Ultimate Vocabulary – Vocabulary Building Software

Effective Vocabulary Study Sets You Apart From the Crowd

October 11, 2011

Improving your vocabulary will bring you many benefits: first, you’ll be more confident speaking in public and more comfortable talking with people in social and professional settings. Second, you’ll be able to progress faster in your educational goals due to your ability to understand advanced texts and materials, and discuss them intelligently. Third (but definitely not last), your increased verbal skills will bring you to the attention of management as well as your peers, and you’ll be able to take your place at the head of the line when promotions are due. However, you’ll need to spend some time working on vocabulary improvement to realize these results, and that may mean changing the way you study. It’s especially important to reserve some time and space for yourself, in a quiet space without distractions. In other words, you need to sequester yourself away from interruption to get the most out of your vocabulary practice.

The verb sequester hasn’t changed much from the original Latin sequestrare (“to keep safe”). To sequester someone (or something) means to isolate them so that they are not affected by any outside influence. For example, juries get sequestered during a trial so that they aren’t swayed by media coverage or other people’s opinions, or just random things they hear about a case that may or may not be accurate. To be truly impartial, a jury must be focused only on what they hear in the courtroom, so they are set apart from everyone else.

In the last few decades, the noun sequestration has gained more attention, because of the increasing worries over global warming. The process of carbon sequestration is sometimes proposed as a possible method of reducing the amount of climate-changing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. A certain amount of sequestration happens happens naturally, such as when trees capture carbon dioxide, or the earth or the oceans absorb it, and this natural process can be helped along by planting cover crops or plowing under fields instead of burning them after harvest (the burning puts the carbon back into the atmosphere). Mechanical methods for doing the same thing are being discussed, but the technology has not advanced far enough to make such storage safe, since leaks of pure carbon dioxide can be fatal, suffocating people and animals.

When you’re studying vocabulary, you’ll want to sequester yourself in a quiet space so that you can concentrate. Noise and distraction will slow your ability to learn new words and remember them, and you’ll probably find yourself going over the same material extra times because you can’t remember what you’ve been studying after an interruption. If roommates or family members are around, try to find a time when no one is home, or ask their cooperation in helping you study. If you really can’t control the noise around you, try using noise-canceling headphones, or play low-key instrumental music in the background to help cover up outside noises. By setting aside time to study, and setting yourself apart so you can focus on your studies, you’ll get the most out of your vocabulary study.

Vocabulary in the News: What New Words Did You ‘C’?

October 7, 2011

Every now and then, we check in with the editors at the online dictionary site for Merriam Webster to see what words are making their “most searched” list. In general, these words get more hits when an unfamiliar term hits the major media outlets and gains wide exposure. People who read the story or hear it on the news become curious about the word, and look up its definition. In the past few months, several words were of interest to the dictionary’s users:

champion (CHAM-pyuhn) noun or verb
A hockey player in the United States got more attention from his new tattoo than he really wanted when it was revealed that his skin bore the proud motto “Stanley Cup Champians.” Although the athlete has since altered the tattoo (and presumably fired his tattoo artist), this word was one of the most searched in September. Remember, knowing how to spell a word is just as important as knowing how to define it!

clemency (KLEH-mehn-see) noun
This word comes from the Latin root clemens (“mild”) and means “pardon” or “mercy.” When the news that a long-time death row inmate in the southern United States had been denied clemency – that is, his appeal for pardon had not succeeded – people both protested the death sentence and looked up the meaning of this word.

culture (KUHL-chur or KUHL-tyuhr) noun or verb
According to the editors, this word gets a lot of hits every time a new school year starts and students are confronted with titles of books and classes containing the word in one of its many definitions. Depending on the context, this word can be:

– a noun meaning “the customs, attitudes, and social rules of a society”
– a verb meaning “to cultivate or promote growth”
– a noun meaning “artistic and intellectual pursuits and creations”

Other definitions are specific to the scientific and medical field, or among sociologists. When you’re using a word, it’s important to know exactly which meaning you need so that you’re using the word correctly in context.

chutzpah (HUTZ-puh) noun
Note: The U in HUTZ rhymes with the word “book.”)
As an illustration of the reason proper pronunciation is just as important as the correct spelling and definition of a word, we present American presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann, who mispronounced this Yiddish word meaning “audacity, nerve” earlier this year. Take advantage of the audio links available on most online dictionaries or vocabulary software programs like Ultimate Vocabulary, and you won’t run the risk of embarrassing yourself on national television.

