LEARN AND REMEMBER VOCABULARY LONGER? IT IS VERY EASY!

Learning vocabulary is a very important part of learning a language. The more words we know, the more we will be able to understand what we  hear and read; and the better we will be able to say what we want to when speaking or writing.

Which words to learn
Every day we hear or read many new English words. We also find them in our dictionary when we are translating from your own language. However, we can’t possibly learn all these new words, so our first problem is to decide which ones to concentrate on. Here are some suggestions:
   • learn the words that are important to the subjects we are studying
   • learn the words that we  read or hear again and again
   • learn the words that we  know we will often want to use ourselves
   • do not learn words that are rare or not useful (our teacher can help us with this)
How to learn words
Once we have chosen which words to learn, we next have to decide how you are going to learn them. Here are a few ideas:
   • write the words in a notebook (with their translations or definitions)
   • write the words and definitions on small cards
   • say the words many times (if we have an electronic dictionary we can hear how the word is pronounced)
   • put the words into different groups (we could use a graphic organiser)
   • write them in a file for use with a computer program
   • make associations (in pictures or with other words)
   • ask someone to test us
   • use the words in our own speaking or writing
   • study the words with different situations and sentences
Learning for vocabulary tests
We have just known general advice on how to learn the words that we  have chosen. Often, however, we will be given a set of words by our teacher and told to learn them for a vocabulary test. In this case we need to be sure exactly how we will be tested because this will influence how we learn the words. There are several ways that the teacher might test our vocabulary learning, but the ways are broadly divided into two categories:
   • We will be given the word and have to:
        o write a definition
        o use it in an example sentence
        o translate it into our language
   • We will be given:
        o a definition
        o a gapped example sentence
        o the translation in our language
                                               and we  have to write the English word.
Learning vocabulary by reading
The way we learned very many of the words in our own language was by meeting them in the books and magazines. The context of a new word in a sentence or story was often enough for us to guess its meaning. Meeting the word again and again in our reading helped us learn it for use in our own speaking and writing. Doing lots of extra reading for pleasure is an excellent way to learn new English words, too. But we should choose easy books. Difficult stories or texts that we struggle to understand will not help us to develop our vocabulary naturally.
Things to know about the words we learn
The first things we usually do when learning about a new English word are what it means and its translation in our own language. But there are other things we need to find out before we can say that we  know a word like a native speaker does. For example, we have to learn:
    • how it is spelled
    • how it is pronounced
    • how it is inflected (i.e. how it changes if it is a verb, noun or adjective)
    • other grammar information about it
    • how it collocates (i.e. what other words are often used with it)
    • if it has a particular style or register
    • the context in which it is most likely to be used
Native speakers learn these things about words by hearing them and reading them again and again. This is the best way for us to learn them, too.