Completing the Process: Part Two of "Building Effective Vocabulary "

In my last post “Building an Effective Vocabulary,” I suggested that you learn nouns and verbs. Specifically, those that you can use immediately. And I gave you a few key reasons why. My question for you today is, have you tried it? If you have, how’s your word list coming along? If you haven’t, why not?

Now for today’s post, “Completing the Process.”

There is no substitute for vocabulary when learning a language. No matter how correctly you may speak with good grammar, you will NOT be able to speak much at all if your term list is truncated. This is yet another reason why I make no apologies for telling my students to focus on building an effective vocabulary FIRST with their own custom word list, before giving attention to grammar. But as I said in my last post, this doesn’t mean that grammar is completely removed in this approach.

How?

Because the nouns and verbs you choose for your vocabulary are destined to be assembled into complete phrases by YOU, very soon. And this includes some grammar by default, without weighing you down under the heavy burden of understanding how it all works. The benefits for doing this are too many to list here, and now is not the time for me to explain them. I will leave that for my next installment, “Putting Your Vocabulary into Action." For this post, I want to give you the final steps in how to build effective vocabulary. So here we go...

As you choose words for your own customized vocabulary list, group them together into categories and associations. For example, if one of the words you have chosen for your list (only words you expect to use immediately or very soon) is the verb “to buy,” think of nouns that you WOULD “buy” and categorize them with the verb on your list.

As another example, if you have chosen “office” as a word for your custom index, you would then generate several more words associated with “office,” such as computer, paper, printer, pen, telephone, desk, chair etc. Associations and categories like this are extremely helpful.

First, because they show the relationships between actions and objects.

Second, because they make it easier to memorize words systematically in a way that our brains do naturally.

Third, because their relationships allow you to exchange them with other associated words in the phrases you will create from them later on.

The largest benefit to a customized approach like this is that you select only words that will be truly useful to you. This means that you can put them into practice immediately or very soon, so they will not be soon forgotten. Use it or lose it, as the saying goes.

But also, and more importantly, these word lists are tailored to your context. That means you will be PREPARED to speak and understand in real life situations that you expect to find yourself in. All of this will require your imagination, which is an important part of learning by the way.

So that’s it. You now have what it takes to build effective vocabulary quickly, logically, and, systematically. And if you’ve been carefully creative in your selection of words, it’s vocabulary that you will actually use. You can’t beat that! What’s more, seeing the word categories with associations makes learning and using them much more effective. It's a truly powerful start to learning a language quickly and practically. This vocabulary method can be adapted by those learning Asian languages as well, even though the linguistic structures are unique.

In my next post, “Putting Your Vocabulary into Action," I’ll explain what to do with your categorized and associated words list.