10 Tips for Learning Vocabulary in Any Foreign Language – Part 1“O, the sheer magnificence of words that come together like waves upon a beach, each telling its own story is a life worthy to be read” ― John M. Sheehan

The Difficulty of Learning New WordsWords are the building blocks of every spoken language. They are fascinating and yet often difficult to manage, especially if they are words of a foreign language you are trying to learn.

Has any of this happened to you as a learner of a second language?

Have you ever:

Learned a word just to forget it a few days later? Struggled to recall a word when speaking or writing? Given up reading a text because you understood too few words or phrases? Had difficulty constructing full sentences? Misunderstood simple spoken sentences because you could not recognize certain words?

If so, there’s no need to worry; you are not alone!

Most language learners, in fact, find it excruciatingly difficult to learn and remember the large amount of words necessary to be competent and confident in a foreign language.

However, to be able to move beyond this, we must ask ourselves a few valuable questions:

Is learning words always difficult? Are there any examples of people who acquire words quickly and effortlessly? If so, what can these people teach us about learning new words effectively?

Let’s use the answers to these questions to build a new, more effective approach to acquiring foreign language vocabulary.

A Natural Approach to Vocabulary AcquisitionSo, let me ask you again:

Is learning words always difficult?

Think about it, in the context of your own life. Has learning new words always been difficult for you, across all the languages you speak?

Of course not.

Though you may struggle to remember new words in your target language, I’m 100% sure that you never agonized over how to acquire such essential words and phrases as “mommy”, “daddy”, “yes,” “no,” “want” and “don’t want” in your first language, the one you’ve spoken since you were a small child.

I’m equally as sure that even as the number of words you knew in your mother tongue grew exponentially, you never felt stressed or even conscious of any of it, at least until you started school.

You just learned words naturally and automatically, without giving much thought to them.

So the answer is no. Learning words is not always difficult. It can be easy, and you yourself have certainly experienced times in your life when it was easy.

On to our next question:

Are there any examples of people who acquire words quickly and effortlessly?

If you followed along in the last example, you know the answer already, since at the same time learning words was easy for you, you were one of these people.

The answer? Children. Young kids (usually pre-teens) have no problems acquiring and using new words.

Moving on to our third question:

What can these people (i.e. children) teach us about learning new words effectively?

Well, you tell me:

Have you ever seen a little boy with a list of words in hand, trying to learn each term by heart? Or a young girl repeating a complicated mnemonic to herself over and over, until a single word and its meaning sticks in her memory?

No. If you’ve ever witnessed a child acquire words, you’ll have seen them:

Learn through exposure, by listening and repeating what their parents and peers say to them.

Focus on learning and using words that are most relevant to their most urgent needs and desires.

Build a basic vocabulary made up of the most useful words from their day-to-day life, and then supplement that with more specialized terms used in school and other domains.

Acquire new words and phrases through play, and other leisure contexts, like movies, television, books, video games, and more.

All of these things happen nearly effortlessly in the life of all children with normal language function. However, that does not mean that it is a simple process; the truth is, acquiring words with these methods requires hours and hours of exposure, of hearing, listening, repeating, trying time and time again.

It’s not simple, and does take time, but does work exceedingly well. And it’s how you and the overwhelming majority of people you know have learned thousands and thousands of words without even thinking about it.

Adapting Childlike Methods to Adult Learning ContextsIs that all it takes, then? To learn vocabulary effortlessly, all we need to do is learn words just like children do?

Well, yes. And no.

If you’re reading this, you’re clearly not a kid anymore. Even if you’re not a full-fledged adult, you have several advantages and disadvantages when learning a second language that the smallest first-language learning children do not.

Regarding the advantages, you have:

The ability to speak, read and write one language (or more) already Pre-existing knowledge of the world and how it works, that you can use to help you learn

new things even more quickly. Pre-existing knowledge of how you like to learn, and what methods and resources you

prefer when learning.

As for disadvantages, you have:

Less available time to dedicate to language learning, due to other priorities (work, school, family obligations, etc.)

Less exposure to new words and language patterns, since you’re (probably) not fully immersed in a native-speaking family and social circle, as you were when learning your first language.

One or more pre-existing native languages, which interfere with your ability and desire to learn another.

