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Words form the fundamental means of knowledge, and the basic tools used to organise and interpret information. As a result, possessing a good vocabulary gives a person a decisive advantage, right from their school days through the rest of their life.

Due to the tremendous advances in technology, different kinds of online vocabulary builders have become very popular and easily available. ‘The accessibility of a huge variety of authentic reading material online is a boon to all who wish to use and practice their language skills in the real world. Independent online reading is also an excellent way to encourage the motivated learner to become engaged in real interpretive communication by reading authentic texts for interesting content rather than solely for language practice,’ (LeLoup, J W, Cortland, S & Ponterio, R 2005, p. 3).

There is a wide blend of online resources of different types to aid you in building a comprehensive vocabulary. The most obvious of them are, of course, online classes and vocabulary software.

Several online vocabulary courses of varying depth, features, and cost are available from a number of websites. They allow you the flexibility of taking lessons from places of your choice and convenience, as well as getting direct instructions from professionals and experts from distant institutions.

Available widely on the Internet, along with these courses and software, are more leisurely utilities designed specifically for enhancing your knowledge of words. These online vocabulary builders make use of games, charts, puzzles, lists, quizzes, and other similar tools that enable you to get a good grasp of more and more words in a relaxed manner.

These web sites often lack the profundity of vocabulary courses, but have the advantage of inducing an element of fun and entertainment to the learning process. Furthermore, a lot of these resources can be used absolutely free of cost.

The Internet is also a good source of resources helpful in improving your vocabulary in a passive manner. Books, movies, television shows, other programmes, journals, articles, and a whole lot of other materials, which play a very important role in the spontaneous development of vocabulary, are easily accessible from the Web, and often cost only a fraction of what they would otherwise.

The benefit and importance of online vocabulary builders are being increasingly appreciated by both practitioners and learners of the English language. Fourie, I (2006, p. 29) states that if users have a better understanding of factors that may impact on the success of their information seeking, it might be easier for them to deal with obstacles and motivate them to find solutions; and gives online vocabulary tools such as dictionaries and thesauri to overcome vocabulary problems as an example.

One of the most popular vocabulary builders available online as a stand-alone software application is Ultimate Vocabulary by eReflect. Ultimate Vocabulary comes in various editions. Readers of this article should probably choose the “Success edition”. Click "Success edition" at Ultimate Vocabulary.

REFERENCES

Fourie, I 2006, ‘Learning from web information seeking studies: some suggestions for LIS practitioners,’ The Electronic Library, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 20-37.

LeLoup, J W, Cortland, S & Ponterio, 2005, ‘Vocabulary Support for Independent Online Reading,’ Language Learning & Technology, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 3-7.