The aim of this leaflet

Most of us find it difficult to find the right word in a foreign language when we are trying to speak or write, even though we know the word when we see it written down. The aim of this leaflet is to introduce you to materials that you may find useful if you want to make your vocabulary more active, and to suggest learning techniques that you may like to try.

Choosing materials

• If you want to improve your vocabulary for speaking, it’s useful to listen to conversations as much as possible; similarly, to improve your vocabulary for writing, it’s useful to read as widely as possible. Both these methods will help you to see how words are used in context, which is vital if you want to use vocabulary appropriately. You can do this anywhere, not necessarily in the Language Commons.
• If you want to use commercial learning materials, you may find it useful to choose material which shows words in context, and gives a lot of information about words which are commonly associated together (collocations, synonyms etc.). Listening material that has tapescripts will be useful.

Useful materials in the Language Commons

Vocabulary textbooks

• For material on collocations, use the Language Commons computer catalogue: under ‘Language Skill’ choose Vocabulary and then Collocations. Or try the following materials:
  A Way with Words 2, unit 4; More than Words 1, unit 5
• For materials on synonyms, use the Language Commons computer catalogue: under ‘Language Skill’ choose Vocabulary and then Synonyms. Or try the following materials:
  Cambridge Advanced English, units 12.5 and 16.5 (on the ‘Coursebooks’ shelf in the Multimedia Area); Wordperfect: vocabulary for fluency (‘Vocabulary’ Shelf) – useful for seeing the ‘shades’ of meaning, e.g. between concerned/worried/flustered/hysterical/in a panic.

Listening material

On the Language Commons computer catalogue, choose Listening under ‘Language skill’, then Conversation and All Choices; you will then see a list of titles to choose from.

Pronunciation material

If you are trying to improve your spoken vocabulary, it’s vital (a) to know the spoken forms of words, and (b) to know how they are pronounced in context, in connected speech.

• To know how a word is pronounced, we recommend:
  The American Heritage Dictionary or The Longman Interactive Dictionary
• To learn more about how the pronunciation of words changes in connected speech, and in particular, how words link together, you will find the following materials in the Language Commons useful (all on the ‘Pronunciation’ shelves in the Multimedia Area):
  Speaking Clearly, Elements of Pronunciation and In Tempo.

For more information and advice on pronunciation, check out the Advice Sheet Selecting Materials for Pronunciation (P3).

Reading material

There is a variety of simplified readers in the Language Commons Area A, at different levels of difficulty. You can borrow them for up to two weeks.

Dictionaries

• For examples of how words are used in context:
  COBUILD English Dictionary, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
• For groups of similar words together (these help you to see the difference between similar words):
  Longman Language Activator, Longman Lexicon. The Longman Language Activator helps you choose the right word or phrase to express your meaning, e.g. stumble/trip/collapse/fall flat on your face rather than just ‘fall’.

Other reference material

These reference sources give extra information about what words normally go together:

• Wordpilot is a software writing tool that provides a huge amount of information about how English words are used in context. Its concordancer provides a lot of examples for each word (far more than in a dictionary), it also shows you word collocations , word frequency etc., allows you to make your own word lists, and can be accessed as you write your document. The program was designed at UST for Hong Kong Chinese learners of English, and is available on every PC on campus. Ask an Adviser for a demonstration if you want to find out more about its many features.
• COBUILD Collocations: on the CD-ROM Reference Station in the Orientation Area.
• MicroConcord (see under Text Analyzer) and Monoconc (see under Autolang for Windows) are concordancers. You can find them on the PCs in the Video/Multimedia area (under Microsoft Windows).

Learning tips

Here are some tips for learning vocabulary for speaking or writing. You may already have your own method that works well for you. If so, that’s great – stick with it. If not, you may like to try one of these:

• Read or listen as much as you can.
• Find lots of examples of how the words you want to use are used in context (use dictionaries, concordancers etc.). Learning common combinations of words or phrases will be very helpful for your speaking or writing.
• Read or listen to a lot of material on one topic (or a small number of topics). This helps you quickly become familiar with vocabulary on that topic. For example, for listening you can:
  • interview a number of fluent/advanced/native speakers for one or two minutes each on the same topic and record each conversation. You can then play back all the short recordings,
    noting the vocabulary used.
  • follow a major news story on the radio or TV over a period of time.
  • only listen to certain types of news story.
• Use diagrams to make connections between words that are associated together. See English Vocabulary in Use, unit 2 (‘Vocabulary’ shelf); Learning to Learn English,
  pp. 35-37 (‘Learning a Language’ shelf).
• Put the word you are learning into a sentence about you or what interests you at the moment. e.g. Categorise: I’m categorising the words into different topics.
• Ask an advanced/fluent speaker to check that your sentences are appropriate.
• Practise speaking or writing as much as possible.
• Check out the Language Commons computer catalogue for further techniques: choose Vocabulary under ‘Language Skill’, then Techniques for Studying Vocabulary.
• Read Chapter 7 of How to Learn a Language (‘Learning a Language’ shelf).
• If you are not sure which words you should spend your time on, check out the Advice Sheet Deciding Which Words are Worth learning (V2).
• For tips about organising your learning so that it’s systematic and you don’t become overloaded, check out the Advice Sheet Organising Your Vocabulary Learning (V3).
• For tips about remembering words that you have learned, check out the Advice Sheet Remembering Vocabulary (V4).
• If you want to learn phrases or units of language that are longer than just one word, check out the Advice Sheet Learning Phrases or Idioms (V10).
• For tips on how to keep talking when you can’t think of the right word, see the Advice Sheet Coping with Problems: Strategies for Speaking B (S3) and Learning to Learn English, p.39 (‘Learning a Language’ shelf).

N.B. The important thing is to find out what works/does not work for you and why. Do your methods help you to learn effectively? If not, what could you do that would help you learn more effectively?

If you do use an effective technique, please contact an Adviser or e-mail lccommons to let us know about it – we would like to hear from you!

Evaluating your progress

Here are some methods for checking on your progress that you may like to try:

• Keep records of your writing or speaking. (With speaking, you can tape-record your conversations.) Can you find evidence of progress? If not, try to focus on what is causing you difficulties.
• Keep a diary as you learn. Write down your feelings and comment on your progress as you go. This will help you to see evidence of progress and detect problems.
• Ask a fluent or advanced speaker or writer of English to check your speaking/writing. They will be able to comment on your performance or tell you if you have progressed after a period of time.
• Ask an Adviser on duty in the Language Commons for advice about evaluation.
• For more information, see the Advice Sheet Evaluating Your Vocabulary Learning (V5).

And Now…

If you would like any help or advice, or just a chat about your progress, please get in touch – we are here to support your independent learning! This is how you can contact us:

• see an Adviser, on duty at the Language Commons Advice Desk (for details of advisers and their availability, please go to http://lc.ust.hk/~sac/sacadviser.html)
• e-mail lccommons (lccommons@ust.hk) with your query;
• ask at the reception counter of the Language Commons — if the receptionist cannot help you directly, s/he will pass your query on to one of the Language Commons advisers

Glossary

Note

The introductory leaflet in this series is the leaflet Learning Vocabulary (V1).

This advice sheet is part of the Vocabulary series of leaflets supporting independent language learning, produced by the HKUST Center for Language Education Language Commons team. This leaflet written by Richard Pemberton, 1998. Version 1. If you copy from this leaflet, please acknowledge the source. Thanks.