Mastering Language: The Dynamics and Importance of Vocabulary

Since the days of old, man has always lived as a social creature and in this social setting, some form of communication media is developed and this constitutes the language of that community. A community’s language is composed of different words each with a particular association or meaning to ease communication between members of that community. Some words hold more than one meaning or several words may describe an activity, action or item and this collection of words form the vocabulary of that community or language.

At birth, individuals are born without a vocabulary and acquire that of their guardians by mimicking and associating certain sound to activities or items. This helps the individual be able to communicate with others better than would be possible by gestures and wailing. At this stage the individual’s vocabulary is limited to what they interact with on a day to day basis and simple requests. As they grow in age, they are bound to encounter new challenges in expressing themselves before others and also in the learning environment and in each of these situations proper words must be employed in order to convey a message appropriately.

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Words used in young age may not be appropriate as one develops in age thus necessitating the acquisition of new words. Among peers, individuals may develop a different form of language for their own use as is the case of slang or scientific words and here to be able to fit in one has to learn to use these words correctly in passing information.

In the learning environment, an individual will encounter new words as they progress through the learning process and proper understanding of these words is essential if the individual is to meet the objectives of the learning process (ref….

). Developing a vocabulary can be a difficult or easy task depending on an individual’s inclination; individuals with a greater desire for reading will most likely if not always tend to have a higher reading vocabulary than those who do not like to read and will also be in a position to improve on their spoken and listening vocabulary when they go the extra step and make use of the vocabulary they acquire while reading in general interaction with others.

The converse is also true in that individuals who are good at spoken vocabulary can improve on their vocabulary by reading more literature and understanding the various contexts in which different words can be used and the meanings which they hold when used as such. As no single individual can claim complete mastery of a languages vocabulary, constant and willful actions aimed at acquiring new vocabularies ought to be made by an individual wishing to master a language’s vocabulary.

This can be achieved by wide reading which would expose the individual to a wide selection of new words or use of words already known in new contexts giving new meaning to these words. Engaging in writing can also be a way of improving ones vocabulary since in writing, the writer has to clearly describe their thought in a way that would allow their reader to be in a position to conjure what they are conveying.

Oral vocabulary-spoken and listening- plays a part in improving the vocabulary of an individual when it incorporates the use of new words or gives new meaning to words and is the primary means of acquiring vocabulary for children who cannot read and individuals learning a new language.

It is worth noting that all these forms of vocabulary place a limitation on the user if they do not incorporate the others and they cannot exist in isolation of each other.

Works cited

Texas Education Agency, “Promoting Vocabulary Development” Components of Effective vocabulary Instruction: Online revised edition (2002). Web. 29 July 2010. < http://ritter. tea. state. tx. us/reading/practices/redbk5. pdf>