HOW TO MEMORISE VOCABULARY FROM ANOTHER LANGUAGE

Jonathan P, Year 10 writes...

Are you struggling to memorise vocabulary from another language like French, Spanish, German, or Latin? This article will show you a guide on how to store your new foreign language words on a long-term basis! Learning new vocabulary isn’t just glancing at a lot of words and attempting to memorise them instantly, but a more complex and effortful job.

Review and practice

A good way to remember new vocab is to do spaced repetition which is when you review vocab several times over an extended period. New vocab can be reviewed with flashcards, like Quizlet and Memrise, or by just doing an open review on the word. Spaced repetition will help store new words long term, instead of attempting to memorise a new word by just a glance, which will only store the word for a very short time.

A more casual way of memorising new vocab can also be by changing one of your devices’ language settings to a foreign language, so you must encounter the new language repeatedly on a casual basis, eg changing your phone settings to French. Memorising words in sentences, instead of flashcards, will give context for the word and would be easier to remember if you can associate with a compatible sentence.

Association

Try to picture the word you are thinking of or associate it to something similar. For example, how some words in German are near cognates to the English so ‘Wochenende’ (weekend) has similar letters and order. You must also use the words you learn because using them will reinforce your memory of it and will become less awkward to use.

Record your vocab

You can record new vocab in a notebook, however that doesn’t mean you should record every single new word you come across. Instead, you should record words that you can casually use and that are relevant to what you are learning. For example, don’t record the word for ‘cement’ and instead you should record ‘laptop,’ which you can use in several scenarios.

Recording words in a notebook lets you have your own relevant dictionary of previous words you have learned or may have forgotten. Spaced repetition works well when recording new words and reviewing them. You can make an everyday schedule for reviewing your new words, like a ten-minute look at your recorded words.

Reviewing vocab in a notebook may sound boring but there are ways of making it more enjoyable, like drawing mini sketches of the word if it’s a noun next to it to help you picture the word. You can also colour code if your recorded word can be good with structure, or if it’s a noun, or a verb. For languages which have a masculine, feminine or neuter, you might find it useful to colour code these words by their gender.

We all have preferred ways of memorising vocab, so be creative! The ways listed, above, are the most effective but you learn the way that you are suited to. So, find your own way of learning vocab!