Magic Mantra to Improve Your Vocabulary
Most of the students, often, seem to be in search of some kind of technique, or method which could help them to enhance their vocabulary. It would be surprising for many that I had mastered the whole of Oxford Advance Level Dictionary in 25 years. It was not a magic to know the definitions of about 58000 words. It was the result of extensive reading which brought me to the present stage. It took me nine months to finish my first novel ‘The Idiot’ by Dostoevsky. I had to open the dictionary thousands of times. No regrets, for I was in high school at that time. Having read more than 10,000 books in my lifetime so far, I can say that the magic occurred through the books which I kept on reading indiscriminately.
It would be simply befooling you if I say there is such and such technique or method to improve your memory power. I have been teaching English Literature for more than 20 years, and very often students are amazed to see how easily I allude to Greek mythological figures and quote the lines of the old Masters. I answer them that I have read about them. I hope you understand what I mean to say. Extensive reading is the only Mantra or magic. People sell their products by showing how easily they remember phone numbers or addresses, and many people buy their products. Mechanical methods do not prove to be effective in the long run. My dear, read for about 4or 6 hours in a day for about one year and then see the magic.
Raja Sir.
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Comments
Hi Raja,
Great article!
It is clear that whole-text reading is the key to natural vocabulary growth. Words are gleaned from context; therefore, the more words read, the more contexts encountered, thereby the more words learned. In many studies, researchers have found that the number of words read per year can vary between 0 for a poor reader and 6,000,000 for an avid reader. Forcing students to become the "avid" readers is therefore a proven approach to ensuring their above-average vocabulary development.
The question is: can we do better? How vitamin-packed and nutrient-rich are the contexts encountered randomly and can the process of inferring the word meanings from context be improved? This is what I sought out to discover. In the process, I invented dictionarysquared.com - technology that greatly accelerates vocabulary growth.
Here's the technology in a nutshell: controlled encounters with the word twenty times, over a spaced-out review schedule spanning five months with side-by-side dictionary definitions, audible pronunciations, and video and image contexts.
I find DictionarySquared to be the ultimate complement to reading. For instance, I use it 10-15min per weeknight. I'm half-way through Moby Dick at the moment, and my understanding of the words "zephyr," "obstreperous," "punctilious," and others (which I've learned on my website), has made my reading richer and the images elicited in my mind, more lucid.
In other words, DictionarySquared.com raises the user's verbal sophistication which is the ultimate companion to reading and writing. While it's still in beta, the program is free of charge.
Please give it a whirl.
Sincerely,
Adam
Dear Rajasir,
Your Magic Mantra to develop vocabulary won't develop not only the vocabulary as well as our wisdom, wide knowledge on sentence pattern too.
Though that things are old to read but its a kind of unique idea to develop our vocabulary.
So far I have not considered the way and having many interesting books to read but I will do furtherly with your advice.
with kind regards,