Quick Ways to Increase Your Vocabulary

October 5, 2011

As linguists and language teachers know, there are two main types of vocabulary in daily use: the first is vocabulary we know in a “receptive” way, where we understand the general sense of a word when we read it or hear it; the second is vocabulary we know in a “productive” way, where we are able to use the word in conversation or written communication. ¹ In general, a person with a university education has a minimum receptive vocabulary of about 20,000 words. Studies have shown that many of these words – up to 80 percent – belong to the most common “word families” in English. A “word family” is a group of words that are related through their root words. For example, the words help, helping, helpful, helpless, and unhelpful are all part of the same family. By focusing on word families, you can quickly and easily increase your vocabulary.

There are 4,000 word families in standard English. Research has shown than if you learn only the 2,000 most frequent word families, you will be able to understand at least 80% of any text (other than highly technical literature). If you combine these word lists with the Academic Word List (AWL), you will understand up to 90% of the words you read.^{2, 3}

In addition to this key selection of words to learn, you have two ways you can choose to add other new words to your vocabulary. One is faster, but at the expense of long-term memorization. With this first strategy, you read a text using your word family and AWL knowledge, and use the context of the sentences to give you the definitions for the words you don’t understand, with the occasional use of a dictionary to double-check anything that’s particularly confusing. You’ll remember these new words, but may not retain them for long, or be able to use them in the future. However, it will increase your reading speed in the short term.

In a more focused approach, you take the time to look up and thoroughly understand each new word. In addition, to help firm up your knowledge of the word and how it is used, you make sure that you read more than one text containing that word, and you practice using it yourself. This is a slower approach in the short term, but gives you the long-term benefit of knowing and being able to use the word correctly in the future.⁴

Unless you are following a targeted vocabulary study program, most of the words you learn come from the text you read, and you learn the basic meaning by figuring it out from the context of the phrase. It’s estimated that we learn 7 or 8 new words each day by this method – though, as mentioned above, not all of them will stay in our long-term memory without further study.⁵

Whatever method you choose, we encourage you to read as much as possible, to maximize your acquisition of useful English vocabulary.

References:

¹ Nation, P. & Waring, R. (1997). Vocabulary size, text coverage, and word lists. In Schmitt N, & McCarthy, M. (Eds). Vocabulary: Description, Acquisition, Pedagogy. New York: Cambridge University Press, p. 6-19.

² The Internet TESL Journal/. ESL Vocabulary Acquisition: Target and Approach. Andrea Cervatiuc, University of Calgary.

³ Wakely, R. Good Practice in Teaching and Learning Vocabulary. Centre for Languages, Linguistics, and Area Studies. University of Southampton.

⁴ Nagy, W., & Anderson, R. (1984). How Many Words Are There in Printed School English?. Reading Research Quarterly. 19: 304– 330.

⁵ What Is the “Context” for Contextual Vocabulary Acquisition? William J. Rapaport. Center for Cognitive Science State University of New York at Buffalo.

How a Good Vocabulary Makes You a Better Speaker

October 3, 2011

The presenter at the conference whom everyone talks about the next day, whose sessions are always “standing room only” and whose speech is quoted and referenced for weeks afterwards.

The employee at the departmental meeting who always manages to hold the bosses’ attention and make exactly the points you were thinking about, but couldn’t find the right words to say.

The guest at the party who’s constantly surrounded by people eager to hear her entertaining stories and witty conversation.

Do you see yourself in these descriptions? Or do you see the person you’d like to be? You probably noticed that the one thing common to all of these situations is that each person described obviously has a way with words. They have an excellent vocabulary, and the ability to use their words in the right way, at the right time. They’re masters of the bon mot and the epigram. In order to emulate them, you need to be as well.

