In your second lesson you learned that we are exposed to empowering vocabulary words on a daily basis. We also learned that we need to reactivate our childhood curiosity in order to start learning new words at a faster rate. In our first lesson, we reviewed all of the enormous benefits of improving your vocabulary. We did this so you would be motivated to reactivate your childhood curiosity for learning new words.

In this third lesson, we will begin to look at different verbal environments that offer opportunities for you to learn new, empowering vocabulary words.

• Each day you enter into different verbal environments that provide you with opportunities to learn new words
• Each verbal environment has its own unique advantages for learning new words
• You will learn how to become more aware of different verbal environments and the opportunities that they afford you to learn new words

For most people, their workplace is an ideal verbal environment for learning new words.

As you start to pay closer attention to the words used by your colleagues and your boss, you will likely find that they collectively offer a treasure of new, empowering words that you can learn and put to use in your daily office communication.

If you are a student, especially a college student, your classroom is an ideal verbal environment. As you start to pay extra attention to every word your professor uses in a lecture, you will immediately notice that your comprehension of both lectures and reading material increases. Be sure to pay close attention to, and understand, the words your professor uses to explain a new concept. One of the quickest ways of correctly answering a test question is to use the same words that the professor uses to teach or explain a new concept.

Outside of the workplace, television news and televised political discussions can be rich resources for identifying new words. There are a couple reasons for this: the first is that television news is presented in a more conversational and colloquial manner - the way you would normally talk. Also, hearing a word in use makes it easier to learn (we’ll discuss this in greater detail later). And finally, on television you hear the inflection of how the word is pronounced.

Cable News has an added benefit in that political pundits try their best to portray themselves as experts. And, in order to do this, they use Power Words™ to appear more intelligent and informed. Listen carefully to the words political pundits and business experts use on cable news and you will notice that they all have robust vocabularies.

If you like to discuss politics or business with friends, family, and colleagues, then you should pay careful attention when pundits discuss an issue that is of interest to you. If you hear a new word during a debate or discussion of an issue, make sure you learn and understand that word, so you can then use that word when discussing the issue with your friends, family, or colleagues. This is a great way to learn, apply, and retain new words.

For many of the same reasons as television news, News Radio and Talk Radio are also great mediums for learning new Power Words. With radio, you have the benefit of hearing new words. And like television news, radio news is also presented in a more conversational tone.

Talk Radio is just like cable news in that each commentator must be, or at least appear to be, an expert on the subject being discussed. Because of this, pundits on talk radio generally use words they hope will impress and convincingly communicate their ideas and points of view.

If news and political commentary just aren’t your thing, you’ll be happy to know that TV Shows and sitcoms can also offer a great way to learn new vocabulary words. It’s true! Many writers for sitcoms are English majors with outstanding vocabularies. Because of their strong vocabularies, television writers often incorporate higher-level vocabulary words into their characters’ conversations.

Pay extra attention the next time you watch a sitcom or TV drama. Listen closely to the words the characters use, and see if they use any words that are new to you or are words that are in your passive vocabulary. I think you will be surprised by what you find.

Newspapers and news magazines offer more vocabulary words than T.V. and radio, but usually in a more journalistic and less colloquial (conversational) style. In printed media, you have the benefit of seeing the correct spelling of words, but you don’t have the benefit of audio learning and pronunciation. The primary vocabulary benefit of newspapers, news websites, and magazines is that you may be exposed to more high-level vocabulary words than in television and radio.

Literature can be broken down to two categories: classic literature - works by Faulkner, Joyce, Hemmingway, etc. and todays, best-seller-type novels.

Classic literature usually incorporates many literary vocabulary words that are unique to written text or that are no longer commonly used in everyday communication. If you keep a dictionary on hand while reading the classics, you’ll find that reading will be more enjoyable and you will have a more thorough understanding and appreciation of the story.

Contemporary, best-selling novels offer a wealth of vocabulary learning opportunities because authors strive to use the most precise, most descriptive words possible to convey a sense of time, place, and general mood. Today’s authors use contemporary language, much of which you can incorporate into your daily communication. Again, if you make sure to truly understand every word you read, you will find that reading becomes even more enjoyable and your vocabulary will expand and improve.

The words we use with family and friends tend to be more conversational. But if you pay close attention during your conversations with friends and family, especially when discussing more serious subjects, like business, politics, or philosophy, I think you will be surprised to find that, collectively, your friends and family offer a wealth of powerful words that you may not have noticed before.

Also, don’t be afraid to tell your family and friends that you are making a conscious effort to improve your vocabulary. You may even want to encourage them to sign up for this Verbal Success Course. Ask your friends and family what words they particularly like. Challenge them to identify new words and to share them with you. The more people you work with in learning new vocabulary words, the quicker and easier (and more fun!) it becomes.

Your Assignment:

I look forward to continuing your vocabulary advancement!