Ways to memorize new words. How to memorize foreign words and certainly live to see a situation when they come in handy? The most common foreign words

It would seem like a simple math problem from the fourth grade: if you learn 30-35 English words a day every day, How many words of English can you learn in a month and a year?

Of course, you easily calculated: you can learn about a thousand English words in a month and, accordingly, 12,000 words in a year. I wonder what experience and practice say?

As vocabulary is reduced, so are the number of feelings you can express, the number of events you can describe, the number of the things you can identify! Not only understanding is limited, but also experience. Man grows by language. Whenever he limits language he retrogresses!

As vocabulary shrinks, the number of feelings that you can express, the number of events that you can describe, the number of objects that you can name decreases. Not only understanding is limited, but also experience. A person grows thanks to language. Whenever he limits the language, he decays.

~ Sheri S. Tepper

As practice shows, you can learn something, but you will not be able to keep it in an active reserve and regularly use it in speech. Words without practice and associative links are quickly forgotten, which the creators keep silent about.

True, you always have a chance remember a large number of English words- it all depends on the peculiarities of memory and techniques for memorizing English words, which we will talk about today.

How to learn a lot of English words quickly

Learning English words is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance. Signing the names of unfamiliar words is one of the most effective methods for memorizing.

Want to learn many English words in a short time? The German scientist Ebinghaus found that with mechanical memorization, that is, when a person does not understand the meaning of the material and does not use mnemonics, after an hour only 44% of the information remains in memory, and after a week less than 25%. Fortunately, with conscious memorization, information is forgotten much more slowly.

First of all, you need to determine how it is easier for you to assimilate new information: by ear, to see it, or to write it down?

It will not take much time, but it will greatly facilitate training and selection. effective technicians for you in the future. One of the tests that will help you determine how it is easier for you to remember new information is presented on this site. By answering 30 questions, you will be able to know exactly what type you are.

In short, we recall that visuals easily memorize new words after seeing or reading, audials - by ear, and kinesthetics need to be in motion, for example, to write information on paper.

In the modern world, most people are dominated by the visual type of perception of new information. Remember how long annoying commercials seen on TV or posters and banners that dot the streets of the city are kept in our memory.

You also need to know that 100% visuals or audials don't exist. But some channel is still dominant, and it is this channel that should be used if your goal is learn a lot of English words quickly.

Visual method of memorizing English words

Characteristics and scheme of information perception by visuals.

If you have read the novel “Martin Eden” by Jack London, then most likely remember that the main character learned a huge number of academic words, pasting sheets of paper with new words at home.

Visual method for memorizing English words - this is pasting all the objects that surround you with stickers with new words. How does the visual method work? You constantly stumble upon an abundance of English words, read, memorize and, of course, use English words.

Purchase from the store or make your own cards with new words, translation, transcription, and even an example of use. It is convenient to take such cards with you if you take a long commute to work or constantly disappear in queues. They can be classically done on paper or downloaded to your phone.

On a note:

On the Internet you can find and download applications for mobile phones that use a visual way to expand vocabulary. The most popular are Words, Easy Ten and Duolingo: Learn Languages ​​Free.

Vivid pictures with captions, memory simulators, verification tests that use these mobile applications will help you learn a lot of English words in a short time... And most importantly, they are always at hand!

If your level is not initial (Pre-Intermediate and higher), you can watch films, programs and videos with and without subtitles, writing out not only new words, but also useful colloquial phrases.

English audio tutorials and podcasts

Characteristics and scheme of information perception by auditors.

If you belong to a rare category of people (about 10%) who love and remember with their ears, then this is the method for you.

The main conditions for expanding vocabulary- constantly listen to English, whether at home in the kitchen or in the car in traffic. New words and expressions can be written down and repeated periodically.

With this method, you will not be afraid to perceive speech by ear and your listening skills will improve.

TPR method for expanding vocabulary

Characteristics and scheme of information perception by kinesthetics.

The third type of information perception, which includes kinesthetics, prefers movement to static learning. If you are a kinesthetic, remember to write down new words on paper. It is better if you have a diary dictionary that you can refer to from time to time.

In teaching children, it is often used TPR (Total Physical Response) method... But, believe me, if you are a kinesthetic, this method is also for you: with its help you can easily learn English words and phrases.

The essence of the method consists in memorizing new words, phrases and lexical constructions using gestures, command execution, pantomime and games. For example, on the word ball, you need to perform an action associated with this object, for example, a ball game.

Simple and effective ways to memorize English words

Mnemonics and memorization of English words

An illustrative example of how mnemonics works.

One of the most effective ways memorizing English, and indeed foreign words, is mnemonics. The method of mnemonics (or mnemonics) is based on creating images in your mind. You take information that needs to be remembered and turn it into an image through association.

First you need to understand that the brain does not remember the images that appear in the head, but links between multiple images... This is very important to remember, because immediately during memorization, it is necessary to focus on this.

Mnemonics actively develops memory and thinking. The main task is to create images that are connected in the imagination different ways... Images should be colored, large and detailed.

