The Ten Best Vocabulary Learning Tips

Vocabulary Learning Tip One: Read, Read, Read! Most vocabulary words are lea
rned from context. The more words you're exposed to, the better vocabulary you w
ill have. While you read, pay close attention to words you don't know. First, tr
y to figure out their meanings from context. Then look the words up. Read and li
sten to challenging material so that you'll be exposed to many new words.
Vocabulary Learning Tip Two: Improve your context skills. Research shows tha
t the vast majority of words are learned from context. To improve your context s
kills pay close attention to how words are used. Doing a search on a word using
dejanews.com (for searching newsgroups) will give you many examples of how that
word is used in context. Play our Daily Context Vocabulary Quiz.
Vocabulary Learning Tip Three: Practice, practice, practice. Learning a word
won't help very much if you promptly forget it. Research shows that it takes fr
om 10 to 20 repetitions to really make a word part of your vocabulary. It helps
to write the word - both the definition and a sentence you make up using the wor
d - perhaps on an index card that can later be reviewed. As soon as you learn a
new word, start using it. Review your index cards periodically to see if you hav
e forgotten any of your new words. Also, do a search on a word using dejanews.co
m (for searching newsgroups) to get many examples of how the word is actually us
ed.
Vocabulary Learning Tip Four: Make up as many associations and connections a
s possible. Say the word aloud to activate your auditory memory. Relate the word
to words you already know. For example, the word GARGANTUAN (very large) has a
similar meaning to the words gigantic, huge, large, etc. You could make a sequen
ce: small, medium, large, very large, GARGANTUAN. List as many things as you can
that could be considered GARGANTUAN: Godzilla, the circus fat lady, the zit on
your nose, etc. Create pictures of the word's meaning that involve strong emotio
ns. Think "the GARGANTUAN creature was going to rip me apart and then eat me!"
Vocabulary Learning Tip Five: Use mnemonics ( memory tricks). For example, c
onsider the word EGREGIOUS (extremely bad). Think EGG REACH US - imagine we've m
ade a mistake so bad that they are throwing eggs at us and a rotten EGG REACHes
US. Such funny little word pictures will help you remember what words mean, AND
they are fun to make up. Also, find out which learning style suits you best. Eve
ryone learns differently!
Vocabulary Learning Tip Six: Get in the habit of looking up words you don't
know. If you have a dictionary program on your computer, keep it open and handy.
America Online and other internet services have dictionaries and thesauruses on
their tool bars. Find them and look up any word you are not absolutely sure of.
Use a thesaurus when you write to find the word that fits best.
Vocabulary Learning Tip Seven: Play with words. Play Scrabble, Boggle, and d
o crossword puzzles. These and other word games are available for the computer,
so you are not dependent on a partner to play. Also, try out the Franklin Electr
onic Dictionary that features built-in word games.
Vocabulary Learning Tip Eight: Use vocabulary lists. For the serious vocabul
ary student, there are many books that focus on the words most commonly found in
standardized tests, such as the SAT and GRE. There are also many interesting wo
rd sites on the Internet, many of which will send you a word a day by email.
Vocabulary Learning Tip Nine: Take vocabulary tests. Playing games, such as
the ones on this site, that test your knowledge will help you learn new words an
d also let you know how much progress you're making. Offline sources for vocabul
ary tests include SAT prep books (we recommend "10 Real SATs" by ETS), and the R

eader's Digest Wordpower section. For more, check out Amazon.com or your local b
ookseller.
Go Play Our Vocabulary Games
Vocabulary Learning Tip Ten: Get excited about words! Come to appreciate the
sometimes-subtle differences between them. Do you know the difference between s
omething that denotes something else and something that connotes something else?
If not, go look it up. Learn to say what you really mean and discover the joys
of being able to express yourself in writing. Your future can depend on how rich
your vocabulary is. A good vocabulary will make a difference on the standardize
d tests, like the SAT and GRE, that could determine whether or where you go to c
ollege. It will also determine the quality of your communication. So be in it fo
r the long pull. Let building your vocabulary be a lifelong proposition. Remembe
r: "In the beginning was the word." Until you have a word for something, it does
not exist for you. Name it, and you have made your reality richer.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Aaron KnightAaron Knight

Aaron Knight is the founder of PhraseMix which aims to help you speak English mo
re naturally and confidently. He also taught English in Japan.
Never learn a single word by itself. Learn groups of words that

travel together.

For example, instead of memorizing the word flock , memorize the phrase a flock of s
heep . Instead of remembering the verb occur , remember the phrase if any problems occ
ur .
When you remember phrases instead of single words, you ensure that you know how
to actually use the word in at least one sentence.
Albert WolfeAlbert-Wolfe
Albert Wolfe is the author of various books. Among them: Chinese 24/7: Everyday
Strategies for Speaking and Understanding Mandarin. He also teaches English at t
he Peizheng College in Guangzhou, China and runs the blog Laowai Chinese.
It s true that vocabulary is the concept that gets the most attention by language
learners.
My theory is that it s the concept / element we most easily relate to because it s t
he one thing we can remember doing (and indeed are still doing) for our first la
nguage.
But very few people remember much about learning the pronunciation or grammar of
their first language, for example.
So if I had to give one vocabulary learning tip, it would be:
There s just no way around memorizing a bunch of words. So put the words where you l
l see them as often as possible: on a wall, in a notebook you carry around, on y
our computer desktop, etc. That way you can get in more review reps and memorize t
hem more easily.
Andr KleinAndre-Klein

Andre Klein, born in Germany, is the writer behind the great Learn Out Live blog
and several books on how to learn German like: Learning German Through Storytel
ling.
There are many methods for learning vocabulary, and every learner should experim
ent with a variety of approaches to see what comes most naturally. The most impo
rtant part is not fall into a grind, but to find a method one is comfortable wit
h.
For some people, using flashcards will work best, while for others writing down
new words or using a vocabulary trainer app will do the trick.
My personal favorite however is learning languages through creative storytelling
.
By reading engaging stories (aimed at the student s level) language learners can b
egin to build emotional and sensory contexts around new vocabulary.
Instead of just studying isolated words by rote, new vocabulary can be memorized
quicker and deeper because it is linked to characters, places and relationships
, just like in real life.
To find out more about this approach, take a look at my article Your Brain On St
orytelling: Foreign Language Learning Through Stories.
Anne Merrittanne-merritt
Anne Merritt is an EFL lecturer who s currently based in South Korea. She writes a
bout language learning for the Telegraph and her writing has been featured on CN
N.
If there s one tip I have for learning vocabulary, it s to study it in context. We d
on t communicate using individual words, we communicate with phrases and sentences
.
Language students, especially independent learners, will often flick through voc
abulary flashcards or flashcard apps to learn new words.
These cards are a great tool, but they re not enough on their own. A student could
learn hundreds of new vocabulary items, but none of that matters if they don t kn
ow how to apply those words in different contexts.
When you learn a new word, look at its place in the sentence, and look at the wo
rds that typically appear with it. Look for patterns.
Is the context usually formal or casual?
Written or spoken?
Is the word typically used for one topic only?
If it s a word you don t know, look at context clues to try and deduce meaning.
Building your context deduction skills is an invaluable asset in a language lear
ner. Once you ve learned the word, try and use it in a few sentences.
When I was a child learning French, my teachers were strict about never giving o
ne-word answers. It was an exercise in politeness as well as sentence-building.
It was never No , but instead No, I don t like bananas
t.

