It would seem a simple math problem from the fourth grade: if you study 30-35 every day English words in a day, how many words in English Can you learn it in a month or a year?

Of course, you can easily calculate: 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 your vocabulary decreases, the number of feelings you can express, the number of events you can describe, the number of objects you can name, decreases. Not only is understanding limited, but also experience. Man grows through language. Whenever he restricts language, it declines.

~ Sheri S. Tepper

As practice shows, you can learn something, but keep it in active stock and it won’t work to be used regularly in speech. Words without practice and associative connections are quickly forgotten, which is something the creators are silent about.

The truth is you always have a chance remember a large number of English words- it all depends on the characteristics 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 effective methods for memorization.

Want to learn a lot of English words in a short time? The German scientist Ebinhaus 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 the 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 hearing, seeing or writing it down?

This won’t take much time, but it will make it much easier to learn and select effective techniques for you in the future. One test that will help you determine how easier it is for you to remember new information is presented on this site. By answering 30 questions, you can know exactly what type you are.

Let us briefly recall that visual learners easily remember new words by seeing or reading, auditory learners by hearing, and kinesthetic learners need to be on the move, for example, writing down information on paper.

IN modern world For most people, the visual type of perception of new information predominates. Remember how long the annoying commercials seen on TV, or the posters and banners that litter the streets of the city are stored in our memory for a long time.

You also need to know that there is no such thing as 100% visual or auditory. But some channel is still dominant, and it is this one that should be used if your goal is learn a lot of English words quickly.

Visual method for memorizing English words

Characteristics and scheme of information perception by visual people.

If you have read the novel “Martin Eden” by Jack London, then most likely you remember that main character I learned a huge number of academic words, posting leaflets with new words in my home.

Visual method to remember English words is to paste stickers with new words on all the objects that surround you. How does the visual method work? You constantly come across an abundance of English words, read, memorize and, of course, use English words.

Buy cards in the store or make them yourself with new words, translations, transcriptions, and even examples of use. These cards are convenient to take with you if you have a long commute to work or constantly get lost in queues. They can be classically made on paper or downloaded to your phone.

On a note:

On the Internet you can find download applications for mobile phones, which use a visual method to expand vocabulary. The most popular are Words, Easy Ten and Duolingo: Learn languages ​​for free.

Bright pictures with captions, memorization simulators, screening 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 beginner (Pre-Intermediate and above), you can watch films, shows and videos with and without subtitles, writing down not only new words, but also useful colloquial phrases.

Educational audio materials in English and podcasts

Characteristics and scheme of information perception by auditory learners.

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

The main conditions for vocabulary expansion- listen constantly English speech, be it at home in the kitchen or in the car in a traffic jam. 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 Vocabulary Expansion

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 learner, don't forget 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.

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

The essence of the method is to memorize new words, phrases and lexical structures using gestures, commands, pantomime and games. For example, for the word ball, you need to perform an action associated with this object, for example, playing with a ball.

Simple and effective ways to memorize English words

Mnemonics and memorization of English words

A clear example of how mnemonics works.

One of the most effective ways to memorize English, and foreign words in general, 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 remembers not the images themselves that arise in the head, but connections between several images. This is very important to remember, because immediately during memorization you need to focus on this.

Mnemonics actively develops memory and thinking. The main task is to create images that are combined in the imagination in various ways. The images must be colored, large And detailed.

Learning English words using mnemonics is incredibly easy! We match the foreign word as much as possible consonant word(or several words) from your native language.

Let's look at how mnemonics work when memorizing English words with an example:

puddle ["pʌdl] puddle

Approximate pronunciation (phonetic association) - "badl"

Mnemonic model: “I kept falling and falling into a puddle” .

Examples of using mnemonics in teaching English:

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

For example, don’t just say: “A nervous man is walking down a narrow alley,” but imagine nervous man, maybe your friend who is walking, looking around and flinching at every sound, along a narrow dark alley. In this case, you will definitely not forget this foreign word.

