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One of the best and most spontaneous ways to increase your knowledge of words is to read to improve vocabulary.

There is an endless source of materials available for this purpose, ranging from simple story books and comics; to more serious books, good quality newspapers, and other articles; to really challenging works in literature, philosophy, and other disciplines.

In fact, reading provides several benefits than just enhancement of vocabulary. ‘Reading has cognitive consequences that extend beyond its immediate task of lifting meaning from a particular passage. Furthermore, these consequences are reciprocal and exponential in nature,’ (Cunningham, A E & Stanovich, K E 2001, p. 137).

From the wide variety of choices you have, it is advisable to select materials based on your knowledge of language. It is always better to choose books and articles that are just beyond your skill level, so that they pose a challenge to overcome, and provide a myriad of words and structures you are unfamiliar with. And in time, you can work your way toward more and more complicated materials.

As you read to improve vocabulary, you must be aware that reading does not enhance your knowledge of words all of a sudden. An excellent vocabulary is acquired naturally only after months or years of reading a vast array of materials.

Ehrlich, K & Rapaport, W J (1997, p. 207) states that most words learned from context are not learned in situations where word acquisition is the primary focus of cognition; but rather, one usually reads for the content of a text and acquires new vocabulary incidentally.

Of course, you could speed-up the process by using deliberate means. One method is to intentionally look for new words and expressions as you read. Once you find a new word, you can try to decipher the meaning from the context; and then, resort to the aid of other supplementary materials such as dictionaries, thesauri, books on grammar, and so on.

It will be more helpful, though more difficult, to learn more about the word than just its meaning, such as its pronunciation, part of speech, derivatives, synonyms, usage, and other facts. Often, several times of revision over a period of time will be required before the word and its usage get imprinted in your mind. Naturally, the more effort you expend, the faster you can build your vocabulary.

If you read to improve vocabulary, one of the advantages is that it can be done in a leisurely manner. There are seldom any time constraints or any other restrictions involved.

Except for the possible initial cost of dictionaries and other supplementary books, there is very little expense involved, especially if you borrow your books and magazines from libraries or clubs, rather than buy them.

And this is a process you can utilise practically anywhere you are, and throughout your life.

REFERENCES

Cunningham, A E & Stanovich, K E 2001, ‘What Reading Does for the Mind,’ Journal of Direct Instruction, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 137-149.

Ehrlich, K & Rapaport, W J 1997, ‘A Computational Theory of Vocabulary Expansion,’ Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ, pp. 205-209.