Learning English words with mnemonics is incredibly easy! We select the most consonant word (or a few words) from the native language for a foreign word.

How mnemonics works when memorizing English words, let's look at an example:

puddle ["pʌdl] puddle

Approximate pronunciation (phonetic association) is "Paddle"

Mnemonic model: "I kept falling and falling into a puddle" .

Examples of using mnemonics in teaching English:

If you are using mnemonics to expand vocabulary, it is important to remember that you need not only to connect words with each other and express in the form of a sentence, but also to present a specific situation in which this happens or is said.

For example, not just say: "A nervous man is walking along a narrow lane," but imagine nervous person, you can your friend, who walks, looking around and shuddering at every sound, along a narrow dark alley. In this case, you will definitely not forget this foreign word.

On a note:

The resulting association or bunch of words is needed only for 2-3 repetitions from memory in order to memorize a foreign word and its translation. Then it disappears for uselessness, so you don't have to worry that all kinds of nonsense will be stored in your memory.

Undoubtedly, for fast and high-quality memorization of foreign words, you need to practice, find your own approach, learn to create your own associations, and even quickly. At first, the process of creating associations will be slow, but please be patient and continue training. As a rule, the speed and quality of creating associations improves after the first thousands of memorized words.

It remains to add that using this technique you can memorize the words of anyone foreign language .

Halls of Mind to expand your English vocabulary

Many people use flashcards to memorize new words, but these cards are not always at hand, especially at the right time.

There is a great way to memorize new words and expressions - this is the power of your mind. It is called Method of loci (method of geometrical places).

Also you can find such names as "Palaces of reason", "palaces of memory", "method of loci", "spatial mnemonics", "method of Cicero".

When Sherlock Holmes, a world-famous detective, wanted to remember something important, he closed his eyes and plunged into the palaces of his mind ( ‘Mind palace’). Similar to Sherlock Holmes, you can also use this Method of loci to memorize new words and expressions. You can see how it looks clearly in the video.

Video "The Dog of the Baskervilles" - "palaces of mind" by Sherlock Holmes.

How does the Geometric Locations Method work?

We build an imaginary place ( imaginary place) in our mind and place objects and people there that will help us remember new words. You can store images both on the shelves and randomly. The main thing is that you yourself know where everything is and be able to quickly remember. The best activators are either completely ridiculous or very logical. Better yet, combine correctly.

Remember simple rules, which in no case should be violated in the process of creating a connection:

• Present images large(even if the objects that need to be remembered are of different sizes, make them the same: be it a ship, a coconut or a bee. Small images should not be presented. Connections between such images will be fixed very poorly.
• Images should be voluminous... For example, holographic images or images created with 3D graphics programs. Such images can be rotated and viewed from different angles.
• Images must be presented colored... If these are the leaves of trees, then necessarily green, the tree itself - brown, etc.
• The presented images must be detailed... If you imagine the image of a "phone", you need to mentally consider it and clearly see what parts the phone you represent consists of. If this is a cell phone, then you can distinguish the following images in it: antenna, display, buttons, cover, strap, leather case, battery.

Then we apply the main mental operation in mnemonics - this is "Combination of images"... Let's take a look at how this is applied in the practice of learning English words.

Let's say we need to memorize words associated with a word run, as well as its forms, so we think of the following story in our minds: the imaginary scene of the city - the imaginary place is a city .

This is just a small example of how how can you memorize english words, connected with run, and its shape. Of course, you can add other phrases with this word, which in fact are many, and as my imaginary city grows, I will be able to use more and more words, and thereby expand my vocabulary.

Learn more about memorization technique "palace of memory" you can learn more from the video:

An imaginary place can be any, even a room in your house, and only you try to come up with a situation that will be close to you, and the words will be much easier to remember.

In this manner easy to learn words on different topics eg “food”, “kitchen”, “clothes”, etc. Arrange the items as you like, and then it will be easier for you to remember the name of the item by its location in your "memory" palace.

And of course, develop deduction, attention to detail and creativity... Develop associative thinking.

Another piece of advice applies to all "palaces of memory", regardless of the purpose of their "construction". If you want to remember something for a long time (and not in the "passed-and-forget" mode), you will have to periodically "walk" around the "palace".

Audiolingual method in English

Automation of skills occurs during training by repeated repetition of speech patterns.

Audiolingual method- this is one of the methods of teaching a language, in which it is necessary to repeatedly listen and pronounce words, phrases and sentences, which leads to their automation.

This method has its pros and cons, but is mostly suitable for audiences as there is no visual reference. The focus here is on speaking.

When using the audiolingual method, no explanations are given, since all the proposed material is simply worked out and memorized in the form of stable expressions, so that students can use them in the future without hesitation.

In this case, teaching is based on the development of certain static models that students cannot change at all or almost at all. In this respect, this teaching method is the exact opposite of the communicative method.

let's consider positive and negative sides audiolingual method.

