Posted by When learning a foreign language, such as English, many students spend hours working through textbooks, performing grammatical exercises, and sometimes even watching the occasional Netflix show in their target language.
However, many people do not recognize that working on vocabulary is just as vital, if not more critical, to achieving success in learning a foreign language. In this post, we will take a deeper look at vocabulary and uncover why it’s so important, as well as how it may help students achieve their language learning objectives and fluency faster. If you are also looking for ways to improve your vocabulary, you can consider finding books to help you build vocabulary for adults.
Good Vocabulary is the Foundation of Any Language
In a word, vocabulary is essential since it is the foundation of all languages. We may utilize raw building blocks to express our thoughts and ideas, share information, recognize people, and make private connections.
Even if we only have a passing understanding of a language and have no grasp of grammar, we can communicate. For example, pointing to a chocolate pie at a French bakery and saying the brief words ‘ache au chocolat’ with a lovely grin is just as likely to result in a delicious breakfast as saying a grammatically correct sentence. Of course, having both is preferable, but it is no longer required.
Good Vocabulary Helps You Become Fluent in the Language
Simply put, the more extensive your vocabulary, the easier it is to improve your language abilities. For starters, this knowledge will give you access to a greater range of learning materials developed for native and non-native speakers.
It may also help you recognize such terms from their context, clearly growing your vocabulary and improving your language abilities without spending time looking them up in a dictionary or asking someone for an explanation.
On top of that, the more vocabulary phrases you recognize, the better you will be able to comprehend the meaning of new words by breaking them down into morphemes.
The term “unhappy” is a prime example of this. We get [un-] and [happy] if we shorten this sentence. If we recognize that the prefix [un] is a derivational morpheme (that is, it inverts the meaning of the morpheme to which it is attached), we will exercise session the purpose of the sentence itself.
All this saves time, enhances the student’s confidence, and makes them fluent in the language. They believe they can address more challenging texts or social situations, which exposes them to a broader range of terminology and allows them to develop their proficiency in the second language.
Bottom Line
Children aspire to acquire a large vocabulary that expands over time through language and literacy experiences, to identify and construct more complex texts, and to participate in spoken language for various social reasons.
Focusing on vocabulary can help you improve your comprehension and talents in more than one aspect of language and literacy. This includes assistance with decoding (phonemic attention and phonics), understanding, and fluency.