or No, I haven t seen that movie y

Back then, it felt rigid and unnecessarily mechanical. Now, I can understand and
appreciate what those teachers were doing. Now, when I speak French, I don t have
to think twice about applying vocabulary, because using it in context is now se
cond nature.
Anthony MetivierAnthony-Metivier
Anthony Metivier is the author of several books about memorizing vocabulary by u
sing his Magnetic Memory Method. He s also the man behind the How to Learn and Mem
orize the Vocabulary of Any Language video course. He holds a BA and MA in Engli
sh Literature, an MA in Media & Communications and a PhD in Humanities.
Imagine the following two scenarios, if you will.
John is using index cards to learn foreign language vocabulary. He sits at his d
ining room table with a dictionary and fills out word after word on card after c
ard.
He carries these cards around with him and occasionally gets around to looking a
t them on the bus as he goes about his life.
Sometimes John uses spaced-repetition software. These feed him the same words ag
ain and again until he guesses them correctly. Sometimes John gets them right beca
use he s learned them, but this is rare.
When John fails, the spaced-repetition software puts the words he hasn t memorized
into a loop and hammers them at him again and again until he either gets them o
r gives up.
It s all rather tedious.
Now let s visit Tracy.
She s a bonnie lass with many of the same experiences as John. She s filled out inde
x cards and spent hours using them when studying her dream foreign language.
She actually likes spaced-repetition programs because they give her greater expo
sure to her dream language and when she takes the time to program the software,
she can study entire phrases.
The difference between Tracy and John is that Tracy also uses her mind in a comp
letely different way, a way that increased her fluency a hundred fold.
Instead of sitting at the kitchen table with a dictionary and index cards all th
e time, Tracy often curls up with her dictionary on the couch. She uses a comple
tely different memorization strategy, a Memory Palace technique based on Ars Mem
orativa or mnemonics.
It allows her to absorb words into her mind by drawing upon her past experiences
, places she s familiar with and by exercising her expansive creativity.
This practice also makes her more creative as a result, not to mention far more
fluent than John will likely ever be.
If there is one recommendation for language learners that I have, it s to learn a
dedicated memorization strategy that uses some form of mnemonics and steers clea
r of rote learning as a stand-alone method.
I recommend Memory Palaces for reasons I detail at length in my books and my vid

eo course.
Ben WhatelyBen-Whately
Ben Whately is the community manager and chief-assistant-to-all-content-creators
of Memrise.
The key when learning a new piece of vocab is to engage with it. To think about
it.
Once you have actually thought about a word, given your mind a way to engage wit
h it and to put it into some sort of context
even an imaginary one
your brain ha
s got something to grip onto and can remember it.
The trouble with learning new words in a foreign language is that you don t have a
ny context to link it to. So you need to find a way to make some context. Findin
g English words that sound a bit like the foreign word can be a huge help
the si
llier, the more ridiculous the better. That is a mnemonic.
As you become more advanced in the language, your store of context within that l
anguage will grow, and you won t need to use such elaborate mnemonics. You may fin
d that sample sentences in the foreign language become more useful to you.
Mnemonics and sample sentences are both examples of mems . Mems are anything that h
elps you to put a new word into a context, and make it more than an abstract pie
ce of vocabulary.
Using Mems is my best recommendation to learning lots of vocab, fast!
Benny LewisBenny Lewis
Benny Lewis runs the biggest language-learning blog on the web: Fluent in 3 Mont
hs. He s also the guy behind the Speak from Day 1 package. He speaks 11 languages
including American Sign language.
Ask a native speaker what the word is, keep talking to them for practice, an opp
ortunity to use the word will come up and you ll have forgotten it, and then when
you get reminded of it, the embarrassment will burn the word into your memory!
While it s true that flashcard studying in the app Anki, very useful mnemonics giv
en on Memrise.com, and lots of reading in more advanced stages can be effective
and how I acquire most of my vocabulary, the first example is the one method tha
t has burned the word into my mind for good every time.
Get out and practice with people!
Camille Chevalier-KarfisCamille-Chevalier-Karfis
Camille (together with her husband Olivier) runs the website French Today where
she blogs and offers a series of products and services to help you learn French.
She has been teaching French for 19 years.
I am a big fan of

smart

flashcards.

On one side, write the English word, just as a backup, and to test yourself. On
the other side, write the word, then the word in a short sentence.
Make the sentence close to home - use real people / facts in your life, it will he
lp your brain remember it better.
Then write everything there is about that word, in singular and plural with arti

cles, synonyms, notes of pronunciation (specially liaisons or glidings), flags (

like j attends doesn t mean I attend
je vais un concert), anything you can think of.
I also think that for beginner and intermediate students at least, working with
audio is essential since French is not pronounced the way it is written.
A student who learns French to one day speak it (not only to read or to pass exa
ms) should train to understand street French , French like it s spoken today, and und
erstand the modern glidings and eaten up words (words that are so much glided that
they totally disappear in spoken French, like the ne of je ne veux pas.)
The audio you learn with should be using modern French, but at a level you can g
rasp: not too fast, yet doing the glidings, and using simple yet useful vocabula
ry and constructions.
Catherine Wentworthcatherine-wentworth-2
Catherine is the founder of the Women Learn Thai blog where she shares how she m
akes her way through the Thai language and culture. She lives in Bangkok.
It d have to be repetition.
Whether they use a strict SRS (Spaced Repetition System) or not, reading, writin
g, and repeating words out loud until they are set in memory is a simple but pow
erful way to learn new vocabulary.
Corinne McKaycorinne-mckay
Corinne McKay is a certified French to English translator. She s also part of the
Board of Directors of the American Translators Association, author of several bo
oks about translation and writes on her blog: Thoughts on Translation.
I would say: consider learning vocabulary through audio materials.
These days I update my French vocabulary by listening to podcasts and watching You
Tube videos, and I find that the new words stick with me a lot better!
David MansarayDavid-Mansaray
David Mansaray is addicted to learning and a strong believer in self-directed le
arning. He s shares his experiences and teaches you to (self) learn more effective
ly at DavidMansaray.com. He s currently pursuing the Big Self-Education Project wi
th which he aims to answer questions like: How much can one person learn without
going to an institution?
Trying to describe the world around me regularly in the language I m learning. Thi
s exposes gaps in my vocabulary and gives me ample opportunities for active reca
ll.
For example, I may try to describe what a man crossing the street is wearing. An
d then I ll ask myself:
Do I know the name for all his items of clothing in my target language?
Do I know all of the colors?
If there s a woman pushing a pram, do I know the word for pram in my foreign lan
guage?
When I m exposed to something I don t know I write it down and look it up later.
The possibilities for this method are endless. And it s one of my favorite ways fo

