November 14, 2007 5 Ways to Increase Your Vocabulary that Your Teachers Never Told You
5 Ways to Increase Your Vocabulary that Your Teachers Never Told You
Home :: Reference & Education :: Language
By Marc Slater
How were you taught to build your vocabulary and learn new words? Word lists? Writing out misspelled words a hundred times? Keeping a notebook of all the unfamiliar words you had looked up in a heavy dictionary that you were supposed to carry around with you all day?
While these approaches may have their place (and were probably rather character building!) we now know that there are specific, powerful ways to increase your vocabulary that are much easier and more fun to use.
In this article you will learn five special power techniques that can help you to increase your vocabulary much more quickly and easily than you would have thought possible.
Key Vocabulary Technique #1 - Use your imagination
Young children naturally use their imagination in varied and interesting ways. This is one of the reasons that they are able to learn so many words so quickly.
The average three year old knows roughly 1000 words. By the time they reach adulthood, their vocabulary only increases by about 50 words per year - quite a slow down!
A specific technique to learn a word quickly is to play out a scenario in your head. For example, if you want to remember the word belligerent (which means aggressive and war-like), imagine a scenario with your belligerent neighbor shouting at you over the fence.
Key Vocabulary Technique #2 - Talk, talk, talk!
As soon as you learn an important new word, start looking for an opportunity to use it in your everyday conversation. As soon as you do, you send a powerful signal to your brain to remember and "own" this word for future use.
Key Vocabulary Technique #3 - Subliminal vocabulary learning
Subconsciously, our brains absorb much more than we realize. Some of the better vocabulary building software programs include methods that can help you capitalize on this. For instance, some programs offer you the ability to have your new words pop up in the corner of your screen periodically as you work at your computer or surf the net. This is an excellent review tool.
Key Vocabulary Technique #4 - Mark your books!
Were you taught not to write in your text books? Well circling or starring new words that you learn will naturally draw your eye to them next time you are on that page, giving you a quick and powerful review.
Key Vocabulary Technique #5
Invest in a good quality vocabulary program. The best vocabulary software packages available today are so powerful that they give you what almost seems like an unfair advantage when you're building your vocabulary.
Start incorporating these techniques today, and you'll be surprised at how quickly and easily you will increase your vocabulary!
Marc Slater is an e-learning and vocabulary building expert. Marc is the Director of eReflect Software - a highly successful e-learning software company. eReflect provides a free vocabulary building course located at increase your vocabulary
