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Vocabulary Building with your Eyes
By Dr. Carol Fleming

I picked up a small book about public speaking that was on sale at my library for 54¢! As I skimmed the pages, I noticed small inked dots on some of the words (fey, cull, covet), 34 marked words in all. Page 24 received the last of the dots (recoil, larded). The book went on to 109 pages with some pretty good words (rigor mortis, peremptory, verdant), but The Previous Reader was no longer marking words, or had stopped reading altogether. Now, why would anyone make dots over certain words? And with a ball-point pen already!?.

I choose to believe that the person was noting words that s/he did not know. A very good first step, I say, to pay attention and note potentially new vocabulary items. It revealed an alert and hungry mind seeking out new meaning. However, there was no evidence of the second step: finding out how to pronounce and use the word. The flyleaves (look it up!) in the book would have been a good place to make such notes.

Finding a new word in your reading material is the ideal time to learn that word because it is in the context that will most likely reveal elements of its meaning. Use this opportunity to do the following:

note and mark the word. (Of course I'm old-fashioned enough to want you to use pencil instead of ink.) I'm assuming that you own this written material. Please do not go marking up library books! When you are ready to really grapple with the new vocabulary

copy the word in your own handwriting: for example, copying the word,
g-e-r-m-a-n-e (noting and learning the spelling). After consulting a dictionary to determine pronunciation

write your own version of the spoken form; perhaps, "jer MAIN', and what it means (truly relevant)

you could also write down the page where you found it actually used in the book, i.e.page 20 "You needn't reject a germane subject because you have only a few things worth saying about it"

So far you're all by yourself with a book and a pencil. You've done what you can to intellectually appreciate the word. But words have to be actually manufactured by your body to become part of you.

read your sentences out loud, and then repeat your sentence without looking at the written form. Concentrate on tasting the word in its verbal context

now you've got to actually use it a couple of times to truly own it. Do you have a friend you could call and try it out? Why not have a designated vocabulary buddy who understands what you're trying to do and will cooperate in some trial usage? With this kind of say-it-out-loud practice, what came in through the eyes can come out in your speech.

And isn't that the idea?

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