Learning vocabulary as one big long list of new words can be daunting and is often not that effective. So how can you make it easier for yourself? Read on for Ten Top Tips:
1. Flash cards – these are one of the more traditional ways of learning vocabulary, but they are still really useful. All you do is put the word that’s being studied on one side and the definition on the other.
2. Write and put stickers on the items around your home – this is a really simple idea and helps you fix the words for everyday items in your house into your memory.
3. Write it on your hand – this is good for words that will not stick in your head. Just write the offending word on your hand so you can look at it frequently throughout the day.
4. Add pictures to the words – learning with visual aids is a great way to fix them in your mind. So, say you are learning the word bus, simply write the word on or next to the picture so each time you look at the picture you see the word too.
5. Association – this is much like the previous point, but you use an image in your mind to remember the word you are trying to learn. You should try to make the image something funny, if you can manage it.
6. Learn in pairs – for example beautiful and ugly, hot and cold.
7. Add a movement to the word – this is another way to fix words in your mind, hopefully the movement will allow you to remember the word more easily.
8. Repetition – repeating words over and over is a well-known and effective way for you to move them from your short-term to your long-term memory.
9. Learn in context – research shows that people learn words from their context. So, if you can, put the word into a sentence and use it that way.
10. Play word games – the internet has given us the opportunity to play many language learning games, so take advantage of these and have some fun at the same time.
