Your Writing Better
Knowing the right word for the right situation will improve your writing skills. Good writing isn't simply just using as many different words as you know, which is why simply using a thesaurus won't work.
To improve your writing, you need to have a broad range of words at your disposal, understand their meaning, and be able to use them in the right context.
7. Reading Comprehension
Your reading comprehension will also improve with your vocabulary. The more you read, the more words you'll learn, but you'll also be able to understand more of what you read.
There are many ways to improve your reading comprehension, but working on your vocabulary is one of the best ways to do it.
8 Ways to Improve Your Vocabulary
So now that you know why you should work on your vocabulary, how do you do it?
Here are some of the best ways to work on your vocabulary.
1. Flashcards
Flashcards are an excellent way to learn new concepts and words. While they're not as fun as games, they are great for your memory.
You can easily make your flashcards, which will help you to remember your new vocabulary better.
You just need to take some paper and write a question or prompt on one side and the answer on the other. For learning new words, you could write a new word to learn on one side and the definition on the other.
You could also create flashcards with gap-fill exercises, putting your new vocabulary into context with multiple-choice (or open-choice if you're feeling brave) answers.
2. Have Conversations
For most of your life, you learned most of your vocabulary through conversations. Admittedly, these conversations weren't particularly engaging, but we learn so much of our vocabulary through conversations that it would be a shame to ignore them.
To broaden your vocabulary with conversations, look to discuss a range of topics in different contexts.
3. Increase Your Reading
Reading is an excellent way to learn new words. Literature, in particular, offers a wonderful way for readers to pick up new vocabulary.
After all, literature tends to use language very poetically and includes a broader range of words than other writing styles. This isn't to say that you can't learn new words with other books, but if you really want to broaden your vocabulary, look to literature.
You can get more out of your reading by using active reading strategies and studying with a Superprof ESOL tutor.
4. Review Your New Vocabulary
When you learn new words, make sure you regularly check that you haven't forgotten them. Whether this is through flashcards, studying vocabulary lists, or giving yourself a vocabulary test, make sure to regularly go over the new words you learn each week.
Whenever you read, you can also paraphrase sections with new words to aid memory and check that you completely understood the material and vocabulary.
5. Set Vocabulary Learning Goals
Whether it's in English or any other language, make sure you have a vocabulary goal. You can challenge yourself to learn a word a day, some new vocabulary each week, or specific vocabulary for a certain topic.
Having a vocabulary goal will help you stay on track and get the most out of your learning.
6. Study Roots, Prefixes, and Suffixes
A shortcut to learning new words is understanding where words come from and how they're put together.
When you learn a new word, it can help to research its etymology. This can give you clues as to why the word is spelled a certain way and tell you about its origin and background.
Understanding prefixes and suffixes will also help. If you see a recognizable prefix or suffix, you'll likely be able to work out what the word means.
7. Work Out Vocabulary From Context
Before you immediately look up a word, try to work out what it means from context. We do this every day and we're often not really sure what each word means.
Challenge yourself to work out what the word means, find a synonym you can use in its place, and then look up the word to see if you're right.
8. Write Down New Vocabulary
Last but not least, you should always make a note of new words you come across. You can look these up later, study them when you review your new vocabulary, or put them straight onto a flashcard.
Don't let new words pass you by.
Resources to Improve Your Vocabulary
Luckily for you, there are plenty of resources to help you learn new vocabulary. These are the word-learning games and apps, dictionaries, and word-a-day sites that you should look to use.
Vocabulary Boosting Apps
If you have a smartphone, tablet, or even laptop or desktop computer, there are apps and programs you can use to improve your vocabulary.
Here are just a few of the very best. Try them out and see which ones you enjoy the most.
- 7 Little Words
- Anki
- Chicago Tribune Jumble
- Duolingo
- Linked Words
- Magoosh Vocabulary Builder
- ManyThings
- NYT Games
- Play Scrabble
- Word to Word
- Wordela
- Words with Friends
Dictionaries and Language Resources
You'll also want to look up the new words that you learn. Everyone will likely end up with their preferred dictionary based on the variety of English they use, whether or not it's their first language and the definitions that each dictionary provides.
There are also tools like Google's “Define” feature, which allows you to write “Define:” before a word and Google will provide you with a dictionary definition. This is useful for quickly looking up words during your reading or studying.
Here are some useful dictionaries and language websites for learning vocabulary and looking up the definitions of words.
- BBC Learning English
- Dictionary.com
- Howjsay
- Merriam-Webster
- The Free Dictionary
- Visual Thesaurus
- Vocabulary.com
- Wordnik
- WordWeb
Word a Day
Last but not least, if you want to learn new words with some regularity, a word a day is a great way to do it.
Word-a-day calendars are a popular way to do this, but you could also set your homepage on your browser to one of these sites, forcing you to look at the word of the day whenever you browse the internet.
- A Word A Day by Wordsmith
- The Word of the Day by The Britannica Dictionary
- Word of the Day
Improve Your Vocabulary with a Private Tutor
All of these resources would certainly help you to improve your vocabulary, but if you want to learn with structured and tailored lessons, consider getting help from a private tutor.
On the Superprof website, you can find ESOL tutors, word coaches, or study skill tutors to help you boost your vocabulary.
There are tutors all over the UK and around the world, so even if you can't find a suitable local tutor, you can broaden your search to include online private tutors.
With most tutors offering the first session for free, you can try out a few first before deciding on the best one for you and your objectives.
Search for private tutors on Superprof and increase your vocabulary today!
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