Strategies for learning vocabulary

“A different language is a different vision of life.”

Federico Fellini

Learning a new language starts with some first steps: learning the basic structure of the language and how sentences are formed (grammar), practicing the sounds of the language (pronunciation), and acquiring new words (vocabulary). Although it sounds daunting at first, it can be exciting to discover how another language expresses itself and how that may reflect a different view of the world and a different way of experiencing the world.

How do you start with learning new words? What are the best ways of building your vocabulary when you are just beginning to learn a new language? Here are five simple strategies that will help you get started:

1. Learn the words in a thematic context (or a domain): It’s easier to learn new words that are related to a common theme; for example, the domain of “clothing” includes many different words, such as “dress”, “pants”, “socks”, “skirt”, “shirt”, “hat”, etc. Another example is “food”, which has a number of different sub-domains, such as fruits or vegetables. Grouping all the fruits together, such as “apple”, “pear”, “banana”, “cherry”, “orange”, etc. is a good way to learn a whole bunch of new vocabulary all at once.
2. Use all of your senses: We all have different preferences about learning–some learn better by listening to words being spoken; others prefer to see an image; yet others like to write things down. The best way to remember new words is to activate all your senses in the process: visualize the words (for example, look at a picture of a market where fruits and vegetables are being sold); listen to the words being used in a meaningful context (for instance, watch a video or listen to a song that contains the words you are trying to learn); and write the words down, preferably in a full sentence (for example, “I like eating beans, carrots, and potatoes, but I don’t like cabbage and leaks”). You can also make flash cards by writing the word on one side of an index card and the meaning on the other. Or, you can put post-it notes on items that you want to learn; so, for example, you can label everything in your kitchen so that you see the word every time you use the item (e.g. “toaster”, “coffee pot”, “refrigerator”, “stove”, etc.).
3. Use the building blocks of language: Words are made up of smaller elements that convey meaning. For example, in English, we generally add an -s to indicate that a word is plural, or more than one. So: one table-two tables; one book-two books. That small unit of meaning (-s) is called a morpheme, and we can use them to expand our vocabulary. To give an example from French, a language that I am currently relearning: I already knew the words for many fruits, but I learned that by adding –ier, which indicates that something is a tree, I now also know the word for the fruit tree. So that all at once provides me with many new words. For example, pomme=apple and pommier=apple tree; poire=pear and poirier=pear tree; cerise=cherry and cerisier=cherry tree, and so forth and so on! By identifying these morphemes we can increase our vocabulary multifold!
4. Don’t overdo it! It is better to not to try to learn too many words at once because they won’t be absorbed in our long-term memory. Remember those long vocabulary lists in your textbook that you had to learn by heart? Most of the time, rote memorization is not helpful (except for maybe getting an A on the quiz the next day!). Focus on no more than 5-10 items per day, which gets me to my fifth and final item. . .
5. Practice, practice, practice! Research tells us that we have too use each vocabulary item in meaningful contexts between 8-16 times, so it’s important to find opportunities to practice each word that you have learned. If you live in the culture where the language is spoken, try out your new words with native speakers. You can go to the market and order vegetables, or go to the store to buy bread and pastries. If you have friends, family or neighbors with whom you can practice, that is another way to solidify what you have learned. Another great way to practice is to begin reading in the target language. It can be simple advertisements that can be found online, children’s books, comics, Instagram posts, recipes, or whatever you are interested in. The most important thing is to use the language in as many ways as possible, and above all else, enjoy!