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How NOT TO STUDY Academic Vocabulary

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If you have ever tried to study Academic Vocabulary by yourself, I’m willing to bet you, you haven’t had much success.

I’m also pretty sure many fellow students, as well as professional teachers, have  tried to tell you how to study Academic Vocabulary.

Trouble is, nobody ever told you WHAT NOT TO DO. 

Have no fear, that’s why I’m here. (The rhyme is just a bonus.)

First of all, there is no “quick fix”; it’s important to understand that no vocabulary can be learned over night. It takes time, repetition  and application to acquire new vocabulary. Unfortunately, this is not likely to happen  if you rely on memorizing vocabulary lists or use resources that don’t provide in-depth understanding of the Academic vocabulary. The same goes for the lack of practice in applying the newly acquired vocabulary to your speaking and writing.

Here, in no particular order, are a few pieces of advice:

1. Do not memorize Academic Vocabulary lists

The biggest problem with the Vocabulary lists is that they only give you the most common definition of the word. That, unfortunately, usually works in only one context. In addition, they do not go any deeper. In other words, they fail to address different meanings and other aspects of vocabulary. As a result, you might understand the meaning in one context, but not be able to even  recognize it in another, especially if it’s used in a different form.

2. Do not waste money on the ready-made Academic Vocabulary cards

Yes, they might be nice and shiny, laminated/paper or digital, but  you are not going to learn much if you don’t “play’ with them. It is much more efficient to create your own vocabulary cards. They might not look as good, but you are bound to learn a lot in the process of  creation. Let me emphasize the word “process”, because creating vocabulary cards, just like the learning process itself, takes time.

3. Do not use English-to-your language dictionary

The mere fact that you are trying to compare two completely different languages should be enough of a reason. It’s impossible to find an exact equivalent in another language, for every single word in English.

Of course you have to rely on an English-to-your language dictionary when you are just starting. However, as soon as you have a decent command of the General English Vocabulary List, you should switch to an English-to-English dictionary. In this day and age, there are many good online English-to-English dictionaries. Their main advantage over the paper dictionaries is that most of them are updated on regular basis, so you’ll never get stuck with the type of English that was spoken in the year your dictionary was published (and trust me, languages evolve almost as fast as technology does)

P.S.: Google Translate is fine for a quick reference, but shouldn’t be your go-to tool for serious vocabulary study. If you don’t believe me, pick , for example a Facebook post written in your language and check out the English version, translated by Google.

So, what is a person to do?

I cannot  stress this enough – learning vocabulary, especially Academic Vocabulary, is a long process that requires a SYSTEMATIC approach, and that is something that a learner can do only with proper guidance.  In other words, enlisting help from a qualified ESL teacher or tutor, will save you a lot of time, not to mention the frustration.

If you are ready to try something that has worked for other TOEFL  students, consider  signing up for our Private Academic English Lessons, or the Academic Vocabulary Workshop. 

 

 

Academic Vocabulary and TOEFL

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In my many years of designing and teaching TOEFL preparation courses, I found that there is one underlying skill that all my high-scoring students had in common – strong Academic Vocabulary. Every section of the TOEFL test depends on it, directly or indirectly.

Academic Vocabulary and TOEFL Reading

In the Reading section, you actually have to answer a number of questions directly related to vocabulary. You need to pick synonyms for particular words, in the given context. These questions make up more than 20% of all the questions in the Reading section.

Knowing the most common or most widely used meaning of the word is often not enough.  You need to know more than that – other possible meanings, word forms and collocations. If you have done some TOEFL Reading practice , you’ve probably already discovered that the correct answer choice (for the vocabulary questions) is rarely the one that seems most obvious or most familiar.

Academic Vocabulary and TOEFL Listening

When it comes to the Listening section, the stronger your Academic Vocabulary, the easier time you’ll have following and understanding the lectures. These academic materials make up more than 1/2 half of the section; out of  six listening materials scored for you, only two are campus related conversations; the remaining four  are actual, grade 12 level, lectures. Consequently,  it’s impossible to score more than ten out of thirty points without the knowledge of the key terms.

Academic Vocabulary and TOEFL Speaking

As for the Integrated Speaking, you will not only better understand the reading and listening prompts, but you’ll also be able to produce a higher scoring answer, if you can use the appropriate Academic Vocabulary in your speech.

Prior to August 2019, the Academic Speaking questions used to comprise one third of the Speaking Section.  A good command of the Academic Vocabulary often meant the difference between scoring in low twenties , and getting more that 24 or 26 iBT points, which is a requirement for many Professionals in the Medical, Legal and some other fields.

Now that the Academic Speaking questions make up 1/2 of the Speaking Section, it is crucial to have advanced knowledge of the Academic Vocabulary.

Academic Vocabulary and TOEFL Writing

The same goes for the Integrated Writing. Remember that, although you do have access to the reading prompt the entire time you are writing your Integrated Essay, it’s not a good idea to copy directly.  Instead, you are encouraged to paraphrase the key points from this prompt, whenever possible.

The listening prompt is likely to be an even bigger challenge – you will only hear it once, and unless you can follow and take notes efficiently,  as well as show your understanding of the key concepts in a well written Integrated Essay, it will be near impossible to score high in the Writing Section (as this essay counts for 1/2 of the section score)

Academic Vocabulary and TOEFL – how to learn

First of all, it’s important to understand that no vocabulary can be learned over night. It takes time, repetition  and application to acquire new  vocabulary. Unfortunately, this is not likely to happen  when you rely on memorizing word lists or study using resources that don’t provide in-depth understanding of the Academic vocabulary. In addition, it is  of utmost importance to have a lot of practice in applying the newly acquired vocabulary to your speaking and writing.

The good news is – a place where you can learn Academic Vocabulary efficiently, actually does exist. It’s our ACADEMIC VOCABULARY WORKSHOP, the ONLINE version of our offline Academic Vocabulary Masterclass. (follow the links to find out more)