The first thing you need to do is concentrate on expanding your vocabulary by studying and learning new words. Vocabulary words are quite literally the building blocks you need to create your literary constructions. Plan on spending at least 15 minutes a day learning one or more new words. For today’s word, focus on the word epigram. This noun is defined as “a concise and witty phrase” and frequently refers to a remark that someone makes to conclude a speech or conversation that sums everything up in one brief sentence, in an intelligent and humorous way. An aphorism is similar in that it is also a brief, witty, and insightful phrase, but an aphorism generally expresses a statement of belief or universal truth. Here are some examples of epigrams and aphorisms:

You can’t teach an old dogma new tricks.
– Dorothy Parker (1893-1967)

Ars longa, vita brevis. (“Life is short, but art endures.”)
– Hippocrates, 4th century CE

I can resist everything except temptation.
– Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

He that lives upon hope will die fasting.
– Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

Swans sing before they die – ‘twere no bad thing
Should certain people die before they sing!
– Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

Don’t let your lack of vocabulary keep you silent!

How to Get Help With Pronunciation

September 29, 2011

There are several important aspects of vocabulary study. When you learn a new word, you need to know its definition (or definitions) and how to use the word correctly in context. You need to know how to spell the word, so that you can recognize the correct spelling when you are reading or editing text, and avoid making any spelling errors yourself when you use the word in written communication. To use the word correctly when speaking, you need to be able to pronounce the word correctly.

If you’re using the Ultimate Vocabulary system, you’ll be able to take advantage of the built-in pronunciation audio guides for the vocabulary words you learn. Most good online dictionaries also offer icons you can click to hear how a word is pronounced when you look it up. If you’re using a print dictionary, the pronunciation of the word will be written out in IPA, the International Phonetic Alphabet. This collection of symbols represents all of the identified sounds made by human languages around the world; while it takes a bit of time to get accustomed to what the symbols represent, once you learn the IPA notation you’ll be able to instantly pronounce any word in English – and in any other language as well.

There are other ways to get help with your pronunciation, all easy to find and often free of charge. If you have a television, there’s probably a “closed captioning” function that you can switch on which will display most of the words being said by news announcers, actors, and commercial voiceovers. This is not an ideal method, because not all words are included in the captioning process, and if the broadcast is in real time (that is, it’s not a pre-recorded and pre-captioned program) there is a delay between the words and the appearance of the caption.

A better form of captioning is found on videos and DVDs. You might be used to seeing subtitles in foreign films, but did you know that you can almost always get English subtitles to movies in English, too? Look for that option in the menu and turn it on to see the subtitles while you’re listening to the dialog. The advantage here is that the captioning has been done in advance, so it’s much closer to the real-time speed of dialog on the screen.

Books on tape are an excellent way to practice pronunciation, because they are read word for word, and the readers are specifically chosen for their skill in the English language. Check out both the print book and the book on tape from your local library, and read along to the recording. You’ll be able to see and hear the difficult words that might have given you problems on your own.

Get a Head Start on College Vocabulary Skills

September 27, 2011

Parents often wonder what they can do to help their children get ahead and prepare for college, especially if the students are not being challenged in their classes to improve their English or math skills. For students in their last year of high school, there are often opportunities to partner with local universities and community colleges, and take classes there for college credit. You can check with the advisers at your local high school to find out about the resources available in your area. If that is not possible, or if you want to provide your child with even more college preparation, the College Board’s online AP (Advanced Placement) classes will provide them an excellent head start, and possibly some college credit as well.

To improve a student’s ability to understand and use advanced English vocabulary, we recommend the AP English Literature and Composition course. This online course provides a wide range of reading materials and helps students learn how to read and analyze texts of various kinds. The courses are designed to prompt students to consider the history of the period in which the text was written and the role of society and its impact on the author, as well as the stylistic techniques and prose forms used.

Once students have read the texts, they are challenged to write about them in a thoughtful and critical manner. Students will be required to look both at the language the author uses and the manner in which he or she uses it, and to discuss how this use of language affects the content and its impact on the reader. Students are given tests to see how much they understand and comprehend about the content of the work, as well as the author’s motivations and goals.