r learning and practicing vocabulary because I can do it at any time of the day
and all I need is something to write down new words to look up later.
Donovan Lee McgrathDonovan-Lee-McGrath
A lecturer, writer and researcher, Donovan Lee Mcgrath has taught Swahili since
1993. He s co-author of Colloquial Swahili: The Complete Course for Beginners and
was also included in the Black 100+ Portrait Exhibition of Britain s Most Influent
ial Black People.
I would have to say make the target language relevant (e.g. tag familiar things
around your home using the target language, which should also include such thing
s as shopping lists, etc.).
This should help to raise the language above the level of merely a code (another
way of saying something) to something that has relevance to the way you live.
Of course, you can t beat the old faithful index card system (selected words of th
e first language on one side with the equivalent in the target language on the o
ther ticking them off as you get them right), but you asked me for one example!
Flora Petersenflora-petersen
Flora Petersen is the Communications Manager of Babbel.com where you can learn a
host of languages online. Babbel has 17 million users.
For vocabulary learning there is not one single method. Indeed, there are as man
y ways as there are personalities in this world.
Embed your new language into your life and into your daily routine, not the othe
r way around! Vocabulary varies with the situations in which you find yourself.
This is why Babbel dedicates a special part of its courses to a vocabulary train
er section called words and sentences . You will find 3000 words with example sente
nces for practical application plus a further 1000 useful sentences for specific
everyday situations.
All you need to do is to find a pattern with which you can repeat your newly acq
uired words regularly.
Vary the situations and ways in which you review your vocabulary, write the word
s, listen to them, spell them, sing them, be creative and play with them! And ta
ke them out with you, which is all the easier with our handy apps.
Don t lock yourself in your room, as learning in such a way will be exactly what y
ou don t want it to be: dull and isolating.
Another tip: Be aware of yourself and your goals. Don t limit your studying to pre
conceived notions or set situations given by someone else.
What do you talk about in your native language? Saying something in your new lan
guage will become much easier once you really want to say it.
Your way of learning changes with your mood. Develop a sense of what works best
for you straight away.
And don t be afraid to make mistakes or to forget a word, as this is where interac
tive flashcards and the Babbel review manager will help you.
Idahosa NessIdahosa-Ness

Idahosa Ness is the creator of the Mimic Method and Flow Training. He teaches pe
ople how to sing, rap and mimic foreign languages with a perfect accent.
In my experience as a learner and teacher, the stronger one s mastery of the sound
s and flow of the language, the easier it is to pick up new vocab and expressions
through simple listening and interaction.
You can memorize an entire dictionary of vocab on paper, but that information is
useless if you can t recognize the sounds of those words in real speech or wrap y
our mouth around their articulation when trying to express yourself.
So for me the best method is to avoid the trap of turning language-learning into
a Vocab Easter Egg Hunt and focus on maximizing real life interactions with nat
ive speakers.
James HeisigJames-Heisig
James Heisig is the author of various books on Japanese and Chinese. Among them
the classic: Remembering the Kanji 1: A Complete Course on How Not To Forget the
Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters. He s also a philosopher in the field
of philosophy of religion.
Not being a language teacher, I can only tell you what I do: read, READ, READ.
And to be more specific: begin by reading children s books, and then pass on to th
e harder stuff.
John FotheringhamJohn Fotheringham
John Fotheringham is the man behind the blog Language Mastery. He s also the autho
r of various guides on how to master a new language.
There are many powerful techniques one can use to acquire vocabulary more effici
ently (e.g. spaced repetition, creative mnemonics, strong emotional connections,
etc.), but no matter the method, the key is to focus on learning vocabulary in
context.
Focus on topics and materials you enjoy, avoiding rote memory, non-contextual vo
cabulary lists, and flashcards with only single words. If you do use flashcards,
make sure they include complete sentences (preferably taken from authentic cont
ent you have heard or read).
Kerstin HammesKerstin-Hammes
Kerstin Hammes, a native German speaker, is a language tutor currently teaching
German, French and English both on and offline. She s also the woman behind the Fl
uent Language Blog.
My best vocabulary building method is to ask, check, find out
whenever you don t k
now a word and it keeps appearing, look it up because it s probably important.
When you re in the country, use everyone you meet as a potential tutor, try out ne
w words on them and make sure you know the local words for how do you say .
It doesn t build the most topical vocab, but it will associate most new words with
specific memories and makes them stickier.
When reading, listening or watching at home, learners should also make an effort
to look up new words.

Most of the time inferring from the context will do a decent job of teaching the
m the gist, but anyone who wants to expand their vocabulary should actively look
up more unfamiliar words, write them down and revisit them.
This doesn t require travel or even a native speaker.
Kevin ChenKevin-Chen
Kevin Chen is co-founder of italki. italki helps connect people learning foreign
languages with online teachers around the world. italki has roughly 1.5 million
users.
My favorite vocabulary building technique is storing new words that I encounter
from chatting with friends into an SRS program (like Anki).
What s hard for me is to learn new words out of context.
I used to download word lists of subjects that I aspired to learn (e.g. Business
Chinese ). However, I found that it s hard for me to keep up my motivation when it i
s pure memorization. SRS works, but only if you re motivated enough to use the SRS
program.
I still can t remember the Chinese words for liabilities . I think what s most importan
t is to learn words that you ll encounter over and over.
Some people like to get new words through reading, which is great. However, peop
le who are studying Chinese know there are non-trivial differences between writt
en Mandarin and spoken Mandarin.
At my Chinese level, reading a normal news article is still hard work
I have to
be constantly checking for abbreviations, dropped characters, proper names, and
unfamiliar sentence structures.
For my language level (intermediate Chinese), I find that chatting with friends
online or through my phone are the most interesting sources of new words. Words
that come up in conversations are generally words that I ll encounter again.
What I do then, is look up the new words in a dictionary (either Pleco on phone,
or MDGB on the web). I copy the definitions into either Anki on my laptop, or a
dd it to a flashcard on my phone. (If I m being studious, I also copy the full sen
tence where I ran into it.)
When I review the words, it s also a nice reminder of the conversations I ve had wit
h my friends.(I don t know if this will work for other people but it s the way I ve bee
n doing it.)
Lizzie FaneLizzie-Fane
Lizzie Fane studied Italian and History of Art at The University of Edinburgh an
d is the founder of ThirdYearAbroad.com, the UK s biggest network of students who
study or work abroad during their degree.
I have two recommendations if that s ok?
1. Language Immersion for Chrome. This neat little Google Chrome browser extensi
on means that you can pick your language and your immersion level, and it transl
ates individual words on the webpage you re reading.
When you mouse-over a word you don t know, it s translated back into English, so you

are subconsciously learning while you work/study!

2. Listen while you read. A cunning tactic is to listen to an unabridged audiobo
ok read in English, while reading the same book in a foreign language.
It really works!
I read Harry Potter e la Pietra Filosofale while listening to Stephen Fry readin
g the Philosopher s Stone, and I absorbed a huge amount of weird and wonderful wor
ds and expressions.
It s strangely effective!
Lucas KernLucas-Kern
Lucas Kern is the founder of Leicht-Deutsch-Lernen.com, where he offers several
products to help you learn German while having fun.
I have encountered many vocabulary-building methods and I think a lot of them ar
e great and very effective to a certain point.
And many of them seem to work in the beginning but then most language learners c
ome to a point that is really hard to overcome. And I think that is the main pro
blem.
You can use the best learning materials and the best methods but if you are not
motivated anymore
no method will work.
So I think a good vocabulary-building method is a method that keeps you motivate
d.
I create German vocabulary lessons myself and I try to focus on fun as a main fa
ctor to keep people motivated.
Lutz MartenLutz-Marten
Lutz Marten is Professor of General and African Linguistics and (co)author of va
rious books like Colloquial Swahili: The Complete Course for Beginners.
I don t think there is one right method.
I think it varies from learner to learner. And indeed for the same learner over
time.
You might be really excited about sticking little stickers on your furniture one
week and then get bored by it the next.
I personally used to use a little note-book which I d carry around everywhere and
write down new words, and nowadays it s easy to do on your phone or iPad.
And of course there is a lot of good learning support material, like audio mater
ial, flip cards, on-line tests, etc.
Having said this, I think the golden rule is, whatever the method, to spend some
time on language learning every day, even if it s just 20 minutes, rather than, s
ay, an extended session once a week.
Lynn McBrideLynn-McBride
Lynn McBride, is the author of: How to Learn a New Language with a Used Brain wr

