(HOST) Commentator Peter Gilbert offers some advice – to students who are or will be studying vocabulary words in anticipation of taking the SATs – and to everyone who likes words.
(GILBERT) Years ago, when I was teaching high school English, my students studied vocabulary words every week, as most high school students still do. But I knew full well that studying word lists didn’t necessarily mean that the words would be learned, let alone become part of the students’ active vocabulary. I admitted to them that word lists were not, in fact, the best way to increase their vocabularies.
I argued that there were three kinds of words: words you use and know what they mean, words that are familiar but you don’t actually know what they mean, and, words that are entirely unfamiliar – words that you don’t think you’ve ever heard. The best way to increase one’s vocabulary, I would assert, is to focus on the middle group of words – words that are familiar when you hear them, but, in fact, you don’t know what they mean. If you’ve heard a word used, you’re far more likely to remember its meaning and use it yourself than some word that’s totally foreign to you.
Sometimes a familiar word that we don’t know is part of well-known phrase. And so once we know the word’s meaning, we’re more likely to remember it. For example, the Declaration of Independence talks of "certain unalienable rights." And so if you don’t know what unalienable means, but you look it up, you’ll probably remember that it means that the rights cannot be given or taken away. My recent favorite is the title of a new James Bond movie, "Quantum of Solace." Now, there are two not-too-familiar words, meaning a certain amount of comfort or easing of grief.
Of course, some words you’ve never heard before are so odd they’re funny – and therefore their meanings are memorable – if you go to the trouble of looking them up. "Borborygmus" has long been a favorite of mine: it means, loud gastronomical rumblings – those embarrassing stomach growls before lunch. And there’s "snood," a bag-like hairnet worn by women in the ‘thirties and ‘forties. I only know the word because Bing Crosby uses it in the movie, "White Christmas;" because the word is weird, I looked it up. Listen for it this year when you watch that "Vermonty" holiday film.
Admittedly, increasing your vocabulary by learning the meaning of familiar words works best over a number of years, not cramming for the SATs. It also requires that you notice when you bump into a word you don’t know – and that you look it up. That takes a little extra effort.
Perhaps the greatest benefit of this approach to learning words is that you become more attentive to words you bump into that you don’t know. You notice them more, rather than hear them only as noise that you unconsciously – or consciously – filter out. It’s that greater awareness that, over time, causes you to learn more words and enjoy words more.