Learning Vocabulary:A Practical Approach

　　Which words should you learn? You will hear and read many new words. It will be difficult to remember all of them. Therefore, you will have to pick out the words that you most want to learn.

　　Which words should I learn?

　　You need to think about how useful a word may be to you. Some words may be suited to more casual and informal types of discourse, whereas others may more often occur in more formal and serious types of discourse. Try to consider how frequently a word or expression is used and in which sort of context it would be used. This can help you decide whether it is worth your time and effort to learn a word. Vocabulary words do not always occur alone. You need to take note of whether certain words are often used with other words in what we could call 揻ixed expressions?or 揷ollocations?

　　Observing words in context is the best way to learn new vocabulary. However, it could be difficult to decide just which words to make an effort to learn. Words can fall into two categories for learners of English and English first language speakers alike: passive vocabulary and active vocabulary. Of course, there is some gray area where these two categories are concerned. We can also refer to passive and active vocabulary as receptive and productive.

　　What your purpose is in learning English will determine how much effort you should give to incorporating certain words into your active and productive vocabulary. Try to understand the contextual nature of vocabulary. How is a word used? Why is it used? Where is it used? When is it used?

　　What do I need to learn about a word?