itten especially for adult learners who want to successfully learn a new languag
e or revive a stalled effort. She also writes about life, living and cooking in
France on her blog: Southern Fried French.
Especially if you re a visual learner, a great way to improve vocabulary is by rea
ding and writing.
For reading, the fastest way to learn is to pick up a bilingual book. As you fin
d words you don t know, you can simply look at the translation on the facing page.
Writing is great because it forces you to use the dictionary and look up words
you re likely to need again.
Try writing a note to a friend, or recounting a story.
Also I keep an Ultralingua dictionary on my mobile devices. If I have a wait som
ewhere, I m happy just poking around in the dictionary or using the flash card app
.
Mark ThomsonMark-Thomson
Mark Thomson is a self-taught, fluent speaker of Russian (currently living in Uk
raine) and the creator of the online course Russian Accelerator, as well as the
chief consultant for the course Japanese Mastery Method.
The Five Steps For Learning Vocabulary
Step 1: Listen and repeat
You shouldn t be aware of the word s meaning. Just practice saying it. This mimics h
ow children learn: They hear words first, and deduce the meanings later. Unfortu
nately, most people s encounter with a new word will be with the meaning already a
ttached, as in: The Spanish word for beach is playa.
Step 2: Determine meaning from context.
The ideal is to learn all new words from the context of sentences in that langua
ge, but if you re a beginner, then you need to learn it from the context of an Eng
lish sentence (or whatever your native tongue is). Take the Russian word pivo . (So
unds like PEE-vuh )
Contextual phrases:
Coors and Heineken are my two favorite types of pivo.
In that bar, the only pivo they have on tap is Budweiser.
As children we figured out the meaning of virtually every word we know in this s
ame way.
Step 3: Create a mnemonic device.
For the word pivo,

I d use: Every time I drink BEER, I have to pee.

The above phrase has the English meaning (beer), and the start of our target wor
d ( pee which leads us to the word pivo. )
Step 4: Write the word onto a flashcard. By hand. On cardstock.
The physical act of writing helps in remembering. Also, put an X on the corner of
the card each time you get it wrong, to keep track of your progress. As you beco

me more advanced, your cards should include phrases featuring the most common co
nstructions of the language.
Step 5: Use the new word right away, even if it s the first word you ve learned in t
hat language.
Returning to our word pivo , imagine you re with a Russian friend in your kitchen. Ge
sture to the six-pack of Coors, then ask, Pivo?
Also, use it in whatever fundamental constructions you ve learned in that language
. For example:
I like pivo.
I don t drink pivo.
and so on.
These five steps are the ideal way to absorb new vocabulary in your target langu
age.
Martin BenjaminMartin-Benjamin
Martin Benjamin is the founder and executive director of the Kamusi Project, an
international effort to produce learning and lexical resources for languages wor
ldwide. He is a senior scientist at EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technol
ogy Lausanne. He taught Swahili for several years at Yale and Wesleyan Universit
ies.
The DIY is flashcards.
Make your own cards, work through them in batches, shuffle them, retire the ones
you know, once in a while pick up the ones you ve retired. This builds vocabulary
, but doesn t break you out of thinking in your own language first.
My favorite method is language exchange, e.g. a program here in Lausanne called
Tandem. You get together for coffee once a week, for an hour or so, with someone
who wants to learn/ improve in your language, and has the language you want to
learn.
You talk half the time in your language and half the time in theirs. As you spea
k, you are forced to dig deep in your memory for words you know you know.
At the same time, you realize there are words you need that you ve never encounter
ed so you can check with your partner, with the bonus exercise of trying to expl
ain the missing concept in the language you are learning, or look it up in a dic
tionary if neither knows.
When it is their turn, they will also have vocabulary issues, and you ll learn mor
e words by having to help them. It s a lot more effort to arrange tandems and bloc
k out the time, but conversation goes to the core of why you are learning a lang
uage in the first place.
Olle LingeOlle-Ligne
Olle Linge, a Swede living in Taiwan, runs Hacking Chinese, a website dedicated
to unveiling the mysteries of learning a language in general and about learning
Chinese in particular. He speaks three languages.
The ideal way of acquiring vocabulary at a rapid pace is to see the vocabulary i

n a context that can be understood (comprehensible input).

However, this isn t enough for most adult learners for two reasons.
It s hard to find suitable immersion material before you reach a level where n
ative material becomes comprehensible.
Most learners find it hard to spend enough time to make relying on reading a
nd listening only a viable strategy.
Enter: Spaced repetition software.
SRS allows you to retain a large number of words without spending too much time.
This increases our passive understanding of the language a lot and allows us to
gradually increase the amount of the target language we can absorb and therefore
also increasing the efficiency of our immersion effort.
So, in essence, I think reading and listening in combination with SRS is the bes
t way to expand vocabulary.
Then, gradually, once we have understood the words, they can be activated and in
crease our ability to use the target language to express ourselves in speaking a
nd writing.
scar PellusOscar-Pellus
scar is the founder of Unlimited Spanish, a system that aims to help you speak Sp
anish with confidence. He lives in Barcelona, Spain.
Most experts agree that a key process in learning a language is how we acquire v
ocabulary. The more words you understand in the target language, the better you ll
read, listen, write and speak.
There is a key idea that is very important to keep in mind: Your brain loves cont
ext . I will talk about it in a moment, but first let s take a look at a few differe
nt strategies for learning new vocabulary.
The first approach you might take for learning words is to make lists. Many peop
le do that. The main advantage of making lists of words is that it is easy to do
. However, there is a little drawback with this approach It simply does not work!
Lists are not usually so short they grow and grow and become huge
and the worst
of all, the words are weakly related to each other. A list of words does not pro
vide any context for your brain.
A better approach for learning vocabulary is to learn phrases instead of just wo
rds.
It s easy to create a picture in our minds when we see a phrase because something
is happening. The more vivid the image is, the better you will learn. And rememb
er, your brain loves context.
There are multiple advantages with this approach:
You can learn faster.
You can learn the correct word order from the beginning.
You can subconsciously learn grammar.
A good practice is to have a notebook of phrases. You can write down phrases you
want to learn and review them from time to time.Learning phrases is good, but t

here is an even better approach for learning vocabulary.

