How To Learn And Use 1000 English Vocabulary Words

- [Tiffani] As an English learner,

you sometimes experience a problem

when you're reading something

or even when you're having a conversation with people

and even sometimes

when you're listening to a podcast or other audio file.

This problem is vocabulary.

But there is a formula.

This formula will help you to learn 1,000

English vocabulary words

and that's what I will teach you today.

Welcome to Speak English With Tiffani.

I'm teacher Tiffani, let's jump right in.

Okay, so here's the problem.

The problem is you want to improve your English vocabulary

but it just seems too hard.

Now let's look at this a little closer.

So the first thing is you memorize lots of words

but what happens is you can't remember or use them.

Many of my students have told me

that they memorize vocabulary words

but then when they get in conversations,

they're not able to use them and that's what happens.

Or you start off strong

but what happens is you get tired and often give up.

And often give up completely.

Now to be honest with you I also experienced the same thing

when I was studying Korean.

I would study hundreds of vocabulary words

but then after two or three weeks

I would get tired and just stop.

So again, you start off strong

but you get tired and often give up completely.

This is the problem.

Now there is a solution.

The solution is three words lead to 1,000 words.

Now don't worry I'm going to explain this very clearly

and it will really help you to learn 1,000 words.

Alright now the first aspect of this solution,

before I explain it in detail,

is the memorization and repetition.

Memorization and repetition is so important

because it is a set pattern that will help your brain.

That will help your brain.

Now remember in one of my previous video lessons

I explained how your brain works, okay?

There are certain triggers

that help your brain remember certain things

so a set pattern will also help your brain

when you are trying to remember

or memorize English vocabulary words

and the next thing is learn and use.

Many times you will learn vocabulary words

but you're not able to use them.

This solution, this formula I'm gonna teach you,

will help you do both.

So again this will help you use them in daily life.

When you meet someone that is a native English speaker

or even another English learner,

you can use the words that you're learning, okay?

Alright, so the breakdown.

Let's look at

the breakdown of this solution or this formula.

Okay so again 1,000 words by doing three words each day.

There's five parts,

the select, memorize, visualize, apply, and review.

Okay so let's look at the breakdown

in a little bit more detail.

The first section is select, so you select the three words

that you will use for that day.

Now remember in the beginning I said this is a formula

and it's actually a part of a 16 day cycle.

Now the first part of the cycle is the select column,

the first column, so on the first day, day one,

you will learn only three words.

And each day after that

you're only learning three new words.

Now let me explain exactly how this selection happens, okay?

So once again, you select the words

that you will use for that day,

this is how it's going to happen,

so let's start right here on top.

There are many different ways that you can select words.

Let's say for example that you are watching something on TV

so you can select words from

TV shows or movies that you watch.

You may have a favorite

American television show that you watch

and you may hear a vocabulary word that you don't know

so you can choose it from the television show

or you may even have a special book

or magazine or newspaper that you enjoy reading,

an English newspaper or magazine.

So you can pick a vocabulary word

from books, magazines, or the newspaper,

or the newspapers you read, newspapers that you read.

The other method you can use

actually is something that you may already have inside.

So this is your brain.

So there are some words that you already know.

You can actually look for or find synonyms, okay?

Find synonyms for words you already know.

For example, let's say I already know the word big,

that's a word that you already know

but a synonym for the word big is enormous.

So I already know this word

but enormous is a synonym for that word, okay?

So these are three different ways

you can actually select vocabulary words.

Okay let's keep going.

The next part of the breakdown is to memorize.

You're going to memorize the definitions

of the words from the previous day

so again let's look at our 16 day cycle.

Now we've moved to the second column, the memorize column.

Now on the far left you see the day column,

then next the select, and then next the memorize.

So on day one you only memorized or selected three words.

Now on day two you still need to select three new words

but now is when you're going to memorize

the three words you looked up the first day.

It's very important, you're memorizing on the second day.

Let's go in more detail, okay?

So again, memorize the definitions of the words

from the previous day.

Okay so let's look at it a little closer.

So here's what's gonna happen,

so right here, let's give him some glasses, okay?

Let's give this student some glasses.

So we have this student, this English learner right here.

So what's gonna happen?

The first thing is to read over the words and meanings.

You're going to think about them.

Remember I chose enormous

so I'm gonna look over the word enormous and realize,

ah, this means big, this means big.

The next thing you're going to do is

you're going to make something, okay?

I'll explain exactly what these are,

I can write really tiny, alright so what you're going to do,

let's put RD, let's put it like this.

You're going to make flash cards for each word.

Remember it's not gonna take you a long time

because it's only for three words, okay?

Make flashcards and then what you're going to do,

let's put a little clock right here for us,

got a little clock right here, put a little bell on top.

Okay what you're going to do is

time yourself as you memorize,

make this O a little better, as you memorize each word.

You want to get to the point to where

you can memorize and know three words in 30 seconds.

This is your goal.

This is your goal.

Alright so let's keep going to the next phase.

Alright so the next phase is to visualize.

Now for the visualizing step

you're gonna select various images

that go along with each of the vocabulary words.

Use them to memorize the words more.

Okay so let's go back and look at the 16 day cycle again.

So now we're on the next column, the visualize column.

Alright so again on day one we selected three words,

day two we also selected three words but then we also added

the memorizing of the first three words

and we're also going to be

visualizing on that day the first three words.

