BUILDINGYOURVOCABULARY

Some people struggle with UMAT because they cannot understand the terms used in
sections1 and2.ThisisespeciallytrueforpeopleforwhomEnglish isnottheirfirst
language.Thisguideofferssomeadviceaboutimprovingvocabulary.

BUILDUNDERSTANDINGDONTJUSTMEMORISEMEANINGS
Ifyouwanttobuildausefulvocabulary,yourgoalshouldnotbejusttomemorisethe
meaningsofwords.Ifyouonlymemorisemeanings,yourstudieswillnotonlybedifficult,
butvery,verydull.
Ifyou areatypical 17 or 18 year old,then you will havea30 000 to 50 000 word
vocabulary.Howmanyofthesewordsdidyoumemorisewithflashcards?Howmanydid
youlookupinadictionary?Onlyatinyportion.Sohowdidyoulearnallthosewordsso
effortlessly? By using your minds innate languagebuilding system. This system is an
organ very much as our hearts or kidneys are organs. In order to build a strong
vocabulary,wehavetokeepthatlanguagebuildingsystemhealthywiththerightkindsof
experiencesandexercises.
Yourmindslanguagebuildingsystemdoesnotrespondwelltomererepetitionofwords
and their meanings. Infants dont learn themeanings of wordsmerelyby having them
repeated over and over. Rather, they learn words by trying to understand and
communicatewithothers.Ifthewordsareseparatedfromrealeverydaycommunication,
ourmindslanguagebuildingsystemdoesnotworkverywell.
Sowhatdoourmindsneedtobuildagreatvocabulary?
Avocabularyrichenvironment. Whenyouwereababy,youweresurroundedby
peoplewithmuchstrongervocabulariesthanyours.Thisiswhyyourvocabularygrewso
rapidly when you were very young. As you have gotten older, however, you have
probablysurroundedyourselfwithpeoplewhosevocabulariesaremoreonparwithyour
own. So how do you improve your vocabulary? First, speak to people with good
vocabularies and read books with challenging vocabularies. Watch documentaries on
television rather than mere entertainment. Listen to ABC radio. Read The Australian
newspaper.Readmagazinessuchas Time,TheBulletinandNewScientist.
Awillingnesstousenewvocabulary.Aswegrowolder,mostofusbecomemoreand
moreselfconsciousaboutourspeech.Wedontliketousewordsthatourfriendsdont

useormisusewordsinfrontofourfriendsforfearofsoundingstupid.Thisreluctancecan
hinder the growth of your vocabulary. Find a friend or relative with whom you can
practiceyournewvocabularyperhapssomeonewhoisalsopreparingforUMAT.Dont
merelyaskhimorhertoquizyouonmeanings:talkabouthowtouseandpronouncethe
words,aboutsituationsinwhichtheyarehelpful,aboutrelatedwords,abouttheirroots,
andaboutcreativewaystorememberthem.
Awillingnesstothinkaboutwordsasyoureadandspeak.Thinkabouttheirroots,
their origins, their synonyms, their antonyms, and their cognates (words that share a
commonroot).Evenwhenyouarenotspecificallypracticingyourvocabulary,youcan
reinforceyournewvocabularybylookingateverydaywordsinnewways.

ANALYSE:BREAK WORDSAPART
Analysingmeansbreakingaproblemintoitsparts.Manywordscanbebrokenapartinto
roots and affixes. If you can recognise the parts of a new word, you can make good
guessesaboutitsmeaning,partofspeech,andusage.

FINDPATTERNS:LEARNHOWWORDSRELATEINSENTENCESANDFORMS
Apatternisarulethathelpsyoutopredictorunderstandanotheriteminasequence.
Manypatternsrelatewordstoeachother.Oneobviouspatternofwordsisasentenceora
phrase,inwhichthecontextgivesyoucluesaboutthemeaningsoftheindividualwords.
Themorewerecognisehowawordrelatestoothersthroughusagerules,thebetterwe
understandtheword.

SIMPLIFY:MAKEWORDGROUPS
Yourbraindoesnotstorevocabularywordsinthesamewaythatacomputerharddrive
storesinformation,bymakingexactcopiesofinputs.Yourminddoesnotjustrecord
information,itprocessesit.Tolearnwordsefficiently,studyrelatedgroupsofwords.You
cangroupwordstogetherasrelatedforms,orwordswithsimilaroroppositemeanings.

CONNECTTO KNOWLEDGE:CONNECTNEWVOCABULARY TO YOUR OWN

EXPERIENCES

You do not really know a word until you are deeply familiar with the concept it
represents.Donttreat word meaningsasisolatedfactsto memorise.Ratherwhen you
discoverthemeaningofanewword,thinkabouthowyoucouldusethatwordrightthen.
You learn words by communicating the concepts that the words represent. Since
communicationisaverypersonalactivity,learningnewvocabularyshouldbeapersonal
thingtoo.Thinkabouthowtheconceptbehindanewwordappliestoyourlifeandthe
peoplearoundyou.

CONSIDERSECONDARYMEANINGSOFWORDS
Manywordshavemorethan onemeaning.Forexample,theword jack has23 known
meanings! Dont always assume you understand a particular usage of a word simply
becauseyouknowonemeaningoftheword.Paycarefulattentiontohowwordsareused,
andrealisethatanyonewordmightmeansomethingdifferentthanyouassume.Insection
2 ofUMATforexample,thecharacterswilloften usewords that havemanypossible
meanings.Youmustusethecluesinthepassagetodeterminewhichoneisbeingused.

THINK LOGICALLY:PRACTICE DRAWING INFERENCES ABOUT MEANING

FROMSENTENCES

Sometimesthelogicalstructureofasentencecanallowyoutomakeaneducatedguess
aboutthemeaningofaword.Whenyoucomeacrossanewwordinyourreading,writeit
downinanotebook,andtrytomakealogicalguessaboutitsmeaning.Thenlookitup
andseeifyouareright.

CHECK:TESTYOURSELFCONTINUALLYASYOUSPEAKANDWRITE
Developinga good vocabularymeans thinking carefully about your wordsasyou use
them. If you truly want to improve your verbal skills, then you should check your
understandingofthewordsyouarelearningbyusingthemcarefullyandasoftenasyou
can,andbycheckingthewayotherpeopleusewords.
Happyvocabularybuilding!