Building Vocabulary
How to expand word knowledge for faster reading
Learning new words is vital to becoming a better reader. Your vocabulary should be constantly growing in order to increase reading speed and improve comprehension.
English speakers generally use just a few thousand or so words in everyday conversation. Of course, you may need to know many additional words if you are reading an academic text.
Use reading strategies to help you gain more vocabulary.
- Make inferences and use context clues to find word meanings.
- Break unknown words into smaller parts you can guess.
- Use a dictionary to look up new words.
Keep a word journal. Every day, write down three or four new words you have learned. Creating flashcards or word cards can also be useful. Your word card can contain several pieces of information in addition to the definition, such as synonyms, pronunciation, and part of speech.
Using word parts to guess the meaning
The prefix, suffix, and root word can often give you clues to its meaning.
For example: redistribution
You may not at first recognize this word.
- The prefix -re (again) and suffix -tion (noun indicator) are markers that can help you guess the meaning.
- The root verb to distribute is more common, so you can guess the meaning of redistribution - "the act of distributing something again."
Example Word Card