All told, the disadvantages probably outweigh the advantages, simply because you can’t live eighteen or more year completely immersed in your target language 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, just as you did when learning your mother tongue.

So you can’t learn words in your target language by following the exact same two-decades-plus-long strategy, but you can use elements of that strategy to help you leverage your vocabulary-learning advantages as adults.

To be specific, you need to:

Understand the cognitive principles behind effective vocabulary acquisition Use effective habit-building and time management techniques to help you build a solid

routine for learning words. Utilize your pre-existing knowledge and interests as an adult to fuel and maintain that

routine over time.

How can you accomplish these things?

By following my ten best tips for learning vocabulary in an easy, effortless and engaging way!

10 Tips for Effective Vocabulary Acquisition

1. Always Learn from Context

Words are multifaceted linguistic entities. Depending on the context they appear in, a word can function as a verb or a noun, have completely different meanings or just be part of a colloquial expression.

Take the single word “game”, for example.

As a noun, it could be a game that you play, like a card game or board game. Or it could be game that you hunt, like deer, rabbits, ducks, or geese.

As an adjective, it can describe a noun related to either of those definitions, like a game console, or big game hunting.

Those meanings of the word “game” are pretty standard. But in slang terminology, there’s also:

“To have game” (as in “He’s got game”) to describe when someone has a high level of skill, usually with regards to dating.

“To be game” (as in “I’m game”) to describe when someone is willing to do something, like go out for a drink or head out to the movies.

Looking at all these definitions, it’s clear that “game” isn’t really one word, but rather four or more words; a different word in accordance with each variation in meaning. And it’s the context that surrounds the word that makes each meaning clear, not the word by itself.

The role of context in narrowing down the potential meanings of a word is what makes context absolutely crucial for language learners. Without context, a word can mean everything and nothing, all at the same time.

To learn words well, then, always learn words in context, and not outside of it.

In practice, that means:

Learning words by practicing and memorizing full phrases and sentences that contain that word (like “The hunter traveled to Africa in search of big game” instead of just “game” by itself)

Studying the various parts of speech a word can take in a given context, such as how “game” can be both a noun (“Call of Duty is a popular video game) and an adjective (“Xbox is a popular game console”)

2. Read Intensively and Extensively

In order to learn vocabulary in the first place, you first need a source of vocabulary terms that you don’t already know.

This is easy as an absolute beginner, as nearly every word you’re exposed to is one that you’ve never heard before. With time, though, finding new words is an experience that will happen less and less, especially if all you do is speak the language.

The most effective way to keep encountering new vocabulary often is to read, and to do so often. Written media provide lots of opportunities to see new words in context, and record them for safekeeping and later reference during study time.

Whatever your current language level is, I suggest that you develop a habit of reading regularly in your target language.

When you read, however, don’t just read the same way every time. There are two different methods of reading in a foreign language that are each useful in specific situations. These are called intensive reading and extensive reading.

Intensive reading is necessary when you want to fully understand a text. It requires you to dissect the text meticulously, and attempt to understand every word and nuance. This is a time-consuming process, so it is something that should only be done with short blocks of text at a time.

Extensive reading is necessary when you just want to read as much as possible. Here, you’re not concerned with understanding every word, but with getting the gist of the text as a whole. Extensive reading is also helpful for learning how to deduce the meaning of unknown words by their surrounding context.

Intensive and extensive reading are both powerful tools that you can add to your vocabulary learning repertoire today, and put to use with any text that you seek to learn.

To make best use of these methods, you should get into the habit of reading at least one hour per day, so that you have a reliable stream of vocabulary that can fuel your learning.

If you would like more information on intensive and extensive reading strategies, check out this article, which covers each method in detail.

3. Use Comprehensible Input to Learn New Words

As we’ve just discussed, reading is an excellent way to find new words to learn in your target language. However, if you don’t take care to choose the right kind of reading material for you, you may risk adding extra stress to your entire language learning process.

In theory, a beginner learner of, say, Russian, could benefit greatly from reading a work of classic Russian literature, like Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, which contains thousands of words the learner does not yet know.

In practice, however, this would overwhelm the learner, and trying to process such a massive and complex text would be like trying to empty the ocean with a spoon. Neither intensive or extensive reading would be useful to our beginner Russian learner in this case, because the text is simply too far above his level to be useful.

