If you have chosen the right book for reading, then you may not need a dictionary at all, or you will need to use it very, very rarely. We never tire of repeating: try to learn the meaning of new words from the context, use linguistic intuition, this in turn will allow you to develop a sense of the English language over time. We discussed these skills in detail in the articles “Language Guess Is Your Assistant in Learning English” and “How to Learn to” Feel “English. Memorizing words in context, and not in a dictionary, allows you to quickly remember not only the meaning of the word, but also the rules for its use.

2 Engage in photocopies

As you understood from the previous paragraph, it is better to memorize words in context – entirely with the phrase in which they are used. If you want to save time writing out the sentences you want in the dictionary, try the following. Make a photocopier of the text you are interested in and use a marker to highlight the phrases with the words you want to study on it. Now, to repeat the vocabulary, you will need to take a photocopy, and the necessary sentences will immediately catch your eye. This technique is good not only because it will shorten the time of working with the dictionary. Our memory is best at remembering something bright that stands out against the background of the general gray mass, so be sure to use a colored marker – this simple trick will help you increase your English vocabulary.

3 Draw a mind map of new words

Select a text to read that contains words you don't know. Write them down and try to break them down into semantic groups. For example, you open a book and at the beginning of a chapter you read a description of the interior of a house. You can make yourself something like the following map:

After that, try to retell the text based on your mind map. Interrelated concepts are easier to remember than a scattered set of words. And while drawing the map, you will also write them – include mechanical memory in the memorization process.

4 Pay attention to prefixes and suffixes

As you read, focus on how prefixes and suffixes are used to form new words from those you already know. This will help you “feel” the language. With the help of this simple technique, while reading, you will learn word formation, understand the principles of building new words. Subsequently, this will be useful to you: when you come across an unfamiliar word, you can guess its meaning without a dictionary, based on the context and your experience.

Vocabulary test Puzzle English

A quick way to test your vocabulary is the Puzzle English test. In general, Puzzle English specializes in developing listening comprehension skills through audio exercises, videos, TV series. But for listening, you need, of course, some kind of minimum vocabulary.

You will be given a list of 96 words and asked to check the box which you know. I advise you to mark only those words that you recognize instantly and without hesitation. There is no need to choose or write the correct answer – they take their word for it, but from time to time there is an honesty check – you need to choose the correct option out of the four proposed to confirm that you are not cheating the virtual teacher.

At the end, you will learn not only the vocabulary, but also the honesty index – the program assesses how honest you were with it. If you re-pass the test, the words in the assignment will be different.

How testing works

No test can accurately measure the volume of your vocabulary, our test is no exception, it shows only approximate data. But we tried to make its results as close as possible to real figures and as informative as possible.

We have an English dictionary containing about 18,000 words, arranged in the order of their frequency of use in the English language. For the test, we have reduced this list of words to the 10,000 most popular words.

The most accurate test way to count your vocabulary is to go over all the words and count how much you knew. Unfortunately, this approach has a very significant drawback, since it will take quite a long time.

We decided for ourselves that the more often a word occurs in English, the easier it will be to remember and the easier it will be to memorize.

Lungs

Average

Complex

1 the

2 of

3 and

5001 fortress

5002 recipe

5003 bubble

9998 diver

9999 sickly

10000 princely

1st group

50th group

100th group

After that, we divided 10,000 words into 100 groups of 100 words each. Next, we take one word from each group in random order and display them in the test. Accordingly, a total of one hundred words are used during testing.

Be careful, we will automatically check your answers, and sometimes a confirmation window will pop up, where you will have to give a translation for the marked word. The more honest you are, the more accurate the test results will be, and you can actually learn your passive vocabulary.

How to increase your English vocabulary using modern techniques?

According to experts, our memory is divided into three types: short-term (it processes information immediately at the moment it is received), medium-term (reproduces information received recently) and long-term (capable of storing some of the information throughout our life). In addition, memory can be passive and active. To replenish the vocabulary of the English language, you need to organize the memorization of new words so that the information is deposited in long-term memory and reproduced by its active department. This can be done quite simply if you use modern techniques for memorizing new information.

How do these tests measure your vocabulary?

Vocabulary is not as simple as it seems. We are used to thinking that words are some units of speech that can be counted piece by piece: one word, two words, three words … In fact, words are ambiguous and imprecise, and the boundaries between them are conditional and transparent.

It is impossible to count exactly how many words you know, just as impossible, for example, to count how many thoughts are swarming in your head at a given second. These tests, like any others, give an approximate result, and they measure passive vocabulary, not active.

The Nation test is extensively annotated in English, the LinguaLeo test is not commented in any way, but I believe it uses the same vocabulary principle as the New Zealand linguists test.

Linguists distinguish between the concepts of “central word” (head word) and “family of words” (word family), which includes all its derivatives: word forms (eg plural or future tense), single-root words, etc. It turns out that if you know one head word (as well as the rules of word formation in English), then it is not difficult for you to guess the meaning of a few more “relatives.” Example: knowing the word nation, you will understand the words national, international, nationality.

The Nation test determines the knowledge of 140 English words, but these words are selected in such a way that each of them represents not one, but as many as a hundred words. Thus, according to the knowledge of 140 words, one can judge the knowledge of 14,000 words. Of course, to judge very roughly. Among these 140 words there are both common words and quite rare ones.

