Academic Support, Student Services
Learning Vocabulary
Why is it important?
A degree in Modern Languages requires a number different kinds of learning. Learning
vocabulary is very different from writing a literature or history essay or understanding
grammar concepts. Whilst it is possible to absorb some vocabulary passively through reading
and listening, it is not possible to increase it significantly without some very pro-active
learning. Looking up a word and establishing its meaning is not the same as learning it so
that you can remember it if you come across it again. Effective vocabulary learning will speed
up your reading, improve your understanding and increase the ease with which you can
communicate.
Much of the learning necessary to learn vocabulary is to do with memorising. Memorising is
a crucial skill in language learning, but because it has been ‘out of fashion’ in schools you
may neither have been taught how to do it, nor practised it very effectively. We all have
different ways of doing it, so committing something to memory challenges us to work out the
ways that work best for us. It requires some commitment but is very satisfying once
accomplished.
The purpose of these pages is first to suggest ways in which memory works best and then to
look at how you might use the ideas to learn vocabulary.
Some points to bear in mind:
Understand what works for you. We all have different ways of making our memory work
best for us, depending on our previous experience, what we need to learn and on our
individual learning preferences.
Be pro-active. No-one can do it for you. Only you can decide whether you know something
or not. Think of it as a process of discovering how you learn.
Talk to other people about how they learn and consider working with friends
Continue reading to find out more about how your memory works best
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Making your memory work for you
Beginnings: We tend to remember what we learn at the
beginning of a session
Endings: We remember what we learned recently
Patterns: The brain likes patterns and structure. Create your
own such as stories, time lines, mnemonics
Chunks: We remember best in small chunks. Identify points
where to break down what you need to learn. Keep the
chunks small
Links: We like to link things with something we know
already, hang information onto something so that it cannot
float away. Create your own links, no matter how silly.
Interest: We remember things that interest us. Make it
interesting
Novelty: We remember things that stand out as different
We have to put things into our memory and be able to find them again when we need them,
usually to generate some kind of output. For some kinds of learning, this involves
transferring things from our short term to our long term memory.
Input
Output
It helps to use all of our senses, but
we tend to have individual
preferences that feel most effective.
We have to check regularly if we have
remembered something. If we do not, it will
not transfer to long term memory.
Visual: colour, shape, pictures,
diagrams, flow charts, mind maps,
posters
Use structured reviews, i.e. check 15 mins,
then 24 hours, then 2 or 3 days, etc. after
learning. This need not take long and can be
done informally, e.g. while standing at the
bus stop!
Auditory: record, listen, verbalise
(aloud), music, rhythm
Kinaesthetic: move, write, draw,
touch
Think of materials and resources that might
help: prompt cards, PC files, a sound
recording, asking friends to test
Do not try to learn too much at once and check regularly what you have just learned.
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Applying memory strategies to learning vocabulary
1.
Decide HOW LONG
you are going to spend

Establish a routine for doing
it regularly, say 15 minutes
at the beginning of each
work session.

2.

Identify WHAT you
need to learn



Using a DICTIONARY


Read through the passage without
stopping to look up words.
Identify which words you know,
which you think you can guess from
context and which you definitely do
not know.
Use highlights, underlining –
whichever works for you.
Read through again checking
words in a dictionary. Decide if your
guesses were accurate or if you
need to learn.
Check if there are electronic
dictionaries that would speed up
the process. (Your school may
be able to guide you on this)
Look at all the meanings and
make sure you have chosen the
right one for the context.
Make sure you have the whole
phrase, the gender, the following
preposition etc.
3.
KEEP A RECORD of what
you intend to learn
You are aiming for a list of
words you need to learn, with
the French and the English,
grouped in a way that makes
sense to you.




Decide on the materials you need. You
might use a notebook, index cards or a
computer file.
Then decide how to organise the
words. It could be according to topic i.e.
all the words to do with advertising.
You will always have general words
that are not topic specific, so think
about how you are going to organise
those –alphabetically, by date with a
note of the text in which they occur,
according to whether they are verbs or
nouns etc. with colour coding for
gender
You may want to put them in a
sentence to give them a context.
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4.
Think about HOW you will
learn them







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If you have to work hard
at remembering the
spelling



Decide how many words at a time
you will learn. Remember small
chunks are best. Try three or four
at a time to start with.
Use all of your senses (visual,
auditory, kinaesthetic) unless you
know you learn best using one in
particular. If so use your strengths.
Make links. It does not matter if
they only make sense to you.
Auditory: Saying aloud in French
and English; record yourself saying
them in French and leave a space
to say the English, sing them!
Visual: Write in colour, join French
and English with shapes; create
symbols that mean something to
you; make posters of the week’s
words and put up on the wall. You
are trying to create a picture you
can use to help you recall.
Links: Look for similarities with
words you know already that are
connected in meaning, recognise
root words and analyse, order the
words to make up a story, no
matter how silly.
Identify the parts of the word you
cannot remember.
Say it, read it, write it. Does it help to
keep on writing and saying?
Write with finger on the desk or in
the air and say it.
Focus on the difficult part, highlight
it, put a box round it, look for a link
that will help you remember,
break the word down into chunks
that mean something for you.
Use look, cover, write, check –look
at the word, cover it up, try writing it
and check it. Increase the time
between looking at it and writing it.
When you are confident with the first three or four words, move on to the next.
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5.
Reviewing or
Checking how well
you are
remembering



Look back at page 2 for
structured reviews.
Keep checking if you
have remembered the
words already learned.
Highlight any that are
problematic and focus
on them.
The ultimate test of how well you know the words is to be able to read the passage in
which they occur without any problems.
You will need to keep reviewing them as the number of words increases. If you are
remembering them after several weeks and noticing that you understand them if you
come across them in different contexts, then you have most probably got them safely
stored in your long term memory!
Further useful hints on memory and vocabulary learning are available at
www.mindtools.com Follow the link for Memory Improvement
School of Modern Languages / Student Services: Academic Support/Sept.06
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/StudentServices/Supportforyourstudies/AcademicSupport/
StudyResources/index.aspx