5 Essential Strategies for Remembering Vocabulary
Have you ever tried remembering specific words in English and your memory didn’t seem to help you? Or worse! Have you even considered that you may have a bad memory? Worry no more!
There are a few strategies that can help your mind retain the information that you need in order to master a new language. These techniques provide an easier way to exercise your brain and memorize even the hardest words in English.
1) Repetition is key
A lot of times we notice that there are bad songs’ lyrics or commercial mottos in our heads, even though we didn’t want to remember them in the first place. This happens especially because of the number of times we see this information. The bad song always plays everywhere: on the Uber driver’s radio, at the supermarket, on YouTube’s advertisements, etc. The mottos are constantly bombed in our heads through billboards, ads, TV commercials, web searches, and so on.
This proves a point: that the more you see the information the more your brain retains that specific piece of information. Knowing this fact, it is possible to think a great strategy to remember useful words in English, instead of only memorizing catchy songs’ random lyrics.
One technique is what I call the Board Strategy. For doing it, you need to have a little board or some sticky notes with you. Set some goals for yourself, such as learning three words a week. For these goals, start small and make it more challenging in proper time, increasing the number of words in the pace you are comfortable with.
Write down the words you want to memorize in this board/sticky note and leave it in a place you spend a lot of time in, and where it is easily noticed, such as the wall of your office or something similar. Every time you look at the board, say the words out loud (if you are in a public place, like your job’s office, say it clearly in your head).
This looks weird, I know, but it helps a lot. This is important because if your brain “sees” the same information many times, it considers that information important and, therefore, retains it, causing us to remember the words more easily.
You can also adapt this strategy to your learning preferences, such as adding images to the words for them to be more visual, or even creating sentences with this vocabulary, so it is more contextualized. This is good not just for English, but with all kinds of languages that you might be learning. It’s even better if the language has a different writing system, such as Japanese, Korean or Russian, because in this way you can practice reading the words using these specific symbols at the same time you learn the vocabulary meaning. Also, learning verb conjugations is much easier using this technique, you need to try it and see for yourself!
2) Mnemonic techniques
A curiosity for you: mnemonic comes from the Greek word “mnemosyne”, which literally means “memory” and was the name of a Greek Titaness who embodied the concept of memory itself. The mnemonic techniques help you fixate the content, words, or information that you want to remember, which is really useful while learning a new language. The goal is to make the memory process as easiest as possible, which means, remembering things in a more efficient way.
One of these techniques is creating relations between words and other elements. For example: I always used to forget the grammar rule in English that we need to say “you and I”, not “me and you”. So, what did I do? I created a relation between the words “you and I” and the title of a Lady Gaga song. In this way, the expression is not so loose in my head, and I can remember it much better. Now, every time I am writing a formal text I remember this song and, consequently, the grammar rule.
In this way, you can relate vocabulary with other things you like, such as movies, series and songs titles, pieces of lyrics, names, quotes, animals or other elements.
Another example: I always tell my students to remember the ice cream (Sundae) when thinking about the day of the week (Sunday). Here, in Brazil, it is really common to have ice cream during weekends, so we create this relation between having a great Sundae on Sunday. This helps a lot when it comes to memorizing these words.
Another important mnemonic technique is creating little stories in your mind, so it is easier to remember some specific verb constructions, such as:
Galileo ate, read and died.
This is a sentence that helps us remember some irregular verbs in the simple past, and is much more interesting than just saying the words separately.
You can also relate the words to colors, or even use the initial letter of the word (or its sonority) to create a more captivating sentence.
Ex: If the regular past verb ends in “t” or “d”, I pronounce the “e”.
This rimes, so it’s much easier to remember that we just pronounce the letter “e” in past regular verbs only if the verb ends with “t” or “d” (such as stated, created or defended). If you just remember the grammar rule in a dull way, of course you are not going to remember it! You have to make it memorable, so your brain won’t forget it!
Another example: Superman does good, you do well.
In this case we’ve created a small story that enables us to memorize when to use “good” or “well” with the verb do. Much easier in this way, right?
3) Flashcards
The flashcards are great tools to help us remember vocabulary. They work based on repetition, just like the board strategy, but they have a more practical side: you can train a lot of times your memory, and the words you are having trouble remembering are the ones that will appear more, so you can focus more on them. This helps to narrow down the number of words you need to fixate, concentrating on the ones that are harder to memorize.
These flashcards can be accessed easily on cellphones, tablets, or computers. Some good applications are Flashcards (Android), DuoCards (Android) and Anki (IOS). You can also search for flashcards that teach how to pronounce the words correctly, or even search for games that use flashcards, if you want to practice while having fun. Also, always use the resources that are available on the internet, such as games, exercises, and songs that were meant to help you memorize structures and words. They are so easily found right now, why not take advantage of this situation and use it to improve ourselves?
4) Avoid translating the words
One common thing that I hear from English students is: teacher, how can I stop translating the vocabulary in my head? The answer to this question is simpler than it seems.
When learning a new word in English, don’t focus on the word that translates it when wanting to remember its meaning. Instead, create a mental image of that word, thinking it in English while imagining it. This makes you remember the concept of the word, more than the translation of it in your native language.
For example, if the word is love, don’t think about the word “amor”, “amour” or any other vocabulary for that concept in your own language, but imagine two people kissing, with little doves on the top of their heads and a red heart. If the word is “yawning”, don’t relate it to the translated word, but imagine a really sleepy person doing the action of yawning while looking tired.
In this way, you won’t need to rely on translation. Being independent of translation enables you to internalize the language rules much better and helps you understand concepts in English, since some words or expressions can’t be translated at all. Do this, and you won’t have any more problems in comprehending words such as “overwhelmed”, and idioms like “it’s raining cats and dogs”.
5) Practice is everything
This is really important. Always remember that the more you use this vocabulary in conversations, texts or exercises the easier it will be to memorize it. This takes a lot of time and effort, and each one of us has their own pace to learn the words and structures. Therefore, never forget to practice as much as you can, in the classroom, or outside it.
A good recommendation is the platform Tandem, in which you can speak English with people from all over the world, while teaching them your own language. This is a great opportunity for putting your language into practice while learning about different cultures and customs.
For more introverted people, you can have conversations by texting. For the more extroverted ones, you have the option to video call and talk face to face with the chosen person. I am sure you are going to find great friends there.
Also, consuming English content really helps (repetition, remember?). In this way, you get in contact with new words and, at the same time, remember the old ones better, since they are being repeated multiple times. This also contributes to understanding better the inner structure of sentences in English. Watch movies, play games and even read books in English (just don’t be shy about using subtitles when needed: it is part of the process). The good thing about English is that it is a global language, so you can find different types of content available in all kinds of media.
With these strategies, I am sure you are going to learn vocabulary faster and more easily while still having fun and enjoying yourself. Remember to compare your own results, and notice your progression during your learning time, without comparing yourself to others. I really mean it, mental health is really important amidst the process of learning a language, since you often need to get out of your comfort zone when putting it in use. Do not think you have the memory of a golden fish! Instead, see how you came so far and how you know much more than you knew before (even if it’s just two words more): that’s the key for enhancing your learning!
So, what are you waiting for? Go put these into practice! Afterward, let me know how these strategies helped you out!
See you soon!
Oh, by the way, here are the links of the platforms/apps that I talked about in this text. You can use them to boost your learning and create a continuous study routine:
https://apps.apple.com/br/app/anki-pro-flash-cards-estudos/id1573585542
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.duocards.app&hl=pt&gl=US&pli=1
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.grude.lernkartenapp&hl=pt_BR&gl=US
Written by Teacher Alanis