On a note:

The association or combination of words that has arisen is necessary only for 2-3 repetitions from memory in order to remember a foreign word and its translation. Then it disappears as unnecessary, so you don’t have to worry about all sorts of nonsense being stored in your memory.

There is no doubt that in order to memorize foreign words quickly and efficiently, you need to practice, find your own approach, learn to create your own associations, and quickly at that. At first, the process of creating associations will be slow, but 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 with the help of this technique it is possible remember the words of anyone foreign language .

Mind Palace for Expanding English Vocabulary

Many people use cards with text and pictures (flashcards) to remember new words, but we don’t always have these cards at hand, especially in right moment.

There is a great way to remember new words and expressions - the power of your mind. It is called Method of location (geometric location method).

You may also come across names such as “mind palaces”, “memory palaces”, “method of loci”, “spatial mnemonics”, “Cicero’s method”.

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

Video “The Hound of the Baskervilles” - “Palaces of the Mind” of Sherlock Holmes.

How does the locus method work?

We are building 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 shelves and chaotically. The main thing is that you yourself know where everything is and can quickly remember. The best activators are either completely ridiculous or very logical. And it’s even better to combine them correctly.

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

  • Imagine images large(even if the objects you need to remember are of different sizes, make them one: be it a ship, a coconut or a bee. Small images should not be imagined. The connections between such images will be recorded very poorly.
  • The images must be voluminous. For example, holographic images or images created using three-dimensional graphics programs. Such images can be rotated and viewed from different angles.
  • Images must be presented colored. If these are tree leaves, then they must be green, the tree itself must be brown, etc.
  • The images presented must be detailed. If you imagine the image of a “phone,” you need to mentally examine it and clearly see what parts the phone you are imagining consists of. If this is a cell phone, then you can identify the following images in it: antenna, display, buttons, cover, strap, leather case, battery.

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

Let's say we need to remember the words associated with the word run, as well as its shape, so we will come up with the following story in our minds: the imaginary setting of the city is the imaginary place is a city .

This is just a small example of how to memorize english words, Related run, and its forms. Of course, I can add other phrases with this word, of which there are actually many, and as my imaginary city grows, I can use more and more words, and thereby expand my vocabulary.

More details about memorization technique “memory palace” you can learn more from the video:

The imaginary place can be anywhere, even a room in your house, but try to come up with a situation that will be close to you, and the words will be remembered much easier.

In this manner easy to learn words on different topics, for example “food”, “kitchen”, “clothing”, etc. Arrange the items as you like, and then it will be easier for you to remember the name of the item based on 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 “memory palaces,” regardless of the purpose of their “construction.” If you want to remember something for a long time (and not in the “pass and forget” mode), you will have to periodically “walk” around the “palace”.

Audiolingual method in English

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

Audiolingual method is one of the methods of language teaching 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 suitable mainly for auditory learners, since there is no visual support. The main focus here is on oral speech.

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

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

let's consider positive and negative sides audiolingual method.

Positive sides Negative sides
During development this method attention was focused not only on the content of the material offered to the student, but also on the very process of the student memorizing this material.

The very system of presenting new information and repeated repetitions lead to inevitable memorization of what has been learned. In the process of repetition, not only the material is memorized, but also pronunciation is practiced, as well as the language barrier is removed.

Memorizing stable 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 without reason) is considered to be that it does not pay due attention self-study grammars.

Students, especially initial stage learning, are deprived of the opportunity to understand why a phrase is constructed in one way and not another, or why a word is used in one form and not another. As they learn, students have to independently construct certain grammatical structures for themselves based on the material they have learned.

This undoubtedly contributes to a more solid assimilation of such structures, but only if the student is able to construct 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 language being studied.

Tips on how to improve your English vocabulary?

Knowing many words will allow you to express yourself in many 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 expand your English vocabulary. Let's look at each of them in more detail.

