Note: I'm using the term 'phrase' to refer to 'a group of words' (not an expression or idiom).
When I studied foreign languages at school, we were mainly taught vocabulary as a list of individual words with a translation of their meanings. The problem with learning a list of individual words is that you don't learn how to use them in a natural way, and you find yourself translating word by word from your own language.
The alternative is to study phrases that native speakers have produced. I was happy to see that the first comment (by 'boburShox') below this lesson was a list of good phrases that I used in my essay. The individual words are easy to understand, but you can learn a lot by analysing the way I put them together.