Positive sides

Negative sides

When developing this method, attention was focused not only on the content of the material offered to the student, but also on the very process of memorizing this material by the student. The very system of presenting new information and multiple repetitions lead to the inevitable memorization of the past. In the process of repetition, not only the memorization of the material occurs, but also the practice of pronunciation, as well as the removal of the language barrier. Memorizing fixed expressions leads to the fact that, if necessary, they come to mind automatically, as when communicating in your native language.

The main disadvantage of the audiolingual method (not unreasonably) is that it does not pay due attention to the independent study of grammar. Pupils, especially at the initial stage of learning, are deprived of the opportunity to understand why a phrase is constructed this way and not another, or why a word is used in one form and not in another. As they learn, students have to independently, on the basis of the material covered, build certain grammatical constructions for themselves. This undoubtedly contributes to a more solid assimilation of such structures, but only if the student is able to build them. And this is not always possible, since there are exceptions to the rules that can confuse a person who is not familiar with the basics of the grammar of the target language.

Tips on how to improve your English vocabulary?

Thanks to the knowledge of many words, you will be able to express yourself in different ways.

First of all, you need to replenish your vocabulary systematically and regularly, preferably every day. There are many ways and they all work.

Choose the one that suits you best, and you can easily improve your English vocabulary... Let's dwell on each of them in more detail.

Expand your English vocabulary with lists

Words surround us. Just looking for words in a dictionary may not be so interesting and exciting. Reach out to English words around you - during, TV shows and broadcasts in English, reading the news - anywhere, anytime.

Important!

Regardless of whether you do it or not, we recommend that you write down which part of speech is a particular word (verb, noun, adjective), as well as derivatives of this word. For example, “fish” - fishing, fishy, ​​fisherman, etc. It will also be helpful if you add sentences with examples of these words.

You can also use notepad on your mobile phone. Whenever you hear an unfamiliar word, write it down. Make sure you have enough free space around it to make the appropriate notes.

When you have some free time, add its meaning or translation and perhaps the context in which it can be used.

Learn English words by practice

As you build up your word lists, it is very easy to forget the words that were in the beginning. All words are required use in your speech... The more we use them, the better we remember them.

Reread your lists, for example, at the end of each week. How well do you remember the old words?

If any words are poorly remembered but they are very common, it is very likely that you will meet them in the future. Therefore, add them again to the new lists and over time you will remember them.

Games will help you remember English words

Scrabble is an effective way to learn English words and have fun with family and friends.

Who said learning new words is not fun ?! Games like Scrabble or Vocabador offer great ways to learn new words .

Games are a great way to learn, not only because they are fun, but also because they give you context for new words. Trust me, you will very quickly memorize the word that your friend was laughing at.

We also want to draw your attention to the free game Free Rice. This game gives you the word, and you need to find the right definition for it. If you answer incorrectly, the next word will become easier. If correct, it is more difficult.

By playing this game, you are not only improve your vocabulary but also helping the world fight hunger. How? Try to play it!

Increase your English vocabulary with context

As mentioned earlier, it is better (and easier) memorize new words in context... One way is to write a sentence with this word. You will not only remember this word, but you can easily use it in conversation.

Another way - memorize words in groups... If you want to remember a word humongous (very large), it will be easier for you to remember it from a chain of words: getting bigger and bigger-large, huge, humongous... It also makes it possible to memorize more words at one time.

For example, large, humongous, gargantuan... What do you think the word means gargantuan?

Dictionaries and social networks for memorizing words

Of course, you can look up the unfamiliar word in the dictionary! Moreover, modern online dictionaries offer many additional features.

Many online dictionaries contain interesting articles, games, and the word of the day heading.

And if you feel confident that you can read literature in the original language, check out the article.

Sites for learning English words

Below you will find the best sites for increasing and training vocabulary that can be of maximum benefit to you.

BusinessEnglishSite

BusinessEnglishSite Business Vocabulary Learning Site

This is one of the best and most popular sites to explore. Here you can add useful phrases, expressions, and even business jargon to your vocabulary.

All words are broken down by topic, for example, "Accounting", "Project Management", "IT" etc.

For each topic there are reinforcement exercises that train not only vocabulary, but also grammar.

Blair English

Blair English lets you learn English words from scratch

All exercises and lessons on this site have been specially designed to increase and enrich your English vocabulary .

Here you will find over 190 free interactive exercises on a variety of topics such as IT-technology, Business, Communication and many others.

The site also has a database of exercises to improve listening and pronunciation skills.

Lingualeo

Lingualeo - a resource for vocabulary training

A very famous interactive resource that is interesting not only for children. It helps to make language learning fun and intuitive, and also contains unlimited words for different levels.

To feed the lion cub and get a new portion of words, registration is required.

British Council

British Council - the most British way to learn words

The British Council website hasn't left us without the practice of truly British phrases, idioms and expressions. There you can also learn a few new words a day.

Words filtered by topic and level, which makes navigation extremely convenient, and the process of cramming English words - a fun experience.

For teachers, there are lesson plans for different levels with handouts.

Test Your Vocabulary

On this site, you can not with 100% probability, but at least roughly understand what vocabulary you have and what you need to improve.

The test interface in English is simple. The site is designed for users who are learning English or even native speakers.

