Ira S.

Critical thinking and self-awareness are two very important life skills to the strength of one's foundation as a human and as a learner. However, these are the most ignored skills or are not taught in a holistic manner, which makes it experiential learning. Every employer, while hiring, seeks a leader in every aspiring candidate, but most do not get the job because they neither know themselves properly nor can think critically. Both these skills reflect how emotionally intelligent one is and one's decision-making ability to navigate through complexities and achieve the best possible solution. 

Wide vocabulary skills can be obtained by reading intensively, which helps register vocabulary through imagination through various different contexts in which similar words are used but with different meanings, making a list of those words and practising them in daily life by creating sentences which can register those words.

One can acquire wide vocabulary skills by intensive reading and writing down new words(starting with just 5-8 words), referring to their meaning for different contexts from the dictionary and practising using them in writing and speaking by creating sentences. I feel writing is an essential part involved in this because it helps one think more in English which can help in speaking practice to a very large extent. Another important part required would be reading and immersing one's mind in language through imagination. Also, keep in mind paying attention to the contexts because in English a lot of words have two different meanings as per the context used. Meaning of the same words varies according to the context.