Does any one know any good websites for increasing your Vocabulary? Or any good methods? I am Dyslexic and I have a passion for words I believe it has come about because I have never taken the understanding of words for granted. Therefore, I am always looking to learn new words, any ideas?
How much difficulty do you have with reading? I would have thought that the easiest and best way to increase vocab is to read books! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I am mildly dyslexic also. I think Herk’s advice is good for building your vocabulary, but do not expect a larger vocabulary to help with dyslexia. (if I had to bet one way or the other, I would bet it slightly hurts.) For the dyslexic problem, concurrent practice with all three linguistic modes (written, spoken and reading) may help. I have never done this; but I believe if you make a short written list of problem words, then on many different occasions you read out loud, a few words at a time, pause and write those few down, and then return to the list for a few more to read out loud, etc. it may help on those selected words on your list. I speculate this to be true as I know a little about how brain and language works. My problem is phonetic confusion, not graphic confusion, in automatic processing.You too probably have one form of automatic processing more defective than another. The brain is a great correlator and facilitation in one mode of the processing a work* may help make up for difficulty in another. Unfortunately, I believe that unless you are a young child, the “faulty brain wiring” that causes the problem will not change with this or any other exercise (certainly not by building your vocabulary, except when consciously processing / spelling words etc.) If I have time, like now, I write off line in my word processor so most of my posts are not too bad. You will find a few I have made on line and not corrected when I am in a hurry, about to go to bed, etc. Then you will see the extent of my problem, but part of what you will see is that my thoughts also get ahead of my typing. For example, the first letter of the next word may be attached at the end of the prior word and whole words may be missing. Word processors are a great help to us. My thesis advisor did not want me to graduate and leave him with only one other Ph.D. student when he was about to go on sabbatical, but my research was done with significant results, so he only found fault with the thesis text. It was a battle of wills. Every day for more than a month it was back on his disk before he came to work as I rewrote and re typed the page(s) he had found with typing / dyslectic errors during the night, often several times each. He would read until he found a few more and give it back and the cycle would begin again, but usually with only one read by him each day. My ultimate victory would have been a lot easier if word processors had existed back them. *word - Word processor did not help with this. Note that the finger used to type k of the right hand is the same as that of the left for d. This is far from the first time I have seen that part of my problem is mussel control/ command pattern symmetry related. When my daughter was learning her alphabet and we were at the beach, she wrote it out perfectly in the sand, but as if you were reading each letter of it from below the sand. Gross symmetry was normal - I.e. A at left end of string, Z at the right. Years latter, I learned this is not a rare type of reversal at that stage of learning. I am sure this also tells us something significant about the brain's symbolic processing during writing, but have not figured out exactly what. She did not know her version was a "reflected in the sand" version and a wave took it away before I got back with my camera.
I'm going through a massive phase of increasing my vocabulary! I too have something of a passion for words. I believe Hercules Rockefeller has got it in one: reading. What I do is get a sheet of notepad paper (just one of the small ones) and whenever I come across a word I don't know, write it down to be looked up later. I'm debating whether it's worth stopping to look it up then and there, because I have a hunch that seeing it in context right away like that would really help with understanding and memorisation, however doing so every couple of pages/lines/sentences is pretty disruptive to the book itself. The notepad paper also doubles as a bookmark Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!. Read "The Human Stain" by Philip Roth. I just finished it, and his vocabulary is simply incredible. I reckon I filled 3 double sided notepad papers with that book. Anyway. That's my advice: read read read!
I would say study the root of your language Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! (i.e Latin, Greek) would help out alot to knowing the root words to just about every pre/suffix.
Unless the language is English, then you're in trouble because we even borrowed our pronouns. Mostly everything in English is borrowed, so studying French, Scandinavian, and Latin would help the most with spelling. Then again, the Great Vowel Shift pretty much threw all of that off as well. Not to mention all of the semantic changes that took place: how mead and amethyst had the same root, or swatiska and hygiene for that matter. Roots would expand your understanding of words you already know. It would be difficult to use them to generate new ones. Aside from reading, you can also make some up. Sure they won't be all scientific and impressive, but you won't have to use the same word everytime. Variety is the spice of life and all.
I am not dyslexic, but studying Latin and Greek etymology certainly helps to understand new words. If you have trouble with long or difficult words would flash cards help?
