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The physical act of digging may not be the first image that springs to your mind when you’re thinking about how to learn new vocabulary in the English language.

But, I’d like to challenge you today to make the connection between digging and learning.

The process of unearthing everything we can about a new word is part and parcel of understanding that word in a more comprehensive way.

I decided to express my thoughts about the importance of “digging for meaning” today because of something that a student shared with me.

She said that she prepared for the reading section of her first IELTS exam by learning a list of 100 academic words given to her by a professor in Iran.

She was told that the word list contained the most frequently used vocabulary on the reading section of the exam.  If she recognized the words and memorized their meaning, she would do well.

Reality, however, taught her a lesson that she would not easily forget.

Now, this doesn’t mean that the advice the student received was all bad.

In fact, all learners preparing for the IELTS and TOEFL need to expand their repository of academic language: automatic word recognition is a component of success on the reading section of these types of exams.

Think about it this way: if a test-taker has never encountered a word, then it becomes increasingly difficult for that test-taker to select the correct answer to any given question that includes the unknown word.  Strategies can be used to guess the correct answer, but these strategies can be time consuming.

The last thing you want to do is use up all your energy trying to figure out what a words means.

But, there’s more to the story.

Test-takers must not forget that there is a large gap between word recognition and text comprehension.

It seems to me that the number of words a learner recognizes in a reading may not amount to very much, unless this knowledge is accompanied by a deeper understanding of those words and the connections formed by those words as the test-taker reads from sentence to sentence and from paragraph to paragraph.

English-language learners who want to improve their reading comprehension scores need to move beyond simple word recognition.

So, how do you learn how to “dig deeper”?

Let’s consider the word “voracious”.

Ask yourself the following questions about the word voracious and do your best to answer them – if possible, without help from Google Home, Siri, Alexa, Cortana or any other virtual assistant app.

• Do I know the root of the word?   Is there a root in this case?
• Does the word have different spelling variations?
• Do I know how to pronounce the word?
• Do I know the prefixes and suffixes that are attached to that word? Does the meaning change when the prefixes or suffixes are added?
• Do I know the part of speech of the word?
• Can I write a sentence with the word that clarifies the meaning for the reader?
• Do I know the other words that appear with (collocate with) the target word?
• Do I know a synonym and an antonym of that word?
• Does the word have more than one meaning?
• Are there any confusing homophones associated with the word?
• Do I know the contexts in which the word is used?  For example, can a reader be voracious?

Think about how many questions were you able to answer immediately.  Which ones were more difficult?

Perhaps the entire activity difficult for you.  If so, then perhaps its safe to say that your understanding of the word, “voracious” was somewhat superficial.

Interactive Game

To help you get into the habit of thinking more deeply about the academic words that you encounter as you prepare for the reading component of your exams, I’ve created a new “Drag & Drop” game that you can play, free of charge, on this website.

The object of the game is fairly simple: answer different questions about the same 7 academic words. 

Simply CLICK HERE to be re-directed to the game.

Oh … and before I forget,  I wanted to leave you with one final thought:  getting a respectable score on the reading section of an English exam is not about cramming 50, 75 or 100 words a month into your brain and hoping that they will appear on the examination.

It’s about understanding how academic vocabulary fits together within sentences and paragraphs (like pieces of a puzzle) to create meaning.

Building a solid understanding of academic vocabulary, as well as active daily reading and interacting with proven strategies (eg. prioritising, skimming, scanning, predicting, connecting, summarizing/paraphrasing) will move you closer to the scores you are capable of achieving.

I hope I’ve given you something to think about today.

Happy Gaming!  Happy Learning!