How to Increase Your English Vocabulary Specific to Your Needs
Knowing how to improve English vocabulary relevant to your English needs is one of the most important skills you can learn if you want to become fluent in English.
When you have an extensive vocabulary repertoire, you are able to express your opinions clearer and in more detail, you feel and sound more confident, you understand natives with greater facility, and others find it easier to comprehend you.
On the other hand, when you lack vocabulary it can make you feel frustrated and insecure about expressing your opinions in English.
In this article, I teach you a 5 step strategy on how to quickly improve English vocabulary for your immediate goals.
Step 1: Define the Vocabulary You Need
The first step is to define the vocabulary which is most relevant to your English needs and fluency goals.
Most English trainers advise their students to read more in order to improve their English vocabulary. This is good advice because reading is really effective for this. But it doesn’t stop there…
It’s fundamental to choose reading material which is going to interest you, and even better, actually use the vocabulary related to the topic you are reading about in your day-to-day because using and putting the vocabulary into practice is what makes you remember it.
When you read about a topic which is interesting and relevant, you are going to be more engaged. This will increase your chances of remembering the new vocabulary, as well as increasing your motivation to read more. This creates an ongoing cycle of more contact with English, leading to faster improvement.
How to define the vocabulary you are going to use
Start by asking yourself the following questions:
What situations do I have to use English for in my day-to-day and in the future?
Is there specific vocabulary that I need for these situations?
What do I want to be able to talk fluently about in English?
What topics really interest me right now?
English needs will vary from person to person. Professional needs could include giving a business presentation, participating in a meeting, or preparing for a job interview. While other needs may range from having a general conversation with friends to preparing for an IELTS exam… The list goes on and on.
What is important is that you narrow down your specific need for improving English vocabulary, and focus your practice on that. Here are some simple examples of this:
If you negotiate in English, learn expressions for bargaining, making suggestions, and closing the deal.
For work presentations, learn specific vocabulary for the presentation topic, linking expressions and words and phrases to talk about increases and decreases.
For business meetings, learn more ways to agree and disagree, for making suggestions, and for expressing your opinions.
If you want to improve your English vocabulary for general conversation, choose a topic that interests you, such as Economics, then learn economics terms and vocabulary.
Step 2: Learn Vocabulary through Input Skills (Reading and Listening)
In this second step, we focus on where to find the vocabulary for your needs and then learn it through the ‘input’ skills, which are Reading and Listening.
The objective of this step is to build vocabulary through a reading source like an article, and then a listening source like a YouTube video.
Reading
Start by choosing one topic of interest, for example, the American Economy.
Then search for an article about the American economy like this one in The Week.
You will find specific Economics terms like ‘GDP – Gross Domestic Product’, ‘recession’ ‘Presidential Election’, ‘long-term interest rates’, etc. Then take note of the new vocabulary (More about this in Step 3).
Listening
Next, do another search, but this time for listening material. This could include podcasts or YouTube videos, for example, this video from Fox Business.
Just like the article, you will come across lots of vocabulary related to the American Economy. And there is a good chance that some of the vocabulary which you saw in the article will also be in the video. This helps to reinforce the vocabulary because you are seeing it more than once in a slightly different context.
Step 3: Organize and Store the New Vocabulary
As you are learning new vocabulary, it’s useful to have somewhere to store and organize it all, so that you can refer back and review it.
There are a few different ways you can organize vocabulary.
The first is the traditional way which is writing it down in a notebook in the form of organized lists.
Another way is to use a spreadsheet, such as Google Sheets. Here you can create unlimited lists and keep on adding to them. Google Sheets are also useful in the way you can access them on an app in your smartphone as well as your computer.
The third option is to use a digital flashcard app, such as Anki, Flashcard Deluxe, or Quislet. With all these apps you can create a unique set of flashcards for different vocabulary topics and easily review the new vocabulary by testing yourself.
Step 4: Put the Vocabulary into Practice through Output Skills (Speaking and Writing)
In this step, your goal is to ‘produce’ the vocabulary through the ‘output’ skills (speaking and writing), which you have just learned through the input skills (reading and listening).
‘Produce’ means put into practice. Now the new vocabulary is going to go ‘out’ of you (Output), whereas before, the vocabulary was coming ‘in’ to you (Input).
This is a vital step because using the new vocabulary really helps you remember it.
Writing
For the writing, one option is to write a summary about the topic of the video or article. Another is to write an essay or your own article expressing your opinion about the topic.
The idea is to put to use the vocabulary you have learned, as writing helps you to internalize the vocabulary.
Ideally, you should then have an English trainer to have a look and give you feedback.
Speaking
Now you are going to speak about the topic to a friend, colleague or teacher. If you don’t have anybody to speak to, you can practice this on your own, record yourself, then listen back.
Just like the writing exercise, you are going to use the topic of the article or video as a base.
Speaking exercises include summarising, discussing the topic, and expressing your opinion about it. A very effective exercise is to give a presentation about it, using slides.
Giving presentations is a great way to remember new vocabulary because through the preparation you will be repeating the vocabulary a lot, which makes it stick.
At this point, you have read, listened, written, and spoken about the same topic. Imagine how much more prepared you are to speak about this topic now, as opposed to going into this topic without any prior exposure!
But this strategy for improving English vocabulary doesn’t stop there. There is still one more important step.
Step 5: Review the Vocabulary
To retain vocabulary you must review it or have contact with it in some way because t is incredible how quickly we can forget vocabulary when we stop using it.
The reason why Step 4 (Organize New Vocabulary) exists in this strategy for improving English vocabulary, is to make Step 5 happen. It is difficult to review vocabulary if it isn’t stored in an organized way.
First of all, choose the way you are going to organize the vocabulary, then decide how you are going to review it.
For me, the most effective way to review vocabulary is by using one of the digital flashcard apps mentioned in Step 4. It is surprising how many words you can get through in 5 minutes. And honestly, 5 minutes a day is all you need to retain your new vocabulary.
Schedule a Daily Practice Routine
What learners struggle with most when it comes to reviewing vocabulary is determining a practice routine for it.
If you are able to choose a time during the day to spend 5 minutes reviewing vocabulary and stick to it so it becomes a habit, then your vocabulary repertoire is going to improve substantially after a few months.
So choose the best time for this. Is it after breakfast? On the tube to work? Before lunch? You just need to select a time and have the discipline to consistently do it.
Conclusion
Knowing how to improve your English vocabulary is vitally important for your development as an English learner. Most learners recognize this and have the goal of increasing their vocabulary. In spite of this, most learners don’t have an appropriate strategy in place to optimize their vocabulary improvement.
Take action by trying this 5-step strategy for 1 month. For sure, you will improve your English vocabulary and feel more confident about your English!
