What do you do when you read a word you don't know?

Tracy:    Hello and welcome to another episode of Question and Answer of the Week from BBC Learning English. I’m Tracy.
 
Li:  And I’m Yang Li. 《你问我答》是专门为帮助大家分析解答有关英语学习的疑问而设计的教学栏目, 每周回答一个问题。
 
Tracy:  This week’s question comes from Iris Mao who is in Shenzhen and she wanted to know how she can improve her vocabulary. 
 
Li:  如何扩充英语词汇？You know that is something we get asked a lot. 
 
Tracy:  And with good reason. There are a lot of answers to this question. We can’t cover everything in today’s programme, but we’re going to try and give you some ideas on:
 
Li:  Where you can find new vocabulary. How you can remember and use new vocabulary.
 
Tracy:  Let’s start with the easy bit. You want to expand your vocabulary, where are you going to find all this new and exciting language?
 
Li:  Here are some ideas from the Learning English team.
 
Insert
 
I find it really helpful to listen to music and listen to the radio. 
You can always use your English textbook to learn new vocabulary.
 
Watch your favourite DVDs in English with English subtitles. 
 
Watching the news is a great way to hear native speakers.
 
Reading newspapers, looking at magazines and looking at billboards as you drive along the road.
 
One of the best places to find new vocabulary is your dictionary.
 
Li:  阅读书刊，看电视或光碟以及听音乐，我觉得这些方法都很轻松有趣啊。 
 
Tracy:  They are fun but do you think they are good ways to find new vocabulary? 

Li:  嗯，由于每个人的情况不一样，条件不一样，所以要因人而异了，况且对于初学者来说有些东西直接拿来读写听，未免难度太大。 
 
Tracy:  Yes, that is an important point. Try and not be discouraged by things with a lot of difficult language. 
 
So how are we going to remember all this lovely new vocabulary?
 
Li:  I think that one of the best ways is to keep a notebook 笔记本 and to write down new vocabulary. 
 
Tracy:  And how would you organise the words? Would you do it alphabetically?
 
Li:  Perhaps. 不过有的人喜欢使用不同的方法来组织新词汇。
 
Tracy:  Yes, you could, for example, organise your words by topic. 
 
Li:  By topic 就是根据题目分类。比如在购物 shopping 这个话题下面，你可以罗列所有相关的新词语。
 
Tracy:  Exactly. Another way to record vocabulary is to write down words that have similar roots. 
 
Li:  Roots 词根?
 
Tracy:  Yes, the root of a word is the bit that gives it the meaning. For example,    if you were learning the word photograph, the root of the word would be photo and you might want to write down other words that share the same root such as photographer and photocopy.
 
Li:  很有道理，那么你完全可以从字典里面寻找同根词语，对吗? 
 
Tracy:  Yes, dictionaries are a good source of reference not just to find new words or the meanings of words but also for help with the type of words such as nouns, verbs and adjectives. 
 
Li:  还有单词的发音。
 
Tracy:  Yes, you might want to write down that information in your notebook too: the type of word, what it means and how it’s pronounced. 
 
Li:  So we’ve discussed a few ideas on how to organise new language in a notebook but how can people remember it?
 
Tracy:  Well you many want to read your notebook over and over.
 
Li:  You could use flashcards to help you remember. Flashcards单词抽认卡。
 
Tracy:  You could write out the vocabulary many times. But to remember a word you really need to use it. 
Li:  我听过这样的说法，说一些研究人员认为，一个人要记住并恰当地使用一个新词，他至少要重复七次以上才行。
 
Tracy:  Yeah, I’ve heard that too. The important thing is that people practise using new language. 
 
Li:  不过要掌握如何在一个句子中去使用一个单词可能挺困难的。How can we help with that?
 
Tracy:  Well, you might want to try to write out a few example sentences. You might want to keep a record of word partnerships. 
 
Li:  Can you give me an example of a word partnership? 
 
Tracy:  Sure. Well if you were learning the word photograph you might want to learn the words that partner with it. For example, take a photograph and develop a photograph. 
 
Li:  Take a photograph 照相。 Develop a photograph洗相。 Partner 是伴侣的意思，此处指两个词经常搭配使用word partnerships 词语的搭配。这么说，把固定搭配的词语归为一类，这也是记单词的一个窍门啰。
 
Tracy:  So hopefully we’ve given you some ideas on how to learn, remember and use new vocabulary. 
 
Li:  今天我们谈了:  - 寻找新词汇的渠道， - 如何在笔记本上以不同的分类方法来排列单词，- 还有记忆单词的一些技巧。
 
Tracy:  But there is one important question we haven’t answered. 
 
Li:  How much vocabulary do people need to learn?
 
Tracy:  And that is a difficult question. How many words do you think we need to know to be able to have a day-to-day conversation in English?
 
Li:  嗯，说不准。进行日常对话需要掌握多少词汇? 一万10,000?
 
Tracy:  Really, that many? Well research says that you only need around 3,000 words to understand day-to-day conversations. If you know 3,000 words you should be able to understand about 85% of anything you read. 
 
Li:  这么说，学会3,000字在阅读时就能理解百分之八十五的内容了？
 
Tracy:  Well, it’s not that the other words aren’t important; they might be technical 技术性的or business words and we will most likely need them for work or study. 
 
Unfortunately we’re all going to have to close our vocabulary notebooks here as it’s the end of today’s programme.  
 
Li:  感谢大家收听这一节目。记住如果你在英语学习上有不清楚的问题请给我们发电子邮件。questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk。我们可能在今后的节目里予以回答。
 
Tracy:  And don’t forget to visit our website www.bbcchina.com.cn for more vocabulary learning opportunities and tips. Bye for now.
 
Li:  See you next time.

There has been a lot of research on this topic and there are many different language learning

Do you have a vocabulary notebook?

strategies so you have to find what works best for you.

There are lots of sources of new language; these might include TV or radio programmes, movies, songs, newspapers, textbooks and dictionaries.

Once you have discovered a new piece of vocabulary it is important that you find a way to remember it and a way to use it correctly.

It can be helpful to write down new vocabulary in a notebook. You can organise the words:

You might also want to write down information such as:

Once you think you know a word, you need to practise using it.

This will help you remember the vocabulary, and practice does make perfect.

We hope this has answered your question Iris.

If you have a question about the English language, do send us an email to questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk and don’t forget to visit this page regularly to learn more about English.

Glossary 词汇

research 研究

topic 题目

strategies 策略

sources 来源

remember 记忆

alphabetically 按字母顺序的

word family 语汇家族

pronunciation 发音

definition 定义

part of speech 词性

word partnerships 词语搭配

• the pronunciation
• the definition
• the part of speech
• word partnerships

• alphabetically
• by topic
• by word family