Expand your English vocabulary with lists

Words surround us. Simply looking up words in a dictionary may not be as interesting or exciting. Pay attention to English words around you - during TV series and programs in English, reading the news - everywhere, at any time.

Important!

Regardless of whether you do this or not, we recommend writing down what part of speech a particular word is (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 the notepad on your mobile phone. As soon as you hear an unfamiliar word, write it down. Make sure you have enough space around it to make notes accordingly.

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

Learn English words in practice

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

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

If any words are hard to remember, but they are very common, then there is a high probability that you will encounter them in the future. So add them again to new lists and over time you will remember them.

Games will help you remember English words

Scrabble- effective method 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 great way learning not only because it's fun, but also because it gives you context for new words. Believe me, you will very quickly remember the word your friend laughed at.

We would also like to draw your attention to the free game Free Rice. This game gives you a word, and you need to find the right definition for it. If you answer incorrectly, the next word will become easier. If it's correct, it's more complicated.

By playing this game, you not only improve your vocabulary, but also help the world in the fight against hunger. How? Try playing it!

Increase your English vocabulary with context

As mentioned earlier, it's better (and easier) remember new words in context. One way is to write a sentence with this word. Not only will you remember this word, but you will also be able to easily use it in conversation.

Another way - remember 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. This 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 an unfamiliar word in the dictionary! Moreover, modern online dictionaries offer many additional features.

In many online dictionaries There are interesting articles, games, and also a “word of the day” section.

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

Websites for learning English words

Below you will find the best sites to increase and practice vocabulary, which can be most useful for you.

BusinessEnglishSite

BusinessEnglishSite - site for learning business vocabulary

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

All words are divided into topics, for example, "Accounting", "Project Management", "IT" etc.

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

Blair English

With Blair English you can 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 various topics such as IT technology, Business, Communication and many others.

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

Lingualeo

Lingualeo - a resource for practicing words

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

To feed the lion cub and get a new portion of words, you will need to register.

British Council

British Council - the most British way to learn words

The British Council website has not left us without practicing truly British phrases, idioms and expressions. You can also learn several new words a day there.

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

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

Test Your Vocabulary

On this site you can, not with 100% probability, but at least approximately 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 ticking the words whose translation you know and answering a few questions about yourself, you will very likely find out how many english words is in your active supply.

Instead of a conclusion

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

In contact with

We learn many, many words. Beginners process Gunnemark's Minilex, intermediate ones - a variety of lists irregular verbs, special vocabulary, etc.

We are faced with the task of mastering a fairly large volume of words in 7 days, and an even more important task is to find the most effective way to memorize words for each of the participants.

Step 1.

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 auditory learner, then the “read a notebook” method will work much worse for you than the “listen to a list of words for a text” method. And you may not even think about it and look at this stupid notebook for a long time and persistently, until the bitter end and the feeling of your own worthlessness, and not understand why nothing is remembered!

All you need to do is figure out what works for you personally. The checklist will come to your email if you send your email to the cat (see the cat on the side :))

Step 2. Ways to remember words

Traditional methods

1. Yartsev method (visuals)

In fact, of course, this method appeared long before Vitaly Viktorovich, but it was thanks to V.V. Yartsev that it appeared in my life, and this is a very cool method for lazy people I'm like a visual person, so in this article I start with it and call it like that :)

Let's take a notebook. We write down the word - translation - in 2 (3) columns. We give synonyms\antonyms\examples next to each other.

We read lists from time to time, just read, don’t cram anything.

I don’t know how it works, but I didn’t cram German from this teacher, I just read the notebook from time to time. He did not give dictations and never checked us against lists. And I still, many years later, remember a bunch of words.

Those. It turns out that you don’t strain yourself, you don’t try to cram 100 words into yourself in 30 minutes, you just systematically refresh the material from time to time. But you should immediately warn that these words should appear in textbooks, articles, i.e. you must, in addition to reading the notebook, somehow activate them.

