Syaidati Ifdari : A Brief Description Of How To Enrich And Use Learner’s English Vocabulary, 2009. USU Repository © 2009
are studying. There are some ways to know a new word according to Mccarthy and O’Dell 1994:2, they are:
• It is not enough just to know the meaning of a word. You also need to know:
a What words it is usually associated with b Whether it has any particular grammatical characteristics
c How it is pronounced
• Try to learn new words not only in isolation but also in phrases. • Write down adjective together with nouns they are often associated with
and vice versa, e.g. royal family; rich vocabulary • Write down nouns in phrases, e.g. in contact with; a train set; shades of
opinion. • Write down words with their preposition, e.g. at a high level; thanks to
your help. • Note any grammatical characteristics of the words you are studying. For
example, note when a verb is irregular and when a noun is uncountable or is only used in the plural.
• Make a note of any special pronunciation problem with the words you are learning.
We can also learn vocabulary by reading or listening to English, talking to native speakers in English. They are good and useful advice to increase our
vocabulary. The important thing is you can understand the meanings of the words simply when you read and hear them.
3.3 Organizing a Vocabulary
Organizing a vocabulary is a good idea to think about possible ways of enriching vocabulary. It is an easy way to memorize words in our mind without
making us confused and causing difficulty to memorize. It is also more flexible and practical. Here are some possibilities of the way of organizing word:
Syaidati Ifdari : A Brief Description Of How To Enrich And Use Learner’s English Vocabulary, 2009. USU Repository © 2009
Sunbathing
a. Organizing words by meaning
In this way, you need a notebook. This notebook divides vocabulary into a large number of different topics. You could build families of words related in
meaning. For example, organize words for feelings, words for describing places, words for education, etc.
Examples of organizing words for feelings are sad, confuse, love, happy, nice, hate, like or dislike, etc. It is a similar way of organizing words for describing
places and education.
b. Using various type of diagrams
A more general word can be drawn as a tree-diagram. We search words that can be grouped at the general word or words that can be grouped under a
heading. As shown below. FURNITURE
Living room bedroom kitchen
Television Sofa bookcase lamp wardrobe mirror stool dresser
You can draw any other diagram with the different topic; it would help you to remember vocabulary.
Holiday beach
holiday travel
Around the world
Shopping
Diving
Syaidati Ifdari : A Brief Description Of How To Enrich And Use Learner’s English Vocabulary, 2009. USU Repository © 2009
c. Organizing by word-class
This section draws your attention to the traditional part of speech. The importance of mastering word-class seems self-evident and it is the learner’s duty
to recognize a word-class that is an item belongs to especially when dealing with the sentence structure and translation of phrase. In this way, you learn how to
operate word in the sentence and hope that this strategy is facility learning. You can note words that have been organized by using card. Here are
some ways to make a vocabulary card, 1. Write down English words or phrases who you are not known meaning.
Write down each the word into the card or small paper. Do not forget to write part of speech at each word.
2. At the back card, we can write meaning of the vocabulary. Beside the meaning of the word, you also write the example of sentence from the
word. It is very useful because we can know how to use them 3. After you have 20 cards or more, you could play with them. You take each
the card, and then you learn word and meaning of the word. Do not memorize them without voice, using our voice hardly. Therefore, you
could hear your pronunciation what it wrong or true is. 4. You can to test your memory ability whether you have mastered
vocabulary that is in the card. Repeat it repeatedly so that you have mastered so much and vocabulary will not forget it.
One of the efforts to keep our vocabulary that we have in your mind is to use it in our daily conversation and writing.
Syaidati Ifdari : A Brief Description Of How To Enrich And Use Learner’s English Vocabulary, 2009. USU Repository © 2009
3.4 Developing Vocabulary
