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3 Top Tips for Building Vocabulary

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A bunch of scrambled game board pieces with letters imprinted on them, focusing on Words with a shallow depth of field.

Each piece of vocabulary you collect helps you to create a strong foundation for effectively learning other aspects of the language. Even native speakers of English continuously strive to improve and broaden their vocabulary! Today, we’re going to take a look at how to improve English vocabulary effectively while you study at EC English Language Centres.

1 | Read

You’ve probably heard this from your teacher countless times, because this is the absolute best way to explore and acquire new language. Try to read anything from short novels to one-page articles and blog posts (like this one!) every day, take note of any new words or expressions you come across a new word, underline them and put them in a special vocabulary notebook. Can you find this word in the dictionary? What does it mean? Can you use it in a sentence?

2 | Make Flashcards

If you’re struggling to remember all of the vocabulary you’ve learnt, why not train your brain using ‘flashcards’? Flashcards are small pieces of paper or card that students often use to revise before a test or exam. Take a piece of paper/card and write the new word on the front, as well as the definition (and maybe an example) on the back.  You can use these cards to study alone or with a friend; test each other by trying to remember the word connected to each definition. You could even turn this into a competition by awarding points for each correct answer!

3 | Use Word Clouds

This is a great way to revisit and revise vocabulary quickly and easily. Choose a ‘theme’ for your word cloud (e.g. Education, Work, Colours, Personality…) and build a network of words around it. Take a look at this example below:

Building English Vocabulary

Use these clouds to check what you can remember and experiment with other connected words. What adjectives can I make out of this? What nouns? Can I find a verb connected to this word?

Tip: Put a small ‘n’, ‘v’, ‘adj’ or ‘adv’ next to the words to identify nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs respectively

If you’re hungry for more vocabulary, why not download our FREE Vocabulary Vol.1 eBook to boost your English skills?

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