Enriching Vocabularies

            Some Indonesians do not like English because of several factors; they do not like to memorize some English tenses or vocabularies. The discussion about tenses will be discussed later, but here, we shall discuss about the way to improve English vocabularies. There are some methods done by some lecturers to improve the vocabularies. One of them is by memorizing the words at least five words for a day. Is it effective? It may be effective for some people. However, for the other people, it is not so effective. As an example, when they memorize the words, they may remember all that day, but when they do not use the words for several days and then they are asked the words again, they may forget all or they just remember one or two words. It depends on the importance of the words, they will remember the words if the words are important for them.

Actually, there are two kinds of human memory; short term memory and long term memory. The illustration above is the example of short term memory. They can remember the words temporarily. It means the can remember the words or something just for a short period of time. However, Long term memory will make people remember the words or something for a long period of time. How can we make the words to become our long term memory? Memorizing will make them to become short term memory because we do not use them all. For making them to become long term memory, we can make the words to be important first. As we know that there are four English (language) skills, such as Reading, Speaking, Writing, Listening. Then, we can use them to  improve our vocabularies.

-          Reading

In reading, we try to read some English books, especially in Technology of Information (our field). We try to read the sentences although we do not understand the meaning. Try not to open our dictionary, we try to guess the meaning. Then, we must find the word as the keyword that will be appeared in some pages. Therefore, we must think that the word is so important, Then, we can open our dictionary to find the meaning of the word. Therefore, it can be our long term memory. As a note, if we want to open the term in a dictionary, we must have the compatible dictionary based on our field because it will mean different in general dictionary (for example, Computer Dictionary).

Activity: Try to read a text, and then find some important words. After that, you can find the meaning on your dictionary. Can you remember the words?

-          Writing

Writing can make us to think hard the vocabularies used for the sentence we make. Even, writing also can practice our grammar. As we know, we must use our grammar well for it can be understood by other people. 

-          Speaking

Speaking is the most effective method in improving vocabularies. We try to speak with the others by using English. Remember! In speaking, do not think about grammar or even we do not monitor our speaking because they can be the obstacles in speaking. It means as long as it can be understood by the others, it is OK for making the conversation. However, we must fix our grammar later. Then, sometimes your partner will utter a word that is not understood by you, as an example the word is “peripheral.” Then, because you think that the word is so important, you may ask him or her about the meaning of the word. Then, she or he will say that a “peripheral” is an additional device for a computer. Therefore, since then, you will remember the meaning of the word. 

-          Writing

Writing is the continuation of reading. Here, you try to make some simple sentences by your own. Then, you will open the dictionary as many as possible. Even, you also can paraphrase some sentences based on what you have read. Of course, practice makes perfect.

-          Listening

Listening will also improve your vocabularies. You can listen to the music, movies, or television using English. However, you must differ British and American English as they are so different in pronunciation and vocabularies. Mostly, we are influenced by American English. Here, try to listen to British English, and then like in the previous skills, you can find the meaning the important word on your own dictionary.