The best texts for vocabulary learning, then, are not those that contain the greatest number of words that you don’t know, but those which contain a majority (70+%) that you already do know. This way, the quantity of new words is never too overwhelming, and you can use your existing vocabulary knowledge to help you glean the meaning of unknown words from context.

The kind of language content that contains a majority of things you already understand is called comprehensible input. By searching for and learning from comprehensible input sources, you can maintain a steady flow of new vocabulary learning while keeping the actual process of trying to understand a piece of spoken or written language as low-stress as possible.

As a learner, you must know that searching for comprehensible input is an ongoing process, and one that you must do regularly to ensure that you’re learning from materials that are appropriate for your current level. As an advanced learner, it won’t do to keep reading your beginner textbook, and vice versa. As you grow and adapt to the language, your input sources must change with you.

Here’s a quick rule of thumb which will help you find good comprehensible input:

If you can understand 70% or more of the resource you are using (7 out of every 10 words), then that resource can qualify as comprehensible input for your current language level.

4. Learn What Matters Most to You

In any spoken human language, there are thousands and thousands of words that you could potentially learn. The Oxford English Dictionary, for example, lists 171,476 words in current use in the English language, and many thousands more that have fallen out of use.

With so many words, should you worry about having to learn them all?

Of course not!

Every speaker of a language has both an active and passive mental lexicon that is unique to him or her. Though any two speakers of a language might share a majority of active vocabulary in common, it is likely that each individual knows several thousands of words (or more) that the other does not.

The active vocabulary of a farmer is very different from the active vocabulary of a car mechanic. The passive vocabulary of an Olympic athlete could be completely different from that of a rocket scientist. Even if all of these people speak the same language.

In general, native speakers acquire vocabulary that meets (at minimum) one of two key characteristics:

High relevance – Words that are likely to be used often in daily life, by both the individual native speaker and the native speakers around him.

High interest – Words that are connected to the individual’s passions, desires, and personal interests.

What is relevant and interesting to one person is not necessarily what will be relevant and interesting to the next. This is why speakers of different languages can have large differences in their individual vocabularies.

As a language learner, you should specifically aim to learn only the words that are the most relevant and most interesting to you, personally.

To put this in a way that most learners will relate to:

If a beginner’s language textbook has an entire chapter dedicated to learning the names of zoo animals, but you personally have no desire or intention to ever discuss zoo animals in your target language, you do not have to learn those words.

Instead, find something that will teach you words that you are interested in. Words that have to do with your life, and your experiences.

In the same way, you don’t have to strive to understand every word of a text, a video, a song, or a conversation, if you don’t ever intend to pursue that topic again. Over the course of your language learning, there will be lots of words you only ever hear once, and will never encounter ever again.

Your goal should be to be as comfortable and confident as you can be in the situations that you’re likely to find yourself in. You don’t need to be a walking dictionary or phrasebook.

Learn the words that you care about, and the words that you will use. It’s that simple.

5. Listen to What You Read, and Vice Versa

In Tip 2, I recommended that you read as often as possible in your target language, preferably every day. This tip builds upon that.

Reading is all about processing written language. Written language is an attempt to put spoken language to paper. Since written language can never fully convey all the nuances of speech (phonology, intonation, etc.), it’s hard to get a full idea of a piece of written language without also hearing it spoken aloud.

As learners, if we can find a way to always listen to the audio of a text while we read it, we are able to get maximal value out of any piece of language. This is because doing so exercises our reading and listening skills all at once.

Listening and reading is also a great way to improve your pronunciation. Many languages, like English, have spelling systems that are not a reliable representation of the spoken sounds they are supposed to represent. Listening along to whatever text your reading helps bridge this gap, and will help you see where the written symbols and spoken sounds differ.

Now, if you remember our earlier section on learning like kids do, you might find this step unusual. Small children, after all, speak long before they can read.

This, however, is one of the areas where you can leverage your pre-existing adult capabilities (i.e. literacy) to help you make faster gains with spoken and written language than a small child ever could.

If practiced frequently at the beginner to intermediate stages, listening and reading simultaneously can greatly boost your comprehension skills overall.

6. Draw Connections Between New Words and Previous KnowledgeThough the human brain stores information, it does not store information in the same way, say, a notebook does. It is not an empty slate that just passively receives any information given to it.

