JohnWriter 13 | - Freelance Writer
Oct 14, 2017 | #1
Most ESL students find themselves suffering in silence as they prepare for their IELTS or TOEFL essay exams. The reason for their suffering? The fact that their English vocabulary remains highly limited and restrictive a month before they are to take the test. Their essays suffer because they are unable to use the proper keywords or relatively simple replacement words in their sentences because they do not know how to learn more words. Sadly, that is a requirement of the opening paraphrase of the Essay Task 2 exam. Little do they know that there is a secret which the tutors are not letting the students in on or telling them about. The secret, is that the students only need to learn the art of Synonym usage to build an impressive English vocabulary or collection of English words for their use. The what now? The Syno-duh? Okay, rewind and freeze!
The Synonyms are basically a collection of English words that, although different in presentation, all mean the same thing. The simplest way to explain it is; "One meaning, a dozen word equivalents". Put it this way, when I say "youngster" you think a young person. A person who is not yet an adult. That is the meaning of the word. What if I were to tell you that the singular word "youngster" has at least 12 different interpretations of the term that all mean the same thing?
Yep. Those 12-word variations of the same term are what are referred to as Synonyms (plural form). For the word "youngster", one could also refer to, say, or use any of the following words in written or spoken form to take its place:
- Adolescent
- Teen
- Youth
- Youthful
- Growing (boy / girl)
- Juvenile
- Young (boy / girl)
- Girlish
- Boyish
- Pubescent
- Teenage
- Teenager
Imagine that, one word meaning, 11 ways of saying it. Memorize those words, use them in sentences when applicable and guess what? The ESL student will have just added 11 new English words of the simple and complex kind which will definitely increase his vocabulary and Lexical Resource scores in the actual test.
I find that with the ESL students, this is one of the easiest ways to help them learn the English language. They only need to learn one meaning, add the synonyms and the worst-case scenario is that they learn how to write almost perfect simple to intermediately complex English sentences. Believe me, this learning method works. My students can attest to this.
If you are a self-studying ESL student, this method is easy to learn by yourself. All you need is an English dictionary, for the word meaning, and a thesaurus, for the synonyms. Both are available online at dictionary.com and thesaurus.com respectively. Or, you can download the apps at the usual places.
The Synonyms are basically a collection of English words that, although different in presentation, all mean the same thing. The simplest way to explain it is; "One meaning, a dozen word equivalents". Put it this way, when I say "youngster" you think a young person. A person who is not yet an adult. That is the meaning of the word. What if I were to tell you that the singular word "youngster" has at least 12 different interpretations of the term that all mean the same thing?
Yep. Those 12-word variations of the same term are what are referred to as Synonyms (plural form). For the word "youngster", one could also refer to, say, or use any of the following words in written or spoken form to take its place:
- Adolescent- Teen
- Youth
- Youthful
- Growing (boy / girl)
- Juvenile
- Young (boy / girl)
- Girlish
- Boyish
- Pubescent
- Teenage
- Teenager
Imagine that, one word meaning, 11 ways of saying it. Memorize those words, use them in sentences when applicable and guess what? The ESL student will have just added 11 new English words of the simple and complex kind which will definitely increase his vocabulary and Lexical Resource scores in the actual test.
I find that with the ESL students, this is one of the easiest ways to help them learn the English language. They only need to learn one meaning, add the synonyms and the worst-case scenario is that they learn how to write almost perfect simple to intermediately complex English sentences. Believe me, this learning method works. My students can attest to this.
If you are a self-studying ESL student, this method is easy to learn by yourself. All you need is an English dictionary, for the word meaning, and a thesaurus, for the synonyms. Both are available online at dictionary.com and thesaurus.com respectively. Or, you can download the apps at the usual places.