Most IELTS aspirants find learning and using new vocabulary a huge challenge. If not done correctly, it can truly be quite tedious. The good news is, it doesn’t have to be so. In fact, enhancing vocabulary can be fun, easy and entertaining. IELTS vocabulary, in particular, is quite enjoyable and comes in handy even after your exam. It can be used in everyday communication too.
Getting Started:
To begin with, it is a good idea to divide IELTS writing and speaking topics in different categories. For example, some common categories would be environment and pollution, family and friends, travel and tourism, education, etc. Once you have a list of categories in place, you can list out a few words for each category. This means, under environment and pollution, you could have words like toxins, pollutants, contamination, exhaust, fumes and a couple of expressions like carbon foot print, global warming, ecological balance, use and throw culture, materialistic society, etc. This will help you use topic related vocabulary with great ease and enhance your score.
Using reading and Listening Assignments:
You can also get a lot of ideas from your reading and listening assignments. It would be wise to shortlist some interesting words and phrases from your reading passages and note them down as part of your vocabulary for each category. This is a very helpful trick that enables you to understand the reading text better and builds your vocabulary. Sometimes, your writing topic may be related to one of your reading passages too. You can always get new ideas and use them to your advantage.
Revision:
Once your vocabulary lists are ready, start revising them. You can begin by reading these lists every day and making topic wise sentences with the words that you can recall. Not only will this help you memorize the new words but will also help you get comfortable in using them in the right context. You can create fun games to play with these words to. There are several sites where you can create and play word games. This is a great way to revise your vocabulary.
Following some of these practices will make strengthening your vocabulary a breeze and you will see yourself smiling through the whole process.
