A few readers have been asking about vocabulary learning. Expanding your vocabulary is essential to improving your English! But what words should you learn? You cannot just study the dictionary! The only way to learn new words is to get engaged in talking about some topics in English. What I mean by this is finding an interesting topic and reading, listening, talking and writing about that topic. You need to get a vocabulary notebook to note down the new words you see. Write a definition and an example sentence using the new word in your notebook. Carry your notebook around with you so that you can look at it whenever you have a chance (when you are waiting for the bus!) and so you will see those new words again and again and they will start to become part of your active vocabulary. You need to take the long view – don’t try to learn too many new words at a time. Five new words a day is plenty. Five new words a day over a year is a lot of words!
So my advice today is to take a look at the ISSUES forum and join the GM food debate! ISSUES is a new forum which I have started for English language practise. The first ISSUE is GM food. I just can’t decide whether I should welcome or oppose scientists changing the DNA of our food. That’s why I would like to know more about this issue. Why don’t you join me in finding out about this topic and practise your English too? The forum with some reading and a news report on GM food is here.