Addressing Conversation Issues My most recent Notebook Entry asked a question of all English language learners: "Regarding conversational English, what is most difficult for you?" I received a total of four responses (thanks to all who responded) detailing various issues English language learners have with conversation. I want to address one of those issues in today's Notebook Entry: Incorporating new words into everyday language. The most efficient method I have found to incorporate new vocabulary words, both in English and while learning second languages, is to first WRITE sentences with the new vocabulary word. You see, writing is just like speaking, but done muuuuuch moooooore sloooooooooooooooowly. When you give yourself time to think through problems while writing, like how to use new vocabulary words, then you can EVENTUALLY improve your ability to use new vocabulary while speaking. What I described above is the first step. But guess what? There's also a second step (I'll write about it in tomorrow's notebook entry). For now, I recommend that all of you who struggle with using new vocabulary in conversation give the above exercise a try. Just take 5-10 minutes per day, with only 2-3 new vocabulary words, and write out various sentences using these vocabulary words. Really CHALLENGE yourself to come up with creative sentences, and be persistent in your practice.