By checking the box on the words you know the translation of and by answering a few questions about yourself, you will most likely know with certainty, how many english words is in your active stock.

Instead of a conclusion

As you can see, there are plenty of techniques and resources to enrich your vocabulary in various fields. The most important thing is to constantly work on it, and here everything depends on you. The daily work will then be paid in full when you communicate with English speakers without any problems.

In contact with

Many who begin to learn a language, from the very beginning, wonder how to memorize foreign words easily, quickly and with pleasure, in order to immediately speak a foreign language.

Technology of memorizing foreign words

First of all, one most important remark - this technology of memorizing foreign words is configured in such a way that you need to quickly learn words in the direction of "foreign - Russian", that is, we look at a foreign word and remember its meaning in Russian, but not vice versa!

As soon as you decide to speak a foreign language quickly, the question arises of how to memorize foreign words hundreds a day? This is not always possible, because words by themselves cannot jump into the head. You always need someone to put them there or enter them into memory like in a computer.

Stage 1 Working with foreign words

At the stage of working with foreign words, we choose, divide and memorize foreign words.

1) Choose a portion of words to memorize in the amount of one hundred pieces!

I want to note right away that 100 is the maximum maximum, at least for me. Maybe if this technique starts to work for you, you can immediately quickly learn words and overcome 200 and 300, but for a start it is better not to take more than 50-60. Limit your speed!

2) Divide the portion into five parts

This is akin to separate meals, so that not everything at once, but all day, but little by little. Please note - the parts must be equal! Therefore, in order to quickly learn words, initially take such an amount that is divisible by 5 without a remainder!

3) memorize words

Of course, you need to memorize as much as possible, because the art of quickly learning words requires great accuracy! In total, memorizing the words from the first part will take you no more than 30 seconds!

Short-term memory mechanism

How does the short-term memory mechanism work at stage 1? 30 seconds is a very significant figure! It is directly related to our short-term memory, which allows and does not allow us to quickly learn words. Why? But because short-term memory is like a computer's RAM, only in humans it is very quickly overloaded.

Well, judge for yourself, how can you quickly learn words if this memory holds information for only 30 seconds, and it remembers from 2 to 26 units of information for these half a minute! This cannot even be compared with the first computers of the 1980s.

But! Man is not a machine, so his memory has some other interesting possibilities! For example, she doesn't care how long the word you memorize! That is, if we have seven letters, seven words and seven phrases, memorization will be the same! Moreover, the preference is given to longer information. So it's better to quickly learn not single words, but whole expressions!

Impairment of short-term memory

And one more important circumstance - short-term memory may deteriorate, short-term memory will not work if you, having started to quickly learn words, begin to repeat the word that you just memorized many times! The memory will just overflow and freeze.

In other words, if you repeat one word for more than 30 seconds, then it will simply be erased from your short-term memory and will not go into long-term memory in any way! And in reality, even if one learns words very quickly, a person is unlikely to be able to repeat one word at such a speed 10-20 times in half a minute.

Hence the conclusion - make the primary element longer - quickly learn not the word itself, but the phrase in context. It is more pleasant for memory and more useful in order for you to quickly learn to speak a foreign language. The number of foreign words and expressions that you memorize in one sitting should be limited.

If you increase it even a little bit, you will immediately begin to forget everything.

How is the process of remembering in the brain

How does the process of memorization take place in the brain and what can improve it or, conversely, damage it? We do not repeat, we remember! Moreover, look - we memorize from 2 to 26 units in "one sitting"! Therefore, do not overload initially - after all, you do not have additional blocks of RAM. Pause! Memorized words from one part - do not rush to the next!

Slow down and switch to some neutral process, not related to the desire to quickly learn words. The pause must be at least ten minutes! You need to "recharge" your short-term memory and open the long-awaited door to long-term memory.

During these ten minutes, you unconsciously begin to quickly learn and repeat the words that you just memorized. Slowly "cooling" the brain gives you a unique opportunity to increase the time of finding new words in short-term memory up to a day - one and a half!

Stage two: rhythm, contexts, repetition

In the second stage, we have to learn how to work with rhythm, include words in contexts and repeat correctly.

1) We repeat the words!

10 minutes after memorizing the first part of the words, put a paper sheet on the translation, go over the words with your eyes and check how you remember them. Don't worry if you missed something. Catch up on everything in the next steps!

2) Knock the rhythm!

We take something evenly and loudly ticking, for example, a metronome - mechanical, electrical, computer or something like that. If there is none, boldly arm ourselves with a pencil and start knocking a rhythm of 1 beat per second. Likewise, set the rhythm on the metronome to 60 beats per minute.

And so, with each such blow, we look at the word that we have memorized and try to recognize it. Knock-word, knock-word, knock-word ... and off we go. At the same time, we mentally count how many words have already passed. If at this moment we cannot remember the word, we leave it and move on to the next one. Our task here is to keep up with the rhythm!

