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
make sure
to hit the like button so that other
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hi teacher could you speak slower yes i
always talk
fast at the beginning for announcements
and things i will go
slow for the lesson okay everyone is
here
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