Tricks to Level up Your Vocabulary in English

right i think it’s rolling hi everybody

welcome back to our weekly

live stream my name is alicia and in

this week’s lesson we are going to talk

about some tips

for leveling up your vocabulary

in this lesson i’m going to talk about

some ideas

oh sorry i’m going to talk about some

ideas that you can use

to learn new vocabulary words to study

new vocabulary words

and to improve your writing and your

speaking in general

by being more efficient and using higher

level

vocabulary so i hope that everybody can

find something

in today’s lesson whether you’re a

beginner intermediate or

advanced learner so as you join please

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so let’s get into the lesson

topics then okay uh also i’m going to

share

the lesson and then we’ll start okay i

shared it cool

so let’s look at today’s lesson boards

today’s lesson boards today’s topic is

leveling up your vocabulary this

is what i have prepared for today so

first we are going to talk about some

ideas like flash cards

reading second i have a writing tip

for you and maybe a speaking tip for

challenge people who want to challenge

themselves

and then last uh some other some some

ways to maybe find

new words that you might not think about

some different ideas other than

textbooks or media

also for today i prepared some of my

study materials

to share with you so you can see and

maybe get some ideas

um just maybe it’s useful for you to see

how i study

so let’s begin with part one for today

so

how do we level up our vocabulary okay

is everything okay facebook are you okay

i see facebook

facebook is okay i hope facebook is okay

okay let’s get to part one for today’s

lesson

so part one let’s begin

with flash cards basic very basic right

a flash card

flash cards are great if you use digital

flash cards

if you use uh like handmade flash cards

whatever

flash cards so this is a great way

to study new vocabulary right

so if you use flashcards remember

not don’t study the same list of

flashcards

forever right make sure that you

download a new list of words to study

if you’re using digital flash cards

download a new list of words to study

so we have flashcard lists at

englishclass101.com we have

a flash card system you can use too you

can check that

or if you use a different app if you use

uh something else you can download a new

list of vocabulary words to study

so make sure you refresh your vocabulary

lists yeah

okay so that’s point one uh two

make your own word lists make your own

word list from media

from the news from your hobbies and so

on so

uh make something that’s like unique to

you

if you know there’s something you want

to study

then you can find some words about that

so

put them all in a uh in like a list of

your own

and you can study with that okay all

right

so this i want to show actually how i

did this this point

so studying with my own word lists okay

so in my case what i did

is i went to just the like my local

uh station at my local bookstore and i

found

this uh these flash cards so they have a

ring

i think this was maybe like one dollar

something like that

so in my case i went to the store and

i bought this flash card thing this

little study ring of flash cards

and i chose a website i had a website

with vocabulary words

i wanted to study so in my case what i

did

to create my flashcards i wrote one word

in this case i’m studying japanese you

can use it for english

so i said i put one word let me find a

word that’s good here

okay so i put one word in japanese you

can use

english on one side and on the other

side

i wrote my translation the translation

in my language

english and then i like to i also put a

number

on my cards so each one like this one is

number six it’s hard to see

but i put a number on these so that i

remember

how many uh words i’ve studied

so i like to do this style flash card

study because

i can throw this in my bag and go and

yes you can use like digital flash cards

as well on your mobile phone or

something

but for me i know i get distracted

sometimes like i

want to like check twitter check social

media something like that or

maybe look at my email so i like

using these because if i’m going

somewhere like on the subway or the

train or in a car

i can take these out and study at any

time and they’re very small

so this is what i actually do uh when i

want to study something like targeted

okay so this is my

this is my personal tip for flash cards

okay

uh then the other point that’s on this

the other point here is about reading

reading this is point number two i want

to talk about

so uh when you read something

make sure you’re reading actively

actively

so you can read books you can read

newspapers

articles you can read online you can

read something

in front of you on paper okay so

you can choose something to read and

then as you

read you can write down or

highlight new words you find

write down or highlight new words you

find

i’ll show you an example of how i do

this when i read something too

okay and then as you read make your own

sentences with the new words make your

own sentences so don’t

only consume the information

try to make your own creation with those

new words

and of course review review so a lot of

people

they read one time or listen one time

but we have to review

to make sure we get and we keep all of

the information

so i’ll show you an example of how i do

this

my kind of style for doing this so in

this case i have a book here this is

just a normal book i

chose at the bookstore uh so when i

want to focus on vocabulary actually i

know

vocabulary is my weak point um

when i folk when i want to work on my

vocabulary

i will read a book so i read the book

maybe you can see here

and when i find a word as i’m reading i

don’t know

i use a yellow highlighter and i

highlight it right here

so there’s maybe in this page three or

four words

i don’t know so i don’t stop

when i’m reading but i mark the word and

then

at the end of the page or when i finish

this part of the chapter so maybe i

