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Vocabulary Advice

阅读() 评论() 发表时间：2009年11月24日 01:38

本文地址：http://qzone.qq.com/blog/622000306-1258997895

相关搜索词: VocabularyAdvicephrasesMartincompletely
Dear all

Hello again. I hope everyone had a great weekend. Martin, thanks for your comment. I did indeed promise to give you some language tips this week, so I'll address your question about vocabulary.

You wrote,"Day after day, year to year, I found my vocabularies are  more and more limited to express my thoughts and ideas that I want express to others."

First of all, I think that just in that sentence you have used some very nice, very interesting turns of phrase 短语, so I'm not sure that I completely believe what you say! Note that 'vocabulary' is a non-count noun, so we don't say vocabularies.

Secondly, it is a good sign that you feel dissatisfied and restricted 限制 by your vocabulary. The fact that you feel you have things to say that reach beyond your current vocabulary means that you are more likely to do something about it.

Very often what happens is that people get to an intermediate level and their English vocabulary plateaus 缓近停滞. That's because they have all the words and phrases they need for everyday intercourse 每日交流 and aren't being pushed by frustrated communication 令人感到沮丧的交流 to learn more.

A lack of practice will also lead your English to go rusty. Don't worry though, the words and phrases you learned over the years won't disappear completely. If you start to practise English again, they will probably come back.

Ok, so here are my tips.

  1. One of the best ways to expand 扩大 your vocabulary is to read, since English-speaking people have a much wider vocabulary on the page 书面 than we do when we talk. In fact, in conversation most English speakers have quite a narrow vocabulary.
A notebook is an invaluable tool for learning vocabulary
  1. English has a larger vocabulary than Chinese. This means that if you just rely on your English-Chinese dictionary you will find many words have the 'same' meaning. Invest 投资 in a really good English-English leaners' dictionary. This will give you example sentences using the vocabulary, allowing you to see the subtle differences between words. It will also point you towards synonyms 同义词.

  1. When you come across new words, make a note of them in a notebook, and make a note of the sentence you see the word in too. Then use your dictionary and the internet to find more examples of that word in use and note those sentences down as well.

  1. It is usually best to learn words in groups of topic. Take especial notice of collocations 搭配 and how prepositions 介词 are used with words. It is things like this that can turn you from being a good English speaker to a more natural English speaker. [For example, looking at what I've written above, you will notice that 'expand' and 'wide' and 'narrow' all collocate with 'vocabulary'. I've used the preposition 'down' with 'note', and 'towards' with 'point'.]

  1. In order to remember new words you need to use them. Your brain will not waste energy on language that it doesn't think is useful! If you use the words in phrases in conversation, however, linkages 联系 will be made in your brain and the words will become embedded  in the language 留在自己每日使用的语言词汇中 that you actually use. At the very least, speak the words out loud as you are learning them.

  1. I sense Martin is frustrated that he can''t express his opinions and ideas. It's worth making a particular effort to learn words and phrases that help you give your opinion, e.g. 'I really think that…' 'I'm just not sure that…' 'In my opinion…'. Remember that in the West no-one is ever shy of 缺乏 giving you their opinion so you need to be ready to respond with your own!

Martin, I do hope that is useful. Good luck in your future studies! Does anyone else have any questions about learning English? I will choose another question to answer from the comments when I write this blog on Wednesday.

All the very best

William


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