five ways to boost your IELTS vocabulary hi there in this video we're going to look at
five ways to enrich your vocabulary and the last tip the last one is my favorite let's
jump straight into it so number 1 learn the formulas of the words learn the rules this
is a very powerful technique because if you know like the root of the word then you can
add the prefix you can add the suffix and you can expand this is also good for the reading
because you can deduce the meaning you can work out the meaning of the word rather than
having to rely on the words that you already know so this is why it's an incredibly powerful
technique I'm going to put some links that show you the rules you know that you’ll
be able on the end it usually means the person can do the task or that it's possible for
example so if you learn these rules you can expand your vocabulary considerably I'll give
you an example the word non-conformist it's one word we've got the prefix which is ‘non’
which just means basically not then we've got the root which is conform which means
to go along with and then ‘ist’ is usually the person like communist marxist a capitalist
so if we look at that word non-conformist we can deduce that it's a person who does
not go along with the routine okay and that's what I mean that's because we know the rules
and personally in turn I find it really interesting looking at the origin because you can tell
if once you know the rules at a deeper level you can say okay unstoppable you know that
the prefix ‘un’ is Germanic in origin I think and then able like we said is the
ability so we've got unstoppable that means something that's just not likely to you know
it's something that could be unstoppable it can’t be stopped okay so that's number 1
learn the rules this is really really powerful the final tip is my favorite probably my second
favorite but we'll get there in a second so number 2 this next one is more of a tool and
it's a Chrome extension it's called vocabulary.com so just go to Google put vocabulary.com Chrome
extension and here what you can do is you can highlight the words make your list of
the definitions and if you do all the tests you can learn them most importantly you can
learn them in context and you can do it relatively quickly i.e. you don't have to find the definitions
and you can just keep continuously testing it integrates well with their Spelling Bee
as well so you can test your spelling which is yeah if you're looking to get a 7 or higher
you absolutely need to have your spelling under control next one quizlet as well comes
into this quizlet.com I'll put the links to these places in the description quizlet similar
idea you have to look through the definitions I think you can just test yourself continuously
with flash cards and flash cards are a very powerful tool if you know how to use them
I'm not going to go into it now but if you it's all about the learning curve and I'll
put a link to my vocabulary page where I talk about the learning curve the repetition curve
that's it and the amount of times that you repeat it and spaced learning and all these
are the learning concepts so the third one once you've learned the word use it use it
a few more times in that same day and hopefully the next day this goes to -- this kind reinforces
what I just said about spaced learning so we say it a few times then we try and say
it again the next day you try and use it in a conversation and this way we’re more likely
to remember it also hopefully we're going to get feedback whether we've used it correctly
if you're in an English-speaking country this is essential you know if you're learning vocabulary
go out the next day and use that vocabulary or the same day use it if you don't if you're
not living in an English-speaking country maybe try and incorporate it in your English-speaking
class or just write some sentences down again you will hopefully learn the word in the correct
context so you write down the sentences write them down hopefully in the correct context
and of course get feedback on your writing you know as I said before if you're not getting
feedback it's the equivalent of running through a forest with a blindfold okay you can just
keep writing and writing and writing but unless you get any feedback any sort of like encouragement
and direction or you know some guidance you got to hit yourself okay so final one we're
going on to number 4 this is a really really good one as well this is get yourself an e-book
okay something like in Kindle these are really good because one you can read about something
that you're interested in AJ Hoge from Effortless English he said he told me he said look if
you're doing IELTS practice papers all day every day you’re probably going to get very
bored of this and you’re not likely to maintain this preparing for the exam for that long
if you're just doing practice and practice and practices okay however if you've got your
test in a few months and you've got the luxury of time to prepare then focus on your general
English abilities and focus on something that you love this is what AJ was saying if for
example if you are a football fanatic or more likely if you're absolutely obsessed with
cricket then all your media that you're consuming in your own language you should start consuming
it in English and about the cricket okay I got a bit off-topic there but what you can
do with the e-book reader is find a book that you really like or a book that really pulls
you in you know like a turn pager it's called where you just keep going and going and this
book you'll be just practicing and immersing yourself in English the time will go by but
with an e-book reader you can if there's a word you don't understand you can just at
the touch of a button touch that word and you get the whole definition and what I love
about this is that you get the definition you don't get the -- so your brain is continuously
working you’re reinforcing in a sense complete immersion into the language and possibly in
the definition you might not understand the word so you have to go and look for the definition
of that word and so basically you’re just boosting your chances of remembering the word
learning more words learning correctly and the good thing with Kindle is that you've
got this like kind of like a game it's called the vocabulary builder so you can just test
yourself with the flashcards and it shows you where you first discovered the word then
it's got the dictionary definition and then you can test yourself so it's really practical
and it's especially good if you're traveling a lot because you can carry 20,000 books you
know in your little device and also you can get it on your phone and all this but if you're
traveling a lot you know taking 20,000 books isn't too bad you know the chances of you
not finding a book that you like when you're on the plane are pretty slim at the moment
I'm reading a really good book I can't put it down I’m literally stuck to it it's The
History Of Glue you know the history of glue and I'm just stuck to it I can't put it down
and if you're doing that right job you need to improve your IELTS vocabulary using one
of these techniques next one the fifth one my favorite or second favorite but this is
it's my favorite because it's really effective it takes a lot of tenacity determination and
time and costs literally zero so what you do is you start transcribing once again choose
a topic that is like top of the line which is really essential or just really important
to you or that you really love okay you got the video in YouTube or you find a podcast
and you make sure it's got a transcript with it and you listen and then you transcribe
what you hear the beauty of this is that one you're going to hear it pronounced perfectly
more often than not quite a few times the first time you hear it you're going to hear
it with perfect pronunciation second you can guess as to how it’s spelled later go back
and check so you’re developing like your listening skills also your reading skills
because you’re keeping it up and these are good skills to have for the exam you know
listening writing comprehending all simultaneously the other point is that if you are learning
the pronunciation if you're learning the sound of the language the sound of the word from
the very first time you hear it the chances of you repeating that pronunciation that perfect
pronunciation are vastly improved which goes to improve your whole speaking ability and
then the final one is that you're going to learn the word context which as I've said
before is very important because you don't want to just learn a list of words that's
ridiculous you want to learn the words in the context I won't go into any more detail
but if so just to summarize if you've got a hell of a lot of determination if you've
very tenacious and you've got some time then not that much cash start transcribing you
can check your spelling you're just going to improve all aspects of your language skills
so if you need any more help with your IELTS you can go to ieltspodcast.com and you can
even check out the online course if you're in a rush if you’re just fed up with this
IELTS frustration and you just need to get through the course get through the exam if
you don't have that much time to prepare then you probably are worth looking up the course
also like I said because I think feedback is a very important aspect of learning and
the development of the language and of your learning journey also have a look at the feedback
service the essay correction service there at ieltspodcast.com okay my name is Ben Worthington
good luck with your IELTS preparation if you got any questions you can leave a comment
in the comments section below have a great day and all the best of the with your IELTS
prep