How to Improve Vocabulary When Learning a Foreign Language
Vocabulary improvement is undoubtedly one of the key elements in any language learning process, regardless if you’re learning french, English, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese or any other language, no matter how “complicated” it is and what its rules are. Actually, obtaining an initial vocabulary base is one of the key elements you need to focus on when learning a foreign language and afterwards, increasing your vocabulary is a constant process you need to go through. There are several means to do so, some of which we will be going through below.
Translated texts
Using translated texts is a great way to improve your vocabulary, especially in the beginning stage of the language learning process, when you can’t deduct words out of the context from a foreign text, simply because you don’t understand it at all. Having a translation of the text however, allows you to form links between the words and their meanings. Obviously, it’s important that these texts are kept simple and clean and that they don’t use words that can have several meanings that would only confuse you.
Mnemonics
Although not necessarily a “new” method, mnemonics have been proven to be very effective in allowing students to memorize new words. The “trick” behind mnemonics is to link words in your native language to words in the new language and form visual images from the two. Oftentimes, these images will be far from common, sometimes they will be bizarre or interesting, which will only make them easier to be remembered. To give you some insight on how to use mnemonics, we’ll take a look at the famous “yellow ice” example used in several free online courses as well as in many course books: the Spanish word for ice is “hielo” which resembles the English word yellow. This automatically forms a visual image of “yellow ice” which will help you remember the connection between the two.
The Dictionary method
The Dictionary method is a continuous effort and unlike some of the other vocabulary improvement methods, it won’t be that fast, but it will definitely be long-term effective. What this method is all about is trying to learn a new word in the language you’re studying on a daily basis. Open up the dictionary at a random page each day, spot a word you don’t know and memorize it and what it means. This doesn’t sound much indeed, but in fact you will be learning several words at once with the help of the dictionary’s explanations. If you manage to form a study rhythm with this method you’ll be on a constant vocabulary improvement streak.
In conclusion, one thing you need to always keep in mind is that a language’s vocabulary is the foundation you will be working on and if this foundation isn’t strong enough, the other parts of the structure won’t be extremely stable as well. Besides the above-mentioned methods, you will be able to find several more on websites dealing with language learning techniques, some of which will prove to be well suited for you, whereas others will prove to be a waste of time. It will be your call to judge which ones you will take upon.
Michael Gabrikow
http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/how-to-improve-vocabulary-when-learning-a-foreign-language-101936.html
6 Comments »
Kistelli said :
January 21, 2010 at 11:06 am
What is the easiest way to memorise foreign language vocabulary?
I’m learning 3 different languages at the same time and I find that one of the most difficult things is memorising the vocabulary so that I don’t forget the words, any tips or suggestions as to how I can improve this?
thomasjosephbonneville said :
January 21, 2010 at 4:08 pm
first, learn how to type in english
memorize.
References :
mircea suta said :
January 21, 2010 at 4:10 pm
Practice writing, speaking, listening !!! Practice conversation, work with phrases that are interesting for you. Practice until you think in the language you are learning.
References :
my personal experience
juexue said :
January 21, 2010 at 4:12 pm
Repetitio est mater studiorum (repetition is the mother of learning). After you have repeated, repeated and repeated again until you know the words, you have to use them, use them and use them again – otherwise you have soon forgotten them …
Apart from that, one of the best memorizing aids you can use is flash cards. Make hundreds of small pieces of paper of the same size, on each you write a word from the language you’re learning on one side and the corresponding English (or whichever language is your mother tongue) on the other. Then you can make sure you not only know the words from a list in the same order, but also when they come in random order. Always carry a bunch of these cards in your pocket – you can check some words everytime you stand in a queue, in an elevator, at the toilet, just before you fall asleep in a tent, and so on, without having to carry any books. Highly recommended!
For some languages (like Chinese and Japanese) you can by printed flash cards, which can be of great help for a beginner, especially if you have troubles writing their characters properly, but normally the actual writing and preparing of the cards is in itself a useful part of the study.
Also, I would really recommend you to be very careful about the correct pronounciation of the words (and writing, if it is in a foreign alphabeth, like Russian or Greek) already from the beginning, so you don’t have to learn them two times (learn and then relearn them differently). Some people think it’s ok if you have an approximate pronounciation, and then you can fix it better later, but all my experience tell me it’s worth a lot to have it properly from the beginning. Very often, people tend to confuse the later correct pronounciation with the approximate pronounciation they learned as beginners (that still lingers somewhere in the "automatic" part of your brain), which means they will never reach a good overall pronounciation of the language.
References :
Own experience from learning many different languages through different methods.
Sergio Oliveira said :
January 21, 2010 at 4:14 pm
Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice! and Practice!
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Richard W said :
January 21, 2010 at 4:16 pm
First off, thomasjoseph – you’re american, obviously, and thus no expert at the english language. Memorise with an ’s’ is the correct way, however in american you can also use the ‘z’, which unfortunately is becoming predominant here too.
Now for the answer.
There is no easy way. Everybody learns things different ways, and you need to find your own. People can give you ideas to try, and there are a couple of good ones here. I have similar problem – learning grammar rules comes easily to me, but the general vocab comes much harder. One way of improving your vocab is similar to the flash cards idea above, but for simple nouns (ie real objects e.g. ‘table’, ‘chair’, ‘window’, as opposed to abstract nouns which refer to something you cannot touch, like ‘art’, ’science’, and ‘chaos’) you can stick the card to the item, and every time you see the object, you see the word.
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