One of the most effective ways to learn vocabulary is to to read. A lot.

What to read?

• study materials for your course - find these on teh module reading list or VLE
• news sites related to your field (e.g., the Financial Times, Science Weekly, the Times Educational Supplement)

Many students whose first language isn't English use software to translate websites. This can be useful to understand the concepts easily, but always translating sites means that you won't learn the English vocabulary.

Make sure you're learning words that you actually need to know. Don't learn words just because you found them in a vocabulary book - you might never need these words!

Here are some suggestions of vocabulary that might be relevant to your studies (find more on the Key vocabulary page):

• frequently used general academic words
• subject-specific vocabulary
• prefixes & suffixes

For words that you need to use in your own writing or speaking, you need to know how the word is used, as well as what it means. Make sure that you record:

• the word and its definition
• grammatical information - noun/verb/adjective etc. and how it is used
• the word in a sentence - this shows how the word is used
• related words & collocations

For example:

benefit: an advantage or profit gained from doing something

• noun, a benefit of X is (the good result)
• other forms: beneficial (adj), to benefit from X (v)
• An important benefit of good time management is lower stress levels.

See the Using English for Academic Purposes website for more tips of how to record vocabulary.

To help new vocabulary enter your long term memory, you need to actively engage with the word many times - it's not enough to read a list of words a few times!

Here are some ways that you can actively engage with vocabulary:

• use flashcards to learn words - these have many features and games you can use (see the Quizlet and tinycards apps below)
• write the words and definitions in a paper notebook
• organise words into related groups (example exercise from UEfAP)
• use the words in your writing
• ask someone to test you

Quizlet is a website and app that you can use to learn vocabulary. It has lots of interactive features:

• flashcards (look at word and definition)
• learn (track your progress)
• write (read the definition and write the word)
• spell (listen to the word and type the correct spelling)
• test (different types of questions to check your knowledge)
• match (game: match the word and definition as fast as you can)
• gravity (game: crush asteroids by remembering words)

You can make your own personalised vocabulary lists (which is another great way to interact with words), or use ready-made lists, like this set of the Academic Word List Group 1.

account? log in with your University Google account

devices? wesbite, iOs & Android apps

The Quizlet web interface

tinycards is a website and app that you can use to learn vocabulary. It's a bit more basic than Quizlet, so could be a good choice if you like to keep things simple. It has two interactive features:

• lessons (learn the words by answering questions - starts easy and gets harder)
• cards (see all the words at once)

You can make your own personalised vocabulary lists (which is another great way to interact with words), or use ready-made lists, like this set of the Academic Word List Group 1.

account? log in with your University Google account

devices? wesbite, iOs & Android apps

The tinycards web interface