2. Card method

The second popular method. We take and cut up a bunch of cards or buy square blocks of note paper. On one side we write the word, on the other - the translation. For advanced users we provide examples. We pass the cards around, putting aside those that we know well. From time to time we repeat what we have covered in order to refresh ourselves.

The downside is that if there are a lot of words and little time, you will spend a lot of time creating the cards themselves.

For fun, you can put them in piles of 10 in different places in the apartment, stumble upon them from time to time and repeat.

Auditory learners should definitely add speaking out loud to this method.

Cards are great for children and can be turned into an interesting game.

3. Prescription method

A classic of the genre:) You take a word and write it down many, many times. Works great for Chinese characters(I’ll tell you about how to learn hieroglyphs more effectively below). Minus - green melancholy. But the method has been tested for centuries.


4. Half-page method

This is one of my favorite ways. You bend the sheet in half, write a word on one edge, reverse side- translation. You can quickly check yourself. For me, as a visual learner, it works well, because... I easily remember in which part of the sheet a given word was written.

The downside is that you get used to a certain word order. (but this is partly a plus :)

5. Method "Interior Designer"

If you are learning some specific vocabulary that surrounds you, you can make unique “labels” everywhere - stick stickers with the names of objects. Also, you can stick on the monitor the most disgusting words that do not want to be remembered. The advantage of this method is that it’s fun :) The disadvantage is that the brain may begin to ignore all these pieces of paper, and then they will hang somewhere for a long time.

Optimization methods

6. Method of grouping 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 down verbs, and you do not write them out in a row, but group them by type of ending, or you write down masculine nouns, then feminine.

Thus, because Most of our words are not exceptions (you group exceptions separately), you begin to see the logic of the language and remember words in conjunction with similar ones.

7. Method of grouping by meaning

You write down and remember the word and its synonym/antonym at once. This is true for both beginners and intermediates.

Now that you have learned the word “good”, find out right away what “bad” will be. And if you also remember “excellent, so-so, disgusting,” then you will greatly enrich your vocabulary.

8. Method of learning words with the same root (for fans)

We take words and group them around a root. Those. conditional “deed\do\done” and learn several parts of speech with the same root at once.

Be sure to watch Professor Argüelles’ lecture on the topic of word families, he tells you how much and what you need to know for complete happiness.

9. Etymological method: my favorite (another lazy method)

Works for those who have learned several languages ​​:)

When you study multiple languages ​​within the same language branch, you begin to see similar roots. This actually comes with experience, and the need disappears. again learn a huge number of words. At a certain stage, you just already know enough :) And if I understand that this word doesn’t tell me anything categorically, I look into the etymological dictionary and find out where it came from. While I do this, I remember it. (Well, it is remembered simply from the fact that it was not recognized and attracted attention)

The bonus of learning different languages ​​is that each subsequent language learns faster, unless, of course, you take something completely unfamiliar.

10. Chains of words

You take a list of words that you need to learn and make up a story (even a crazy one) from them.

That. you learn not 30 words, but 5 sentences of 6 words each. If you approach this matter creatively, you can have a useful and fun time :)

Methods for those who don’t like old-fashioned methods :)

11. Spaced Repetition ( spaced repetition): memory retention technique, which involves repeating what has been memorized educational material at certain, ever-increasing intervals.

Those. in fact, you install an application on your phone, and there the program will automatically show you words in the given order and with the required frequency. You can use ready-made word lists or create your own.

Pros: thoroughly etched in memory

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

My personal attitude: I played, but didn’t get into it. But it's a useful thing. I definitely recommend it to fans of playing games on their phones, so at least you will spend your time usefully :)

The most popular program for this method is Anki

I personally liked Memrise more than Anki, simply because it is more fun and has a super rating! You can also choose ready-made word lists or create your own. If a word is absolutely not memorized, you can use special funny pictures that users create using mnemonic techniques, or upload your own.