Why are we doing this at all? And then, in order to just turn on the internal resources of the brain and long-term memory, which activates the ability to quickly learn words. We kind of put ourselves into a "language trance", as we concentrate on the rhythm, and all our fears and internal criticism are fooled and they cannot interfere with us at this moment. At the same time, the mechanisms of word recognition and its deeper memorization are activated.

All actions, starting from Step 4, are recorded by the clock - how much time you need to go through all these steps. In the future, it will be possible to quickly learn words and plan the number of words to memorize in the total portion.

3) We work with the following parts of words

We move on to the second and subsequent parts of the words from our portion and repeat the first stage. Remember the 10 minute pause after the first memorization of each part! And so quickly we learn words and study the whole portion!

4) Check the entire portion!

We do it very simply - we read all the words that we have memorized and repeated. This step is important because we summarize a kind of result of our "brainstorming" and "clean up the tails", that is, we recall those words that have already been forgotten.

As a result, it should take you no more than one hour to learn words quickly. How many words you can memorize and repeat during this time is up to you, but be prudent. Quantity does not mean quality at all.

What should you do now, after you have studied the entire verbal portion? You must start the process of loading the learned material into long-term memory. This is done using spaced repetitions in order to "push" information from short-term memory even deeper.

How not to forget foreign words

The answer to the question of how not to forget foreign words can be spaced repetitions. Interval repetitions are repetitions of a learned portion of words at certain intervals of time, after which this tasty portion is remembered seriously and for a long time.

When you started to quickly learn words, you already repeated them once - each part 10 minutes after memorization. Now you repeat the entire batch as follows:

First repetition - after 24 hours

Second repetition 24 hours after the first

Third repetition - 24 hours after the second

The fourth and final repetition is 2-3 months after the third!

Do not be confused by such a long break in repetitions - in reality you will be able to remember the words even after a year! So don't worry about your memory! The main thing is to go through all four intervals!

Okay, you passed the first portion, but what about the rest? After all, on the next day you will take the next portion, on the third day - another one, and then another and another! How not to drown in this avalanche of words that suddenly rush into your consciousness and completely confuse your cards?

Everything is very simple! You will need not only to quickly learn the words themselves, but also to streamline the process of learning foreign words and their repetition.
To do this, designate each portion with a serial number from 1 to infinity and put these numbers on the calendar, according to the repetition intervals.

Enter the serial number of the portion right in the date window and that's it! Just do not forget under what number which portion of words is hidden By the way, the portion number can be initially written in the very source of these words.

Can I learn a foreign language on my own?

Having learned how to quickly memorize foreign words, the question immediately arises - is it possible to learn a foreign language on your own? What can I say? The technique works! The brain accelerates, but it does it gradually, as if spinning up the speed, but then it may not stop.

I quickly learned words and in about one week I reached the level of 50 words per hour, but then I already felt the strain of my brain, a kind of “burning out” of it. You know, I read that simultaneous interpreters in their work change every half hour, because their brain simply cannot withstand a longer time due to constant tension and concentration.

Something similar is felt here too! At first, everything goes quite difficult and unpleasant. Everything inside refuses to quickly learn words and longs for the familiar cramming of words, which then happily disappear from memory.

However, after several days of such accelerations, the body gets used to it and the first results begin to come. Even later, it is tempting to quickly learn words and swing this flywheel to the maximum, but here I would recommend that you take your time.

The number of words in a portion needs to be increased little by little, and even then only if you see that your technique has "gone". What this quantity should be is up to you, but think for yourself! For me, the optimal portion is 50-60 words, well, it's like the permitted speed in settlements.

Now about how often you need to apply this technique. Who wants to quickly learn words "with a breeze" at 200 per hour, evaluate your capabilities to start. After some testing, I am deeply convinced that it should not be your basic way of learning foreign words.

It would be very uncomfortable for me if every time during memorization and repetition, I accelerated all my neurons, and then calmed them down for a long time. This is somehow fraught, I think ... The technique is unambiguously effective at the basic stage of vocabulary typing. This is where you need to quickly learn words in order to quickly start speaking a foreign language and learn to comprehend a foreign language by ear!

It is also possible to quickly learn words and apply the “two hundred words per hour” technique at the stage of mastering thematic vocabulary, that is, for some specific topics and areas, where there are many words and most of them are specific terms.

When learning a foreign language, it is very important to constantly replenish your vocabulary - to memorize new and new words in English. However, not everyone succeeds in doing this. Here are seven tips to help you memorize new words in English more effectively.

Make associative networks

Our brain takes in what we read and transforms it into images, ideas and feelings, and then forms connections between new information and what we already know. This is how memorization takes place - the new is combined with the old.

Imagine a tree. Isn't it easier to see a large, spreading tree with many branches and leaves than a small tree with several branches? The same is true for the brain. When you combine a new word or concept with what you already know, it is easier for the brain to find it and remember it at the right time.

How to do it? Very simple. Draw a web of concepts. Take what you want to remember (word, idea, sentence) and write it in the center of the sheet. Then draw lines from it in all directions, like a spider's web.

At the end of each line, write down any English words or even draw pictures that come to your mind when you think of the word written in the center. It doesn't matter what the associations are, just write down whatever you come up with.

