Vocabulary is often a weak spot for many of my students. There’s no quick and easy fix – vocabularies take time and practice to develop. And, in my opinion, becoming a rabid reader is the best way to do so. Read, read, read!
But, in the short term, how can you increase your vocabulary? Membean is a great online program that provides a variety of multimodal practice.
Mighty oaks from little acorns grow
One of my favorites is the root tree – so you can quickly see how one root creates a variety of words.
So by knowing that “dict” means say, you can probably figure out these words:
- predict – “pre” means before – to declare or tell in advance
- benediction – “bene” means good – utterance of good wishes; a blessing
- contradict – “con” means against – to speak against
- malediction – “mal” means bad – to speak badly of; a curse
- dictum – an authoritative pronouncement; judicial assertion
- indict – to charge a person with a crime, especially formally in writing; accuse
More resources
The Direct Hits books also focus on root words.
I’ve created root sheets for my students as well. Here are chron and circum.