Be sure to try both programs, choose the one you like better, and try Spaced Repetition. In fact, it’s a good thing and helps a lot of people.

And here you can create your own lists and generate different ways to test words (tests, choose the correct option, spell it, etc., etc.) A good way to test yourself in game form for lovers of different tests.

"Magic" methods

Various marketers and language gurus love to use magical methods to lure people. Usually the essence of the methods is “ secret techniques special services,” which, well, objectively, are described in a lot of literature. And they ask for ludicrous amounts of money for this.

Mnemonics is one of the most popular methods.

14. Mnemonics

The essence of the method is to come up with funny and absurd associations for a word that you can’t remember.

You take a word and come up with some kind of associative image, which should be very vivid. But in this image there must be a “key” to the memorized word.

Example (stolen from the Internet :)) “grief”:
“woe to the wounded tiger, (vultures) are circling over him”

Subjective: you need to practice and get used to it before it starts to work out. But those who use it achieve great success. A good example is our 16-year-old Alenka, who is going to take HSK6 next month ( highest level Chinese language). She uses it. She talks about how she works on the language, and you can look into her notes)

Alena recommends reading the book “Einstein Walks on the Moon” by Joshua Foer.

The Memrise app allows you to create your own “Mems” and use the associations of others. I highly recommend this option for those who cannot remember difficult words :)

15 - tactics " stressed syllable"(you can read more about it (in English), the essence of the method is that you come up with an association specifically for the stressed syllable in the word)

For auditory learners

Rule #1 for you is to always say out loud what you are learning. If you use flashcards, recite them. If you are reading a list, read it out loud. Listen to the words, for you this is the most quick way remember them! Naturally, you will have to write them down, but things will go faster than if you just read them and write them silently.

16. Listening to words

You can play audio recordings of word lists and repeat after the announcer. Usually in good textbooks A well-read list of words is given for the lesson. This is your #1 tool.

Also, you can listen to high-quality podcasts that provide detailed analysis of dialogues. Our podcast recommendations on different languages you can find in the section

Important tricks (for everyone!)

19. Learn words in context

Don't just learn the list. There’s Minilex, and it starts with the word “without.” Right after “without” comes “safe,” and then “worry” and “ticket.” If you look at the list of the most frequent words in Chinese, the particle 的, which is a syntactic function word and has no meaning of its own, will be in first place!

Always learn words in context, choose examples and phrases. Work with a dictionary!

20. Memorize dialogues

Memorization small dialogues and texts with useful vocabulary by heart - one of the surest ways that you will remember at the right moment and correctly use the word in the context you need.

Yes, it will take more effort and time, but in the long run you will have a set of ready-made structures in your head that you will be happy to use.

21. Ask someone to check on you

Take your husband/mother/child/friend and ask them to run you through the list. Of course, you won't be graded, but an element of control and discipline will appear.

22. Learn what is really necessary.

In one of my textbooks, the word “hoe” appeared in the vocabulary before the words “short and long” appeared. Don't learn hoes and all that unnecessary crap until you've learned some really relevant and pressing vocabulary.

How to determine relevance? There are many manuals and lists from the “1000 most common words” series. First we learn frequency, then hoes, not before. If you have not yet learned to count and do not know pronouns, it is too early for you to learn colors, no matter how much you would like to. First it’s important, then it’s interesting, then it’s complicated and necessary for some reason.

(Future translators, this does not apply to you, you need everything. I somehow found knowledge of the term “desk drawer” in Chinese useful, although who would have thought:) If you are a translator, you should know a lot of different vocabulary.

23. Be creative!

If everything infuriates you, words don’t come into your head and you want to quickly close these lists, experiment. Some people get help from drawings, some people walk around the apartment and recite out loud, some people talk to their cat. If you see something that interests you, don’t be lazy to look into the dictionary. Be interested in what interests you. Don't get hung up on methods that don't work. In general, be as creative as possible!

And everything will definitely work out :)

What do you do when you encounter an unfamiliar word in an English text?