Why exactly 14,000 words? Nation estimates that an “average” native English speaker knows about 20,000 words. The test is designed for learners of English as a foreign language (it will not work for a native speaker), so it makes no sense to measure vocabulary over 14,000 words – for a foreigner this is already a very high level. In addition, if you try to measure vocabulary above 14,000 words, the accuracy of the results (already inaccurate) will suffer greatly. For pedagogical and methodological purposes, this threshold is sufficient.

The LinguaLeo test, as far as I understand, also measures the result up to 14,000 words. I think that it is built on the same principle as the Paul Nation test, but it is technically implemented differently. If you compare my results in these two tests, then, as you can see, there is almost no difference.

Lingvaleo says that I know 10142 words, Nation's test shows the result “from 10500” words. The tests almost agreed.

How to increase vocabulary using the column method?

Almost every person who has studied a foreign language at least once in his life knows how to increase the vocabulary of English using the “column” method. This method is still used in various educational institutions, as well as in learning English for children online, but unfortunately, it does not give a 100% guarantee that all words will be memorized. The reason for this is quite obvious. This approach allows you to activate short-term memory, and therefore information can hold out in the head for only a few days. You can transfer it to the long-term memory department if you repeat the words for several days in a row. This method is effective when translating long texts or when reading foreign books.

How does the “scrapbook” method work to improve vocabulary?

Despite its simplicity, this method is considered the most effective than all the previous ones. In addition, it is also quite easy to use. To do this, take a piece of paper from the packaging of colored stickers, write on one side of the English word, and on the other – its translation. Leaflets with written words should be pasted up in the most visited places of the apartment so that they constantly catch your eye. And you can carry them with you, periodically opening “your paper bank” and repeating foreign words. This method is based on the work of memory, which is responsible for reproduction, since all words and their translation are written by hand.

Interesting topics

The desire to impress foreigners with the knowledge of sophisticated words sometimes prompts people to seek out rare, complex vocabulary. Memorizing such material is more difficult and not very useful. Information included in the circle of interests is assimilated faster. Topics that a person is happy to talk about in their native language will definitely come in handy. Such useful vocabulary is “extracted” from thematic printed publications, news, TV programs.

Parsing a word

Most words are complex. They can be composed of several bases.

Prefixes, suffixes create new forms, and, meeting in new word formations, indicate a kind of analogy. Morphological analysis is useful for correct pronunciation and memorization of a new word.

Context matters

Communication takes place not only with the help of words – in order to convey meaning, it is required to compose a coherent sentence. This indicates the importance of context. He reveals the meaning of the word, draws the situation, shows examples.

Filtering information by usefulness helps to filter out words that are unlikely to be useful in life, and the clarity of the context speeds up this process.

Antonyms

Words that have opposite meanings can be taught in pairs. This is especially true for adjectives. Together with the desired option, its antonym will be immediately remembered.

Household use

The use of a word in everyday speech is the shortest way to quickly memorize it. The new phrase should be present not only in oral monologues and dialogues, but also practiced in writing.

Lifehack 1

English is convenient because often the same word can be both a verb and a noun. That is, the form of the word is the same, but the meanings are different, albeit close in meaning. For example: work and to work.

Advice: check in the dictionary whether you can use the studied word as different parts of speech.

Lifehack 2

Words that end in -tion in Russian usually end in -tion in English. For example: presentation – presentation.

Tip: make a list of words nation. You will be surprised how many words you already know.

Lifehack # 3

Searching for image associations in Google is a life hack from Marina Mogilko, co-founder of LinguaTrip.com. For example, if you vobosh word spears (peaks) in the images in Google, there will also be pictures of Britney Spears. Most likely, you will immediately remember this word.

Lifehack # 4

Many words have multiple meanings. Try to look at least three meanings in the dictionary right away. For example: miss is a girl, to miss is to miss, and also to miss.

Lifehack # 5

Create your own safety net, aka the language framework. These are roughly 100 of the most used words you need to know.

How many words do you need to know to communicate fluently in English?

A person's vocabulary depends on their age and educational level. According to linguists, a high school graduate knows 20-30 thousand words, and a university graduate knows 30-40 thousand. There are people who cost 5-7 thousand, and 2.5-3 thousand are among the most used.

How many English words do you need to know to keep up a conversation or read text content? On average, we can say that this figure should be in the region of two thousand words.

The initial level (Beginner) means that a person knows 500-700 English words. Proficiency is the highest level of English proficiency, and in order to achieve it, you need to learn, remember and regularly use in your speech, at least 4.5 thousand words.

Sources used and useful links on the topic: https://englex.ru/how-to-increase-your-vocabulary-via-reading/ https://langformula.ru/vocabulary-tests/ https://poliglot16.ru/ test-vocabulary / https://www.ef.ru/englishfirst/english-study/articles/vocabulary.aspx https://english4life.ru/bystroe-i-effektivnoe-popolnenie-slovarnogo-zapasa-anglijskogo-yazyka.html https://zen.yandex.com/media/linguatrip/kak-bystro-popolnit-slovarnyi-zapas-v-angliiskom-iazyke-7-laifhakov-5d71005a3f548700ae6b32c4 https://way-to-success.net/kak-bistro -viuchit-angliyskie-slova /

Post source: lastici.ru