Word power or vocabulary is a recurrent topic of discussion among the academicians engaged in teaching, students preparing for various competitive examinations, job seekers and those who are learning English as a second language. Bookshops and libraries are stuffed with thesauruses, dictionaries, examination-specific word lists. Great works have been produced by Norman Lewis, Peter Funk and the like. In spite of all these resources, word power is still a challenge for the students. They have the right books with them, but lack the right approach to gain as much as was envisaged by the writers of these books.
Most of the students rely on rote learning when it comes to leaning new words. Those, who do so without understanding the context in which they are used, run the risk of using them wrongly in their writing or speech—and sometimes even face difficulty in comprehension. Knowing the words entails wide reading which the students take for granted. Those, who do read and come across new words, tend to learn them superficially. They don’t delve deep into them. This is where the flaw in their approach lies.
To speak of my experience pertaining to the subject, I had the privilege of getting lessons in English Language from some good teachers. Besides, I myself have a long experience of teaching English language to school/college students, competitive examination aspirants, job seekers and even teachers. While I was myself learning the language I was constantly in search of a method that guaranteed results. I found one as a result of my search. One may call it the ‘Magnet Method’ of vocabulary building. I started the habit of knowing the words. Bear in mind that understanding a word and knowing a word are two different things. I used to take a word that I came across in reading or a conversation to apply my method. First, I would recall all the meanings of that word and think of all roles it assumed in a sentence. Then, I would see that word as a magnet and use it to draw as many words as possible by changing it, adding something to it, removing something from it and dissecting it in various ways.
To illustrate my method I take the word ‘respect’. It has five meanings- three as a ‘verb’ and two as a ‘noun’. Then, all the possible words, phrases, collocations, synonyms and antonyms that I attract from this word are as listed below.
Words: respected (adj), respectful (adj), respectfully (adv.), respectable (adj.), respectably (adv.), respectability (n., it has three meanings), respective (adj.), respectively (adv.), disrespect (v/n), self-respect (n.), respecter (n.)
Phrases: irrespective of, disrespectful, disrespectfully, no disrespect to, with respect to, in respect of, in this respect, with respect, pay one’s respects, pay one’s last respects, respect somebody’s last wishes
Collocations: command respect, deserve respect, earn respect, grudging respect, show respect, the utmost respect
The exercise of attracting the words does not stop here. We also have synonyms and antonyms of the word.
Verb synonyms: think highly of, value, regard, honour, recognize, appreciate, admire, esteem, adore, revere, look up to, defer to, venerate, have a good or high opinion of, show consideration for, regard, notice, observe, heed, attend to, pay attention to, abide by, follow, observe, comply with, obey, heed, keep to, adhere to
Noun synonyms: particular, way, point, matter, sense, detail, feature, aspect, characteristic, facet, regards, compliments, good wishes, salutations, devoirs, regard, honour, recognition, esteem, appreciation, admiration, reverence, estimation, veneration, approbation
Antonyms (v.): abuse, ignore, neglect, disregard, scorn, disrespect (only a few synonyms are given here)
From the Latin root word ‘spect’, we get spectacle, spectacles, spectacular, spectator, inspect, inspector, inspection, introspect, introspection, retrospect, retrospective, retrospection, aspect, suspicion etc.
Thus, we see if we apply the magnet method on the word ‘respect’, the number of words and phrases we get from it runs beyond hundred – a big number!
This practice worked very well with me and my students. It was because of my strong word power that I scored 98.47 percentile marks in the verbal ability section of ZAT-2007 and topped the MBA entrance examination. The strength of my word power has excited the curiosity of my colleagues and students as to its secret. It has earned me their admiration.
To conclude, if anyone puts this method into his/her practice for only a few months, I guarantee that he/she would be more than satisfied with the results.
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