You ask your teacher for its translation or look it up in a dictionary and write it down above the word. Perhaps write it down in a dictionary if you have one. Close the dictionary and put it aside along with the word.

Almost everyone who studies a foreign language does this. But how effective is this method? How many words in your dictionary do you actually remember and use, and how often do you open it to review words? If, while learning English, you notice that you remember a minimum of words and lack the vocabulary to express your thoughts, then you need to change something in your learning strategies. There are different methods and whole techniques for memorizing, not every technique is suitable for you personally, since everyone has their own characteristics of memory and perception of material, and if for one it is enough to see a word once to remember it, then for another it will require hours of practice.

I want to offer you some tips on memorizing foreign words, but before you get acquainted with them, remember how you memorized words before, what you paid attention to, and if you wrote them down, what exactly. As you read each point, think about what you have already tried to do to increase your effectiveness in learning new words, and what you might consider adopting!

1. Organize your words

Organized and logically designed material is remembered better. Keep a notebook in which you write down all the unfamiliar words that you come across. Come up with categories for yourself and distribute them by topic, by part of speech, by complexity. As you wish. If a word fits into many categories, write it in all of them. It will be better remembered.

2. Remember the sound of the word

When you write out a word, say it out loud several times. Don't forget about. Without transcription and understanding of pronunciation, at best, you will only have a visual image of the word: you will remember what it looks like, distinguish it in the text, but after hearing it, you may simply not recognize it or remember it.

3. Do not confuse the meaning of the word and the translation of the word

What's the difference? - you ask. Translation is the specific meaning of a word in a certain context, how best to convey the meaning in Russian.

4. Be selective

Don’t try to embrace the immensity and remember all the words in the dictionary at once. Choose only those words that you really need. Think about how often this word is used in real life. If you come across a word in the text that you almost never use, an outdated word, a highly scientific term, then you do not need to write it down and remember it. If the word comes across to you in the future, then this is a reason to think about it. Textbooks, for example, are structured in such a way that after a word has appeared once, it will be repeated again, and you will notice that the word is familiar. In addition, it is better to learn words “in portions.” By dividing the material into parts that you can master at once, you remember more effectively. The recommended number of units is 7 - 8, but no one forbids you to experiment with your memory.

5. Repeat what you've already learned

Do you know what this is? This graph is called Forgetting curve. Psychologists have proven that 20 minutes after familiarization with the material, 20% of the material is forgotten, after an hour - 50%, and after a month, only 20 - 30% of what you have studied will remain in your memory. The remaining words will go into the category: “Something familiar / I’ve seen this somewhere.”

What should you do to not forget so quickly, but rather to remember and consolidate the words in your memory? Psychologists recommend constant repetition, as often as possible. To achieve the effect, you must repeat at least 4 times:

1st time immediately after finishing reading;
2nd time 20 minutes after the first repetition;
3rd time - 8 hours after the second repetition;
4th time - 24 hours after the third repetition.

The repetition should be meaningful, not just skimmed, although even skimming a list of words will activate your memory.

6. Use your leading channel of perception

As you know, there are three main channels of perception: visual(visual), auditory(sound) and kinesthetic(tactile, tactile). If you understand how you perceive information, it will be easier for you to learn. In the process of working with new material, observe yourself and try to determine how it is easier for you to perceive the material (by hearing, writing, looking at pictures, working with cards). Having identified your key channel of perception, you will no longer waste time on memorizing in an ineffective way for you, you will be able to focus your energy on the channel that is best developed for you.

7. Practice

I really hope that these tips will help you memorize English words more effectively and without difficulty. Or maybe you have your own unique method of learning vocabulary? Share with us, and your advice will definitely be useful to someone else!

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You need to quickly memorize a large number of English words. And as you have been told or read online yourself, they are very easy to learn. But no matter how hard you tried to quickly memorize at least the necessary minimum, nothing worked for you? Perhaps you chose the wrong methods or memory techniques? We'll deal with this today.

