Vocab EBook New - English | Trường Đại Học Ngoại ngữ Huế

  Thanks for downloading! LEARN IELTS VOCABULARY without a textbook 
Here are my 5 favourite tips to help you learn new IELTS Vocabulary al by yourself!  Let’s get started!  
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Step 1 - Learn how to Google
Thanks to the internet and technology, students have access to the English-speaking world like never
before. It’s even estimated that 55% of all the content on the internet is in English.
How does that help you learn more vocabulary? One word: Google
2nd only to Facebook, Google is the king of internet search engines.
Google is so popular, it has even become a verb in English, meaning “to search for something online”
(I Google / You Google / He - She - It Googles)
A: “Hey, how tall is the Eiffel Tower?”
B: “I don’t know. Why don’t you Google it?”
Learning how to utilise this software effectively can be revolutionary for your vocabulary.
Here are some easy tricks you can use when you want to Google something: Define “________”
Reading an article and don’t understand a word? Simply search: “define Ambitious” you will get a full definition in seconds.
Use “Quotes” - Looking for a specific phrase or expression? You can type “a phrase or sentence”
surrounded by quotes and find definitions and examples.
Sometimes when you put some individual words together, they can have totally different meanings. These
are called collocations. For example: -
Throw (v.) - propel (something) with force through the air by a movement of the arm and hand -
A party (n.) - a social gathering of invited guests, typically involving eating, drinking, and entertainment.
But look at this collocation: “Michelle is throwing a party this weekend! I’m so excited!”
This means Michelle is having / hosting a party. Together, these two words create a new meaning. So
next time you see a word or phrase that is confusing, use Google to uncover all of its hidden meanings!
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Step 2 - Get your synonyms right
Let’s use your new Google skills to understand synonyms. Google: Define synonym  
In everyday life, synonyms help you stop repeating yourself.
In advanced exams, like the IELTS, synonyms can help you demonstrate the full range of your English
vocabulary, which contributes towards your Lexical Range, 25% of your speaking and writing scores.
To develop your English vocabulary even more, another trick you can use in Google is to type ‘synonyms’
after your vocabulary word.
For example, if I want to find synonyms for the adjective ‘Ambitious’. I can type: ‘ambitious synonyms’ 
Here are the Google results: 
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Dozens of synonyms in just a few seconds! Ea
 sy, right? But it’s not as easy at that. Synonyms can vary 
 in terms of tone, connotation, and meaning.
Firstly, this list is completely overwhelming - there are too many words to remember. More importantly
though, many of the synonyms here are poor substitutes.
While ‘Ambitious’ is often referred to as a positive quality, ‘Pushy’ is negative, and similar to ‘impatient’ or ‘demanding’.
Also, ‘Hungry’ is quite positive, often related to sports or business, but ‘Power-hungry’ is quite scary
and dangerous, related to politics and military leaders.
Compare these two sentences:
“When I was a young child, I was always very power-hungry, so I studied really hard.”  
“When I was a young child, I was always very ambitious, so I studied really hard.” 
This proves that a lot of synonyms are not interchangeable. All of them have different nuance.
So you need to pick the right synonyms that match the type of message you want to share. 
Step 3 - Read the vocabulary in a sentence
So how are you supposed to figure out if a synonym has the same or a different tone?
Sentences are your friend here.
There are several things to note when you look at a sentence:
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What - What kind of nouns do you see? (Business, jobs, places, etc.) -
Tone - is it positive, negative, or neutral? (Adverbs, adjectives, verbs) Look at the words 
the word. Dictionary writers spend days thinking of the perfect example, in an
attempt to make every single word contribute to your understanding.
Look at these example sentences. Both of the highlighted words are synonyms. -
"I wanted to remain independent in my old age" -
"The federation included sixteen autonomous republics"
Independent is a more personal, descriptive adjective.
Autonomous is a impersonal, academic, political adjective. How can you tell? Independent: Who: I / my What: old age
Tone: wanted - remain. So we can understand that it’s a good quality that people want to keep.  Autonomous: Who: federation What: republics
Tone: neutral with no people. So we can understand it’s usually about geography, governments or history. 
So I shouldn’t say: “George doesn’t need help from anyone. He’s a very autonomous person. ”
And I should say: “George doesn’t need help from anyone. He’s a very independent person. ” Creating your own sentences
On top of that, looking at sentences in context will help you find collocations and get a better
understanding of how to make your own sentences too.
Take a look at this example sentence. The vocabulary word is “pressure”. 
“Especially nowadays, I think children are under much more pressure from their parents to excel academically.”
How much can we learn from this sentence?
