The Importance of Vocabulary Development: An ESL and Tool Based Approach

Abstract

English is the language that has spread throughout the world most extensively and is dominating a number of important fields including education, international commerce, and communication; now-a-days, English language has become a famous Lingua-Franca in the world. Thus, the knowledge of English is indispensable and it is to be developed. Its development depends on many language components. Vocabulary is one of them. Vocabulary means word knowledge or word power. For students of English as a Second Language (ESL), there are a set of reasons why they have to improve their vocabulary. First of all, they have to master the word knowledge as there is a common accepted statement in English pedagogy, i.e. if someone wants to learn a second language successfully, firstly, he or she has to develop the vocabulary of that language because language development depends on its vocabulary development. Further, the students use the English in their education, especially in higher education, to express their views; describe their feelings; understand the ideas of others, etc. Moreover, they will feel good about themselves when they have a good command of word power. To acquire all these said things, the students have to make their English vocabulary affluent and also get their teachers’ support as a student’s vocabulary improvement cannot be separated from the teachers’ corporation and motivation. Hence, having considered the teachers’ contribution towards the students’ vocabulary development, this paper focuses on a simple but effective testing tool to improve the ESL students’ vocabulary to great extent.