First, let's try to figure out why memorizing English words is so difficult? The fact is that the new concept is accurate information, the translation and pronunciation of which you need to know 100%. Try to pronounce a foreign word. Native speakers will not understand you, so it is important to remember the word as accurately as possible.

Any new information poorly remembered. As a rule, even with grueling “cramming”, only 20% is absorbed. But if you choose the right technique, which will allow you to quickly learn words, then this indicator will increase significantly. Start learning basic English words right now!

Let's take a look at the best methods for memorizing new English words:

Memorization of English words is a convenient and interesting style of presenting educational material in small rhymes or songs. Memorizing words by heart will be effective if they themselves rhyme or are included in rhyme structures. This technique also contains elements of artistic association:

  • A plum here and a plum there
    Plum in English plam
  • I prefer watermelon to plums
    Watermelon - otherwise watermelon
  • The price of melons is written in chalk
    Melon in English melon
  • A fairy told me in a dream:
    Pear in English pear

These are such meaningless, but very effective lines.

Mnemonics

The same method of artistic association that allows you to remember concepts through creating vivid images in your head. Moreover, the more ridiculous the image is created, the better word or the phrase will be remembered.

Let's try?!

  • "Spoon" (spoon), imagine that funny little gnome Spoon is sleeping sweetly in a spoon
  • “chess” (chess) - chess pieces come to life on the chessboard, run up to each other and start scratching each other’s backs
  • “turnip” (turnip) - having grabbed the horizontal bar with its leaves, the turnip spins on it like a gymnast
  • "ship" (ship), imagine a ship with huge spikes sticking out

Thanks to this technique, words are remembered very easily.

Cards

A popular simple technique for memorizing new vocabulary. Cut thin cardboard into small rectangles. Take a stack of these cards and write a word or phrase in English on one side and its translation on the other. Carry these cheat sheets with you at all times and repeat them at every opportunity.

Cards can be divided according to the topic of phrases or according to the phonetic sound of words. After examining one stack, you can move on to the next stack. After some time, you return to the material you covered and repeat it. You will be able to transform your passive vocabulary and phrases into active ones, that is, remember and freely use speech structures.

Marking

The technique involves the following: take a pack of adhesive stickers, and write words from your home or work environment or everyday life on them. Then you glue these tags to the corresponding items, thus tagging a huge number of things. For example, put a “Salt” tag on a salt shaker, “Dining table” on a dining table, “Journal table” on a coffee table, “Door in a bathroom” on a bathroom door, etc.

The disadvantage of this technique is that you can only label specific concepts, but sticking a sticker on such abstract concepts as Love, Pleasure, Happiness will not work. Therefore, it is better to memorize this lexical composition by other known methods.

Polyglot

This technique will allow you to easily and quickly memorize 100-150 new words every day. The method is sequential mental operations and actions that form memorization skills.

Memorization scheme using the “Polyglot” system:

  • A translation of a word
  • Find the consonant Russian word to pronunciation
  • Connect the image of the translation with the image of the consonant word
  • “Photograph” foreign word
  • Write a word
  • Check the quality of memorization
  • Write to card
  • look
  • “I can’t watch when they cut onions”
  • Highlight the word on all sides with yellow cards, so that only “look” is in the center. Try to mentally take a picture of the word and remember it graphic image, read aloud several times
  • Write the word
  • To check the quality of memorization means writing the word from right to left... k .ok .ook look
  • Write the word on a card for repetition

Synonymous series

This technique allows you to quickly memorize words, thanks to the expansion of the synonymous range. It is better to keep a special notebook in which you need to write new words as you learn the language. Select new synonyms as often as possible and repeat those you have already learned.

Memorizing vocabulary, thus, allows the student to express his thoughts accurately and richly in English, and increases the speed of speech.

