How can you learn vocabulary faster and remember it longer and use it subconsciously?
Vocabulary is very important, much more important than grammar. Why? With vocabulary, you can communicate. If you know words, you know their meanings, you understand them when you hear them and then you can use them. Then you can communicate even with bad grammar. But without the words, there is no communication. You might have perfect grammar, but if your vocabulary is small you can’t say very much. Vocabulary is super important. Now the big question is, how can you learn vocabulary faster and remember it longer?
Many times we study vocabulary, especially in school, we study, memorize it for a test, we might get good scores in the test, hopefully, and then what? We forget. We do it even today, we memorize a list, then a week later or maybe a few days later, we forget it. All that time feels wasted. Learning vocabulary that way is a waste of time. Let’s find out powerful, useful, effective, and enjoyable ways to learn vocabulary. Some techniques that help our brain to remember and recall vocabulary faster are:
- Put words in context
An amazing to learn more words quicker is to put them in context. Instead of writing a list of random words with their meanings, try to create sentences with them. The way the words would be produced in real life. Try to use them in some funny sentences, that way it will be much easier for you to remember. For example, you come across a word, ‘abhor’ which means to shrink from or to find something repugnant. Just think of a thing or an animal or a person, whom you find repugnant and put the word in context with that, then it will be easier for you to remember the word.
You may write, “I abhor cats.” Or “The headmaster abhors violence.”
- Learn from real-life situations
Another way of learning new words is from real-life situations, like movies TV shows books podcasts or songs. They are not only a great source for the commonly used words by native people but they also aid you to memorize the vocabulary faster and longer, for two reasons
(i) Association
The words always can be associated with the scene, a person, a real-life event, or a real conversation
(ii) Emotions
Our memory works better with emotions. The stronger the emotions, the deeper is the learning.
Whenever we are watching a movie, listening to a podcast, or reading a book, our emotions are evoked, which leads to better learning. So whenever you are watching a movie, listening to a podcast or a song, write down the words, phrases, idioms, or slangs which are new to you which you have heard or read for the first time or you don’t know the meaning. Find out the meanings and do write the situation or the place where you heard them or where you read them. That way it will be easy for you to remember them.
- Anchor word
This is an effective way of remembering a new word. In this technique, you associate the new word with its synonym or antonym. Whenever you are using the word in your conversation, use it along with the synonym for antonym. This way you will end up using the word correctly and there are no chances of you going wrong.
For example, the same word ‘abhor’
Whenever I have to say this, I would say, “ I just abhor and detect cats.” Or “The headmaster abhors and hates violence.” So here I used synonyms
“ Do you abhor or adore cats?”. In this, I am using an antonym.
- Mnemonics
Mnemonic is a tool that helps us remember certain facts or large amounts of information. They can be in the form of a song, rhyme, acronym, image, phrase, or sentence. The mnemonics I use for vocabulary retention are the image or a short story.
For example, there is a word, ‘minuscule’ which means tiny. I would memorize it by picturizing or imagining it as a school for small or mini things or maybe ants going to a school.
Thus, it becomes easy for me to remember the word ‘minuscule’.
The next important thing is:
How to recall the words from your vocabulary bank when you want to use them?
For most of the English learners, the biggest challenge with vocabulary is that, when you are talking to someone you can’t quite remember the word, you can’t quite use it. Have you ever been in this situation?
For this, we first need to understand the difference between PASSIVE VOCABULARY & ACTIVE VOCABULARY.
Passive vocabulary is what you understand when you read or listen to English. Active vocabulary is the vocabulary that you can actually use when you write and speak. Normally your passive vocabulary is always bigger than your active vocabulary. In other words, you know more words than you can use. People get upset about this, all the time. This is a normal situation. Remember, your listening ability is always higher than your speaking ability.
The process is when you come across a word, it passes four stages in your brain:
- Not knowing the word at all.
- You know it a little bit. Sometimes you forget. You know them, but not 100%.
- You know it completely, understand it whenever you read or listen to it, but passively. Still not ready to use it.
- Active: you can actually use it quickly, easily, effortlessly, subconsciously, whenever you speak or write.
So there might be some words which you don’t know at all. A few words that you understand but not a hundred percent. You may have to look them up in the dictionary, even then you might forget them. A few other words, which you understand a hundred percent when you see them, but you can’t use them. Then finally, a small number of words which you know completely and you can use them easily, these are the active words.
So there is no need to be upset, that you know a word and you can’t use it. The good news is that you don’t need to have a lot of active words. However, you do need a lot of passive words to understand. A lot of words because you hear them in daily conversations. Idioms, phrases, slangs, all of that you need to understand well. You can communicate well and speak powerfully even with the most common words. This is natural, your active vocabulary may be the most common words in English. It’s normal. Most people worry, “ I want to use advanced vocabulary when I speak.” It’s not necessary. Even with the use of simple direct common words, you can communicate very well. The common words that you hear and listen constantly all the time, become active first because there is more repetition.
The secret from no knowledge of the word to knowing it, to active is just REPETITION. You need to see the word more often, see it, repeat it again and again, understand it, hear it, and hear it and understand it and after you understand it and hear it several times and you know it passively. If there is an emotion, real situation, or context, you understand it faster.
How do you make the word go from passive to active? The same thing:
MORE REPETITION
You need to hear it more, understand it more, again and again along with emotions and real situations.
So concentrate on your passive vocabulary, understanding your words through more reading, more listening, more stories, more books, more realistic situations. Don’t worry about your active vocabulary. It will naturally improve through repetitions.
Remember, the most powerful ideas can be explained and communicated through simple words and have a greater and broader impact.