Building Vocabulary

[Niko]

Building Vocabulary

Here is a rather useful suggestion on building vocabulary, whether it is in a second language or just in your own mother tongue.

Reading! Plain simple reading. I encourage my students to read widely and to use a dictionary as little as possible. They are urged to try and absorb the meaning of words gradually as they are faced in context rather than by attempting to commit them to memory by brute force.

My students are encouraged to look up as few words as possible and to try instead to gain practice at guessing the meaning of unfamiliar words. To help students when they get stuck, footnotes translate those words that are difficult to know the meaning by the surrounding words in the text.

Don't underestimate the power of simple reading as assigned homework to your students. Be sure though to choose English texts that are 1 or 2 levels below the students' actual ability.