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A lot of people say that it's hard to build a wide vocabulary because it's also hard to count how many words there are in the English language. So how can you really learn all of the words? Nobody is perfect. You may not be able to learn all of the words in this language but it is not impossible to build a wide collection of words you can use in your everyday life and some for special occasions.

Pronunciation is a good way to learning new words. Hearing words being pronounced correctly familiarizes a person to that word. This way, it is easier for the mind to remember. Most especially, when a sample sentence is said too, this enables the learner to know the correct times to use the word.

Standard Method

The proper pronunciation of a word is a basic entry in all kinds of dictionaries. This is presented using symbols and marks to indicate where proper stress is to be applied in saying the word. An alphabet can be pronounced in several ways like the letter A can be pronounced as /uh/ or /ey/ or the letter E as /e/ or /ee/. These are just two letters in the English alphabet and there are still a lot of variations. Because of these, pronunciation symbols have been created to better show how a word should be pronounced. Thus, you see a ^, æ, ?, or ? in dictionaries especially the old and big ones! If you are a linguist, these are relevant to you but the common man will not always take the step to learn and remember these symbols. So, modern techniques have employed audio into teaching the proper pronunciation of words.

Advanced Methods

A lot of books for vocabulary improvement are now offered with audio CD's and some, go the extra mile and provide DVD's too to show a person really speaking the word and mouth movement and position is displayed. Online dictionaries and thesaurus have speaker icons shown on their sites too which when clicked on would present an audio pronunciation of the word or simply put, a voice saying the word. Sometimes audio sentences are also presented to the reader in these sites.

These advances in vocabulary building most especially benefits learners of English as a Second language. Since English is not their mother tongue, these international students are more challenged with properly pronouncing the English words especially when the society they have grown up in don't use English often. Their orientation in English is very limited, so they need to hear the words being said more often to get used to it. Audio pronunciations also benefit even those who already have English as their native language, especially when their English has a mixture of other languages.

The clear pronunciation of a word allows one to remember it easily, so knowing its meaning and when it can be used makes it easier for the learner too. Saying the word or reading aloud makes it stick better to the mind. Isn't it that during the initial learning stages of children they read everything aloud too? The same concept goes for vocabulary improvement by pronunciation.