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.