What's the best way to learn vocabulary?

There really is no ‘best’ way, but there are many tips and tricks, and one or more of them may suit your learning style. Of course I don’t have all the answers, but here are a few of my ideas - both from the point of view of an English teacher and as a language student too:

1. Don’t try to learn too much at once! Up to 20 words a day may be manageable, but I would suggest 10 at most. Try not to learn everything a few hours before your lesson. A little every day is far better than one intense session once a week.

2. Keep a vocabulary list, and make sure it’s easily accessible (on the desktop of your laptop, on your phone, in a notebook on your desk…) This way, you can review it whenever you have a few spare minutes. It sounds very basic, and perhaps old-fashioned, but keeping a vocabulary list works well for a lot of people. If you’re at intermediate level, you might want to put the translation next to the English in your own language. However, if you’d like a challenge, or you’re an advanced learner, see if you can describe some of the words in English instead.

3. Regularly review your list from the beginning, until the words feel so basic that you can’t imagine forgetting them. Currently I have 35 A4 pages of Dutch vocabulary, so I’m going back over it and concentrating on 2 sides per week. You can either do this and get someone to test you, or test yourself, covering the explanation column.

4. If you’re going on a journey where you’re not driving, take your vocabulary list with you and take some time to review words/test yourself when you’re travelling.

5. On the same note, and particularly good if you are driving: record vocabulary with a few seconds’ gap between each word and then see if you can say the correct explanation/translation after it.

6. Seek out and learn words that apply to your life, work or study. If you see the word ‘sparkplug’ in something you’re reading, and you’re not a mechanic or car enthusiast, it’s probably not important to remember it!

7. When you’re reading or listening to something, don’t try to understand every word. See if you can get the gist of the meaning before you reach for a dictionary. Personally, I find this frustrating at first, but it’s much more satisfying being able to understand the general sense than to keep stopping to look up every single word.

8. Take 10 new words, or words that you find difficult to remember, and write a story with them. Alternatively, you can write ten separate sentences.

9. Copy a page of your vocabulary list onto a separate sheet of paper, cut up and separate the English word from its explanation/translation and try to pair them all correctly. Don’t throw them away – keep them all together so that you can test yourself again another time. If you can print the word one side and the explanation on the other, even better. However, this may require a duplex printer and a lot of time and patience!

10. You may notice after a while that you could make groups of words, for example keeping a list of vocabulary for meetings, vocabulary related to your work, or groups of word types (such as nouns, verbs, adjectives… and so on).

11. More generally, read things that you find interesting - not what you think you should read, or that someone else has told you to read. There are also many websites that use more simple language adapted to learners and you can buy graded books, according to your level.

12. Watch programmes, listen to podcasts and the radio and don’t worry if you don’t understand very much. Instead, you may hear a word that you learnt recently or that you had forgotten but now remember in this context. You’ll also be subconsciously noticing grammar and word order.

13. Finally, don’t worry if you’ve forgotten, or keep forgetting, something. Students often get disheartened because they think they’re not learning fast enough, but learning a new language takes time. Native speakers are also learning new vocabulary all the time or are getting a meaning or spelling wrong without even realising it.

14. In short, learning is sometimes two steps forward and one step back, because after all you’re a human, not a robot.

If you’d like to share any useful tips about learning vocabulary, please don’t hesitate to write them in the comments below.