How to Remember English Vocabulary

Ugh, I got it wrong again.

Have you ever noticed

that when you're trying to learn vocabulary,

it kind of goes in one ear, and out the other?

In English, we have that weird little saying,

in one ear and out the other,

when we talk about things that are hard to remember.

I mean you look at your vocabulary list one day,

and then the next day

when you're having an English conversation,

the words aren't in your brain anymore,

and you don't know where they went.

Well, in this English lesson,

I'm going to give you a few tips,

a few strategies and techniques that you could use

when you're studying English vocabulary,

so that you'll definitely remember it.

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One really effective strategy

for learning English vocabulary

is to study the vocabulary on multiple days.

I know it seems really straightforward to learn a word,

and think you know it, and then walk away.

But the brain is wired in a way

where when you study something on multiple days,

you're more likely to remember it.

So if you learn some English vocabulary on a Monday,

make sure you review it on a Tuesday.

Make sure you sit down on a Friday

to look at it one more time,

and then a whole week later, sit down again,

and just make sure you actually know it.

For some reason when you do this,

it's not just the repetition that helps,

although that's a good idea.

It's also the distance between the repetitions

that helps a lot.

The other thing you can do is this.

If you are, for instance, making flashcards,

and you learn the word on a Monday,

and you have trouble with it on the Tuesday,

and you have trouble with it a whole week later,

add that flashcard that you've made, that vocabulary word,

into the next set of vocabulary that you're learning.

And then try to practice it a few more times.

So the number one technique, the first technique,

make sure you're studying your vocabulary on multiple days,

and adding some time between each study period.

Another thing you can do when learning English vocabulary

that will help you remember it

involves using a multi-mode approach to learning it.

What do I mean by that?

Well, when you learn a new vocabulary word,

you should read the word.

You should hear the word, you should write the word,

and you should say the word.

So similar to practicing on multiple days,

we have have multiple modes

that you should be studying as well.

It's just a really good idea

to engage all of the senses when you're learning vocabulary.

So don't just read it and write it.

Make sure you read it.

Make sure you hear it somewhere.

By the way, the website, youglish.com,

it's a very handy way to hear English speakers

pronounce words with different English accents.

So make sure you read it, make sure you hear it.

Make sure you write it,

and make sure you spend some time saying it.

If you're meeting with an English conversation partner

each week, this would be a good time

to practice the new vocabulary when you're talking to them.

So you'll get an opportunity to say those words out loud.

So the second thing you should do,

make sure you're practicing using all the different modes

of learning a language.

Make sure you're reading it.

Make sure you're writing it.

Make sure you're hearing it, and make sure you're saying it.

Another great technique for remembering vocabulary

is to make sure you use the word immediately,

that you use the word multiple times,

and you use it in a way that connects it

to other vocabulary.

Here's a great example.

Let's say you just learned the word dog.

I know you all know the word dog, but it's just the example.

If you just learn the word dog,

you would write the word dog on a piece of paper,

draw a picture of the dog,

write a sentence like the man walked his dog,

or I like dogs, or I like dogs, but I don't like cats.

The more you can kind of riff on the word,

when you riff on something,

it means you connect different ideas to it.

The more you do that,

the more you draw and create sentences,

and connect that word to previous words that you've learned,

the better you'll be able to remember it later

in an English conversation,

or when you're writing something in English.

So do that, create maybe a word web,

put dog in the middle, and draw some arrows.

Draw a picture of a dog at the end of one arrow,

draw a picture of a cat with an X on it at the other,

at the end of another arrow.

I do like cats by the way,

but just in case maybe you prefer dogs or cats,

maybe you would do that.

But create maybe a web of information around the word dog,

put a picture of a man walking his dog,

and write the man is walking his dog below it.

Again, the more you can connect that new word

to other English words you have already learned,

the better you'll be able to remember it, so try that one.

The fourth thing you can try, and this is really important,

once your English is at a certain level, and that is this.

You should start to distance yourself

from your own language.

So don't write the word dog in English,

and then write the word dog in your own language.

Try to write the new vocabulary,

and then write a definition in English.

The sooner you can start to distance yourself

from your own language with your English learning,

the better you'll be able to learn,

and remember new words in English.

Because if you write dog,

and then you write dog in your own language,

you've only really learned the word dog,

but if you write dog,

and then you write a small four-legged animal

that is very friendly, and often lives with humans,

you have used a whole bunch of other English words

as you were writing the meaning of the word dog.

So it's very important

if you want to remember English vocabulary,

that you start to define each word you learn

using an English sentence.

It'll just help you a ton.

Now I know earlier I said

that you should practice the word on multiple days,

but this next idea involves having a word of the day,

or a word of the hour, or a word of the morning.

When you do this, what you do is you choose a word,

and you focus on that word

for an entire hour while you're doing other things.

Maybe while you're doing the dishes or driving,

you think about this word for an entire hour,

or 30 minutes, or the whole morning,

half a day, a whole day,

depending on how many words you want to learn in a day.

So I know it kind of goes against what I said earlier,

but if you can deeply focus on one word

for an extended period of time, for 30 minutes,

or an hour, or a whole morning,

you will definitely have a much better chance

of remembering it.

And lastly, and this will be no mystery to any of you.

One of the best things to do

when learning new vocabulary is to use repetition.

The more you can say a word 10 times in a row,

or write it out 20 times,

or find a song that has some of your vocabulary words in it,

and listen to it 10 times throughout the day,

anytime you can incorporate repetition

into your learning of vocabulary,

your brain just has a much better chance of remembering it.

Anyways, thank you so much

for watching this little English lesson.

I hope some of these techniques will help you

remember your new English vocabulary as you learn it.

Remember, if you're new here,

don't forget to click that red subscribe button over there,

and give me a thumbs up if this video helped you learn

a little bit more English.

And if you have the time, why don't you stick around,

and watch another English lesson?

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