In this page, you will read about some strategies for learning new words and growing your vocabulary. Please read through these lists for some tips and then watch the video, too.

What do you do when you see a word you don't know? Review the following suggestions and then listen to Professor Ray's video below for excellent strategies on learning new words.

Levels of Word Knowledge: This refers to how well you know a word. The goal is to get to the "understand and use confidently" stage. Knowing your word knowledge can help you focus on which words you need to study more than others that you already know well. As Professor Ray notes, there are four levels to learning new words:

• I've never seen this word before.
• I've seen this word but do not know what it means.
• I can understand the meaning of this word when I read or hear it.
• I can understand the meaning of the word and use it confidently on my own.

How to Learn New Words: Please follow these tips to learn new words. It  may seem like a lot of work, but you will learn the words faster and more deeply this way.

• Use a dictionary. I recommend the Longman English Learners Dictionary. Links to an external site.
• Learn what part of speech a new word is.  (i.e. noun? verb? adjective?) You can easily learn two or three words just by knowing the different forms and parts of speech a new word has. Check Suffixes - word endings (i.e., "tion" or "ment" - nouns, or "ily" - adverb).
• Learn the definition of a word. Sometimes there are multiple definitions. Try to understand the definition of the word you are learning by reading it in context to the sentence or passage you are reading.
• Look at examples of the word being used in authentic ways. Use a dictionary for this.
• Find the collocations for the word. A collocation is a word or words that often go with the word you are studying. (i.e. learning "from").
• Learn the grammatical details of the word. (Is it count or non count as a noun? Can it take a gerund or an infinitive after it? What is its plural form?)
• Practice using the word in writing and speaking. 
• Read and speak. 

Review of Parts of Speech: In addition to learning the meaning and usage of a word, you can also learn the different forms a word has. They are also called word families. For example, the word "repeat" is a verb, but "repetition" is a noun, "repetitive" is an adjective, and "repetitively" is an adverb. Instead of just learning one word, you have learned four!

• noun: person, place, thing or idea
• verb: action or non action
• adjective: a word that describes a noun
• adverb: a word that describes a verb, adjective, or other adverbs

Please listen to Professor Ray's excellent video where she reviews the tips for successfully learning new words. 

NEXT is a lesson on Vocabulary Journals.