finish

reading this page then i have a notebook

where i write down my new words

i write down the new words i learned and

i check the

dictionary for translation okay

so this is how one this is one thing

that i do

when i’m studying so some questions are

coming in about this then

uh alaratam says what kind of books do

you recommend

um whatever is interesting for you

so a book that is interesting is the

most important you

should want to read your book um

second choose a book that’s good for

your level

so when i showed you the uh when i

showed you this page

and there okay here’s a different page i

show you a page and

on this there’s maybe what like one or

two words per page maybe three

or four so i try to choose a book that i

can

understand maybe 70 or 80 percent of

pretty easily so something that is

too challenging is no good like if i

make a

mark every sentence is too difficult for

me

so choose something that you feel you

can understand

uh maybe 70 to 80 percent of if it’s a

children’s book

that’s okay no problem like children

learn children learn from that

so that would be my recommendation

something you are interested in

and something that you can understand a

lot of already

okay all right i don’t see

other questions yet i think facebook is

a little bit behind us today but they’ll

catch up

okay all right so those are uh the first

two points so we’ll take one quick break

and then we’ll go

to um my really kind of interesting tip

uh about your writing

okay so if you missed it earlier real

quick there is this

banner below the lesson uh frame here

but this

free pdf cheat sheet banner if you want

to pick up

some study materials to work on your

vocabulary

you can check this out uh this is the

shopping one

but on the back this includes some verbs

so shopping related verbs in this case

uh and so each one of these

each pdf here has different vocabulary

different expressions that you can

practice so if you want to build your

vocabulary

these could be a great way to do that so

check the link below the video

if you’re watching on youtube or above

the video if you’re watching on facebook

and you can download these so check it

out

i hope it’s helpful okay let’s go

to the next part so part two for today

uh let’s go to that and we’ll cover some

writing tips in this one

also if you haven’t please please please

make sure to like this video and

share it too so other people can find

today’s lesson

all right let’s go a writing tip so

to level up your vocabulary

there is a great tip you can use which

is to stop

using words like these if you joined

last week’s live lesson

uh maybe you remember i talked about

these words

intensifiers yeah very or really

or so so a good way to level up your

vocabulary or to

practice using more difficult words

is to stop using very or really or so

before adjectives so you can send your

ideas in the chat

what do i mean by this so in your

writing this is easier for writing but

you can try it in speaking

if you like when you want to say for

example

this food is very good like for food

so don’t write oh this is very good try

delicious so delicious means

very good right but it’s one word so

we become more efficient we use one word

instead of two and this word

is like we think of these as like higher

level words

than just this so let’s look at some

more examples of this

how do we change these two words into

one

like so beautiful we could say oh that’s

so beautiful

or that’s gorgeous gorgeous

so gorgeous is like so beautiful these

two words

together here’s another one really hard

this game is really hard we could say

it’s

complicated complicated and you could

choose a different word here

as well another example

something is very bad it’s terrible

it’s terrible it’s awful so

this is the idea instead of saying very

or so

or really try to use one word just one

word

some more i’m so tired we could say

i’m exhausted so exhausted means so

tired or really funny we could say

hilarious that’s hilarious so

think about these ways that you can

combine like put these two words

together to make one word this is a good

way

to build your vocabulary and you can do

this

as i said when you’re writing try this

when you’re writing

if you want an extra challenge you can

try this when you’re speaking

but it’s it’s sometimes difficult

uh to remember very quickly even for me

uh to use

to to to follow this rule so this is a

really good tip

to improve your vocabulary when you’re

writing

okay uh javier has a good one in the

youtube chat

very important could mean crucial

crucial

okay good so here’s a tip um

yeah and this is the key point here

practice using one

higher level word one of these words to

express to yourself

instead of two basic words so just check

your writing yeah when you finish

writing something

do a check do like a very so really

check did you use that word

and how can you make it one word so

look for this pattern okay

ali reza s says any tips for

teaching vocabulary sometimes i find it

difficult to teach vocabulary

do you mean like in an in-person lesson

because what i did

like um in the past what i’ve done when

we are working on new vocabulary in the

classroom

is the the students i hope i

always want the students to read the

information

before the lesson so i

ask them or i expect them to come to the

lesson

they read that lesson’s information they

take notes before the lesson and have

some questions

uh so they are prepared before the

lesson

and then at the beginning of the lesson

i review the key vocabulary and

i share any small points to review

what they already studied at home and

then

they can ask me questions that they had

and then finally we do some practice in

the lesson

where i try to pinpoint we do speaking

practice

uh in the lesson where i try to pinpoint

uh those vocabulary words so choosing um

especially common vocabulary words or

maybe tricky vocabulary words

we do some speaking practice with those

and then

i send them like an email or a report

after the lesson

that uses some of those keywords as well

so

review review review review review is a

