Below Are Some resources to Help you Explore even more in depth the question of "How can I build my vocabulary to prepare me for greater success in the English classroom?"
Don't worry, I will help you to identify and define some of the most essential vocabulary terms before our reading assignments. However, I can't help you with every word you don't know. These resources and strategies can help you make sense of words you don't know in order to improve your reading comprehension in all of your classes, which will of course improve your overall academic achievement. However, the benefit of a well developed vocabulary is not limited to academia only. Even I as an English teacher uses these strategies to learn new words, which I will encounter all my life (since even if a person could learn all the words in all their different contexts, the meanings of words change all the time). Dazzle your friends and family with what you learn though! Impress your boss and customers at your job! You never know who is listening or whom you might need to understand... Be as best equipped for success as you can be.
Don't use Spark Notes instead of reading, but do check out this resource they have compiled to make up for some of the damage they've done in literature classes. This link will bring you to some of the most popular morphemes. A good idea this site offers is to make flashcards of some of these popularly used words parts. There are a different flashcard techniques we will use. While this list may look long and boring, what we do with these word parts can really be fun and creative.
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Pull out your smart phones and bookmark this site. There's even an app for it! If you can't find the meaning of a word from the context of the sentence or from morphemic analysis (finding the meaning of the word from word parts) look it up easily and efficiently on this web based resource. It can tell you how to pronounce the word so you will be more comfortable using it. It can give you a variety of definitions, but you have to compare the context of the word your looking up with the different definitions offered in order to select the most appropriate. Remember that sometimes authors add layers, so it's totally possible for an author to use a word with more than one of its definitions in mind. Be ready to explain why you think multiple definitions could apply in a certain context.
Even if you know a word, it can be fun and interesting to Google images of the word and to compare the various types of images that come up. See how many different contexts the same word can generate. This exercise is simple, but it can help you to remember unfamiliar words by making visual associations.
Repetition is a great way to build your vocabulary. On this site you can create flashcards that you can even add pictures and audio to to help you to keep track of key words and to re-familiarize yourself with them whenever you need to. Instead of using the cards for rote memorization, try to use different pictures with the same word to create nuance within key vocabulary based off contextual differences.
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Audiobooks may be a great option for you, especially if you use them along side the text book. Not only can audiobooks help make the reading come more to life if you "don't like reading", but they can help teach you how to pronounce more difficult to say words. Sometimes hearing a person's tone of voice can help you better understand the meaning of words too than if you are just looking at those same words on a page. I don't recommend multitasking during your reading with audiobooks. Instead, think critically about what you are listening to and follow along with the written copy.
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Learning about where words come from can help you to remember what they mean. It's also important to keep in mind that language isn't static; it's always changing. Therefore, when we read texts from different time periods and social settings, some of the words will mean very different things than words mean in our time and place. If the meaning of a word you know doesn't seem to make sense in piece of writing from the past, it is possible that the meaning of the word as you know it has undergone changes in usage. Etymology (the study of word origins) can help you sift through these changes.