Instead of just being limited to phrases, learn words through stories, through t
exts.
Stories are built up of phrases, and therefore they have all the advantages I ta
lked about before, and the best of all is they provide a much richer context, be
cause many things are going on in the story.
This way your brain can learn in a more subconscious, natural and deeper way, ma
king it easier to write and speak the target language. You remember what I said
before, right?
Your brain loves context.
Pat WymanPat-Wyman
Pat Wyman is the founder and CEO of HowToLearn.com. She s also author of several p
opular books like: Vocabulary Made Easy: Learn New Words in HALF the Time! Her l
earning strategies are used in more than 2000 schools worldwide.
The best way to recall vocabulary is via pictures with association.
Neuroscience says this makes memory stronger and faster. If you connect a pictur
e of the word in your mind with what it reminds you of (ask the question
what do
es the sound of this remind me of?) then when you want to recall the word, you l
ook up and see the image and the connection of what it reminds you of.
For example, a Portuguese word Lago means lake. If you draw a log in a lake (lag
o reminds you of lake), then take a mental snapshot of it and look up during you
r test to recall the image, connected to the lake, you will recall that lago mea
ns lake.
Professor JabbaProfessor-Jabba
Professor Jabba, is the character that represents Jabbalab, where you can learn
German, French and Spanish online.
Ok, so if we could only recommend one vocabulary building method, it would be co
nversation.
Listening to, analyzing and most importantly taking part in conversations is the
quickest and most valuable way to expand your vocabulary.
The reason for this is the breadth of words used in conversation, as well as the
immediate understanding of how and when they are used.
In an ideal
he language
aluable. It
eart. These
our Double

World, you would have conversations with native/fluent speakers of t

you are learning, but even practicing with others learning is also v
s for this reason that our learning modules have animations at their h
animations are spoken by natives of that language and subtitled with
Translate method.

This method allows you to follow the language being learned and easily understan
d the words being used and how the sentences are structured.
The animations are always scripted in a conversational manner around specific to
pics. This allows you to not only learn the core vocabulary around a topic (e.g.
restaurants), but also supporting vocabulary that you would often experience in
those situations.

Samuel GendreauSamuel Gendreau

Sam is the writer behind the Lingholic blog where you can find lots of useful ti
ps on language learning.
You may be familiar with a post I wrote on the subject in the past.
Simply put, the method I would recommend the most is to learn through context. I m
especially drawn towards Luca s method. (See suggested post above.)
Simon AgerSimon-Ager
Simon Ager is the man behind Omniglot.com, the online encyclopedia of writing sy
stems and languages. The site was setup in 1998(!). He speaks 10 languages and h
as a BA in Chinese and Japanese and a MA in Linguistics.
I don t know if there is one particular method I could recommend as I tend to use
a variety of methods.
I tend to pick up a lot of my vocabulary from extensive listening and reading.
When I come across unfamiliar words I try to work out what they mean from the co
ntext. If that isn t possible I look them up.
I use associations to help me remember some words, and also find that knowing th
e etymology of words can be helpful.
Note: Simon has now updated his view on learning vocabulary.
Stuart Jay RajStuart-Jay-Raj
Stuart Jay Raj is a true jack-of-all-trades. He speaks over 12 languages and is
also a TV host and jazz pianist. He lives in Bangkok.
My answer would be for myself, I use any technique I can to extend the time I ca
n keep vocabulary in my short-term memory so that I can use it and understand it
and so that it can settle in my long-term memory.
In saying that , I personally use association, colors / emotions and the Major M
ethod in combination to extend the short-term memory shelf-life of new vocab.
Susana WaldSusana-Wald
Susana Wald is the author of Spanish for Dummies. She s also a translator and has
taught visual arts in Chile, Canada and Mexico.
In my experience while learning languages, vocabulary was possibly the biggest h
urdle.
My first language is Hungarian. My parents had to leave Hungary when I was 11. I
had to learn Spanish, English and French, almost simultaneously.
Now I speak them fluently. I write well in Spanish, somewhat less well in Englis
h.
I have a bad memory. Have had one all my life. Actually I remember many things, ev
en now that I m old, have good short-range and middle and long-range memories. But
rote learning, learning by heart, has been a huge hurdle for me, all my life.
I had no trouble picking up vocabulary in Spanish. My parents took me to Buenos

Aires: and I was immersed in Spanish. French and English were the problem.
I now think that the way I really picked up vocabulary in these two languages wa
s by constantly reading, very rarely going to a dictionary (in dead-end streets,
so to speak) and listening to others talk, in films, on the streets, when I was
able to travel and much later on TV.
I now live in a place where I have no chance to hear or speak Hungarian. I try t
o talk to myself in this language each night before I fall asleep. It is soothin
g and surprisingly, words that I couldn t remember suddenly appear.
I also read in Hungarian, buy books that interest me in that language, and that
amplifies my vocabulary too.
One exercise that I have created for myself from very early on is NOT to worry a
bout vocabulary, imagine situations in the language I wanted to practice and ins
ert the word I couldn t remember from another of the languages I knew.
When learning English, I simply inserted words in Hungarian.
Somehow, quite quickly, the sentences that in the beginning had many Hungarian w
ords in them began to change and were more and more often filled in by English o
nes, up to the point where I had the feeling that I was forgetting Hungarian.
Susanna ZarayskySusanna-Zaraysky
Susanna Zaraysky is the author of Language is Music and Travel Happy, Budget Low
. She has studied 11 languages and traveled to over 50 countries.
Music activates more parts of the brain than language does. So when you listen t
o a song or advertising jingle, you are more likely to recall the words from the
song or jingle than if you just read them or heard them spoken.
Find songs where the words are not sung very fast so that you can hear each word
distinctly. Mana for Spanish learners, is a good choice.
Find music that you like and that you can easily decipher and learn the lyrics o
f the songs. You can find song lyrics easily online at www.lyrics.com and other
websites.
Tim BewerTim-Bewer
Tim Bewer has written or co-written over two dozen guidebooks for Lonely Planet,
Moon Handbooks, and other publishers. He lives in Khon Kaen, Thailand where he
runs a tour company called: Isan Explorer.
Here is my vocabulary building tip, which I used to learn Thai, and am still usi
ng today to continue to improve.
I write all my new vocabulary words on a piece of paper that I always keep in my
pocket. I pull it out when I have any free time waiting in line at the store, r
iding a bus, standing in an elevator, etc. and use it to practice.
When I feel I am remembering the word well enough I write it in a notebook. I th
en use this notebook to review words, going through, usually, two or three pages
each day.
When I come upon a word that I have forgotten, I put it on the list in my pocket
again.

Tomasz P. Szynalskitomasz-szynalski
Tomasz Szynalski is one of the (two) creators of Antimoon, a website for learner
s of English as a second language. He also writes for the Antimoon blog.
Natural input
SRS (if you re an introvert)
Wiktor KostrzewskiWiktor-Kostrzewski
Wiktor Kostrzewski is the writer behind 16Kinds.com, a website on teaching yours
elf a language and guerilla language learning.
The only system worth recommending is one that works ahead of you, not against y
ou easy to set up, painless to access, flexible and intuitive.
That s true for all systems you re using.
In learning, another key thing is important: building on what you know already,
and reaching out for the next thing you need to learn
always being challenged, b
ut never too baffled by the challenge.
Finally, language learning and vocabulary: it helps to create a rich context for
the items you re learning audio, visuals, example sentences all help here, and sh
ould be available the moment you encounter, memorize and re-visit your item.
If I had to choose one thing that s out there today, it would have to be based aro
und Memrise
it ticks many of the boxes listed above, and despite its limitations
, it s good enough for vocabulary learning.
But I m always looking out for new and better things
and I know there are amazing
solutions out there that are just waiting to be unleashed!
William E. LinneyWilliam-E-Linney
William E. Linney is the author of the popular book Getting Started with Latin.
He offers additional Latin learning material for free on the accompanying websit
e and on Linney s Latin Class.
For me, the answer to that question has changed over the years.
At first, I thought it was rote memorization. Flash cards and such. Later, being
a student of Latin and ancient Greek (which are mostly learned in order to read
texts) I thought the answer was to read lots of texts and see the words over an
d over in texts.
Nowadays, however, I feel that the best way to memorize new vocabulary is to use
the word in spoken conversations.
Of course, it s good to study the word separately, away from the conversation, usi
ng a dictionary, or seeing it written in a text
those methods are indeed helpful
.
But ultimately, one should use the word in conversation, and hear others use it
in conversation.
That s my two cents worth.
YangyangYangyang

Yangyang is the CEO of Lang-8, a language exchange social network that has over
250,000 registered members.
Personally, I think remembering words with sentences or paragraphs is good way t
o learn vocabulary.
What a mammoth of a post!
A HUGE thanks to all contributors! Without you this wouldn t have been possible, o
f course.
Thanks to you, my readers, as well. If you consider this post as helpful as I do
, please share it with your friends.
That s it! You ve reached the end of the post. There s just one little thing left to a
sk:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------How can I remember words?

