How to Rapidly Build Your Vocabulary?
One of the ways to build your vocabulary is to learn new words every day. Each day, I am emailed a new word from Wordsmith, Dictionary.com and MerriamWebster.com. That means, each week I can potentially learn 21 new words. Two of the services I have been using for over five years, and one for just over a year. But when you think about it, according to statistics, there are between one to two million words in the English language, therefore I am making a very small dent in the universe of building my vocabulary. Some of the words that are emailed to me each day I already know, which is still a good reminder, and some of them are not words that I would likely ever use.
Having a large vocabulary is important because you read faster, and have a better level of reading comprehension because you are not wasting time trying to figure out what a word means while you are reading. Getting a word a day by email is better than doing nothing, but a better approach to rapidly build your vocabulary is a generative approach. In the webinar, “Comprehension – Going Beyond Fluency: Morphology and Vocabulary Learning” led by Dr. Timothy Rasinski from Kent State University, he suggested that by using morphology, we could rapidly build our vocabulary. According to Dictionary.com morphology, is:
- “the patterns of word formation in a particular language, including inflection, derivation, and composition.
- the study and description of such patterns.
- the study of the behavior and combination of morphemes.”
That means that it is much better for us to study the root of words, which allows us to easily learn another 10, 20, 30 or more words because we can accurately guess their meanings. He walked us through the process. Most words in English have Greek or Latin roots, therefore by learning the affixes and roots of words, we get clues to the meaning of words.
One example he used is phil(e), which means love of, then he showed the words: bibliophile (lover of books), anglophile (lover of the English), philosopher (lover of wisdom) and so on. Rasinski explained that one Latin-Greek word family is equivalent to 100 words. Imagine the possibilities if three times each week, you spent five to 10 minutes with a friend or your children, learning two morphemes (prefix or base). The multiplier effect would rapidly build your vocabulary!
If this sounds like an exercise that you would like to do with your kids or a learning partner, here are some resources to start the process:
Root Words & Prefixes: Quick Reference
Examples of Root Words
Where Do Our Words Come From?
And for those who are into apps, PrefixSuffix has an iPhone app. I am unable to test it because I have an Android phone. Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Liked this post? Share it and subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Author Bio: Avil Beckford, an expert interviewer, entrepreneur and published author is passionate about books and professional development, and that's why she founded The Invisible Mentor and the Virtual Literary World Tour to give you your ideal mentors virtually in the palm of your hands by offering book reviews and book summaries, biographies of wise people and interviews of successful people.
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