Five ways to improve your vocabulary for IELTS

1. Write a word list

Lots of students try to memorise long lists of words. Sometimes, many of the words or phrases on these lists aren’t useful for them, unless they are learning things like an academic word list to improve their writing style. When students memorise word lists, they also do it by learning translations of words which can actually be bad for your speaking – we will discuss this later.

The best word list to use is one you have made yourself. This is because most of the words on that list are ones that you are likely to use, otherwise the word wouldn’t be on the list. As you learn new vocabulary, write it in a notebook. Find the meaning of the word in English, the word form (noun, verb, adjective etc.), related word forms and some synonyms (other words with similar meanings. Find the word being used in a text (this is easy if the word came from reading!) and write down the example sentence.

Once you have done this, you should have a good idea about what the word means, how it’s used (with an example or two) and ways to use it in different word forms. Then, practice using the words from your list. You should aim to learn about 30 words per week using this method. It’s not as fast as memorising word lists, but it’s a lot more useful because you’ll understand how to use the word properly. The process of writing it down and thinking about how the word is used will also mean that you’re more likely to use it than you are if you just memorise from a list.

2. Read. A lot!

Number two of our 5 ways to improve your vocabulary for IELTS is reading. You should read in English every day if you’re preparing to take the IELTS test. You should read as widely as possible, because the test covers so many different topics. Some of the reading you do will be practice tests, but make sure you’re also reading other articles too. You should also make sure some of the things you’re reading are interesting to you. Then, it will seem more like you’re reading for leisure rather than preparing to take a test!

There are some really useful things you can do while you practice reading. Every time you read an article in English, you should be thinking about how it will help you prepare for your IELTS test. A great way to do this is to assess every article for its usefulness in IELTS. If you’re reading about social media and how it has changed the way people talk to each other, you should have your notebook with your word list ready! On the other hand, if you’re reading an article about what a celebrity has for dinner every day, it’s probably a bit less relevant. Get really good at identifying what you might have to speak or write about. If it seems like an IELTS topic, start finding some good topic-specific vocabulary.

3. Use an online dictionary

When you find new words that you don’t know, you can very quickly put them into an online dictionary. An easy-to-use online dictionary is www.dictionary.com, but there are others too. The Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries website gives you an English, American English and Academic English dictionary. You can find it at https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/. It gives you word forms, pronunciation, and example sentences for lots of words. There is also a collocations list, which is really helpful if you need to score band 7 or higher. Using online dictionaries is a great way to build you world list with English language definitions and example sentences.

4. Use a thesaurus

Thesauruses brilliant tool for building your vocabulary quickly. They are a bit like a dictionary, but instead of just giving meanings, they give you synonyms. These are other words with a similar meaning (e.g. love, adore, etc.). If you didn’t understand the definition in the online dictionary, you may recognise synonyms by typing your new word into a thesaurus. This can make the dictionary definition a lot easier to understand. You should also write some of these synonyms into your word list, including words you already know as well as new words. This makes building your vocabulary a lot quicker. A great online tool is www.thesaurus.com. Another good one is the Collins Dictionary thesaurus, found at https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english-thesaurus. Thesauruses also give you antonyms (words with an opposite meaning, e.g. love vs hate) to help you really understand a word and the way that it might be used.

You need to be a bit careful with the thesaurus though. Not all of the synonyms can be swapped directly, and they might have different collocations. There may also be different lists if a word has lots of meanings. For example, the word ‘get’ is a common word used in lots of situations. Here are some examples:

I got bored so I went home (I became bored so…; I grew bored so…)

I got home early (I arrived home…; I came home…)

I got a new watch for my birthday (I received a new watch…)

When you’re writing synonyms into your word list, make sure they match the definition of the word that you found in the dictionary!

5. Think in English

Lots of students try to learn words that they then never use. This ‘passive’ vocabulary can be helpful in reading or listening: you read or hear a word, and you know what it means. However, very often this will be translated into your first language. If you translate in your head, you’re not learning properly. You probably won’t use these words in your writing, and in your speaking, they will make you less fluent. Translating is also really bad for your grammar.

What you need to do is practice thinking in English. In your head, there’s a little voice that helps you to think about the world around you. This is called your ‘internal monologue’ (mono = one / logue = speaking).

Look at something nearby. This could be your bedroom, other people on a train, anything close by. Then, take what you see and use your internal monologue to turn it into language. Not your native language. English.

Start with simple things. ‘The seats on the train are red’. ‘That man’s shirt is blue’. ‘The train is stopping’. ‘Where?’. ‘The train is stopping in the station’. ‘The man with the blue shirt is getting off the train’. *COUGH COUGH* ‘Oh my goodness, I hope they don’t have coronavirus!’

Practice doing this every day, and every time, get more complex. Once you’re good at it, you’ll notice gaps where you don’t have vocabulary. If you’re getting good at thinking in English, these won’t be replaced with your first language, they’ll just be ideas that you don’t know how to put into words. You’ll start to find where your vocabulary gaps are, and either paraphrase (use other words to express the idea) or translate very specific words that you need to fill the gaps. You can then add these words to your word list and start building a useful, working vocabulary.

Your English doesn’t have to be good to do this and doing it will make your English much more fluent and natural. You’ll know if you’re doing this exercise properly, because very soon, you will start dreaming in English!