By reading excerpts from a broad spectrum of English literature past and present, and by learning how to discuss what they’ve read, students are given the opportunity to learn new vocabulary words and then to use them in context. While having a large and expressive vocabulary is important, it’s equally as important that a student can use their vocabulary in clear and effective communication, so any vocabulary study needs to include many opportunities to use the vocabulary in writing.

Whether you help your child find a classroom or an online course, you know you’ll be helping them prepare their way for a prosperous and word-rich future!

Word Games That Teach Vocabulary

September 26, 2011

We know that many of the people who read this blog and use the Ultimate Vocabulary software are doing so because they want to improve their vocabularies and enjoy all of the benefits that a wide-ranging and comprehensive English vocabulary provides to their personal communication skills, their professional development, and their academic achievements. Others might be looking for quick, simple, and stress-free ways to fit in a little vocabulary improvement into their lives, because they don’t think that they have the time for a more formal study program. We think that there are advantages to both formal and informal vocabulary study, for children as well as adults. While there’s no doubt that a daily routine of focused English vocabulary study will greatly enhance your skills in reading, writing, and presentation, learning to take advantage of the learning opportunities around you every day will also add to your abilities.

Do you do the crossword puzzle in the newspaper every day? If you don’t, give that a try. Crosswords are a perfect place to learn new words and get practice in recalling ones that you already know but haven’t used in a while. Because many of the clues are often written in a quirky or indirect way, this will give you a chance to stretch your brain and think about words in a way you might not have considered before.

Do you play word-based board or card games? The next time you have a card party, put away the poker deck and bring out the Quiddler deck. You’ll improve your word skills and have fun at the same time – and you can use poker chips to keep score here, too! Other games that will improve your vocabulary and spelling skills are Scrabble, Bananagrams, Royalty, Perquacky, and Boggle.

Do you play word games in the car with your children? We’ve gotten used to handing out the iPods and portable DVD players to occupy their time, but your children will benefit more from a few easy word games that will stimulate their brains and their interest in vocabulary. Try a “word string” game with them on the next long trip instead. The rules are easy: from any starting letter, continue to add letters one at a time anywhere in the word to make longer and longer words. The person who can make the longest word wins. Here are a few sample word strings:

N
IN
SIN
SING
STING
STRING
STARING

O
ON
ONE
LONE
ALONE

A
AT
RAT
RATE
IRATE
PIRATE
PIRATED

Real vocabulary improvement comes from consistent, dedicated study – but there’s always room for some fun and games in your study program. Enjoy the process of English vocabulary study, and you’ll enjoy the results even more.

Bringing Balance to Your English Vocabulary Study

September 21, 2011

We’re posting this blog entry on an important day of the year: the equinox, when (no matter which hemisphere you live in) the day and the night are equally as long. The equinox happens twice a year, in spring and in fall, and many of the early astronomers and philosophers used this time to mark the transition between the seasons. Structures such as Stonehenge were probably built to track the movement of the sun across the sky; when the sun appeared to sit precisely on top of a specific stone, the equinox was official. The word equinox comes from the Latin root meaning “equal” (aequus).

Effective vocabulary study is all about maintaining balance and smooth transitions, and keeping track of your progress. Because all aspects of vocabulary study are important, you need to make sure you spend time on practicing your spelling, working on your pronunciation, memorizing definitions, and writing out sample sentences. When you’re comfortable with these four basic aspects of learning a word, transition into learning all about the other words that are connected to it, including its synonyms and antonyms, its form in related parts of speech (for example, the verb derive becomes the noun derivation), and its etymology. Finally, be sure to keep track of the words you learn and the progress that you make in your study of English vocabulary. Setting milestones will give you goals to work towards, and achieving those goals will give you a reason to celebrate. You don’t have to mark the occasion with a 25-ton megalith, but do treat yourself to something special. You’re working hard to improve your vocabulary, and you deserve a reward!

Note: Use the word megalith to practice all facets of English vocabulary study as outlined above.

