How to expand your active vocabulary when learning foreign languages
How to expand your active vocabulary when learning foreign languages
Anonim

A rich vocabulary is determined not only by the ability to recognize words in their environment, but also by the ability to extract them from memory when necessary, which is usually more difficult. The development of productive skills will help to expand the vocabulary when studying a foreign language.

How to expand your active vocabulary when learning foreign languages
How to expand your active vocabulary when learning foreign languages

Remember how much easier it is to usually answer multiple choice questions. But tasks where you need to insert a missing word are always harder. In the latter case, you need productive skills: you need not only to choose the right word (which you might not even know, but to determine by indirect signs), but to extract from memory the appropriate one for the given situation. For the same reason, even if you easily read foreign articles or watch films without translation, it will be much more difficult to conduct a conversation.

To improve speaking skills, it is useless to try to expand vocabulary using traditional methods, cramming will not help here. A more effective exercise is suggested by teacher Rebecca. On paper or in your head, create the following table:

  • Vertically, words are grouped by spheres of life, for example: education, religion, business, medicine.
  • Horizontally, words are grouped into categories, for example: people, places, actions, qualities.
  • The cells of the resulting table are filled with the studied words.
PEOPLE PLACES ACTIONS QUALITIES
EDUCATION

teacher

student

principal

school

college

university

study

teach

learn

disciplined

teachable

organized

RELIGION

Muslims

Christians

Hindus

mosque

church

temple

pray

bless

believe

moral

faithful

humble

BUSINESS

manager

employee

supervisor

office

factory

department

work

recruit

promote

confident

sociable

purposeful

MEDICINE

doctor

nurse

surgeon

hospital

pharmacy

laboratory

treat

care

heal

patient

compassionate

kind

»

You can expand such a table endlessly - include more areas and add new categories. You can improve your productivity skills by adding play and competition, such as filling each cell with as many words as possible in a limited time.

Such a creative approach to memorizing foreign words will allow you to form an active vocabulary, which is necessary in a live conversation and in writing.

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