It only takes a couple of minutes, and now all words or concepts will be interconnected in your brain. If you see or hear one of them, it will be easier for you to remember the rest.

To make it work even better, spell out how a particular word in English relates to others. The more often you do this, the more connections are formed. And the more connections, the easier it is for your brain to "see" the word you want to remember.

Memorize phrases (phrases)

Remembering a word is important, but English, like any other, is not just a collection of concepts, it is a tool that people use to communicate and express their thoughts. Find examples of how a particular word is used in the text.

Write down not only the word itself, but also the adjacent ones. For example, if you need to remember english word Arrogant, you can write the tall, arrogant man.

This will help you remember that "arrogant" is an adjective used to describe people. Then try three complete sentences to practice using it.

Use pictures

Draw small pictures to memorize the meaning of the word. Can't draw? It's not scary, it's even better. Our brain receives so much monotonous information that a strange picture is a kind of surprise, and we always remember surprises.

Our brains are better at reading visual information. Draw a funny picture illustrating the meaning of a word, and you will remember it much faster.

Compose stories

English learners often complain that there are too many new words and they are difficult to remember. There is one trick you can use to learn words quickly. Write any story, even a ridiculous one, in which every word in English is involved. Present it in detail.

We can easily remember stories, especially strange ones, if we can recreate them in our imaginations. Feel free to combine words in funny and awkward ways. Let's say you need to memorize the following 20 English words:

shoes, piano, tree, pencil, bird, bus, books, driver, dog, pizza, flower, door, TV set, spoons, chair, jump, dance, throw, computer, stone

(shoes, piano, wood, pencil, bird, bus, books, driver, dog, pizza, flower, door, TV, spoons, chair, jump, dance, throw, computer, stone)

You can compose of them like this incredible story:

There is a piano wearing shoes and sitting in a tree. The tree is strange because someone has stuck a giant pencil through it. On the pencil a bird is sitting and watching a bus full of people reading books. Even the driver is reading a book which is bad because he isn’t paying attention to driving. So, he hits a dog that is eating a pizza in the middle of the road and kills it. The driver digs a hole and buries the dog in it and then puts a flower on it. He notices that there is a door in the dog’s grave and opens it. Inside he can see a TV set with 2 spoons for antennas on top of it. No-one is watching the TV set because they are all watching the chair. Why? - Because the chair is jumping and dancing and throwing stones at the computer.

The piano is sitting on a tree with shoes. The tree looks strange because someone pierced it with a huge pencil. A bird sits on a pencil and looks at a bus full of people reading books. Even the driver reads a book, which is bad, because he does not pay attention to the road. Therefore, he knocks to death a dog who was eating pizza in the middle of the road. The driver digs a hole and buries the dog, and then places a flower on top. He notices that there is a door in the dog's grave and opens it. Inside, he sees a TV with two spoons on top, which act as antennas. Nobody watches TV because everyone is looking at the chair. Why? Because the chair jumps and dances and throws stones at the computer.

Try it. You yourself will be surprised!

Remember opposites

Memorize words in pairs with opposite meanings(antonyms) and words with similar meanings (synonyms). For example, memorize the pairs angry / happy and angry / cross at the same time. We remember similar and opposite things faster, as the brain creates connections between them.

Parse the word by composition

Use roots, prefixes and suffixes to guess what the word means.

For example: even if the word "microbiology" is unfamiliar to you, you can guess what it means. First, take a look at the "micro" prefix. Micro means something very small. You may know that the "-logy" part means science, the study of something.

So, we can already say that we are talking about learning something small. Also, you may remember that "bio" means the life of living things. Thus, we can conclude that "microbiology" is the science of microscopic living organisms.

The human brain tends to save effort (some will call it laziness): if there is a chance to somehow simplify the process, it will definitely take advantage of this chance. Our ingenious "processor" does not admit new foreign words into the long-term memory at once; first they have to serve their time in a kind of waiting room - in short-term memory. If a new word is not used, not repeated, it will be forgotten quite quickly: the brain ruthlessly gets rid of unnecessary information. If you repeat a memorized word - and this should be done at strictly defined moments - you will remember it forever. What is the secret of correctly memorizing new information?

How we remember information: types of memory and the Ebbinghaus curve

So, human memory is divided into two types:

1. Short-term or operational
2. Long-term

The information that enters the brain is first stored in RAM. Over time, depending on the frequency of use, this information is transferred into long-term, long-term memory. At the end of the 19th century, the German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus experimentally proved the well-known postulate of a direct kinship between teaching and repetition. During the experiment, Ebbinghaus determined exactly when to repeat new words in order to memorize them for a long time, if not forever.

Sad fact: the most valuable discovery of Hermann Ebbinghaus is almost never used today. School analysts and developersSkyeng hopes to change this situation: a mobile app for learning new words using the Ebbinghaus discovery is currently in development. The app is planned to be released soon - stay tuned for the company's news.

Many methods suggest learning 100 words in an hour or 1000 words in 3 days - and this is possible. But the problem is that, once in short-term memory, new words do not pass into long-term memory: easy come - easy go (what comes easily, goes away easily).

