The Best Way to Learn Vocabulary -- Permanently!

[OxfordBlues]

Have you ever spent hours learning new vocabulary but found days later that you had forgotten the words? Maybe you see something and you can remember learning the word, but you just can't remember what the word is. You can almost see it, you just can't quite access it in your mind...

The situation described above is very common among language learners. The challenge with learning vocabulary is that for it to be effective, you have to learn new words in the same way that your mind uses those words.

Active versus Passive Learning

There are two primary ways of learning vocabulary. These are known as active and passive learning. In active learning, vocabulary is learnt through memorization of lists in which a set of words is repeated over and over again in the hopes of remembering it permanently.

The second way of learning new vocabulary is called Passive Learning. With passive learning, words are not learnt as part of a list, but rather gradually acquired through usage. In other words, the new word is learned as the thing it refers to is used or the activity performed.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both systems. Active learning is beneficial in situations in which an abstract concept is to learnt or when there is not a chance to see or use a certain thing everyday. The downside of active learning is that retention is low. This means that while a student may spend 5 hours learning a set of words, even to the point of being able to recite them from memory, that chances of the student correctly remembering that vocabulary hours or days later is not very likely.

Label Everything

when opportunity exists to use or see the thing for which vocabulary is being learnt, passive learning is most effective. An added benefit is also that passive learning takes almost no effort. There are no hours of writing, no lists to memorize, and no hours spent at a desk mumbling random words to oneself.

Learning vocabulary passively is very easy. Simply label everything you want to learn the word for.

Look around the room you are sitting in at this moment. Do you know the word for every single thing in that room? Sure, you probably know the words for wall and floor and door, but do you know the name for the thing you use to open the door? (doorknob). You probably know the word window, but do you know the word for the flat piece at the bottom of the window (sill) or the word for the individual pieces of glass (panes)?

If you are tired of trying to speak the language you are learning but always missing the vocabulary you need, there is a solution: Label everything around you. Go to the store and buy a packet of simple paper sticky labels. Then go around the room and make a list of everything in the room in your native language (EVERYthing). Translate the names for those things into the language you are learning and write that word on the label. Place that label onto or near the object. Now, everytime you walk buy that object, pick it up, use it, etc you will see and read that word. Within a month you know the word for everything in the room, AND more importantly, you won't forget it!

This system works in many environments. Label your classroom, your office, everything on your desk, your kitchen, bathroom, the food in your refrigerator or cupboard, the inside of your car, or even the tools in your workshop.

The stickers may look funny and others may ask what they are for, but is there anything embarrassing about learning something new? Of course not!

Logical Sets

Sometimes active learning is the best option. This is particularly the case when you font have the opportunity to use, feel, see, or touch the things everyday. There is one way to make active learning more effective. That way is to learn vocabulary as part of logical sets. Logical sets are groups of words that are directly related to each other. They can be part of a similar group, or single parts of a mechanism that forms a whole (like the parts of a computer). They can be things of the same colour, or things that smell the same, whatever you like. Different learners may group things differently into what they consider logical sets. The important thing is simply that the words being learned can be learned based on the way you use them in real life. These sets should be small enough to be easily memorized and easily repeated. Some examples of logical sets are:

meat: beef - pork - mutton - venison

Poultry: chicken - turkey - duck - goose

Seafood: fish - shrimp - crab - oyster

Tree: oak - pine - maple - palm

Good grammar is of little use without enough vocabulary to feel comfortable using it. Experiment. Find the system or combination of systems of learning that works best for you, and use it!
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[Kitosdad]

I do agree with you Drew that passive learning is a more effective and lasting method of remembering vocabulary.

The cost of a packet of adhesive labels is very quickly repaid in your recalling all of the items that you see in your daily waking hours.

It also has the effect of increasing your confidence in leaps and bounds.
Words that you might have had difficulty in recalling using the active method come easily to mind when you are seeing them all day.

Try this method ... it won't be long before you are looking for new things to stick labels on.

ps. You will just have to remember "smoke." LOL.

Kitos.
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