TOEFL stands for Test of English as a Foreign Language. TOEFL assesses your English language abilities by testing your listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. TOEFL is taken by non-native speakers.
This test can be taken by people applying to universities or for work. This test is a requirement for countries where the language of instruction is English or English is spoken as a first or second language.
Improving vocabulary for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) will help you perform well in all four modules of TOEFL. Having a good vocabulary will help you write better as well as speak better on the test.
Better vocabulary will also give you an upper hand in the listening and reading modules too. Improving vocabulary can help a person in their daily life too. It is very important to know and learn the meaning of the words you learn.
Here let us look at some of the ways one can learn new words and improve their vocabulary for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).
Slow and Steady
A proven technique in life is to take things slowly but continuing them steadily. Learning a few words every day can make a big difference in a person’s vocabulary. Learning five to ten words every day seems like a simple task. It truly is easy.
Adding five to ten new words to one’s vocabulary each day is very beneficial. If a person keeps going at this pace, he or she can learn at least 50 new words in ten days. The number of words per day can also be increased with each passing day.
Consume Content of English Language
It is said that watching and listening to English content can enhance and increase one’s vocabulary. A person looking to enhance his vocabulary should start watching and listening to content in English. One should make sure to watch something that interests them. As a result, he or she will listen to each and every word very attentively. Even listening to songs can help increase vocabulary.
Listening to podcasts in English will enhance vocabulary as well as listening and speaking skills. Reading English newspapers can also play an important role in this scenario.
Revise and Recall
Early in the morning, our minds are fresh and ready for the day. It is important to revise all the words that a person has already learned, early in the morning. Revising and recalling the words in the morning will help a person remember the words throughout the day. As a result, one will be able to use those words in his or her daily life.
Before going to bed, as a person analyzes his or her day, he or she should recall the new words that they have learned. As well as, the ways in which they used the words they already knew.
Keep a Diary
A person should keep a diary with himself at all times. So that whenever they hear a new word, they are able to note it down. It will help them in retaining the information of the day. One can always look back at the diary at the end of the day, to understand and learn the new terms.
Writing in a journal or diary daily can also help enhance vocabulary. A person who writes every day either learns new words or uses new words in his or her writing. Searching for synonyms and antonyms of the words one already knows also helps in enhancing the vocabulary.
Learn by Feeling and Associations
Sometimes a person is unable to remember a word or keeps forgetting it. For people like these, it is important to find other ways so that they can remember the words. Linking words with some sort of feelings, emotions or senses can help remember them easily. When a word is associated with something, it becomes easier to remember it.
Flashcards
After finding a new word and knowing its definitions, the intelligent thing to do is to make flashcards. Write the word on one side and its definition on the other side. Learning a new word without learning its meaning is of no use.
After flashcards are made, one should make sure to keep revising them so that they do not forget the word. A person can keep flashcards with them all the time so that they are able to revise and learn new words anytime and anywhere.
Categorizing Words
Creating different categories can help a person learn different words. Categories can be created as a category of art, nature, family, travel, etc. A person should make a habit to always remember that the new word that they learned belonged to which category.
This will help in making sure that new words of different categories are learned. As a result, this will help in broadening the categories of vocabulary known by the person.
Tools and Applications
There are hundreds of tools and software applications that can be used to enhance vocabulary for TOEFL. As everyone has a smartphone now, applications and tools can be downloaded easily. This aids in learning new words.
These tools and applications work differently from one another. But at the end of the day, all of them work in improving and enhancing a person’s vocabulary.
Some of the tools and applications that can be used to enhance vocabulary for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) are Busu, Memrise, MosaLingua and Duolingo.
Learn to Pronounce
After or when learning a new word, it is of utmost importance to learn the pronunciation of that word. If a person fails to pronounce the word correctly, there is no use in learning them. Now the question is how to learn or know the pronunciation?
Google and many tools and software help a person learn pronunciation. A person is just supposed to write the word and the tool will then pronounce that word for the user. A person can hear the pronunciation again and again until they learn it by heart.
These are just some of the ways that can help a person in improving and enhancing the vocabulary for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).