- How many words are required for fluent English
- How to learn English vocabulary
- 5 must-follow tips to improve English vocabulary
How Many Vocabulary Required?
Guys, is it not important that you know how words are required to be able to speak English fluently, confidently and effectively? Because, you see, like other languages of the world, English is ever expanding: it's gaining and losing words every year. "It's been estimated that the vocabulary of English includes roughly 1 million words." And it's impossible to learn that great range of 1 million words. So, how many words do you actually need to be able to speak and understand the English language?
Findings of Prof Stuart Webb
Well, Stuart Webb, professor of applied linguistics at the University of Western Ontario has studied language acquisition—the process of learning a new language: its vocabularies and grammars.
He discovered that native speakers know 15,000 to 20,000 word families or lemmas—word family or lemma is a root word and all its inflections. For example, go, went, going, gone.
Prof Webb further says that:
a. If you learn 800 to 1000 lemmas of most frequently words of English, you can speak and understand 75% of English.
b. If you learn 3,000 lemmas of most frequently used words, you can understand TV shows and movies.
c. And if you learn 8,000 to 9,000 lemmas, you can understand literary writings, newspapers, articles, etc.
5 Essential Tips to Boost Vocabulary
Now that you know how many frequently used words to learn, it's time to think about how to learn the required frequently used vocabulary. To learn the required vocabulary, you have a list of things to do.
SEG is going to mention 5 ways to quickly learn the required frequently used words of English. These ways are extremely effective and practical which will increase your vocabulary extremely fast. So, strictly follow the tips on a regular basis mentioned here.
1. Listen, note and imitate
Can you tell me how you learned to speak in your mother tongue—the language you've been speaking since childhood? How did it happen that you never ever paid any attention to grammars, vocabularies, and pronunciations of your first language, and still you could and can speak in your first language naturally without any hesitation?
The simple answer to these questions is that you came in contact with adults, parents and caregivers and listened to what and how they communicated about something. Your brothers, sisters and elders indirectly taught you what to say and how to say, what words to use and in what manner to speak in a given situation, as you interacted with and listened to them and ultimately, to express yourself, you copied what and how they spoke in a particular situation.
This is the reason for encouraging you to listen to English, imitate the English language speakers and take notes of important words.
So, listen to English news channels, movies, stand up comedies, debates and speeches, imitate the speakers and take notes so that you can revise and use the words correctly.
After following this tip, you will feel that only listening to English language speakers is not sufficient, and you'll get bored of listening as it's a human tendency to get bored of the same thing. So, here, comes our second tip. That is:
2. Read and Learn from Context
Have you ever thought about this astonishing fact that you are capable of knowing the meaning of a new word even though you've never ever encountered that word? If not, then know that reading is extremely useful for learning new vocabulary, because when you read some article or some book in English, you actually come across a great range of new words used before and after some certain words and in a particular situation, and you try to guess the meaning of the new words by looking at the words used before and after those new words and the context in which those new words are used.
This way, you learn countless words if go on reading on a regular basis. So our second tip for you is to read books, articles, magazines in English and learn new vocabularies with the help of context. Reading is an amazing way of increasing and learning new words literally.
Once you develop the habits of listening to and reading in English, no doubt that you will certainly build a Mount Everest of English vocabulary, but you will certainly lack in one thing if you don't follow our third and fourth tips. The thing you'll fall behind in is working vocabulary.
Yes, you heard it right. After listening to and reading in English, you learn countless words, but those words are just present in your mind—those words are not working vocabularies—you can't use those words as you wish unless you do not practice using them. So, you need to follow our third and fourth tips.
3. Write and use the learned words
If you're attached to learning, then it's not unknown to you that writing is a means of self-expression. You write so that you can express yourself by clothing your thoughts and ideas with beautiful words. Writing helps you make the learned words work for you.
That's to say that when you start writing on any topic, you actually rethink of the you've already learned through listening and reading, you revise your vocabulary notes and look up the new words required to be used in a given situation.
So develop the habit of writing in English. No matter what topics you write on or how badly you write, just go on writing. This way, you'll make your vocabulary work for you.
Similarly, you'll follow our fourth tip which, in combination with the third tip, will increase your vocabulary in no time. Our fourth tip is:
4. Use the learned words in your speaking
Like writing, speaking in English also helps you make your current vocabulary work for you. When you speak in English, you will use the words you've already learned through listening and reading. This way, you'll be able to remember and increase your current vocabulary.
But wait, we've come up with another interesting way of increasing your vocabulary. That is:
5. Teach someone new words of English.
"I teach so that I can learn" is my own thought about teaching and learning. It's an undeniable fact that we tend to forget, but revising the same thing again and again helps us ingrain into our long term memory.
When you actually start teaching someone new words of English, you don't only teach, but you learn also. So, teaching someone new words of English is a way of improving and increasing vocabulary.