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We are all English Students

Yes, we are indeed all English students, even native speakers.

Sure, Japanese people use Japanese language dictionaries, and English speakers use English dictionaries.

So, what is the best way to learn vocabulary?

How can we remember all those words?

And finally, how can we use all of those fantastic words we see to become more articulate?

Every day, I come across new vocabulary words that I look up in the dictionary.

The Etymology, or the history and origin of the word, is also very interesting and helps us better understand the word.

If we better understand the word, it will be easier for us to remember and use it later. I follow a three-step process to learning new vocabulary.

1. Read
2. Try to understand new words from the context of the sentence and then look the word up in the dictionary.
3. Use the word either in conversation or writing.

Reading is the best way to find new vocabulary.

It is easy to do, and we can do it anywhere.

When reading, we can see the word.

When reading, we have time to think about the word and check it in a dictionary.

We can quickly look at a particular sentence, paragraph or chapter again when reading.

We cannot do that easily while listening to a podcast or watching a movie.

What should we read?

Anything and everything.

A good rule of thumb is to try to read for at least 30 minutes a day.

Next, while reading, try to avoid referring to your dictionary immediately.

Try to figure out what a new word means from the context of the sentence. Here is an example:

“She has a lot of beautiful English words in her repertoire.

When she speaks, she sounds so intelligent.”

First, to understand the word’s meaning from context, we should ask ourselves some questions.

What the heck is a repertoire?

How do we put words in it?

If she has a lot of words in her repertoire, it must be huge, right?

She sounds intelligent when she speaks, and the words come from her brain, so the words must be in her mind; the words must be in her memory.

Therefore, a repertoire must be a list of words in her memory in this context or case.

It does take practice to learn how to think this way, but it is the thinking process that helps us learn.

Finally, try to use new words.

The expression use it or lose it is very important here.

Use the new words if you can speak English with a teacher or coworker.

If not, keep a diary and write an entry using the new word.

But you have to use new words to remember them.

You have to use them repeatedly.

If you have finished reading this post, you should have found a few new words, such as articulate, etymology, particular, rule of thumb, repertoire, and use it or lose it.

Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test

This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).

On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 74.

The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.