English vocabulary practice – in 6 simple steps

So what if you’ve learnt lots of new words and phrases but you actually want to do some English vocabulary practice?!

Well in the video below I share with you a simple 6-step method for practising your English vocabulary, which will also improve your fluency – great hey!

GET MY 40 FAVOURITE FLUENCY PHRASES HERE

So let’s look at the steps I spoke about….

Step 1 – Choose a topic

As I mention in the video, the first step is to choose a topic. But I don’t want you to get stuck at step 1! So I’ve got a handy PDF for you with 11 topic ideas to get you started. You can download that to use anytime:

Step 2 – Make notes with WH questions

Take a blank piece of paper and make notes about that topic. Use ‘WH’ questions to help you:

• WHEN – E.G When did you do this?
• WHERE – E.G Where did/do you do this?
• WHO – E.G Who is this person? Who did you go with?
• HOW – E.G. How did you learn this? How did you feel?
• WHY – E.G Why did/didn’t you enjoy this?

Put the question words in different places on your paper with your answers below. But don’t write full sentences. This is demonstrated in the video so make sure you watch that if you want an example.

Step 3 – Add vocabulary from your notebook

Choose 5-10 words from your vocabulary notebook that you’d like to practise using. Think of ways you could use them as part of your answers to the WH questions.

For example, if you are talking about a film you’ve seen and you’ve learnt the phrase ‘it’s not my cup of tea’, you could write that under ‘why you didn’t enjoy it’.

Or, if you’ve learnt the adjective ‘loyal’, you could write that under ‘who’ and use it to describe a person you’re speaking about. Again, no full sentences, just notes.

Here’s an example from the video above. I chose the topic ‘my last holiday’:

Step 4 – Record yourself!

It’s time to be brave 😊 Record yourself talking for 90 seconds about the topic. Use your notes to help you and tick off each of the WH questions as you go. That will help to keep you focused and stop you repeating yourself.

You will make mistakes and feel strange! Don’t worry about that at all. Nobody else is going to hear it and you’ll get better every time.

Step 5 – Listen to the recording

Just a warning, you probably won’t like the sound of your own voice! That’s alright too. Neither do I. The aim is just to think about what you could improve:

• could your pronunciation be better?
• could you use more vocabulary?
• could you structure your talk better?
• could you expand any sentences?
• could you push yourself more?!

Step 6 – Record yourself again

Do not be tempted to skip this step! It’s absolutely crucial (I talk about why in the video). And don’t choose a different topic. Do the same one again.

You’ll see that you’ve improved the second time and you can even do it a third and fourth time if you want 😉

My promise to you……

Ok, I’m going to make you a promise now! I absolutely PROMISE that if you do this once a week, you WILL see an improvement in your fluency and also you’ll remember your English vocabulary more easily and become better at using it!

So can you make a promise to me? Will you try it at least once? Let me know in the comments below 👇😊