Improving reading skills?

Question

I am big fan of Sherlock Holmes and I watched all Tv series and movies. Also I want to read all Sherlock Holmes stories in English. I need to improve my reading skills and expand my vocabulary. So I need an effective technique for memorize vocabulary.

Answer 1

Try to associate the vocabulary with something familiar to you. If you speak English or another language that could be a word, item, memory, person etc. that reminds you of the word or jolts your memory.

Answer 2

The most effective technique for this would be to notate new/interesting words that you notice as you read and watch shows or movies. After you're done reading or watching, write 1 or 2 sentences with each of the new words, this will help your brain form connections with these new words. The way the brain works is that it connects new knowledge to old knowledge, otherwise it doesn't connect at all. Therefore what you need to do is discover new words and attach them to your current lexical understanding through practice. You should also attempt to use these new words in conversations whenever you can, this will cement their place in your personal vocabulary.

Answer 3

There are several vocabulary lists for Sherlock Holmes on the web which could be good prep before you begin reading.  However, if you haven’t done so already, studying stems, prefixes and suffixes is an efficient and highly transferable investment in building vocabulary for Holmes and other purposes.

I encourage students to learn a list of 500 stems, prefixes and suffixes that pay huge dividends in deciphering new words, including GRE prep words, medical and scientific terms, and more.  I’ve had a student as young as 8 master this list, and have witnessed how naturally vocabulary growth follows.

Taking a quick look at one vocabulary list of 44 words from Sherlock Holmes, I found that 11 of the 44 words could be decoded (either completely or partially) or enriched with just those 500 stems, prefixes and suffixes:

Fully Decoded

1. Benevolent: BENE means good; VOL means will.
2. Vacuous: VAC means empty; OUS means full of.
3. Aversion: A (AB) means away; VER means turn.
4. Retrogression: RETRO means backward; GRESS means step.

Partially Decoded

1. Surplice: SUR means over.
2. Panoply: PAN means all.
3. Equinoctial: EQUI means equal. NOC (not in my list of 500) means night.
4. Recompense: RE means AGAIN; COM means together or with; PENSE (not in my list of 500) means weigh or pay.
5. Inexorable: IN means not, EX means out; ORA (not in my list of 500) means pray

Enriched

1. Compunction: COM means with together or with; PUNCT means point. That background enriches the definition of compunction as "remorse; a stinging or pricking (of the conscience)” per https://www.etymonline.com/word/compunction#etymonline_v_17290
2. Specious: SPEC means look; OUS means full of.  While that doesn’t get directly to “deceptive” part of Webster’s definition of “having deceptive attraction” it does convey how the deception happens.

The full list of 44 Sherlock Holmes words is at https://www.vocabulary.com/lists/92494.

I’d love to hear what methods you employ for vocabulary prep and your impressions of your experience reading the adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I look forward to reading your comments.