How can I memorize new vocabulary and make it
long-term memory? These are questions that nearly every language learner
ed him/herself at one time or another. Given that learning and remembering
ords is such a huge and important part of foreign language acquisition, it
make sense to learn about how to become better at it. It might be boring,
earning new words is simply unavoidable.

stick in my
has ask
new w
would
but l

You might remember my 12 tips on how to improve your memory that I wrote a few m
onths ago. In these posts I basically gave a bunch of useful tips to help dramat
ically improve your memory in the more general sense. I gave tips, among others,
on how to focus better, use mnemonics, use visualization techniques, eat health
ily, and so on. I would strongly encourage you to go through the 12 tips (even i
f you ve gone through them in the past, re-reading them is a good idea!), but toda
y I d like to provide you with some easy ready-made techniques used by many experi
enced language learners to remember words.
So today I ll provide you with four techniques that you can use right from today t
o jumpstart your vocabulary acquisition ability. The four techniques are as foll
ow: Using a Spaced Repetition Software (SRS), the Goldlist Method, the Luca Lamp
ariello Method, and the GoBillyKorean Method. Ready to dive in?
A Quick Word on Context
Before introducing the techniques I ve just mentioned, though, I need to make an i
mportant point that I believe is central to the acquisition of new vocabulary an
d the understanding of word meanings; that is, the importance of context. It is
my belief that context is at the very foundation of vocabulary acquisition, and
without it you will really make your life harder and things will be a pain in th
e neck to remember. Context, by the way, simply refers to the parts of a written
or spoken statement that precede or follow a specific word or passage. So, in o
ther words, what comes before and after a word.
Why is context so important when memorizing new words? Well, first of all, the m
eaning of words can change dramatically depending on context. Let s pretend for a
moment that you are learning English these days. How could you possibly memorize
the meanings of the verb get out of a word list? Get is one of those words in Engli
sh that has literally hundreds of definitions, and learning one out of those hun
dreds won t get you very far, and won t necessarily be that useful when you actually
come across that word in real life, but find out it is used to convey a very di
fferent meaning from what you learned. Here s an example sentence I borrowed from

John Perry s Structured Procrastination blog:

I got out
and began to
e office, and
y at the bank

of bed, got the paper, got myself some breakfast, got some coffee,
get dressed and to get ready for work. I got in the car, got to th
got to work. I got a lot done, and still had time to get some mone
and get a sandwich at the deli for lunch.

Do you get it? Now, if you were to try and memorize every single definition of t
he word get from the dictionary, you d still be working on it next year. Of course,
nobody tries to remember every meaning of that word. Instead, people learning En
glish usually come across the word in a text and first try to understand what it
means, and then they are usually made to memorize the two or three most common
definitions of the word. The remaining meanings will all be learned inductively
through context, without any deliberate effort on the learner s part to memorize a
nything.
Now, of course here I ve taken a somewhat extreme example, but the point is that w
ords rarely have only one strict meaning. This is Brain scanreally important to
understand. So learning a bunch of words from a list without having seen them us
ed in context before is, in essence, a bad idea. It s a bad idea not only because
countless studies on the human brain have shown that we remember things in conte
xt and not isolated facts, but also because given that words can have many meani
ngs, it s important to see them used in sentences to get a feel for how they are u
sed and how to plug these words ourselves in the sentences we make.
So with the techniques I m introducing here today, I would strongly encourage you
to make a conscious effort to remember words only after actually having come acr
oss them in a textbook/text/conversation/etc. If that is not possible, I encoura
ge you to use example sentences in the target language along with the translatio
ns, so as to provide some context to the words you are learning.
Alright, enough talking for now, let s take a look at the four methods right away!
Method #1: Using a Spaced Repetition SoftwareAnki logo
Spaced repetition is a learning technique that incorporates increasing intervals
of time between subsequent reviews of previously learned material in order to e
xploit the psychological spacing effect. That s a fancy way of saying that you rev
iew flashcards in progressively increasing intervals of time. So if you d try to r
emember the Chinese word for friend, pngyou (??), with a Spaced Repetition Software
(SRS), you would first review that word and have the options of re-reviewing it
right now, in 10 minutes, or four days later (this can be customized to your pr
eferences). Anki 1m 10m 4d intervals
The next time you d review it, you would have the option to review it a third time
thereafter with longer time intervals (for example, 10m, 5d, 9d, or 12d), and s
o on. So over a time period of a few months, you ll end up reviewing the same word
at least 4 to 5 times, which will ensure that the information will stick in you
r long-term memory. Repeating and reviewing are essential to memorization, and I
encourage you to go through the short blog post I ve written for more on the subj
ect.
Anki 10m 5d 9d 12d intervalAnki 10m 5.9m 1.0y 1.5y intervals

Anki Korean flashcardThe most well-known SRS is Anki, and it s the software I ve per
sonally been using for over a year to learn thousands of
new words and sentences with. It s free for your computer and for phones that run
on Android, but the Smartphone app costs $25 for Apple phones if I m correct. Anki

also has a web version, AnkiWeb, which is awesome because it lets you use your
flashcards on any device from anywhere around the world, and after every study s
ession it synchronizes all of your decks that you have installed on other comput
ers/devices, so as to keep them updated.
The way I d suggest using Anki would be to take words that you come across in your
studies, and write on one side the word in the target language, and on the othe
r side the definition (if you re an intermediate learner, try writing the definiti
on also in the target language), along with three to four example sentences. Dic
tionaries often provide good and relevant example sentences along with definitio
ns, but you can get them from anywhere, such as a blog, a movie, or a textbook.
Method #2: David James

