hey it's Amory with speak confident
English this is exactly where you want
to be every week to get the confidence
you want for your life and work in
English about four weeks ago I started
an advanced vocabulary challenge with
students in my speak confident English
community I started this challenge
because two of the most common questions
I get are how can I increase my English
vocabulary with advanced level words and
number two how can I remember those new
words one of the biggest challenges is
learning a new word and then remembering
how to use it and being able to use it
in the moment when you're having a
conversation in English I know you've
been learning English for years so
you're already familiar with strategies
like using flashcards vocabulary apps
plus you know the importance of reading
and listening in English to learn new
words all of those are effective methods
for learning new vocabulary especially
when you're just beginning to learn a
new language but as you grow as you
advance in your level your strategies
need to change what worked for you in
the past what worked as a beginner might
not work for you now when it comes to
learning a new language and increasing
your vocabulary there are two things
that are true number one there is no one
size fits all strategy have you heard
that before
a one-size-fits-all strategy what that
means is what works for one person might
not work for you you have a unique
learning style and it's important to
find the strategies that are effective
for you the second truth is that what
helped you as a beginner language
learner in English again might not be
helping you now as you grow you need to
challenge yourself and use new more
effective strategies with my advanced
vocabulary challenge that is exactly
what I wanted to help my
students do I wanted to teach them how
to develop effective strategies to
increase their vocabulary with advanced
level English and I want to share the
same strategies with you in this
confident English lesson today you're
going to learn two things number one
what is the right process for learning
new vocabulary and number two what
strategies are effective in that process
with those strategies you're going to
know exactly what words you should
prioritize or focus on where you can
find those words and finally how can you
learn them effectively so that you can
remember and use them in your English
conversations
[Music]
all right so let's start with the
overall process of how to effectively
increase your English vocabulary with
advanced level words there are four
things you need to think about to help
you identify the strategies that are
going to work for you number one you
need to know how you learn for example
some learners are visual learners what
that means is they need to see an image
a picture or the word in order to
remember it other learners are physical
they need to be able to move and use
their body in order to learn effectively
and some are audio learners when they
hear something they remember it so it's
important for you to know how you learn
best in order to choose the most
effective strategy the second thing you
need to think about to help you choose
the right strategy is to make sure it is
something that you enjoy or something
you have fun with for example if you
decide to download a vocabulary app on
your phone but you hate technology and
you don't like memorizing you're
probably not going to use that app very
often or effectively so it's not the
right strategy for you just because it
helps someone else doesn't mean it's
right for you you have to find the
things that you enjoy the things that
give you energy and help you stay
focused the third part of the process is
making sure that you don't limit
yourself to just one strategy when you
do the same thing over and over and over
it becomes automatic which is great but
then you stop challenging yourself and
when you stop challenging yourself you
stop your growth so it's important to
always evolve change and incorporate
different strategies to help you
continue in the learning process and
finally the last part of the process to
effectively increase your vocabulary is
assistant repetitive practice this is
something I've been working on with my
students repetitive practice is
absolutely necessary for developing
muscle memory have you heard of muscle
memory before when you develop muscle
memory you developed the ability to do
things automatically without thinking
for example if you're a musician when
you begin to learn a new song you might
need to read the notes very carefully
you might play a little bit make a
mistake stop start over
play again and continue it's a
repetitive process of learning the music
and learning to avoid the mistakes as
you do that you begin to learn the music
by heart you develop that muscle memory
the ability to do it automatically
without thinking about it the same thing
is true with learning vocabulary when
you learn a new expression a new
collocation or idiom it's essential to
repeat the learning process what that
means is you read it hear it say it and
write it if you don't do something
consistently if you don't develop that
repetitive practice you'll have a much
more difficult time remembering and
using the new vocabulary that you're
learning when you're speaking now that
you have that process in place of
identifying your learning style and
figuring out what strategies would be
fun or interesting to you let's talk
about specific vocabulary developing
strategies with these five strategies
you're going to learn which words you
should focus on how to find them and how
to learn them strategy number one is to
prioritize advanced level vocabulary so
what does that really mean
what is advanced level vocabulary how
can you find it as you develop your
English level it's important to
incorporate or include collocations that
native speakers use synonyms that allow
you to be more flexible with the
language and use a variety
of words to say the same thing and of
course phrasal verbs native speakers use
phrasal verbs all the time and some
phrasal verbs have multiple meanings so
it's important to know what those are
and know how to use them correctly so
how can you find collocation
synonyms and phrasal verbs well I've got
several things for you number one here
on the speak confident English Channel I
have several lessons on collocations if
you've been following me for a while you
know that collocation czar groups of
words that native speakers naturally use
together the lessons that I have here
are definitely a great place to start so
I will include a link to all of those
just below this video in addition to my
lessons on collocations I also have a
lesson on how to learn synonyms in
English so that when you communicate you
have more powerful vocabulary to use and
you can be more flexible you can use a
variety of words to say the same thing