7 + 1 effective way to memorize foreign words

So, the very first, even zero advice: to remember a new word forever, stick to the following repetition schedule:

The traditional approach to learning new words, tested by generations of schoolchildren, is as follows: foreign words are given in lists according to topics, for example, "Acquaintance", "Letter to a friend", "My day". The set of topics is standard and universal, which is not always effective: if the topic does not arouse interest, it is much more difficult to learn new vocabulary. The experience of our school shows: if the choice of the studied words is approached in strict accordance with the specific goals and interests of each student, at the intersection of useful and pleasant, the result is optimal!

For example, if you like the TV series "Game of Thrones", it will be much more interesting for you to learn words, generate images and concepts that are related to the plot of the film, for example: queen - queen, northern - northern, wall - wall, castle - castle.

The Law of Comprehension: According to Ebbinghaus, meaningful material is remembered 9 times faster. It is not so much the words and sentences that make up the text that are imprinted in the memory, but the thoughts contained in them. They are the first to come to mind when you need to remember the content of the text.

However, learning how to properly organize information at the moment of memorization is not an easy task. You can use key words, diagrams, charts and tables. The forecasting technique is also effective: after starting to read a paragraph, try, after the author has put forward several arguments, to independently draw a conclusion, to explain to yourself what you read, even if it seems obvious to you. Having formulated the information in your own words, you will remember it for a long time.

To better remember a new word, connect 5 senses plus imagination: feel the situation, imagine a picture, try to smell and taste, say the word - or sing.

Visualize, imagine: in the distant northern (northern) country behind a high fortress wall (wall) rises a majestic castle (castle), in which a powerful queen (queen) lives ... How high the wall, how gloomy and impregnable the castle, how beautiful is the ruler sitting on a throne ! Create a picture in your imagination, live the situation and the new vocabulary will be remembered easily and for a long time.

Law of context: information is easier to remember and reproduce when correlated with other simultaneous impressions. The context in which this or that event takes place sometimes turns out to be more important for memorization than the event itself.

Our memory is associative. Therefore, try to change the place of preparation, for example different topics teach in different rooms(kitchen, bedroom), on the road (metro, car) and even at work (office, meeting room). Information is associated with the environment, recalling which will help to remember the content of the topic.

In learning - as in nutrition: it is better to absorb information in small parts, taking short breaks. It is better to learn a maximum of 10 objects (words or constituent parts of a rule) in one session. After that, you need to take a 15-minute break, otherwise the subsequent training will not be complete. Learn words in line, on the subway - impulse learning is much more effective than continuous learning.

The law of the edge, known to us from the movie "Seventeen Moments of Spring": the information presented at the beginning and at the end is best remembered. Especially difficult and intractable words are more effective to learn at the beginning and at the end of a ten-minute session - this way they are better remembered.

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Learning a language is impossible without memorizing new words. But besides the banal and boring cramming, there are many simple, and most importantly, effective ways to learn unfamiliar words.

First you need to figure out exactly how you best perceive information. There is a small but very important checklist for this. If you are an auditor, then the “reading the notebook” method will work much worse for you than the “listening to the list of words to the text” method. And you can not even think about it and look at this stupid notebook for a long time and stubbornly, to the bitter end and feeling your own worthlessness and not understand why nothing is remembered!

Traditional methods

1. Yartsev's method (visuals)

We take a notebook. We write out the word - translation in 2-3 columns. We give a number of synonyms \ antonyms \ examples. From time to time we read lists, we just read, we do not cram nothing.

I don’t know how it works, but, for example, I didn’t learn German, I just read a notebook from time to time. The teacher did not arrange dictations, never checked us on the lists. And I still, many years later, remember a bunch of words.

It turns out that you do not strain, you do not try to pour 100 words into yourself in 30 minutes, you just regularly refresh the material from time to time. But you should immediately warn that these words should be found in textbooks, articles, i.e. you must, in addition to reading the notebook, somehow activate them.

1. Card method

The second popular way. We take and cut a bunch of cards or buy square blocks of paper for notes. On one side we write the word, on the other - the translation. For advanced users, here are some examples. We drive the cards in a circle, put aside those that we know well. From time to time we repeat what we have passed in order to refresh. On the downside, if there are a lot of words and little time, you will spend a lot of time creating the cards themselves.

As entertainment, you can arrange them in piles of 10 in different places of the apartment, bump into them from time to time and repeat them. Audials should definitely add speaking out loud to this method. Cards are great for children, it can be turned into an interesting game.

1. Prescribing method

Classics of the genre. You take a word and spell it out many, many times. Works great for Chinese characters. Minus - green melancholy. But the method has been tested for centuries.

1. Half Page Method

This is one of my favorite ways. You bend the sheet in half, write a word on one side, and a translation on the back. You can quickly check yourself. It works well for me as a visual. I easily remember in which part of the sheet a given word was written. Minus - you get used to a certain word order.