Instead, the brain stores information in a network, an interconnected series of billions and billions of nodes that make recalling stored information happen at lightning speeds.

Since all these nodes are interconnected, activating any one piece of information in your brain will also activate other, related information, too. Any time a node is activated, the surrounding nodes will also fire, and the bonds between them will strengthen.

You can see this in action by reading the following word:

ELEPHANT

What you just read is a simple combination of seven different letters of the English alphabet. However, what you “saw” in your mind’s eye as a result of that eight-letter word was probably something very different.

If you’re anything like me, you imagined:

A large, gray animal with big ears, tusks, and a long trunk. The natural habitat of this animal; the grasslands and rainforests of Africa. The last time you saw an elephant in real life (I saw one in a zoo in Budapest).

These are images that popped into your head instantaneously upon reading the word “Elephant.”

But that’s not all that could have come to mind. You could have also recalled:

The English expression “The elephant in the room,” meaning an obvious problem that people are hesitant to discuss openly.

Another expression, “White elephant,” meaning a possession you are struggling to get rid of, despite wanting to do so.

All of these images, words, facts, and expressions are nodes in your mental network that surround and activate when you read “Elephant”, which is really just a series of lines that don’t amount to much more than scribbles on a page. It is your neural network, however, that gives these scribbles life, and help you use them to unlock previous knowledge.

To learn words in an effective, natural way, it is important to make use of this neural network. You can do this by making sure any new word that you learn is “connected” in some meaningful way to something else that you already know.

Suppose that I am learning Hungarian and I stumble upon the word “traditional” (hagyományos).

Instead of just jotting down the single word and trying to remember it that way, I associate it with phrases and ideas that are already relevant to me and my life.

I like to talk about language learning, for example, so I could use the Hungarian word for “traditional” to describe the old-school language learning methods that are often taught in language classes:

Az iskolában a hagyományos módszrekel tanítottak.

At school (they) teach with the traditional method.

Since language learning is an area that is interesting and relevant to me, the word hagyományos fits right into my Hungarian neural network, supported by other interesting and relevant concepts like school, teaching, and methods.

Any time you learn a word, or phrase, try to do the same. Take the word, and embed it into a sentence containing other personally relevant words and concepts that you’ve already learned. This strengthens the memory, and will make sure that you will be able to recall it when you need it.

7. Keep a Vocabulary NotebookAs powerful as your brain’s neural network is, we can’t pretend that it’s not prone to failure. This failure takes place in the form of forgetting.

Some words and concepts simply don’t stick in your brain the first time. It can take several times or attempts to acquire a new piece of information before it can be recalled reliably at will.

Sometimes, you just encounter too many new things at once, and your brain can’t handle trying to commit it all to memory. A few words or concepts will take hold in your mind, but the rest will simply fade away.

In times like these, it’s good to have a backup, or tool that you can use to record information in case your brain doesn’t catch it all the first time. An ideal backup, of course, would probably be a second brain; in the absence of that, you should use a notebook to store all new vocabulary you come across.

A dedicated vocabulary notebook can serve several important purposes. It can be:

A record of new vocabulary, to be studied later. A record of old vocabulary, to be reviewed. A reminder to look up certain words or phrases in your target language. A place for example phrases and sentences.

For more information on my personal strategy for vocabulary notes, check out this article.

Look for a notebook that is small enough to carry with you at all times. If you don’t like physical notebooks, a note-taking app on your phone or mobile device will also work. If you do use a digital notebook, however, be aware there are special memory benefits to writing notes by hand that are lost when typing.

8. Break Down Words Into Component PartsIn the realm of physics, it was once believed that atoms were the smallest units of matter, and that it was impossible to divide them up into anything smaller.

It was a revelation when, in the 19th century, it was discovered that atoms are, in fact, arrangements of smaller parts, now known as subatomic particles. The same subatomic particles, when arranged in different ways and different combinations, give us atoms of all the different elements known today.

For the language learner, words are very much like atoms. You may think of them as pure, indivisible entities, but in many cases they are actually combinations of smaller component parts.

This is especially true in the case of long words. The longer a word is, the more likely it is that you can divide it into smaller pieces, ones with their own independent meanings.

