This is why your English Isn't improving.....
You should learn phrases not just words
If you’ve taken any English classes the chances are you’ve had lots of experience memorising lists of new words. Vocabulary lists are a waste of time. Trying to memorise individual words is not an effective way to learn.
An effective way to learn and more importantly remember new vocabulary is by learning phrases, not just words. Phrases are groups of words that go together. Another way to describe them are as natural chunks of language. In any language, certain words naturally go together. It’s much easier to learn and remember these phrases as it is to learn each word individually.
In a traditional English class, you’d write down a new word then go and look it up in a dictionary to find its meaning. Then you would probably translate it into your native language. That’s the old outdated way and leads to confusion. Learning vocabulary this way isn’t going to help you remember the word at a later date when you need it. The idea is to try to understand the meaning of the new or unfamiliar word by using the whole phrases as context. If you still don’t understand the meaning through context, then you may use a dictionary to find the meaning.
The English language is made up of lots of phrases or chunks of language that go together. Chunks appear in all sorts of ways: such as collocations and idioms, in set phrases such as 'I was wondering if' and 'all the best' and what teachers call 'discourse markers' like 'as I was saying' or 'as far as I know'. Keep a record of any new phrases that you come across in English. You should listen out and look for these phrases whenever you’re listening, speaking or reading English. If you’re serious about English and you want to speak it well, then you need to make extra effort to be aware of these chunks of language and record them in a notebook and use them often so that they become fixed in your mind.
Here’s something you can do the next time you listening to or reading any English material. When you find a new word that you don’t know. Instead of writing down the word by itself write down the whole phrase. Try to work out the meaning by using the complete phrase as context. Then, repeat the phrase several times.
This method of learning vocabulary has been proven to provide results. Learning language in ‘chunks’ is a powerful way to improve in language learning and memory.
Knowing the meaning of a word is useful, but knowing how to use it in context is vital. Words aren't used in isolation and will often form part of an expression or fixed set of words. Being able to call on these 'chunks' of vocabulary will definitely help you to improve English fluency skills.
If you’ve taken any English classes the chances are you’ve had lots of experience memorising lists of new words. Vocabulary lists are a waste of time. Trying to memorise individual words is not an effective way to learn.
An effective way to learn and more importantly remember new vocabulary is by learning phrases, not just words. Phrases are groups of words that go together. Another way to describe them are as natural chunks of language. In any language, certain words naturally go together. It’s much easier to learn and remember these phrases as it is to learn each word individually.
In a traditional English class, you’d write down a new word then go and look it up in a dictionary to find its meaning. Then you would probably translate it into your native language. That’s the old outdated way and leads to confusion. Learning vocabulary this way isn’t going to help you remember the word at a later date when you need it. The idea is to try to understand the meaning of the new or unfamiliar word by using the whole phrases as context. If you still don’t understand the meaning through context, then you may use a dictionary to find the meaning.
The English language is made up of lots of phrases or chunks of language that go together. Chunks appear in all sorts of ways: such as collocations and idioms, in set phrases such as 'I was wondering if' and 'all the best' and what teachers call 'discourse markers' like 'as I was saying' or 'as far as I know'. Keep a record of any new phrases that you come across in English. You should listen out and look for these phrases whenever you’re listening, speaking or reading English. If you’re serious about English and you want to speak it well, then you need to make extra effort to be aware of these chunks of language and record them in a notebook and use them often so that they become fixed in your mind.
Here’s something you can do the next time you listening to or reading any English material. When you find a new word that you don’t know. Instead of writing down the word by itself write down the whole phrase. Try to work out the meaning by using the complete phrase as context. Then, repeat the phrase several times.
This method of learning vocabulary has been proven to provide results. Learning language in ‘chunks’ is a powerful way to improve in language learning and memory.
Knowing the meaning of a word is useful, but knowing how to use it in context is vital. Words aren't used in isolation and will often form part of an expression or fixed set of words. Being able to call on these 'chunks' of vocabulary will definitely help you to improve English fluency skills.
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