Whether you are learning a foreign language or want to build your word power and improve the vocabulary of your own language, these techniques are useful:
- You should have a dictionary and a grammar of the language you are interested in learning and/or improving your skills. You should also have a journal to use as your workbook.
- Decide upon learning up to five new words per day.
- Skim through the dictionary and write down a new word per page of your journal. Write the meaning of the new word beside the word.
- Use the page to write the new word in as many sentences as you can think of. If you are not sure of the grammar, then make use of your grammar.
- Review your new words and reread and revise the sentences.
- Your use of a journal helps you to have an active, participating workbook rather than being a passive word builder. You are creating your own vocabulary workbook, adding new words per day.
- Next, get magazines and newspapers in the language you are learning.
- Read a paragraph per day circling all the words that you don't know. Up to five of these words per day should go into your journal. Include the dictionary definitions. Then use the page to create your own original sentences using these new words.
- Again, check the grammar to make sure that your grammar is correct.
- In addition, learn how to spell each new vocabulary word.
- You can use this journal/workbook method to increase your vocabulary and language ability in several different languages by including notebooks in which you put the name of the word in several different languages.
- Along with dictionary, newspapers, and magazines, you can include among your vocabulary building tools, a thesaurus, a work of fiction, a work of nonfiction, a movie, television programs, radio programs, CD's in the language you are learning.
- Make a list of words that you don't know. Use your journal/workbook to help to improve your word power in these languages.
