Last week we started giving you some general tips for learning a new language in the new year. Let’s continue with some tips for learning vocabulary.
You obviously need to learn new words in order to speak a new language. Even though that may seem straightforward compared with learning how to actually put those words together in sentences, it’s really not as simple as it appears. Memorizing words is difficult, even just memorizing words in the short term. But long term memorization takes a lot of practice and repetition. You won’t learn vocabulary simply by reading through the vocabulary lists once or twice. You need to practice.
There are a few different ways to “lodge” a word in your memory, and some methods may work better for you than others. The best thing to do is to try a few different methods until you feel that one is right for you. Here are a few suggestions and pointers:
1. Audio Repetition
Fix your eye on the written form of a word, and listen to the audio several times. Remind yourself of the English translation as you do this.
2. Spoken Repetition
Say a word several times aloud, keeping your eye on the written word as you hear yourself speak it. It’s not a race – don’t rush to blurt the word over and over again so fast that you’re distorting its pronunciation. Just repeat it, slowly and naturally, being careful to pronounce it as well as you can. And run your eye over the shape of the word each time you say it. You’ll be stimulating two of your senses at once that way – hearing and sight – so you’ll double the impact on your memory.
3. Written Repetition
Write a word over and over again across a page, speaking it slowly and carefully each time you write it. Don’t be afraid to fill up entire sheets of paper with your new vocabulary words.
4. Flash Cards
They may seem like elementary, but they’re effective. Cut out small pieces of paper (no need to spend a lot of money on index cards) and write the English word on one side and the new word on the other. Just this act alone will put a few words in your mind. Then read through your “deck” of cards. First go from the target (new) language into English – that’s easier. Turn the target language side face up, read each card, and guess at its meaning. Once you’ve guessed, turn the card over to see if you’re right. If you are, set the card aside in your “learned” pile. If you’re wrong, repeat the word and its meaning and then put it at the bottom of your “to learn” pile. Continue through until you’ve moved all of the cards into your “learned” pile.
Once you’ve completed the whole deck from your target language into English, turn the deck over and try to go from English into your target language. You’ll see that this is harder, but also a better test of whether or not you’ve really mastered a word.
5. Mnemonics
A mnemonic is a device or a trick to trigger your memory, like “King Phillip Came Over From Great Spain,” which you may have learned in high school biology to remember that species are classified into kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species. They work well for vocabulary, too. When you hear and read a new word, look to see if it sounds like anything – a place, a name, a nonsense phrase. Then form an image of that place or person or even nonsense scenario in your head. Imagine it as you say and read the new word. Remember that the more sense triggers you have – hearing, reading, writing, speaking, imagining a crazy image – the better you’ll remember.
6. Groups
Vocabulary should be learned in small and logically connected groups whenever possible. Most of the vocabulary lists in this course are already organized this way. Don’t try to tackle a whole list at once. Choose your method – repeating a word out loud, writing it across a page, etc., and practice with a small group.
7. Practice
Don’t just learn a word out of context and leave it hanging there. Go back and practice it in the context provided in this course. If the word appears in a dialogue, read it in the full sentence and call to mind an image of that sentence. If possible, substitute other vocabulary words into the same sentence structure (“John goes to the library” instead of “John goes to the store.”) As you advance through the course, try writing your own simple examples of words in context.
8. Come Back to It
This is the key to learning vocabulary – not just holding it temporarily in your short term memory, but making it stick in your long term memory. Go back over old lists, old decks of flashcards you made, or old example sentences. Listen to vocabulary audio from previous lessons. Pull up crazy mnemonic devices you created at some point earlier in your studies. And always be on the lookout for old words appearing again throughout the course.
Have your own tricks for learning vocabulary to add? Tell us and others about them in the forums!