Goldlist Method

Viktor D. HuliganovThe second method I will introduce today was developed by Dav
id J. James, an English accountant and polyglot better known under the pseudonym
of Viktor D. Huliganov. David named his method Goldlist, and the method is, to qu
ote him, all about putting back the long-term, unconscious memory into the learni
ng process. It does so by focusing on the pure enjoyment of writing out new words
and just liking the experience of touching those words with your minds in a rel
axed way, without pushing them on your memory. There is no need to rote learn or
memorize on demand.
If you re interested to read how the method works in full details, feel free to cl
ick here to read David s article in full. Otherwise, here s a summary of how the Gol
dlist method works:
You have to write words that you want to remember in a neat textbook along with
the translations in your native tongue (make two initial columns). Do not use a
computer, since handwriting is linked to tactile memory, which helps to solidify
newly-acquired information into your long-term memory. You have to write the wo
rds on the right hand side of the page in your own language or the language from
which you are learning the target language, and do 25 words at a time. You alwa
ys note the date you added the words to the list.
You always have to write in 20-minute chunks. After writing out the vocabulary s
et of 25, and reading it through aloud (a process which should take 20 minutes),
you should take a 10-minute break. Do not try to memorize the words you just wr
ote down. It s all about enjoying writing them down in a nice book with a nice pen
slowly and in pleasant comfortable surroundings. You can write a 25-word list o
nce a day/week or anytime you want, really, but David recommends not to do more
than about 10 such sessions a day (i.e. 250 words in a single day). If you get a
nywhere near that, make sure they are spaced out with other things going on betw
een them.
After no less than 2 weeks and no more than 2 months, go back to the list you wr
ote and read it through. Be honest with yourself and simply look for the words y
ou don t remember. The prediction, based on memory research and experiments done b
y German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus, is that up to 30% of the words will be
retained. You can then discard the words you remember (approximately 8) and wri
te the remaining 17 words you have trouble remembering on the right-hand side of
the same sheet you initially wrote your 25-word list on.
An actual gold list mature bronze book for Spanish
An actual gold list mature bronze book for Spanish.
Image attribution: http://huliganov.tv
You are looking to distil out the hard to learn expressions and obtain a concentrate
d list of distilled words that are the hardest for you to learn. After having re

peated this distillation process ten times with two weeks break in between each t
ime, you will have effectively memorized every single word in the list and they
will now be stored in your long-term memory. This sounds like a lot of time and
effort just to learn 25 words, but really it s simply a matter of re-reading the l
ist you initially wrote and finding out every time the 70% that you don t remember
, and re-writing them on the sheet.
Method #3: Luca Lampariello s Natural Approach to Remembering Words
Luca LamparielloLuca Lampariello is a highly successful language learner who spe
aks around 12 languages, and he approaches vocabulary acquisition in a different
way from many other language learners (see his article for more on that; his bo
ok will be released around late 2013). In fact, his approach is quite interestin
g because he actually does not try to remember words by making lists or any such
thing; memory, he says, does not work by using deliberate effort (something Dav
id James also talks about). If you constantly try to remember new words, you will
spend considerable amounts of mental energy just cramming information into your
short-term memory, information which will not be stored for a long period of tim
e. Usually, information stored in your short-term memory will not stick for more
than 2 weeks, on average.
As David James says, the reason many linguists believe that children under the a
ge of 5 or 6 learn languages so well is that they learn unconsciously. What happ
ens past that age is that an extra layer comes in as the child learns by then to b
e self-consciously learning. The child, by school age, is aware that it is now le
arning something and is making an effort to remember, not just being put through
life s algorithms passively, David explains. And so the short-term memory starts t
o come more and more into play, blocking the long-term memory function essential
to the easy learning of languages.
Besides not actively trying to memorize anything, Luca s method is also about lear
ning through context and using back-and-forth translation exercises. First and f
oremost, he strongly encourages people to learn through context (what he calls ki
ng in language learning) by reading as much as you can, and by being emotionally
engaged with what you are learning (i.e. something that you find really interest
ing and that you are passionate about). Finding a word in different contexts wil
l boost your capacity to remember words, he says, so reading as much as you can
is an excellent way to acquire vocabulary effortlessly in his opinion.
Additionally, in the second part of our interview on his way of learning languag
es, he talks about what he calls a back-and-forth translation method, in which he
reads a bilingual text (usually a dialogue) and tries to translate the sentences
back and forth into his native tongue. So after having initially read a text, h
e goes through it one more time in the target language, and this time, without l
ooking at the translation, he tries to translate the text back to his native ton
gue and then checks for mistakes. A few days later, he goes through his translat
ions and tries to translate them back to the target language. By doing so, he fo
rces himself to convey a message. His desire to say again what he read/heard in
a sentence helps him enormously to remember words. In fact, he says, the words st
ick as a consequence of wanting to say something, to convey a message.
So Luca s method emphasizes that memorizing new vocabulary will come naturally as
a consequence of being exposed to material in the native language, by being inte
rested and passionate by the content (and by learning a new language in itself),
and by wanting to convey a message and to express yourself in the target langua
ge. He will discuss his methods for learning languages much more in detail in hi
s book, which will probably be published by late 2013, so stay put!
Method #4: The GoBillyKorean Method
Go Billy Korean portraitBilly recently wrote a guest post on the blog in which h
e talked about his experience studying 5 languages. He made a YouTube video enti

tled How to Learn 50 Vocab a Day, and I thought I d share it with you since it s short
, concise, and funny, and it can be of help for those out there who are short on
time and need to learn a lot of words quickly. If you do choose to use this met
hod, I strongly encourage you to use vocabulary you have come across in context
and then write them down, rater than using just random word lists taken from a t
extbook. Once again, learning words removed from any context is, generally speak
ing, best avoided.
So here s Billy s video in which he explains his method:
Alright so that s it for today s post. I hope you will have found this useful for yo
ur own studies. I d really love to know how you go about memorizing new words. Are
you one of those who simply don t really pay that much attention to memorization?
Or are you actively trying to memorize a set number of words every day? Share y
our experiences with the community, I m sure your successes and failures can be of
huge help to many people!
By Sam Gendreau
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Simple Techniques For Helping Memorize Vocabulary
There are literally an innumerable amount of techniques you can apply when build
ing vocabulary. Flip through a couple of websites or forums about memory buildin
g and you re likely to find plenty of them. Some will work better for you than oth
ers, but you ll have to try them out and see how they work in practice. The follow
ing techniques, or some combination of them, are among the most effective I ve see
n.
1. Flash cards. Having been around for the longest time, almost everyone is fami
liar with flash cards. Surviving the test of time isn t an easy feat and they ve don
e it for good reason they re simply one of the best tools ever devised for memoriz
ing anything. With the advent of smartphones, flash cards (or the idea behind th
em) have become more useful than ever, allowing students to carry thousands of e
lectronic flashcards in their phone for use anytime they get a free moment. Flas
h cards are simple, inexpensive and proven effective, so make sure to take advan
tage of them when searching for tools to help your vocabulary building efforts.
2. Hear, echo and associate. When you first encounter a word, the first thing to
do is to listen intently at the right way of pronouncing it. Then, repeat it to
yourself loudly (you can whisper if you re in public and feel self-conscious). Mo
st people stop there and that s wrong
it s very easy to forget a vocabulary item if
you simply parrot it. You need to associate it to something that is meaningful t
o you. That way, the word has a personal meaning that makes it memorable, rather
than just being a bunch of syllables and sounds strung together.
3. Read more. Try to spend a lot of time reading in the target language. Start w
ith easy reading materials like product descriptions on e-commerce websites, sho
rt blog posts or Twitter timelines of native speakers. Once you get comfortable
with that, start reading longer materials, like magazine articles, newspapers an
d books. Doing so allows you to encounter words in different contexts, giving yo
u a better idea of how to use specific vocabulary elements in the language. Read
ing will also expose you to a lot of new language elements that you may not have
even encountered in your regular lessons. Try understanding their meaning from
context first before pulling out the dictionary and thesaurus.
4. Brute repetition. This isn t the most elegant technique, but you can t deny that

