1 Simple Method to Increase Your Vocabulary | The 3R Technique | How to Improve Your Vocabulary

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.

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Happy learning, and I will see you in another lesson soon.