With standardized test results coming in, I see some students receiving low scores in vocabulary. In lesson 21 of the Academy’s English Composition course, students learn the following about vocabulary:
A word is the symbol of an idea, and the addition of a word to one’s vocabulary usually means that a new idea has been acquired. The more we see and hear and read, the greater our stock of ideas becomes. As our life experiences increase, so should our supply of words increase.
This is important because it teaches us why vocabulary is important. Vocabulary is not simply a matter of words, but of ideas. Students who have a limited vocabulary have a bigger problem: a limited mind.
We cannot know what is in the mind of a person, but must judge the mind by the words which proceed from it. A weak vocabulary is a sign of weak mind: and that’s a problem.
Our English Composition lesson continues:
We may have ideas without having the words with which to express them, and we may meet with words whose meanings we do not know. In either case there is chance for improvement. When you have a new idea, find out how best to express it, and when you meet with a new word, add it to your vocabulary.
We see here that building our vocabulary and building our minds are two sides of the same coin. We also see that it requires a commitment from an individual. One has to care to improve his mind and, when he does so, he will improve his vocabulary.
To build our vocabulary, we must want to do so. When we come to a new idea (an image in the mind), we need to make the effort to learn how to express of “signify” that idea with a word. Likewise, when we encounter a new word, we must make effort to learn what idea the word signifies. Remember: a word is a symbol (or sign) of an idea.
Our English lesson goes on:
It is necessary to distinguish between our reading vocabulary and our writing vocabulary. There are many words that belong only to the first. We know what they mean when we meet them in our reading, but we do not use them in our writing. Our speaking vocabulary also differs from that which we employ in writing. We use words and phrases on paper that seldom appear in our speech, and, on the other hand, many of the words that we speak do not appear in our writing. There is, however, a constant shifting of words from one to another of these three groups. When we meet an unknown word, it usually becomes a part of our reading vocabulary. Later it may appear in our written work, and finally we may use it in speaking. We add a word to our reading vocabulary when we determine its meaning, but we must use it in order to add it to our writing and speaking vocabulary. A conscious effort to aid in this acquisition of words is highly desirable.
We see that these three activities–thinking, speaking and writing–treat of different ideas and, consequently, different words. We are conscious of these different vocabularies and how we deal with them reveals something about our disposition towards learning.
Some people speak with an uneducated slang and like doing so. They struggle, however, to write because their spoken language doesn’t work well in writing. Some people can write very nicely, but would be ambarassed to speak as they write because the people around them speak poorly and they want to “fit in”. Some people read widely and have minds filled with ideas, but they don’t speak or write of the things they read. Much of their reading is wasted.
We build our vocabulary by encountering new words, whether in speech or in reading, and then working to make them our own. By adding words, we adds ideas, and by adding ideas, we add words.
This takes effort and it’s why vocabulary is a good way to test a student’s level of knowledge, but, more importantly, a student’s desire for knowledge.
A limited vocabulary indicates limited ideas. Such a language habit shows a mind that has failed to distinguish between ideas.
When we look at an apple, we may say it is “red”, but we know that every apple is not the same color. Is it intelligent, then, to all every apple “red” when we can see that their colors differ? When we look at different dogs, we know that they are all “dogs”, but is it intelligent to never refer to them in any clearer language? They may all be dogs, but they are clearly not the same.
What is it that allows us to express, in words, what we clearly see with our eyes and understand in our minds? It is vocabulary, and no one can deny that developing a vocabulary that allows us to not only speak of many ideas but to carefully make distinctions between different ideas is very important in life.
Method 1: Careful Writing
The composition lessons gives us some advice on how we can build our vocabulary, by writing and studying:
The best way to study the shades of meaning and the choice of words is in the actual production of a theme wherein there is need to bring out these differences in meaning by the use of words; but some help may be gained from a formal study of synonyms and antonyms and of the distinction in use and meaning between words which are commonly confused with each other.
In other words, we can develop our vocabulary by writing (or speaking) about something that requires us to make careful distinctions. This is a good prac* View tice for students because we always need to distinguish carefully between ideas to share our thoughts with others. Any time we have an opportunity to write, we should ask whether we have expressed our ideas as clearly as possible and whether there might be other words which can help us to do so.
The passage above tells us that one help in doing this is to study synonyms and antonyms for a word we may be using. Synonyms are words that have similar meanings; Antonyms are words that have opposite meanings. For example, happy and joyful are synonyms; happy and sad are antonyms. We can study synonyms and antonyms in a special book called a “Thesaurus”. You can find a good Thesaurus online here, and see the synonyms and antonyms for “happy”:
Method 2: Greek and Latin Roots
One lesson we learned above is that to build our vocabulary, we need to seek the meanings of new words we come across in reading or when hearing others speak. One way to learn the meaning of English words is to study the classical languages from which they are taken. This is especially true of philosophical, theological and scientific words, which are very important.
As we study Greek and Latin, we can learn many words over time and recognize them when we see English words derived from them. However, if we wish to build our English vocabulary quickly, we need a better way.
Teachers have identified the Greek and Latin words that are the most common sources of many English words. We call these “Greek and Latin roots”. By studying these lists of Greek and Latin words, we can quickly gain the ability to understand the meaning of hundreds of English words we’ve never seen before. This is very helpful when reading, and when taking vocabulary tests.
For example, if we learn that the Latin verb CEDERE means “to go”, we can see that the words RECEDE, PROCEED, INTERCEDE and ANTECEDENT all express an idea of movement or “going”. Likewise, if we know that the Greek noun THEOS means “God”, we can see that the words theology, atheism, pantheism, polytheism, theogon and theophany all have something to do with the idea of “God”.
A great book for studying Greek and Latin roots can be found here:
Method 3: Intelligent Reading
If a boy wished to make himself stronger, it would do him no good to wrestle against boys who are smaller and weaker than him. It also wouldn’t do him much good to wrestle boys of his own size and strength. He needs to wrestle against boys who are bigger and stronger than he is to make himself stronger, and learning works the same way.
To improve our vocabulary we have to read books and articles, essays and poems written by men who are wiser than we are, or who have experiences that are different than ours. This reading, like wrestling against bigger and stronger boys, is difficult, and most students don’t like it.
For reading to be good for us, it has to be challenging reading. It has to introduce us to un-familiar ideas and words, and we have to work to make those ideas and words our own. We should make a list of new words we find and we should look up their meanings in a good dictionary. We should then work to use them in our own writing and speaking and make them our own.
This is how we improve our vocabulary–and our minds.
Some good sources for challenging reading include:
- News
- New York Times
- Wall Street Journal
- Washington Post (Editorials)
- Philosophy
- Aristotle
- Cicero
- Theology
- St. Thomas Aquinas
- St. John Henry Newman
- Literature
- William Shakespeare
- John Dryden
- History
- Cambridge Ancient History
- Cambridge Medieval History
- Cambridge Modern History
- Academic/Professional Journals
Method 4: Intelligent Media
What has been said above about reading is also true about videos and movies. To get stronger, you need to listen to talks and watch videos from men who are smarter or more experienced than you and grow.
Rather than watching cartoons, entertaining shows or “shorts”, watch intelligent, long-form talks and videos. Listen to interviews with famous and influential men. By doing this, you’ll be introduced to important ideas and vocabulary you wouldn’t otherwise learn about.
Remember: To gets stronger, you have to wrestle with the big guys.
Mr. William C. Michael, O.P.
Headmaster
Classical Liberal Arts Academy
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