The best way to learn vocabulary?

Question

Some people have told me that repetition is good (which is really boring actually, but it is effective), recording yourself speaking the vocabulary and listening to it often, or keep 'testing' yourself, covering up the words, and looking only at the meaning.

I'd like your personal experiences and thoughts about this, thanks!

Answer 1

I agree with Hagu. I learn vocabulary that way.

Read a wide variety of reading material, find out the meanings of words you didn't understand, then read the sentence with the unfamiliar word (which you now know) again. This helps you remember the meaning of the word and how it is used in the sentence. Also when writing (such as compositions and/or journal entries), try to include new words that you have learned. This will make you comfortable and familiar with new words faster.

Answer 2

flashcards

Keep them in a box with three sections:

front--the ones you're working on. Practice them every day (depending how many you have). Every week, move the ones you know to the second section, and test yourself on the second section. If you still know them, move them to the third section, if not, move them to the front section. Every month, test yourself on the third section and move them if you don't know them.

Answer 3

Don't memorize single words. I think it's better if you start to collect phrases, with the new words you want to learn.

It's more easy to remind phrases that single word. And you can lear how to use them, too.  

Answer 4

Writing the words down on cards is a practical idea, but don't write them with their meanings only, but write them along with the words they usually collocate. For example, if it is "commit", write it down with its meaning and a couple of examples, like, say, "commit a crime", "commit a murder", "commit suicide", ...! This makes your mind more familiar woth the contexts of the words too, and accelerates your vocab learning.

Answer 5

The dictionary, write out the words and meanings. Works for me.

Answer 6

It's estimated that we have to hear and/or see a word four times before it actually penetrates our consciousness. If there's a way around that, I haven't found it.

I like reading. Reading gives me repetition in a non-repetitive format. TV, radio and music as well.

Flash cards take some of the sting out of the straight repetition method.