Building a Better Vocabulary: Lecture 1 Five Principles for Learning Vocabulary

Mark Twain said, “The difference between the almost right word and the right
word is really a large matter—’tis the difference between the lightning
bug and the lightning.



Acquiring the type of deep and nuanced vocabulary knowledge that Twain
was talking about doesn’t come from simply studying lists of vocabulary time” approach that many of us experienced in school often leads to surface
level vocabulary knowledge that lasts only until the Friday quiz.

In this course, you'll learn how to move beyond definitional vocabulary knowledge toward a rich vocabulary that's broad, deep, flexible and lasts a lifetime. To do this, we'll cover five core principles of vocabulary learning in the first lecture. These principles will serve as tools in your vocabulary toolbox that you can apply as we explore new target words throughout the course.



Importantly, we will also delve into the etymology and morphology of words—that is, their history and structure.



By the end of this course, you'll know many new, powerful, and beautiful vocabulary words. Just as importantly, you'll know how to learn vocabulary for yourself. You'll have your own toolbox of strategies and resources that will equip you for a lifetime of vocabulary learning.

           

One reason to spend time and effort improving your vocabulary is that

words have the power to change how you see the world. Further,

our ability to use vocabulary effectively is one of the primary means

by which we communicate and connect with important people in our lives.

Choosing just the right word adds precision and clarity to our speech and

writing. Words are the tools we use to inform, advise, persuade, and reason.

But to start expanding your vocabulary, you need a structured approach—and that's what we'll learn in this lecture:five principles for building and using a rich vocabulary. Together, these principles provide an efficient method for harnessing the power of the english language.

In fact, we know from vocabulary research that it takes

multiple exposures across many contexts before we really start

to “know” a word.

we used four principles of vocabulary learning; we’ll use these same principles throughout the course:

Definitions.

For each target word, we'll learn a clear definition that distills the critical aspects of what the word means and what it doesn't them.

Context. We will then place each target word in the context of

a sentence to get a feel for how it’s actually used. Remember, if

you want to really know a shark, you study it in the ocean—its

natural habitat. If you want to really know a word, you study

how it behaves in its natural habitat—sentences, paragraphs,

and books.

Connections. We’ll make connections to each word. Think of

a vocabulary word as a label for an underlying concept. With

factotum, you already knew the basic concept—everyone

knows someone who does a little bit of everything—but you

may not have had the label for it—the word factotum. We

connected the new word/label to your known concept.

 Morphology. Next, we’ll explore each word’s morphological

structure. Morphology is the study of the structure of words,

including meaningful word parts, such as roots, and patterns

and processes of word formation. The morphological system

in English can be an incredibly powerful system for learning

vocabulary if you know how to tap into it. To remember the

word factotum, we broke it down by its meaningful parts: the

Latin root fac and the word totum.

Procrustes was a mythical bandit of Attica who would waylay hapless travelers and attempt to fit them to his iron bed. If travelers were too long for the bed, he'd cut off their feet. If they were too short, he'd stretch them out.

Semantic Chunking

􀁺􀀃 Once we’ve used these four principles to learn new words, how do we organize the words  in a way that makes sense? In other words, how do we store these words in our lexicon—our mental library of word meanings—so that when we need to retrieve them for use, we know where to find them?

This question brings us to our fifth vocabulary---learning principle word learning should be structured. And indeed, the best structure for learning new words is one that reflects the way that our brains naturally organize and store information ---- in chunks.

The idea of chunking vocabulary items is related to a well-known

concept in cognitive science: schema theory. According to this

theory, we organize and categorize knowledge by abstract mental

frameworks or structures called schema. Think of schema as mental

file floders in which we organize information. Schemas help us 

keep track of information in our brains and avoid the pitfalls of the

“mental junk drawer.”

Compare the chunking technique of vocabulary learning—grouping

related words into categories by meaning—with the traditional

approach to vocabulary instruction that many of us experienced in

school.

􀅼􀀃 Often, we were given lists of vocabulary words to memorize

that were organized alphabetically, such as baleful, ballyhoo,

bastion, bedlam, and so on. Many of us learned these words for

the test on Friday and promptly forgot them by the following

Monday. We simply stuffed these words into our mental junk

drawers, not making connections among them or organizing

them into chunks by common meaning.

If we organize our vocabulary learning by meaning, honoring

the way our brains work, we will dramatically improve our

chances of remembering and using new words. This method of

organizing words by meaning is known as semantic chunking. Together with definition, context, connection, and morphology, 

this principle will give us a solid foundation for building a

better vocabulary