1. Interior Designer Method

If you are learning some specific vocabulary that surrounds you, you can make a kind of "labels" everywhere - stick stickers with the names of objects. You can also stick on the monitor the most nasty words that do not want to be remembered. The plus of this method is the fun. Minus - the brain can begin to ignore all these pieces of paper, and then they will hang somewhere for a long time.

Optimization methods

1. Grouping method by grammatical features

If you have a large list of words, the worst thing you can do with it is to learn it haphazardly. It can and should be processed and grouped. For example, first you write out verbs, and you write them out not in a row, but group them according to the type of endings, or write out masculine nouns, then feminine and separately exceptions that do not fall into these lists.

Thus, since most of our words do not belong to exceptions, you begin to see the logic of the language and memorize words in conjunction with similar ones.

1. Grouping method by meaning

You write out and memorize the word and its synonym / antonym at once. This is true for both beginners and intermediate students. Now you have learned the word "good", find out right away how "bad" will be. And if you still remember "excellent, so-so, disgusting", then you will greatly enrich your vocabulary.

1. The method of learning cognate words

We take words, group them around the root, for example, "business / do / done", and learn several parts of speech with the same root at once.

1. Etymological method

Works well for those who have learned multiple languages. When you study several languages ​​within one language branch, you begin to see similar roots. It really comes with experience, and you don't have to learn a huge amount of words again. At some point, you just already know enough. And if I understand that this word does not mean anything to me categorically, I climb into the etymological dictionary and dig into where it came from. While I do this, I remember it.

1. Word strings

You take a list of words to learn and make a story out of them (even if it's crazy). So you will learn not 30 words, but 5 sentences of 6 words each. If you approach this business creatively, you can have fun and usefully spend time.

Ways for those who don't like old-fashioned methods

1. Spaced Repetition

The technique of retention in memory, which consists in repeating the learned educational material at certain, constantly increasing intervals. In fact, you install an application on your phone, and the program will automatically show you words in the specified order and with the desired frequency. You can use both ready-made word lists and create your own.

Pros: it is deeply engraved in the memory.

Cons: It takes a lot of time. If you have already memorized the word, it will still pop up from time to time in some programs.

In Memrise you can choose ready-made word lists or create your own. If the word is categorically not remembered, you can use special funny pictures that users create using mnemonic techniques, or upload your own. Memrise also recently added a new option - you can not just hear the voice acting of a word, but watch a video of how people pronounce these words.

Service for working on written speech for those who have already mastered the basics of language practice. The user writes the text in the target language, after which the native speaker of the corresponding language is taken to check the written and makes his own edits.

"Magic" methods

Various marketers and language gurus love to attract by magic methods. Usually the essence of the methods lies in the "secret techniques of special services", which, objectively speaking, are described in a heap of literature. And they are asking for unhealthy sums of money.

1. Mnemonics

Mnemonics is one of the most popular ways, the essence of which is to come up with funny and absurd associations for a word that you just can't remember. You take the floor and come up with some kind of associative image that should be very vivid. But in this image there must be a "key" to the memorized word.

Example: "grief" - woe to a wounded tiger, vultures circle over him.

For auditors

Rule # 1 for you: Always say what you teach out loud. If you use cards, speak it out. If you are reading the list, read it out loud. Hear the words, for you this is the most quick way remember them! Naturally, you will have to write them down, but it will go faster than if you read and write in silence.

1. Listening to words

You can record audio recordings of word lists and repeat after the announcer. Good textbooks usually provide a well-read word list for the lesson. You can also listen to high-quality podcasts in which there is a detailed analysis of the dialogues.

1. Multiple repetition

A method similar to writing words in a row, quite tedious and boring, but effective - repeat aloud several times. It is believed that a word can be considered learned if you have used it 5 times in context. So try to give 5 different examples of how this word is used. Of course, out loud. You can fix it by writing it down.

Don't just learn the list. Always learn words in context, choose examples and phrases. Work with a dictionary.

1. Memorize dialogues

Memorizing small dialogues and texts with useful vocabulary by heart is one of the surest ways that you remember and use the word correctly in the context you need at the right time. Yes, it will take more time and effort, but in the long run, you will have a set of ready-made structures in your head that you will be happy to use.

1. Ask someone to check you

Take your husband / mom / child / friend and ask them to chase you down the list. Of course, you will not be given grades, but an element of control and discipline will appear.

1. Learn what is really needed

In one of my textbooks, the word "hoe" appeared in the vocabulary before the words "short and long" appeared. Do not learn "hoes" and any unnecessary garbage until the moment, until you learn really relevant and vital vocabulary.

How to determine relevance? There are many tutorials and lists from the Top 1000 Words series. First, we learn the frequency, then - "hoes", not earlier. If you have not yet learned how to count and do not know the pronoun, it is still too early for you to learn colors, no matter how much you would like.

1. Get creative with the process

If everything pisses you off, words do not enter your head and you want to quickly close these lists, experiment. Someone is helped by drawings, someone walks around the apartment and recites aloud, someone communicates with their cat. If you are interested in something, do not be lazy to go into the dictionary. Study what is close to you. Don't get hung up on methods that don't work.