English ArticlesHOW to Improve Your Vocabulary Daily

Do you find it difficult to remember new words in English?

English has the largest vocabulary of any language in the world. Whether you are a beginner or an advanced speaker of English, you are always growing your vocabulary.  Always encountering tons of new words. And new ways to say words that you already know.

The richer your vocabulary, the more fluently you can speak the language, so you should be learning new words every day.

But when you don’t live in an English speaking country you don’t have nearly as many opportunities to expand your vocabulary in your everyday life. You must create these opportunities for yourself.

These nine suggestions, when practiced together every day, will help you to greatly increase your English speaking capabilities, whether you’ve just started speaking English, or even if you’re fluent in it as your second language:

1. Keep a word journal
2. Real Life English Daily Expressions
3. Word of the Day
4. TV Shows
5. Reading
6. Speaking to other English speakers
7. Anki
8. Other Lifestyle English tools
9. RLE’s newsletter

English has the largest vocabulary of any language, which makes it very rich and colourful.  This is because it has large influence from Latin languages (especially French), Germanic languages (like Dutch, Danish, German and Frisian), and Celtic languages. English is always growing in vocabulary, as it borrows from other languages as well (for example people sometimes substitute “please” for “por favour” because of Spanish influence).

The famous writer, Shakespeare, alone added more than 1,700 words to the English language.

The Internet and technology advances are also having huge influences on English, creating new words every year like YOLO (You Only Live Once), tweeting and meme.

Almost any word you choose has a dozen variations that mean more or less the same thing. In a language like English, a rich vocabulary becomes an important resource, especially when writing.

This three part series of articles will help you with tips on how you can improve you vocabulary daily, so you can start speaking more like a native. So keep reading..

Sorry for the delay. Here is our first tip – keep a word journal.

When I was studying abroad, I was constantly bombarded (hit) by words I didn’t know, and I couldn’t possibly remember them all. I found that keeping a pocket-sized notebook on me at all times is a very useful technique to remember the new words that I would hear. When I didn’t write them down, I’d find myself asking how to say certain words over and over again. My friends would even tell me that they’d already taught me that word. And no one likes to be annoying!

Forgetting words is a pain that you can easily avoid.

Even if you aren’t living in a country where you’re surrounded by the target language, this is still a great idea. Commit to writing down five new words every day, and then review the words every day until you find that they have been integrated into your vocabulary.

If your English is at a more advanced level, I recommend that you don’t simply write down the translation of the new words in your language. Instead, try to draw a picture, write a synonym, note something that will remind you of the new word’s definition, or give an example sentence.

For example, if one of your new words is seagull, you could draw a picture of it, you could write “bird”, you could write “beach”, or you could write “the seagull eats fish out of the ocean”.  By forcing yourself not to translate, you foster a more fluent mindset (attitude).

Your word journal is a great strategy in addition to these other techniques. Let them be the inspiration for your five words each day.

2nd tip – Ted talks and watching in general..

Learning a language is a slow process and can be enhanced by watching programmes in English. At the start it might be difficult to understand but it eventually will register itself in your brain and help you process it in a way that you actually remember it.

There are so many great television shows from the US, the United Kingdom, and Australia. So it’s practically guaranteed you can find one you will enjoy. If you watch with audio and subtitles in English, you can pick up all sorts of vocabulary.

Nowadays almost all programmes can be paused so you can jot down (write) new words and look them up in a dictionary later (if you didn’t understand from the context).
I recommend that you watch TV shows that are related to your profession in order to acquire more technical vocabulary. For example, if you’re a lawyer you can watch Law and Order, a doctor can watch Grey’s Anatomy or House, and scientists can watch the Big Bang Theory. Search for a show that fits your needs in order to have the best results, and create a great strategy to learn with TV.

Movies are great, too, but many of us don’t have time to watch an entire movie several times a week. Watching a television show only takes about 20 minutes.

3rd tip Read!!

Read anything. We can’t emphasize this enough. Newspaper articles, sports articles, books, comic books, magazines and blogs are all great options. If you want to improve your vocabulary this is definitely one of the best ways.

I don’t recommend looking up every word you don’t know while reading because you’ll end up taking a week to finish a single chapter. It won’t be a fun experience. When reading a book, it’s not important that you know every word; you will still understand the main point. And you’ll be surprised how much you understand just through the context.

Just circle words that you don’t know and look them up later.

Some of the best, most impartial news (it doesn’t take a side) is found only in English. The more that you can read and speak English, the better the information that you’ll have access to. Good newspaper or online news publications are the New York Times, the Economist, BBC and CNN. These aren’t all 100 percent free, but they let you see several articles each day without charging you, which is more than enough to put your English to use. Whereas a novel will give you good vocabulary for everyday conversation, the news can give you more technical vocabulary, which is great for your career or just for sounding intelligent!

Blogs are equally great because they exist about every topic. Whatever it is that interests you, you can find a blog on it. The other great thing about blogs is that you can comment, and even get in conversations or debates over certain issues.

Find something to read and start reading it. Your vocabulary bank will increase greatly.

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