Now again I'm gonna explain it very clearly

so let's jump in to explain it very clearly,

again, selecting various images

that go along with each of the vocabulary words,

use them to memorize the words more.

So here we go, alright so the first thing you need to do,

let's do a little head right here.

Student with their eyes closed.

His brain right here, he's thinking, his mind.

Alright so what's gonna happen is

you first need to think about each word and

see what picture pops into your head.

This is important because everyone is different.

If I say good food, the first thing that pops in my mind

may be different from what pops in your mind

so it's important to see what pops into your mind.

Now the next thing you're going to do is

you're going to get on the computer,

you're gonna get on the computer

and what you're going to do is

you're going to go online

and find an image that matches, okay?

Find an image that matches what you saw in your mind.

Now again remember it's only for three words

so it's not gonna take you a long time

but go online and find an image that matches each word

so you're looking for three images, three images.

Now after you find the images, what you're going to do is

you're going to make another flashcard

but this time instead of the word being on the top,

the word will be on the bottom

and on top you will place the image

so again you're going to

finally make image flash cards and practice with them.

Remember these steps are so important

because you need to practice and learn vocabulary

in different ways,

not just sitting and looking at a book and memorizing.

Your brain needs to see things that are visual

and connected to different situations

in order for you to learn and use the vocabulary words

so let's keep going.

Alright so the next step is to apply.

Now that you know the meanings,

use each of the vocabulary words

in a sentence that you create.

Okay so again the 16 day cycle,

now we're on the next column, the apply column,

so again day one we just selected three new words.

Day two we selected three new words

and we also memorized and visualized the first three words

and now as we move down to day number three

we're still selecting three words,

we're memorizing what we learned

or what we selected the previous day and we're visualizing

and now we're applying the first three words.

Now this applying I will explain,

let's go and I will explain it in more detail.

So again now that you know the meanings,

use each of the vocabulary words

in a sentence that you create.

So here's what's gonna happen.

Let's have a student right here.

So we have this student right here, right?

Now this student is looking at something right now

so let's do this like this, let's have this right here,

give her some fingers so she's holding the book.

Okay so this student is looking at something right now.

What you're going to do is

you're going to review the meaning

and, this is the key right here, think about your life.

This is key.

Review the meaning and think about your life.

So here we go, let me show you an example,

so let's look at an example

so that you can understand exactly what this step means.

So let's say for example I have this right here.

This is my dictionary.

And the word I selected was enormous, enormous,

which means very big so again it means very big,

that's the definition I found in the dictionary, correct?

Now what's going to happen is

I'm going to look at the dictionary sentence example,

I'm gonna look for the dictionary sentence example

and let's say the dictionary says

the building is enormous, the building is enormous,

that's the pattern that the dictionary uses.

The building is enormous.

Now what I'm going to do is think about my life

and I'm gonna write my own sentence

so you're going to write your sentence so your sentence

which is my sentence right now is gonna be

ah, maybe my school.

So I can say my university is enormous.

So what happened?

I changed this part right here.

So instead of the building,

I put my university but everything else is the same.

This is what you're going to do

for the apply step in this formula.

Let's keep going.

Now the last thing for the breakdown is the review step.

The final step in the breakdown method

is to review all of the previous steps

and see which step you need to practice more

so remember it's a 16 day cycle.

Now this 16 day cycle has many different columns

but on the 16th day

you're going to review all of the 42 words you learned

on the previous 15 days.

Now don't worry I'm gonna explain exactly how to do this.

So let's look at it in more detail.

once again the final step in the breakdown method

is to review all of the previous steps

and see which step you need to practice more.

So let's jump in, here we go.

For the first thing we need to do

let's put our timer right here

so we have our little clock right here,

this is our timer, our bell.

So you're gonna find a timer and what you're gonna do is

you're going to set a five minute timer.

This is very important, only five minutes,

set a five minute timer for the review time.

Very important,

remember you've been practicing these words for 15 days

so you should be able to bring them to mind very quickly

so what you're gonna do next is

remember there was a 15 day period for the review day

so let's just do it real quick like this,

let's just kinda do a small sketch

so the 15 day period and during that period

we had different flash cards so we had a word flash card,

remember we had the word flash card that we made

and we also had image flash cards that we made,

okay so what's gonna happen is you need to review both

within the five minute time period.

Now it seems like a short period of time to review 42 words

but remember your brain is amazing,

you've been using and reviewing these words

for a 15 day period

so that means you actually will know more than you realize.

What's gonna happen is during this five minute period

you need to go very quickly

and there may be some words that you get wrong.

If there are words that you get wrong

that just means you need to review them again

so what's gonna happen is you're gonna have a separate pile.

This is the review again pile.

So what you're gonna do is if you get any wrong

put them in the review again pile

and what's important is what you're gonna do is

when you start the next cycle

you're going to go over them every other day

until you feel comfortable

and you feel like you know them well.

This is the review step, okay?

Okay great job now I've created

the actual formula and spreadsheet

that you will need to do this and put this into action.

The 1,000 vocabulary words plan is a free download

that I created just for you

so if you wanna download it go to

speakenglishwithtiffani.com/1000vocabularywords

again it's totally free and you can use it

to learn and use 1,000 English vocabulary words.

Also remember to watch my next English video lesson

that you can see on the left side of your screen.

Until then, keep studying English

and I'll talk to you again soon.