Just like knowing an atom of hydrogen contains one proton and one electron, knowing the identity of the component pieces of words can often tell you something about the whole word, and in turn, make it much easier to remember.

Let’s look at an example:

In Hungarian, the word for “Italy” is “Olaszország”.

That’s a long word with a lot of repeating letters. On its own, it may be difficult to remember.

But “Italy” is a country name. There are lots of other country names out there, too. Maybe by looking at those, we can discern a pattern:

France – Franciaország

Czech Republic – Csehország

Estonia – Észtország

This doesn’t work for all country names, but if you compare these to “Olaszország,” you should see a pattern.

Country name = Something + “ország”

“Ország” is the Hungarian word for “country”, so it naturally appears on the end of many country names, just as “land” does in English (i.e. England, Scotland, Ireland, etc.)

Knowing the meanings of these smaller linguistic pieces (usually prefixes, suffixes, root words, etc.) can help you to memorize longer words more easily, and help you naturally expand your target language lexicon.

Sometimes, words are even combinations of multiple full words. These are known as “compound words”, and knowing the component parts of these long words can be just as effective as it was above.

The German language is infamous for these. Take the famous word “Rechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaften,” which means “insurance companies providing legal protection”.

At first glance, that word seems impossible to spell, let alone memorize. However, it becomes much less intimidating when you know how to break it up:

Rechts-schutz-versicherung-s-gesellschaften

These “component” words are all relatively common words in their own right:

Rechts = Legal, law

Schutz = Protection

Versicherung = Insurance

Gesellschaften = Companies

By themselves, these four words are much easier to remember and spell. If you can do that, then putting them back together to make “Rechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaften” isn’t so intimidating.

Another bonus: If you remember my advice about drawing connections between words, then you can understand why breaking down larger words is so helpful—all of the component words already form their own mini-network!

So, whenever you come across a long word, think of how you can possibly break it down and if it relates to words you already know.

9. Combine Different Modes of LearningIf you’ve ever sat in a classroom with other students, you’ve probably noticed an important reality of learning: no two people learn in the exact same way.

Some people like hands-on learning. Others prefer learning via pictures, videos, and other visual aids. Still others like to learn by listening, and talking over important details.

All of the above are different modes of learning. And these are only a few examples of them. Many, many details about the learning process can be actively changed and modified to help learners absorb the same content in different ways.

For your vocabulary learning, I suggest combining a variety of learning modes, so that your process of learning new words never becomes boring, or stale. Over time, you will gravitate to a few learning modes that you prefer, but it will still be important to mix and match them to keep your experience of learning novel and interesting.

Let’s look at a single example:

You’re a big fan of movies, and you’re learning French.

You decide to watch the film L’auberge espagnole, and learn as many words as you can from it.

You could just watch the movie with subtitles, and be done with it. Maybe you learn a word or two, as a result.

Or, you could:

Watch the movie in French, with English subtitles Watch the movie in English, with French subtitles Watch the movie without subtitles, and see how much you understand Read the script or transcript of the movie in French, and mark up the text Watch the movie, and then read a French-language review of it

You could do any or all of these things, and each would help you experience the language used in L’auberge espagnole in a subtly different way.

By varying how you process language content, you strengthen your ability to understand and reproduce those language forms on your own.

Which language modes and which types of variation you use are totally up to you, but the important thing is to experiment, and keep things fun. If you can do that, vocabulary learning will never become a chore.

10. Interleave Your Vocabulary Learning ActivitiesLike Tip 9, our last tip will involve introducing a variety of vocabulary learning methods and techniques into your routine. However, this time we want to focus on not just varying what you do to learn words, but varying when you do what you do to learn words.

If you like a certain method for learning vocabulary, you may think it wise to employ that method over and over and over again, until you get tired of it. Then, you can find a new method, and start the same process again. Rinse and repeat.

But science shows that that is an ineffective way to learn new skills. When you have a variety of skills (or learning methods) to practice, you shouldn’t just practice one at a time until you consider each to be fully mastered.

Instead, you should engage in a practice called interleaving.

Interleaving is the process of alternating the practicing of a variety of skills, one after another. Instead of devoting all of your time to one method or skill, you move from one, to another, and then to another, until you’ve covered every skill you need to practice. And then you start the cycle anew.

