Want to improve your vocabulary? Don’t do this ✋🏽

Who doesn't want to increase their vocabulary?

Growing your vocabulary allows you to get stuck less, to feel more confident

and more fluent when speaking in English.

You are not looking for the right word, or you're not even using

basic words, you're using more colorful and expressive language.

So when I ask my students what they want to achieve, a lot of them say,

"I want to have a bigger vocabulary."

So, growing your vocabulary is essential for feeling more

confident and fluent in English.

However, in my years of teaching, and I have many, I have seen some horrendous

methods for learning vocabulary.

And I'm going to share them with you because I want to make sure that you

are not using those methods, because not only that it's not going to help

you improve your vocabulary and become more expressive in English, it's

also going to create frustration, waste your time, and keep you stuck.

So let's get started talking about the worst techniques to

boost and grow your vocabulary.

The first is memorizing lists of words without context, usually

with the word and a definition.

And then you're just memorizing the word, but you're not using

it immediately in context.

The problem with that is that your brain is not likely to

remember and retain that word.

So you might learn hundreds and even thousands of words without

the ability of actually using them.

It is good for growing your passive vocabulary, words you kind of

understand, but you won't be able to use them spontaneously unless

you put them into practice and you implement them and use them.

By the way, at the end of the video, I'm going to share with you my 5-step

method for growing your vocabulary.

It is a very effective method.

I also have a PDF that you can download and work with it as you're

growing and building your vocabulary.

The second one is not using bilingual dictionaries.

A lot of teachers say that if you want to really learn English, you shouldn't

use bilingual dictionaries – if you want to look at the definition

of a word, you need to read it in an English-English dictionary.

While it's really good advice, it's not ideal for everyone.

Sometimes you may read the definition and it still won't click.

You may read examples and it still won't click.

Sometimes all you need is just to look at the word in your own language

until it clicks, and then it's easier for you to understand it.

So avoiding bilingual dictionaries is not the ideal way to grow your vocabulary.

You need to do what's right for you to be able to succeed and thrive in English.

Another terrible mistake that learners make when trying to grow their vocabulary

is not to use the word intentionally.

You'll see that in my method, I teach you to learn the word, practice

it, and then practice speaking using the word intentionally.

Not to wait for an opportunity to use the word, because sometimes that

opportunity never comes, and when it does the word is already forgotten.

So you want to practice the word, practice it in context, and then

use it intentionally when speaking.

That means that you're creating a conversation that will allow you, the

context will allow you, to use the word.

And that builds confidence in using this word, and also helps you

understand it much, much better.

Another horrible way to grow your vocabulary is to learn a word without

gaining pronunciation clarity.

Which means you're only looking at the word, you're reading

it, you're understanding it.

Maybe you might even come up with a few sentences, a few written

sentences, you might even search it on Youglish or on Google, but you

won't practice its pronunciation.

And then what happens when you're uncertain on how to pronounce the word,

especially words that have two, three, and more syllables, or you're not sure

where the stress is, what vowels to use, what happens is that you might actually

unintentionally, avoid this word because you wouldn't know how to pronounce it.

Or you would use it, but you would get stuck because you

wouldn't know how to say it.

When you learn a new word, you have to also learn its pronunciation: the

number of syllables, the vowels that are in the word, the primary stress.

And then you want to practice it again and again and again until you feel confident

pronouncing this word, and then you'll feel confident using it in context.

The last one is learning words, fancy words, that you probably won't

even use in your first language.

There are a lot of videos and channels and resources out there that teach

you this fancy advanced vocabulary.

But the truth is, that in many of the cases, these are words that

you wouldn't even use in a regular conversation in your first language.

I don't love to invest my energy learning something that I wouldn't be

able to put it into practice right away.

I'm all about being efficient with my time.

And I believe that spending your time wisely, learning words that you actually

need, that you are likely to use, would be a lot more valuable than learning all

those fancy, long, crazy, sophisticated words that no one actually uses.

While it's good for your resume, it's not good for your fluency.

All right, what do you think?

What are other horrible, worst ways there are to practice and learn vocabulary?

Let me know in the comments below.

Now, you're probably saying to yourself, "Okay, Hadar.

I get it, I get what not to do.

What should I do?"

So I'm glad you asked.

Let me share with you my 5-step system for learning a new word.

First, you want to identify the right words, meaning, words that are

in your passive vocabulary, but not in your active vocabulary - words

that you know, but you never use.

You can recognize those words in moments where you get stuck, when

you look for a word and it's not available, because it's in your

passive vocabulary, but you know it.

It happens sometimes when you listen to other people and you're like, "Huh,

I know this word, but I never use it."

I recommend that you start writing down those words that you come

across so you can create a list for yourself of words that you

need to start using more actively.

Once you have that list, what you want to do is first, build

pronunciation confidence.

Learn how this word is pronounced, learn where the primary stress

is, what the vowels are, and then repeat it 30 times out loud.

Again, and again, and again.

I actually have a video that explains this.

I'm going to link to it in the description below.

And when you repeat it again, and again, and again, you build

confidence in how to use it, and you also sound clear when you say it.

Then you also want to understand how to use it in context.

So for this, you can use my favorite tool - YouGlish, where you type a word and then

it gives you examples, video examples, of how this word is used in context.

Or you can even go to Google or ChatGPT, and ask for example

sentences using this specific word.

Once you have about 10 examples or even 5 examples, you want to say them out loud.

Notice that everything happens out loud because that is how you

connect everything together - your brain and your mouth and your eyes.

So you want to say it out loud, it's part of the building

Pronunciation Confidence Method.

And once you do that, you want to create your own sentences.

Because when you repeat them out loud, you already understand how to use this

word in context, and you're more confident and more capable of actually creating

your own sentences using this word.

So then you want to create about five different sentences.

And then, you want to practice speaking freely and using this

word intentionally at least once.

And then, after that, you could be just mindful of this word.

Sometimes I tell my students to just put a post-it note on their computer

as they enter a conversation session, so that they are aware of it and

would intentionally try to use it.

And you will see that when you go through this process, the word is a lot

more available and you'll find yourself noticing it more and using it a lot more.

Okay.

So all this method is listed in my vocabulary planner that you can get

for free, just click on the link below, sign up and get it to your inbox.

That's it.

Remember, learning a language is an ongoing process, and you may

always feel like there's more to learn and more words to know.

Be content with where you are today, a place that probably allows you to

have a decent conversation in English.

And know that there are ways to improve and grow without pain,

and with joy, and with confidence.

And I hope that this video helped you understand how you can optimize your

learning process when it comes to building your vocabulary in English.

Thank you so much for watching.

Have a beautiful, beautiful rest of the day.

If you want more lessons, come on over to hadarshemesh.com, you have

a lot of free resources there.

Subscribe to my channel, if you haven't yet.

If you're listening to the podcast, subscribe to the podcast.

And you can also follow me on social media, where I share daily

pronunciation and confidence tips.

Have a beautiful, beautiful rest of the day, and I will see you

next week in the next video.