Vocabulary should be learned in context. That means that we shouldn't learn words by themselves. We should learn words that are in sentences. The sentences or parts of sentences are in conversations, in text messages, in social media posts, in emails, in news, in stories and many other places. In the real world, vocabulary is always in context.
The best way to learn vocabulary is by trying to figure out the meaning from the context. If we find a word we don't know, and we use a translator or a dictionary to get the meaning, we won’t remember the word. If we try to figure out the meaning from the context, we will probably remember the word. That is because we have to think a lot about the word and the context. If we use a translator or dictionary, we don't have to think very much at all.
Learning a word in context helps us learn about vocabulary When we try to figure out the meaning of a word from the context, we learn about the parts of speech of a word. This means we learn whether a word is a noun, verb, adjective or adverb. When we learn vocabulary from context, we learn how suffixes (endings of words) are used to change the part of speech. For example, adding -ment to a verb (entertain), changes it to a noun (entertainment). We also learn how prefixes (beginnings of words) can change the meaning. For example, adding -un to the beginning of a word makes the opposite (interesting/uninteresting). We also learn how a word is used in context. This means that we learn the other words that are often used with a word. For example, “interested” is often used with “in”, as in “I am interested in history.”
Learning a word in context helps us become better readers. When we read in our first language, there are sometimes words that we don't really know. We usually just keep reading without checking to see what the word means. Even though we didn't know a word, we still understand what we read. The reason is that our brain can guess what the word means from the context. We don't even know that we are doing it. It just happens. If we practice learning the meaning of a word from context in English, then we are training our brains to be able to guess what the word means without us having to try. With a lot of practice, we will be able to read in English without stopping to check an unknown word. Our brains will be able to guess what it means from the context just like in our first language.
Lexitexts gives you practice in learning vocabulary in context and helps you become a better reader. With Lexitexts, you will learn new vocabulary, but you will also get practice in learning the new vocabulary from the context. This will help you learn new vocabulary whenever you read. Lexitexts will help you become a better reader as your brain will get used to guessing what unknown words mean. This will help you become a better reader whenever you read in English.
