Hello and welcome. In this lesson, I’m going to teach you 1
simple method that you can use to increase your vocabulary. This is the technique that I teach my students,
and this is also what I use personally to learn new words – so I know that this works. So what is this technique? Well, it’s the 3R method. It’s called 3R because there are three steps:
Read, Record and Review. I will show you how to do all three of these
correctly to get the best results. So let’s talk about the first step: Read. If there’s one secret to building your vocabulary,
it’s reading. There is simply no better way. You should aim to read for an hour per day. If that’s difficult, do at least half an
hour, i.e. 30 minutes but one hour per day will give you the most benefit. Now I’m not talking about reading the newspaper
or studying textbooks. That kind of reading is good but it’s not
the best way to learn new words. For that, you need to read what is interesting. So here’s an idea: pick something that you’re
really interested in. Like sports, movies, music, cars, fitness,
fashion, electronics etc. - whatever you feel passionate about. Then find material that you will enjoy reading. Some great examples are magazines, novels,
short stories or biographies related to your topic. And don’t forget the internet – one of
my favorite places for reading online is Wikipedia. There are millions of articles on this site
and whatever your topic of interest is, you can go on Wikipedia and find articles to read. Now, there’s something really important. When you read (whether it’s books or online
material), there will be many words that are difficult – that you don’t understand. But don’t look up every single one of these
in a dictionary. Because that will distract you and make you
bored. Instead, your focus should be to just understand
the overall idea of what you are reading. For any difficult words, try to guess the
meaning from the surrounding information. If you cannot, mark them with a pencil, or
write them down and you can come back to them after you finish reading. After you have finished reading, you move
on to step 2 – record. This is where you collect new words. So now, you go back to the text you read and
find words to learn – there are two types of words that you can learn – unknown words
(words that you don’t know), and inactive words (these are words that you have seen
before but you’re not sure how to use). Aim to collect about 5-10 new words every
day. Once you have the words, you’re going to
note them down in a notebook, on your computer (in a Microsoft Word or Excel file) or even
your smartphone (there are many apps that will let you save and learn vocabulary). Start by taking your first word and look it
up in a dictionary. I personally prefer to use online dictionaries
like Cambridge, Oxford or Merriam-Webster. And now, you can start to record the word. Let’s look at the best way to do that. In your notebook or file, first write the
word - let’s say ‘creative’ is the word you’re learning. From your dictionary, you should then write
what part of speech it is (that is, whether it’s a noun, verb, adjective, adverb etc.). This word is an adjective. Then you write its definition – ‘creative’
means ‘having the ability to produce original ideas’ - it can describe people or activities. Then you note any example sentences that you
can find or you can make sentences of your own. Here are a couple of examples: “Frank Zappa
was a highly creative musician.” “Children enjoy doing creative activities.” Along with this, you should also note down
the correct pronunciation of the word in phonetic symbols. This word is pronounced /kriˈeɪ.tɪv/. There are three syllables – /kri/, /eɪ/,
and /tɪv/ with the stress on /eɪ/ – /kriˈeɪ.tɪv/. You might not know these symbols very well,
that’s OK. With the dictionary, practice the correct
pronunciation a few times, then copy the symbols. Over time, you will become comfortable with
them. It’s also a good idea to make a note of
the reference – that is, where you learned the word: which book, website etc. Because, later, when you are reviewing the
word, you can more easily recall where you saw it, and you can also go to the same website
or book if you want to check how it’s used. You should also try to find and note down
the different forms of the word. For example, we said that the word ‘creative’
is an adjective. But it has other forms too. ‘Create’ is the verb form, and it means
to make something new. The person who does this is called the ‘creator’
and the ability to create new ideas is called ‘creativity’ (these are both nouns). The adverb is ‘creatively’. So, this way, you see that we have now learned
five words from just one. Finally, if you want, you can draw a picture
that will help you to remember the word. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just
something that will help you to easily recall the meaning. So, you should record all the words that you
learn – like I said, 5 to 10 words a day – using this same process. Now we move on to step number three, which
is Review. Learning new words is easy but what is challenging
is to bring them into your active vocabulary – that is, developing the ability to use
the words you have learned. You can only achieve this by reviewing them
regularly. Here’s what I suggest: pick one day of the
week for this. My vocabulary review day is Saturday, you
can pick the day that you like. On this day, start by reviewing with the words
you have learned that week. After you have reviewed them, you should move
on to reviewing older vocabulary. Here are some useful review techniques: one
is to test yourself – you can simply open your notebook or your vocabulary file and
hide the definitions. By looking at the words, you try to remember
the meaning. Then you see the definition to check if you
were right. But a better method is to ask someone else
to test you – maybe a friend or a family member. They should take the notebook and say a word,
after which, you say the meaning. They can then say if you were right or not. If you want to practice alone, a great technique
to is to use flashcards. You take either a small index card or even
a piece of paper and you write a word on one side, and its definition on the other side. You should make one for every word that you
want to review and test yourself using the cards. Nowadays, there are many flashcard apps available
for your phone where you can input the vocabulary and the app will become your partner and will
test you on the words. Whichever technique you use, make sure to
also look at the notes you have made for each word – the part of speech, any pictures
you’ve drawn, say the correct pronunciation, and look at examples you have written down. To practice, you can make new sentences using
the words that you are reviewing – I like to imagine that I’m having a conversation
with somebody and I try to use the words that I’m reviewing in the conversation. The important thing is that you engage with
the word – don’t just read your notes. You should think about the word and also try
to use it actively in your own speech and writing. This is how you will really remember words
that you learn for a long time. Alright, so that is the 3R method – Read,
Record, and Review. If you follow it consistently, I guarantee,
you will be able to build a powerful vocabulary. If you liked this video, give it a thumbs
up by hitting the like button. Also remember to subscribe to this channel
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lesson soon.