brute repetition works

people have been doing it to commit facts to memory since
time immemorial. It s especially useful for remembering hard-to-retain items, suc
h as words you rarely encounter in your readings and practice sessions. Frequent
vocal repetition of a word or phrase allows your mind to form a familiarity wit
h it (auditory memory), making it easier to recognize and recall when you need i
t later. You can also write words down repeatedly to establish a visual and lexi
cal context in your mind.
5. Form phrases and sentences with each vocabulary item. We suggest either writi
ng them down or recording them by speaking into a computer. Doing this allows yo
u to immediately practice using new words as you pick them up, forcing you to pr
ocess the words in a much deeper manner than you normally would just memorizing
them off of a page. Instead of just learning a word and its meaning, you work it
into a whole web of meanings.
6. Latching onto a key sound. Some words have prominent sounds or syllables that
are easy to recognize and easy to remember, especially in European languages li
ke French or Russian. You can use those notable elements to improve your memory
and recall of the word, associating the specific sound with the actual word. If
you like, you can also associate them with memorable hooks from songs, too doing
that works very well for a lot of people.
7. Using cognates. You can use cognates (two words in different languages that s
hare a similar meaning, spelling and pronunciation) to help lend additional cont
ext to new vocabulary items. Cognates are rarely the exact equivalent of the ori
ginal word in question, but the relationship and similarities will help you esta
blish a clear image for it in your mind. Do note that not all words that seem li
ke cognates are actual cognates. For instance, the words exit (English) and exit
o (Spanish) may appear the same, but one means to leave and the other means success
. This technique is especially useful for languages that share many similar words
, such as English and Spanish, where an estimated 30 to 40 percent of all words
are valid cognates. For languages that have little in common, like English and K
orean, the usefulness of this technique should prove a little less potent.
8. Diglot weave. In this technique, you insert the new foreign vocabulary item i
nto a sentence in English, substituting the foreign word in place of its English
equivalent. We suggest making at least four or five sentences for each new voca
bulary item
this should be enough to establish a meaningful context for it. Try
to create different sentences for every instance (declaratives, questions, comma
nds and others) to give yourself a decent sample variety.
9. Create lists. Put together two numbered lists. On one list, put the words you
want to remember. On the other, put their meanings or translations in your nati
ve language. You can write this out as a table or as two separate documents. Eit
her way, you can look at the lists periodically to study them, memorizing each i
tem until you re able to recall everything on cue.
10. Take vocabulary tests. I m a huge fan of taking vocabulary tests for learning
and recall. Problem is, these aren t as readily available as you d probably like. If
you can find them, though, they re incredibly useful for reinforcing your recall
of new words and phrases. I ve seen several websites offer crosswords and similar
vocabulary exercises in different languages
try using them to help in your own s
earch. Most language software also come with a load of practice tests and exerci
ses, so if you re using one, it s a good place to look.
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How to Remember Vocabulary
By Andrew Weiler August 23, 2011 Learning Vocabulary, Memory, Podcasts 6 Comment
s
inShare
How to remember vocabulary is a question that virtually all learners I have come
across try to solve by drawing up vocabulary lists usually translations in their
mother tongue next to each word. Then these very same students come up to me an
d say My memory is so poor, I can t seem to remember the words. There is an excelle
nt reason for that and that is because they are using the wrong method.
Imagine trying to hammer a nail into a piece of wood using your hand alone. Sur
ely after not too long you would be saying you can t do it! The secret is the too
l or method. Use the wrong one, like a hand, a spoon or virtually anything but
a hammer and you will get nowhere fast. The secret is the right tool.
Don t get me wrong, it is not your fault that you are using the wrong tool. If you
look in most language learning books, exercises, language classes you will find
that it is even recommended that you should learn your vocabulary using lists.
In fact, why not work at memorizing 10, 20 words a day in that way! Well many p
eople do that and most with poor results.
Most students persist with this method of remembering vocabulary and may even be
successful and memorise them, but then how does one get memorized lists of word
s into one s WORKING vocabulary. That is not often talked about just assumed that o
nce you memorise them, bingo, you will be able to use them. Well, for the vast
majority of people that is far from the truth!
Of course, there are those students that this works for but I suspect very few.
And the few that it works for they are, I am pretty sure, doing something else,
possibly unconsciously, to enable this to happen. I will not pursue this right
here as to what they might be doing, but by all means if you are one of them an
d you are aware of what you do, I would be very pleased to hear from you.
So what is a good method? To understand that, we need to have a fundamental und
erstanding how our brain works. I will not be talking here about the neurons, t
he synapses etc. Instead I will be reflecting here on commonsense understandings
we can all come to, based on our experiences. You will find that there is in f
act a lot of research to substantiate what I am about to share.

In life, we do not usually set out to remember things but we do. When we walk d
own the street and see a butcher in a shopping area close to where we are now st
aying, if we are interested in cooking or we have been asked to buy some meat, w
e will put that into our memory. We make no real effort to memorise, but we do
put it into our memory. How? By linking it to our needs, what is important to u
s now, or what think might be important to us later. I am sure that there are m
any people who would walk past the same butcher and not even notice it. Why? Be
cause it has no value or interest to them at that point in time.
Here is a very important key, that is overlooked. Memory works best when we are
dealing with things that are important to us, there and then. The second thing
to note is that there were links made to our life, to what was already in our b
rain. From all the research we know that memory works best when the new item is
hooked in to what we already know. So the more the hooks, or the links, the mo
re likely that we are going to recall the item and the more personal and immedia
te are the links, the more chance we are going to remember it.
So let s give you an example. For argument s sake, say you want to learn the meaning
of bottle . Note, I didn t say memorise. Well, lets say you came across it in a pi
cture dictionary, or an article and you looked it up in your dictionary
for now
, let s say a bilingual one.
You see the word or the picture of bottle and you will immediately know the mean
ing, but how will you retain the meaning of that word or how will you avoid forget
ting it or how will you put it into your working memory.
The trick is to put it into your life, into sentences in the language you are le
arning. If you use your mother tongue, you will be asking your brain to do gymn
astics of the kind that are difficult. Remembering words in two languages at th
e time you are speaking one is difficult, and this is because different language
s occupy different parts of the brain. So when you speak one, stay in the one yo
u are speaking.
Ideally write 3 sentences, each of which are personal, the more feeling, or memo
ries they evoke in themselves the better they will be.
# My new shampoo comes in a lovely blue bottle.
# I dropped a bottle of milk yesterday and my sister got angry with me.
# That bottle of perfume that my wife just bought has a gorgeous scent .
Compare these sentence to The bottle is on the table. There is no personal eleme
nt, does not appear to evoke anything and in fact is a dreadfully dull sentence.
So this is the kind of sentence you need to avoid creating or using.
This process might seem cumbersome at first ( and it is for a time! ) but once y
ou get the hang of it, you will learn to do it so fast that you will be hardly a
ware that you are doing it.
Another reason why this works well, is that you have mobilized your brain to get
the new language involved in your life. AND you have been forced to make sente
nces, hence you have made linguistic contexts for the new words. Can you see no
w why it is much much more likely that once you have done this, you will never f
orget the word in question, or if you do, it will only be a temporary lapse. And
because you have placed it into a linguistic context, you have also strengthene
d the language you are learning at the same time. Now isn t that a bonus.
There are clearly other issues in how to remember vocabulary in an effective way

but this technique I have just shown you will transform your mnemonic skills.
That is of course if you utilize the technique and persist with it! For a more i
n depth look at how this can work and fit into your overall strategies in learni
ng a language, do check out my recently released book, Language Learning Unlocke
d.