Build Your Vocabulary Skills! A Quick and Easy Method - John LaCarna 2017

How to use this book

This book may be used as a dictionary, or a text for a course of study. You can look up unfamiliar words as you run across them in your reading, just as you might do with an ordinary dictionary -- but with the difference that the meanings will be locked in your memory. But most of you will want to use this book as a text to increase your vocabulary systematically. You can start with the A's and go through the Z's, or you can skip around, checking off each word you complete. In either case, you will, of course, skip the words you already know.

As much as we tried to minimize effort on your part in using this method, a degree of application is unavoidable. For each word, first note its pronunciation and meaning. Pronounce it several times mentally or aloud. Then note the key word or words. Pronounce the original word followed by the key a few times. Then read the sentence linking the key to the meaning. It's not important that you memorize it word for word, just that the connection between the key and the definition is noted. If you think mainly in words, verbalize the link sentence. If you think in visual images, create as vivid a mental picture as you can of the relationship expressed by the link sentence.

Now look away from the page and think step-by-step of the word, the key, the link sentence, and the definition.

For general vocabulary improvement, we recommend that you study groups of five words each. After you've gone through five, use the list of words in this book to drill yourself by reciting keys, link sentences, and definitions. Then fill in any gaps in your learning by review and recitation, and move on to another five.

Ideally, you should take time the next day to recite the words learned the previous day. Recitation a few days after that, then about a week later will secure the new words in your memory. Your reading will provide natural opportunities for drill. Recitation and a methodical, step-by-step approach are the essential factors throughout. Don't just read the material. As you deal with each word, cover the page and systematically recite in turn, the key, then the link sentence, and then the definition.

If you hit a snag, note at which step the weakness occurred and strengthen that step. That is, if the original word failed to remind you of the key, repeat the word and the key together several times to make that connection automatic. Likewise, repeatedly recite the key followed by the link sentence if there is a difficulty in that step of the process.

If the situation is urgent, say you're starting to study for a test scheduled for tomorrow morning, you've got to step up the pace. Do a review drill every couple of hours or so as you move along, cramming as many words as you have time for into your memory. If you have any kind of accurate notion of a word's meaning, skip it and go to the next one that draws a blank. But don't put this book aside until you urgently need it. Start right now. Not only will you be better prepared for tests, but you will gain more detailed meaning and enjoyment from your general reading.