How to learn and remember vocabulary - part 1

Five tips to help you learn new words

Photo by Glen Carrie on Unsplash

Hello everyone!

Students often ask me how to learn and remember new words. They complain that they study new words one day and the next day they have forgotten most of them! I've experienced the same thing myself when I've tried to learn another language. Today I’m going to give you five tips for learning and remembering vocabulary.

You might also be interested in my English Vocabulary Challenge e-book. This book will give you a new task every day for three weeks. By the end of the book, you will have learnt a lot of new words and you will also have some strategies which you can continue to use afterwards. Click below to get the book:

Here are my five tips for you for today:

1. Read a lot

Reading is great for learning and remembering vocabulary because the same words are repeated many times and that helps you to remember them! Choose something to read that interests you. This might be books, magazines, newspapers or websites.

​2. Write new words down

For me, actually writing a word down on paper seems to help me to get it into my brain. Use a vocabulary notebook and divide the page in two. Write the English word on the left and a translation in your language on the right. If you prefer, you can use a computer or your phone to record new words, but I strongly believe that old-fashioned pen and paper are the best.

3. Review new words regularly

If you look at your new words once, you might only remember 10% of them. If you review them once, you might get up to 50%. If you review them a few times, then you can get up to 100%! So test yourself. Cover the translation or explanation and try to remember it. Then cover the English and try to remember it. Alternatively, make yourself lists in an app (like Quizlet) and use them to test yourself.

4. Set a target

Decide how many words you want to learn each day and set yourself a realistic target. I would suggest 10 a day but some people might manage only 5 and some people can learn up to 20. Most people can't learn 100 words every day!! I certainly can't anyway!

5. Prioritise

Decide which words are the most important or useful to learn. If you have a long list of new words, maybe there are too many and you don't need them all. Perhaps there are some words that you will never need again.

I hope you find these suggestions helpful!

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Until next time,

Katie