  • Energy - force - power
  • little - small - tiny
  • pretty - handsome - beautiful

Regardless of which method you choose, it is better to memorize words according to this scheme: “ Writing - pronunciation - translation" Memorizing in this sequence is called “recognition.”

And finally, classes should be regular. It is better to learn 10 words every day than 100 words once a week.

You also know effective techniques? Subscribe in the comments.

It's no secret that most of the time when learning foreign languages ​​is spent on memorizing words. At school we were taught only one method - rote learning. Yes, this is a cool method, although not! – not fun, ineffective and very boring. Cramming makes memorization seem like torture, but this is far from true. How to memorize foreign words effectively and interestingly?

In fact, with the right technology, it's a very fast and fun process. And the main thing is that we can remember huge amounts of information in a short period of time.

How to do it? How to increase the speed of learning any foreign language at least 2 times? The answer is simple - using the technology described in this article.

How to memorize foreign words We memorize one, two, three

The magic tool we will use is called a mnemonic. Yes, good old mnemonics. This tool is by far the most effective assistant in memorizing any type of information.

To remember a foreign word, we need to do only three steps:

→ Encode the meaning of the word
→ Encode the sound of a word
→ Combine two images into one

Everything is very simple. Moreover, this method is suitable for memorizing words of any foreign language.

Let's look at examples:

English language.

Word foot – foot

1. Image for meaning. We represent any foot. You can look at your foot first, then imagine it in your head.
2. Image for sound. We select the closest possible association. For example, T-shirt, football.
3. Connect two images. We wrap a T-shirt around our foot, concentrate our attention on connecting these images and at the same time pronounce the word “foot” three times to remember the pronunciation of this word.
Or you can imagine a football player kicking a ball with his bare foot.
This is how easy it is to remember nouns. How to remember verbs and adjectives?

Similar:

Word press (pres) - iron (iron)

1. Image for meaning. Imagine an ironing board and an iron.
2. Image for sound. Pres. Imagine a person with 6-pack abs.
3. Connect two images. Imagine that instead of an ironing board there is a bare-chested man. You walk up to him, take the iron and start stroking his abs. Concentrate on the connection point and say the word “press” three times.
The pictures may seem very strange, but the more unusual the images in your head, the better for memorization.

Word green(green) - green

1. Image for meaning. For example, a green apple.
2. Image for sound. You can take the Brothers Grimm.
3. Connect two images. You can imagine one of the Brothers Grimm biting into an apple and turning green.

What to do if you can’t find one image to go with the word? Then you need to use several images.

Example:
Word Elderly (‘Eldali) – elderly

1. Image for meaning. A gray-haired old man with a stick.
2. Image for sound. Elf and Dali (Salvador)
3. Connect two images. Introducing the old elf with a Dali mustache. The elf's mustache and hair are gray. We introduced you, said this word three times and that’s it, you remembered it.

Some tips when working with images:

∨ When working with images, we do not close our eyes; they are directed upward. This is the correct position to engage the visual channel
∨ It is necessary to create objects of the same size, or at least approximately the same. If you combine the image of an elephant with the image of a fly, then the fly should be the same size as the elephant
∨ The most best ways for connection - sex, humor, violence. The simplest one is to stick one image into another
∨ You need to concentrate on the connection between two objects at a time. No more
∨ Focus not on the objects themselves, but on their connection

Mnemonics allows you to remember a large amount of information in a very short period of time, but in order to remember this information for a long time, you need to repeat it.

During the first 96 hours, repeat the words you have learned as often as possible. Then repeat the learned words after a month, then after 2, after 6 and after a year.

If you decide to memorize 100–1000 words a day, then I recommend working in batches:

∨ Remember ten words
∨ We repeated them three times (from Russian to foreign, from foreign to Russian)
∨ Move on to the next ten words
∨ They repeated them three times, moved on to the next ten words, etc.
∨ We accumulated three packs of 10 words each and repeated all 30 words
∨ When they had accumulated three packs of 100 words each, they repeated all 300 words, etc.