key point so i hope that helps you

um thinking about uh your studies for

teachers as well

teaching and studying okay uh guillermo

says what about formality is the

two-word

form less or more formal than the

version with just

one a good question i wouldn’t say

like these are it’s not impolite

to say oh this is very very beautiful or

this is uh very good it’s not impolite

to say that

um i would say maybe so beautiful

uh is sounds a lit it can sound

a little bit casual but it just

it depends on your kind of attitude and

your tone of voice like if you go to a

nice dinner party and you say wow

your home is so beautiful that’s very

polite that’s a very nice comment

so it kind of depends on your tone of

voice

a little bit but there’s not really a

formality

difference here someone on youtube says

can i say

haggard instead of very tired you can so

haggard

also refers to the way someone looks so

if someone

looks really tired like their face is

kind of drooping and their hair is

super messy and they’re like really

grumpy

or something like that that’s someone

who’s haggard

yeah okay good good good all right

thank you for your questions okay so

this is my

second tip for today i think this is a

good tip

for writing all right we’ll take one

more

quick break and then we’ll go to uh my

last

my last group of tips and i’ll show you

some other stuff from my study notebooks

and maybe you’ll get some ideas so if

you missed it

please don’t forget to check the link

below the video if you’re watching on

youtube

or above the video if you’re watching on

facebook to find

free pdf sheets you can use

to build your vocabulary here’s a

different one here’s a time planning one

yay

everybody loves to plan time right so

here are some vocabulary words

on the back for making plans and talking

about

time don’t forget your prepositions down

here

so you can check these out uh choose a

topic

that looks interesting to you maybe this

one is good

as our lessons are online so check these

out you can download

all of them if you like and the team is

adding

new pdfs all the time so check it out

sometimes

if you haven’t checked in a while uh

take a look and see if there’s something

new

okay um ed egdl kalina what is the best

way to

learn through a book i talked about that

in part one of today’s lesson so after

after the stream you can watch part one

uh to get some tips about how to use

a book to read or to to learn how to

practice

uh learning new vocabulary with a book

okay

let’s go to the last part of today’s

lesson

here we go so to level up your

vocabulary

uh first write

with new words right with new words so

in part one i talked about flashcards

and i talked about

reading and creating new word lists

for yourself right the next part

is to write with new words to write with

new words so for example

you can make a diary or a journal

for writing practice so make sure you

create with the new words don’t just

consume them don’t just input also

output

to make sure you can level up your

vocabulary

okay then try creating questions

with new words this is something that i

i do

that’s really challenging sometimes but

i like to do this because

uh it forces me to think in new ways

so try creating a question with your new

word and then of course

review review review review so whatever

you

write in your journal or on the piece of

paper make sure you come back

and look at it again finally

another idea try translating a sentence

or a paragraph

i’ll show you an example of this in just

a second but if you

are reading like an article or a book or

something

and you think oh this is kind of

interesting how would i say this in my

language you can

after you read you can try to translate

it yourself

uh if your translation is not perfect

it’s okay you’re just studying uh

just practicing right so i’ll show you

um i’ll show you an example

of how i’ll show you some examples of

how i practice

writing for beginners for intermediate

and

for more advanced learners so first if

you want to practice

uh just like very basically

very basic steps like creating letters

you can just do lots of repeated studies

so

in this case because i’m studying

forever i’m studying japanese

i just practiced making characters

many many times and this helped me a lot

so

if you are practicing nicer english

writing

you can do this with big letters or with

small letters

if you’re super beginner but four

making sentences and vocabulary practice

so i showed you

i showed you this earlier uh like i

choose

a key words that i don’t know from the

book in this case i write the page

number

this is just for me i write the page

number and i write

the vocabulary word i don’t know and

then i look it up

and then later i’ll often make a

sentence with it so let me find an

example for you

of a sentence that i made later okay so

here we go so further this is a this is

a different topic

but after i research some new words

i actually make questions myself uh

and they don’t have to be perfect but

i make my own questions inside my study

journal

so that i’m reusing the vocabulary many

times yeah

so these questions i know it’s in a

different language but this is my study

process so maybe it works for you

so i find words i need to study

and then i make questions with those

words

on another page later so this is how i

approach

a vocabulary studies so maybe this is

something

that can help you with your english

studies yeah so lots and lots of review

uh lots and lots of repetition okay

so that is my personal tip maybe it’s

helpful for you

let’s go then to the last point for

today the last point for today

yeah i see some comments from facebook

i think that facebook is going a little

bit slow sorry about that there was some

kind of facebook issue i think the

lesson

is okay there now um okay so let’s go to

the last point that i have for building

your vocabulary

the last tip i have is one that was very

very helpful and

is very helpful for me it’s to read

social media updates to read social

media updates

why okay so social media updates from