with this lesson I also have a free
guide that you can download in this
guide you'll find 75 common words in
English and I give you more powerful
synonyms to use again this is a
fantastic place to get started and
finally I've also got you covered when
it comes to phrasal verbs not only do I
have several lessons on phrasal verbs
but also just last week I did a lesson
on the multiple meanings of the phrasal
verb to go out so if you're interested
in learning collocation ''s
advanced level synonyms and phrasal
verbs I definitely have lessons
available to you on all of those topics
but I want to share one more tip with
you about where you can find advanced
level collocation synonyms and so on
again you already know that reading in
English and listening in English are
effective ways to learn or be introduced
to new vocabulary but if you don't have
a clear strategy to learn that new
vocabulary and to remember it then it
won't really help you
one of my favorite tips and one of the
strategies I use with my students is to
identify a theme for a week for example
let's say that you're really into yoga
and developing a practice of mindfulness
that might be your theme for one week or
even one month and with that theme you
would spend a little bit of time every
day reading articles listening to
podcasts or finding news stories about
yoga and developing a practice of
mindfulness you would stay focused on
the same topic for several days this is
part of that repetitive practice as you
do that you will begin to see the same
collocation Zoar the same vocabulary
used again and again and again and those
are the keywords you would want to focus
on it's a fantastic way to identify the
collocation Zoar vocabulary native
speakers use on specific topics and what
I also love about this strategy of
choosing a theme and focusing on it
every day for a week two weeks or a
month is that you can focus on the
things that you enjoy the areas that
interest you and that is part of the
process of developing an effective
strategy now that you know what you
should prioritize and how to find those
important words let's talk about how you
can practice and I have three strategies
for you to do that number one it's
important for you to personalize the
language that you're learning what do
you think I mean by that personalize the
language let's go back to that idea of
identifying a specific theme like
mindfulness as you read articles blog
posts and listen to podcasts on
mindfulness you would probably hear the
collocation to develop a practice of
mindfulness again and again and again so
now you have this new collocation that
you've heard and read after you learned
that collocation I want you to create
your own example son
using those words create a sentence that
you might use in a real conversation
with a friend or a co-worker the second
strategy that's important is creating
opportunities to use that new vocabulary
after you create that sentence to
personalize the language you want to use
it again and again and again that
process of repetition so how can you do
that definitely having conversations in
English is a fantastic way to do that if
you have friends co-workers neighbors
that you can talk to or if you're in an
English class or a club those are all
opportunities to have conversations and
find ways to use that new vocabulary if
you're not comfortable with that or if
you don't have anyone to practice with I
have some other strategies you can use
as well
two other effective ways to use that
language is to have a daily journal you
could start a journal in English and use
that journal as an opportunity to talk
about what you're learning for example
if you read an article on mindfulness
you could summarize or talk about what
you remember in your journal entry and
for speaking practice you could follow
that same method you could read an
article or listen to a podcast write
down the new collocation Zoar vocabulary
you want to remember and then practice
summarizing what you read or heard be
sure to do that out loud and even better
you could record it listen to it and if
there's something you don't like you can
do it again and change what you don't
like this is an extremely effective
strategy for not only learning that new
vocabulary but also developing
confidence and fluency when you
communicate if you want to know more
about that strategy of recording
yourself to effectively develop your
confidence and fluency I have a complete
training on that topic and it's
available for free on my website I'll
leave a link to it just below this video
that training is called how to say what
you want and
and finally the last way that you can
practice the new vocabulary that you're
learning is to create mindmaps
this is something I love to do when I
have just a few minutes to practice
creating a mind map is an effective way
to activate the words that you've
learned before let me share a specific
example of how you could use mind
mapping to develop that vocabulary again
let's focus on this idea of developing a
practice of mindfulness in the middle of
a piece of paper you could put the word
mindful or mindfulness and then you
could think about the different question
words we have like what where why how
and each of those becomes its own
subtopic if you think about mindfulness
and where you practice or where you feel
mindful what words come to your mind all
of those are words that you can write
down if you have the question how do you
feel when you're practicing mindfulness
again you can write down all the words
that you think about to answer that
question about what you feel again this
is a strategy you can use even if you
have just two or three or five minutes
but it's an effective way to get that
repetitive practice and activate those
words that you've learned and with that
you have five tips to increase your
English vocabulary with advanced level
words now before you go I'd love to hear
from you if you have an effective
strategy or you've learned a method that
has been useful to you I would love to
have you share it here again not
everyone learns in the same way you
might have a strategy that is perfect
for someone else in the speak confident
English community so again if you have
something that has helped you learn new
vocabulary please share that in the
comments below and if you found this
lesson useful to you I would love to
know you can tell me in three simple
ways number one you can give this video
a thumbs up on YouTube and subscribe
this channel so you never miss one of my
confident English lessons number two you
can share it with friends and co-workers
on Facebook and number three if you know
someone who's really struggling with
developing their English vocabulary you
can email them this lesson directly
thank you so much for joining me and I
look forward to seeing you next time for
your confident English lesson