Learning a new language isn’t just about listening to and repeating words and phrases once or twice. It can be hard to memorize words, even just in the short term. Making sure your vocabulary sticks around for the long term so that you can easily access just the word you’re looking for takes a lot of practice and repetition.
We want to give you some proven tools that will help you lodge a word in your memory. We shared some of these methods with you previously; let’s now look at some more methods that could be useful to you. Be sure to play around with different methods; some work better for certain learners than others.
1. Learn new words with pictures
When we introduce new words in our vocabulary flashcards, we include an image with it conveying its meaning. Studies have shown that seeing a new word as text plus a picture conveying the meaning of the word is best for learning. If you are trying to do this on your own with new vocabulary, look up some images online that are related to the words you’re trying to learn. Paste them into a document with your word list, so that you’re viewing both the word and the associated image at the same time. This will aid long term retention.
2. Use the keyword method with picture or semantic associations
In addition to relying on images that convey the meaning of the word, it might also be useful to come up with an image in your mind that you associate with the word. A proven mnemonic method for retaining vocabulary is to think of an image that sounds like a word and then link that image in your head (or on paper) to the English equivalent. An example would be the Spanish word perro (dog): “perro” sounds a bit like the English word “pear,” so if you imagine a dog eating a pear, you are likely to retain the word “perro,” even with this bizarre and silly image in your head.
You can also think of an English word that is semantically related to the word you are trying to learn: imagine you are trying to learn the word Küche, which means kitchen in German. If you think about the English word cook, it will be a clear pathway to remembering and recalling the word Küche.
Keywords are good for receptive knowledge (i.e. understanding the word) but repetition is essential for being able to call up the word when you need to use it. Also, be sure to choose a keyword that is easy to imagine: a concrete object for instance, rather than an action. (Ellis, N. C., & Beaton, A. (1993). Factors affecting the learning of foreign language vocabulary: Imagery keyword mediators and phonological short-term memory. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 46A, 533-558)
3. Take your time and spread out your studies
If you distribute your practice of new vocabulary over a longer period of time, introducing the new word over and over again in new contexts, you are more likely to retain that word than if you were to practice it the same amount of time over a shorter time period. This is called the spacing effect.
You can use the spacing effect in your own studies; if you’re using flashcards (be they digital or paper) to study new vocabulary, take some of the key words you are trying to learn and slip them into a deck for later study. When they come up again at a later time in a new context, it will aid retention. (In the Living Language online course, you can accomplish this by spacing out review sessions in which you “shuffle” the cards in the “all vocabulary” flashcard deck.)
With practice and experimentation, you’ll find the method that works best for you.