Say, for example, that you want to develop your listening and your reading skills, both for the benefit of learning more relevant and interesting words.

Instead of doing all listening one day, and all reading the next, you can:

Read and listen to a podcast on Day 1 Listen (only) to the same podcast on Day 2 Watch a short YouTube video on the same subject on Day 3

On day 4, you can then start the same cycle again, by reading and listening to a new podcast episode.

By rotating through different learning modes, methods, and resources, you build both your listening and reading skills at once, while keeping the learning process varied and interesting.

ConclusionLet’s recap our main points:

Adults struggle to learn words in a foreign language not due to a lack of ability, but due to the methods and strategies they use to learn.

Children excel at vocabulary learning because their learning involves universal cognitive principles.

With certain modifications, these cognitive principles can be used just as effectively by adults.

The following ten tips can help any adult learn foreign language vocabulary with ease: o 1. Learn from context. Always make sure you learn words in their context and

never in isolationo 2. Read intensively and extensively. Reading is the best way to maintain a

reliable stream of new and interesting vocabulary to learn. o 3. Learn from comprehensible input. Learn from materials that you can already

mostly understand, so that you can learn the rest from context. o 4. Learn what matters to you. Not all words are useful or relevant, learn to zero-

in on what you need and build on that going forwards.o 5. Listen and read. Listening and reading are complementary activities that can

help you process spoken and written language more efficiently.o 6. Draw connections between new and old knowledge. Learn to associate

words with other words, sentences and ideas that are personally relevant to you. o 7. Keep a notebook. Make sure to carry a notebook that you can use to write

down and study vocabulary whenever possible. o 8. Break down words. Learn to break down words into smaller components,

which greatly helps memorization and recall. o 9. Combine learning modes. Learn to vary learning techniques, methods, and

sensory modalities to keep vocabulary acquisition fresh and interesting.o 10. Interleave activities. Alternate different vocabulary acquisition techniques

over the course of a day or week.

If this article has taught you anything, I hope it’s that learning foreign vocabulary is not only possible, but easy, if you use the right techniques and brain-friendly learning strategies.

Don’t just take my word for it; test these tips out for yourself. Practice each technique, and really put them to work for your benefit.

https://www.lucalampariello.com/10-tips-for-learning-vocabulary-in-any-foreign-language-part-1/

Expert Vocabulary Tips The following ten tips can help any adult learn foreign language vocabulary with ease:

1. Learn from context. Always make sure you learn words in their context and never in isolation. In other words, write the original sentence and don’t just memorize long lists of unrelated words.

2. Read intensively and extensively. Reading is the best way to maintain a reliable stream of new and interesting vocabulary to learn.

3. Learn from comprehensible input. Learn from materials that you can already mostly understand, so that you can learn the rest from context.

4. Learn what matters to you. Not all words are useful or relevant, learn to zero-in on what you need and build on that going forwards.

5. Listen and read. Listening and reading are complementary activities that can help you process spoken and written language more efficiently.

6. Draw connections between new and old knowledge. Learn to associate words with other words, sentences and ideas that are personally relevant to you.

7. Keep a notebook. Make sure to carry a notebook that you can use to write down and study vocabulary whenever possible.

8. Break down words. Learn to break down words into smaller components, which greatly helps memorization and recall.

9. Combine learning modes. Learn to vary learning techniques, methods, and sensory modalities to keep vocabulary acquisition fresh and interesting.

10. Interleave activities. Alternate different vocabulary acquisition techniques over the course of a day or week.

https://www.lucalampariello.com/10-tips-for-learning-vocabulary-in-any-foreign-language-part-1/

“Recent research suggests that students may need as many as 4 – 14 – or 40 exposures.  A bit of explanation – 4 exposures are needed for those students who have a broad vocabulary, 14 exposures may be necessary for many students as they acquire new words, and 40 exposures may be necessary for those students who are English language learners. Teachers select words mindfully and reinforce word learning through instructional activities that incorporate the 6 steps.”

https://www.learningunlimitedllc.com/marzanos-6-step-vocabulary-process-2/

What Should You Do? NOTICE new words and their part of speech when you’re listening or reading. RECORD new words and the sentence they appear in a special notebook or file. USE your new words in speech and in writing—in conversations, journals, essays. Make

a goal of using at least new 10 words per week!