Learning Exanding your vocabulary ist the most important way to improve your English

Recently I signed up for an English course called "Professional Online Competence" at my a local university. The teacher told us something that got [too slangy for a formal essay] made me to think about some important topics when learning a language.

He gave us a quoted from See Hulstijin, "Learning vocabulary is one of the most important ways of improving your English' (Note: I just tried to make the title a little more catchy.. It is Studying something with In the Media ;). He also told us that over the past 10-20 ten or twenty years, English teachers used to believe that as long as you can describe something well, you can and speak fluently.  It is actually not important to know the right word for it. But However, now recent experiments have proven that students who know more has a better vocabulary simply scored better grades. With this idea in the backhand, our teacher told us about the 'Academic Word List' (AWL) which includes the most used 570 words in academic English. I guess He also told suggested to us that we should learn all the words on the list. , but Still I'm am actually not 100% percent sure about this that. [Unless it is the vocabulary test section, you don't really need to know all of them.  The more importantly is to know how to use words effectively; how to express them in a creative way. Another thing is to learn idioms.  For they can replace entire paragraphs with just a phrase!]

This really got made me thinking because I was being taught English the old fashioned way - that is  meaning that I spent most of my time learning English with through reading, [were you concientious enough to look up the word you don't know?] watching films movies [depends on the kind of movies you are watching...  Nowadays, movies are just of action type.  Hence you don't learn.  If you watch classics such as "Witness for the Prosecution", "My Fair Lady", "All About Eve" and you will then know why they are called classics] and speaking with other people. [Again the background of the people mattered.  However, in most cases, conversational and communicative purposes only] But and I did definitly did NOT learn any vocabulary. Not at all. Maybe Perhaps I was wrong. Now I'm kind of [don't be wishy washy.  Be more assertive] am certain that if I had spent more time with learning expanding my English vocabulary, my English would be much better now. [Never too late to do so :) ]

What is your opinion on this? I'm really curious because I'm still debating if I should learn all the words from on the list., which This is hard work. Will it be of worth it? [I say it will be a waste of time if you never use them after learning them because you forget!  After looking at the list, I found that I know each and everyone of them.  This is because I use them everyday.  This is easy since I live in an English speaking country.  It really depends on your objective in learning English.  Knowing 80% of the list is good enough for ordinary communications.  One good way is to write  essays and try to use the words from the list as often as you can.  This is the long term solution which in the end is the best way]

Learning vocabulary ist the most important way to improve your English

Recently I signed up for an English course called 'Professional Online Competence' at my local university. The teacher told us something that got me to thinking about some important topics when learning a language.
He gave us a quote from See Hulstijin: 'Learning vocabulary is one of the most important ways of improving your English' (note: I just tried to make the title a little more catchy.. studying something with media ;). He also told us that over the past 10-20 years English teachers used to have believed that as long as you can describe something well and speak fluently, it is actually not important to know the right word for it. But now experiments have proven that students who know more vocabulary simply score better grades. With this idea in the backhand mind our teacher told us about the 'Academic Word List' (AWL) which includes the most used 570 words in academic English. I guess he also told us we should learn all the words, but I'm actually not 100 percent sure about that. 

This really got me thinking because I was taught English the oldfashioned way meaning that I spend spent most of my time learning English with by reading, watching films and speaking with other people. But I did definitly NOT learn any vocabulary. Not at all. Maybe I was wrong. Now I'm kind of certain that if I had spend more time with learing vocabulary my English would be much better now.
What is your opinion on this? I'm really curious because I'm still debating if I should learn all the words from the list, which is hard work. Will it be worth it?

Whatever way you learned your English Toby it sure worked for you!! I wish my children's English was as good and they are native speakers!! :)