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a. A collocation / Preposition before : Under pressure
b. A determiner: much more pressure (now we also see that 
is an uncountable noun)
c. Preposition after: from their parents
d. Infinitive verb after: to excel
With this information, I can make my own sentences: -
I am under so much pressure from my boss to finish my tasks on time. -
A lot of parents feel under a lot of pressure from society to provide the best possible education for their children. -
I wish I could be a young teenager again, because I wasn’t under any pressure from my parents to get a job!
See? All of that from just 1 example sentence!
So it’s clear to see why reading full sentences is essential for improving your vocabulary skills.
Not only can they can help you find appropriate synonyms, they can also show you how to make your own sentences, too.
So look closely at example sentences on Google or in your dictionary - there is a lot of information in just a  few words. Step 4 - Get organised
So you’ve got your definitions, your synonyms, and your own sentences. How can you make sense of them all?
Many students choose to make vocabulary lists.
Here’s an example. The topic is “Companies”. Employees Revenue Busy Pressure Multinational Big dogs Oil and gas giants Hectic Emerging conglomerates 
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Unfortunately, there are lots of problems with this list. It might make sense when you write it down, but
what about tomorrow, or next week? Our brains quickly forget words and examples they don’t hear often. -
Which ones are nouns, adjectives, or verbs? -
Which adjectives refer to companies (multinational), and which ones refer to people (busy, hectic)? -
Which ones only make sense in collocations? (Oil and gas giants) -
Which ones are slang and inappropriate for an essay? (Big dogs)
With some better organisation, you can create much more effective and accessible vocabulary notes.
As a teacher, I use http://coggle.it to create visually appealing and easy-to-make word webs to help
my students keep track of their new vocabulary.
Here is a better example of an organised word-web. This example is also about Companies:    
My preference is to organise my word-webs grammatically, but you could make word-webs in many differents ways:
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Personal & Impersonal - People & Objects -
Questions & Answers (e.g. “A return ticket to Liverpool Street, please.”) You have total control!
My favourite thing is that Word-Webs can keep growing and growing. You can add more words, draw new
branches, connect branches together, and create a vast, brain-like web. You can physically see your knowledge expanding. Step 5 - Use it or lose it!
This is the final piece of the puzzle.
Knowing how to do it and actually doing it are two very different things.
Watching Arnold Schwarzenegger videos on YouTube doesn’t turn you into a bodybuilder, does it?
Practice exercises will help you, even simple ones will reinforce and solidify your knowledge.
There are 3 important R’s: Review Recycle Remember
There are lots of different exercise you can use to review and recycle your new vocabulary. -
Making your own sentences (like Step 3) - Gap-fills - Letter scramble -
Multiple choice questions
As we saw in Step 3, prepositions, determiners and collocations are all very important in improving your
overall understanding of a new word.
If I wanted to set a student a challenge for the word Pressure, which we saw in Step 3, I could make an
grammatical exercise like this:
a. “Parents put their children (over / under / beside) pressure to do well at school.” 
b. “Athletes have to deal with (so more / so much / so many) pressure when they play.”
I could also make an exercise focused on the definition:
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Which person is more likely to feel under pressure?
a. Johnny missed an important deadline at work. His boss was really angry with him.
b. Barry finished his work early, so his boss gave him the afternoon off.
These practice exercises might seem simple, but they are important steps in helping you remember your
new vocabulary. Even simple practice exercise can be helpful. Apply it to your goals
Finally, put yourself in the situation you are going to face in the future.
If you’re studying for the IELTS, then practice IELTS questions! You can practice speaking with a partner,
a classmate, or even in the mirror! For the IELTS test, for example, give yourself a checklist of vocabulary,
(I recommend 7 words max.) then pick some IELTS questions, and try to use them in your answers.  Summary 
Here’s a quick roundup of the 5 key steps in this ebook. 1. Learn to Google a. ______ define b. Use “quotes”
2. Get your synonyms right
a. Not all synonyms have the same meaning
3. Read the vocabulary in sentences
a. Who / What / Tone - the words 
the sentence can teach you something
b. Look for prepositions, collocations, determiners - trust the grammar! 4. Get organised
a. Use word-webs - http://coggle.it
b. Find a style that suits you 5. Use it or lose it!
a. Review → Recycle → Remember! 
Bonus Step - Start right now!
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In fact, all of the content I mentioned in this EBook is available in my Essential IELTS Vocabulary
E-Course! You can get 50% OFF right here!
The 2-hour course includes:
Comprehensive definitions Accurate synonyms
LOTS of example sentences
Completed, downloadable Word-Webs (made by me) Practice exercises
High-band IELTS example answer videos
Dozens of IELTS Speaking Test questions (Part 1, 2 and 3)
A new vocabulary unit every month
Thank you very much for reading this ebook. I hope it was helpful. Please share it with your friends! Happy learning!  Mark Teacher
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