International English: English Words From Spanish

September 19, 2011

The English language has always borrowed words from other languages and incorporated them into its vocabulary, a process that started thousands of years ago and continues today. In the United States, the acquisition of words from Spanish dates back to the acquisition of territory in what is now Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean by Spain. The Spanish-speaking conquerors also gained words that they borrowed from the local Indian peoples. Here are some of those words:

armadillo
The “little armored one” is a mammal with large claws and bony plates instead of fur. Because of these plates, and the animal’s relatively large ears, the Aztec called it a “turtle-rabbit.”

bonanza
In Spanish, this word means “prosperity,” but in English we use it to refer to a large amount of something good or useful, often acquired unexpectedly.

cigar
Tobacco originated in the New World, and this word can be traced back to the Mayan word for that plant, sicar.

guerrilla
The Spanish word for “war” is guerra, and adding the diminutive turns this word into guerrilla, or “small war.” We use this word in English to refer both to small-scale uprisings as well as the locally-based combatants that fight in them.

hurricane
This is the English spelling of the Spanish word huracán, which came from the Caribbean language Arawak, where the word jurakan meant “devil” – an appropriate name for the fierce storms which can bring heavy rains and winds of over 150 miles per hour.

mosquito
Another Spanish diminutive, mosquito means “little fly” (musca).

potato
The potato is another plant originating in the New World, and its English name comes through Spanish (patata) from the Quechua word papa.

renegade
In the Middle Ages, the Moors occupied much of modern-day Spain, and the word renegade referred to someone who had converted from Christianity to Islam. Today, we use this word to describe someone who changes sides and works against the people they were formerly with. (See this post for information on a similar word from the same time period.)

Spelling Difficulties: Words That Are Easy to Confuse

September 16, 2011

Cross-posted at the Ultimate Spelling blog.

Learning how to spell English words correctly can be difficult sometimes, especially when you’re learning words that are very similar in spelling, in pronunciation, or both. In fact, spelling words “like they sound” creates problems for many people. Whether it’s in an e-mail to your boss or a letter to a friend, if you misspell words, you’re leaving a bad impression. Either your readers will assume that you just didn’t feel like taking the time to proofread what you wrote, or they’ll assume that you really don’t know how to use the words correctly – and therefore that you might not really know what you’re talking about. Neither of these are messages you want to communicate, especially in a work environment! To help you avoid this situation, study these four word pairs and make sure that you know how to spell and use them properly.

hoard and horde
These two words are both pronounced HORD, but have two different meanings. The verb to hoard means “to save, to store up.” As a noun, it refers to the end product of that action, a quantity of items that have been saved and stored. This word sometimes has a negative connotation; someone who hoards office supplies in their desk, for example, is saving them for their own personal use and probably not sharing. The noun horde describes a large group of people (or sometimes animals), with the sense that the group is so large it’s overwhelming or hard to deal with for some reason.
Example: There is a horde of squirrels in the yard gathering nuts to hoard for the winter, and I don’t think I’m going to get any walnuts for myself this year!

eminent and imminent
Eminent (EH-mih-nent) means “famous, noteworthy” and imminent (IH-mih-nent) means “almost about to occur.” These adjectives are often confused because of their similarity, but take care that you use them correctly.
Example: The eminent philosopher has been involved in humanitarian work in war-torn regions for decades, and many people think that an award of the Nobel Peace Prize is imminent.

perspective and prospective
The noun perspective refers to a way of looking at things, or the depiction of objects in three dimensions by creating a sense of distance or depth (the word comes from the Latin roots for “through” (per-) and “to look” (specere). The adjective prospective means “possible, likely, anticipated.”
Example: To get a better perspective on the hiring decision you’ll have to make, read through these applications from prospective employees.

accept and except
Although these two words are frequently pronounced the same way, they really shouldn’t be, and remembering the correct pronunciation will help you remember the correct spelling. Accept (ahk-SEHPT) is a verb meaning with the primary definitions of “to agree to receive something” or “to agree with an opinion or conclusion.” Except (ehk-SEHPT) is most often used as a conjunction meaning “unless” or “other than,” though it can also be a verb.
Example: All of the committee members will accept the compromise, except George – he’s determined to have his own way.

Get help with more easily-confused words here and here.