Passive vs Active Vocabulary
Passive vs Active Vocabulary
- Passive vocabulary: words you understand when listening/reading but can’t readily produce. They’re like tools stored deep in a cupboard — you own them, but it takes time to find them.
- Active vocabulary: words you can use instantly in speech and writing — the 20% you use 80% of the time.
How to activate more words
- Don’t buy “new tools” first. Re‑organise the storeroom: revisit texts you’ve read, highlight topic vocabulary and collocations you already understand, and practise using them in short answers and paragraphs.
- Track retrieval speed, not just meaning. If a word is slow to recall, it’s still passive — keep recycling it in speaking and writing until it speeds up.
- Practise by topic. Build mini‑banks of language for common themes (shopping, banking, work, travel) and reuse them across tasks.
A course example
In Unit 6 we focus on money: spending, supermarkets, and basic banking. Pronunciation work targets word stress in multisyllabic words. You’ll read how supermarkets influence buying behaviour, listen to a dialogue on opening a bank account, and learn phrases you can use abroad. Grammar review compares “verb + to do” vs “verb + doing”. Speaking practice covers Part 2 and Part 3 formats with concrete examples.