your friends

or from people that you’re interested in

are really helpful

because you can find slang you can learn

different communication styles and you

can find

real conversations about everyday life

situations

so you can see how people communicate

and the kinds of vocabulary words

different people

use so you can find a lot of words that

maybe

you wouldn’t find in a book or in a

magazine article

right you can understand someone’s

personality

a little bit better so if you have

a an english-speaking friend or if

there’s like an english-speaking

celebrity or someone interesting

uh maybe your favorite athlete something

like that you can follow them

and start to look at the ways they use

words this was really helpful for me

like i check my friends or people i’m

interested in

like their social media updates and i’ve

learned new words just from checking my

friends like instagram posts like i look

it up later like what does that word

mean

and then i get a new vocabulary word

that i know

they use so i know it’s probably

useful for me to know that word

okay good and also a point it’s okay if

you don’t understand

100 of the social media update it’s okay

if you don’t

like i did at first i didn’t i saw all

this

information and i thought oh my gosh

this is so difficult i don’t understand

but after studying when you see it every

day you see the updates every day

sometimes there’s pictures and so on you

start to learn

how to use those words so this is

another

really great way to level up your

vocabulary and learn some new words

okay so i hope that this is helpful for

you

all right that’s everything that i have

for today your questions

um imed says synonyms can help us to

learn

more words that have the same meaning

yeah what do you think

sure i would say i agree generally

i think uh yeah you should be a little

careful with synonyms because sometimes

if you

check a thesaurus so a thesaurus is like

a dictionary but for words with similar

meanings

just make sure you understand the like

the situations

in which you need to use a word right

sometimes you can get in trouble if you

use a word you think is a synonym

but it’s not quite a synonym okay

um other questions about building

vocabulary someone says i don’t

understand

say it again this is being recorded so

please check the video archive

after this lesson okay um

rodrigo says if we’re watching movies

without subtitles

not legend but subtitles if we’re

watching a movie without

subtitles is it good to learn faster

this is a tough question

everybody is a little bit different so

subtitles

on like a movie or a tv show you can

choose subtitles in

english you can choose subtitles in a

different language you can watch with no

subtitles i think there are benefits to

every single one

right so it depends on the skill i think

you want to build and

how comfortable like is it easy for you

to understand

uh the movie or the tv show if it’s

really hard for you to catch

all the words the characters are saying

maybe try turning the subtitles in

english on to catch the words and then

turn it off and watch again so again

just reviewing reviewing reviewing these

are all study tools you can use to

review

and to get the information you need and

the practice you need

in different ways yeah so i hope that

helps you uh

someone says what books do you recommend

i answered this i’ve answered this like

twice

i think in this live stream i guess

there’s no one perfect book you need to

choose something interesting for you

and at the right level so watch this at

the from the beginning

if you want some more ideas for that

okay

could you pronounce also also i hope

that helps okay

all right uh so i have to finish up for

today’s

lesson um i see lots of people on

facebook writing hello and thanks

cool uh yeah someone uh

had a question about this thesaurus it’s

a hard word to say

a thesaurus is a good um a good tool to

use

i use a thesaurus from time to time

you can find a an online thesaurus

uh just like a dictionary so if you want

to

practice this tip that i said where you

want to use

a different word here instead of very

good or so beautiful you can use a

thesaurus

to do that but if you’re not sure

about uh the word you find in the

thesaurus you can do a check like a

dictionary check

check an online dictionary for some

example sentences

okay let’s finish so let’s finish there

uh thank you for your great questions we

need to end

though so uh i will share the

information for next

lesson all right next week i’ll be on

spring vacation oh my gosh i will be

gone

next week but i’ll be back the week

after that with a super good lesson

uh next lesson will be may 12th

may 12th so i will not see you next week

i hope you enjoy your

reading studies though or social media

you can check social media updates

in the meantime so enjoy a one week

holiday from

our lessons next week yeah may 12 10 p.m

eastern standard time that is new york

city time if you don’t know your local

time please use your great

google skills and find it or you can set

a notification on youtube or on facebook

or if you follow me on instagram i

always post

an update uh and a topic reminder in my

story so you can find the live

information there the next lesson i’m

going to talk about

common preposition and adjective

combinations for example angry

with or afraid of or scared

to and other things so i wanted to cover

like um these little prepositions like

and and how we use these in everyday

life because in your comments i noticed

there are lots of very very small errors

and we can practice them together to fix

them so please join me again

in two weeks for this lesson and have a

very nice break next week

okay so i will say goodbye for this time

uh so don’t forget to check out uh some

free

stuff from below the video you can

review that next week if you like

uh and have a great day have a great

week thanks very much

for joining me this week if you want to

send me questions

or follow me on social media you can

check the link

in the youtube description so i will say

goodbye for now and see you again