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1.   Dedicate time to engaging with the language in a real way by listening, reading and talking to native speakers,

2. Learn vocabulary in chunks and  in context. Make associations.

3. Use visuals ( flash cards, mind

maps, etc.
4  Put vocabulary into use.

5   Read small amounts                          regularly, rather than

large texts infrequently.

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By Vika Kukovenkova (adapted by Anna Sobell)

She's got the memory of a.......ummm what's that expression again?!

The memorisation of new vocabulary is often identified as the Achilles heel of the language learner, many struggle with the task and soon give up all together. It can drudge up dreary memories of learning dry lists of words by rote at school with very little success. Fortunately, things have moved on and the experts have come up with more interactive techniques of memorising new words; these new words are the essential building blocks of all language. Acquiring and retaining new vocabulary is an integral part of learning a new language. Imagine yourself in a supermarket in a foreign country and you want to buy some flour. You don't know the word for flour. Despite all your grammatical knowledge of the future, past and present, it is nonetheless impossible to explain to the shop assistant what it is you want to buy...some flour! After all, when we go on holiday it is not a grammar reference book we take with us, but a handy phrase book.

Not only does a boosted vocabulary add to increased confidence and communicative skills, it also leads to a number of other useful skills and abilities. Such as, being able to understand the meaning of an unknown word from context; understanding the gist of conversations or documents; and being able to predict the content, opinion or mood of speech/writing by looking at key words only.

In order to aid those in need, experts have devised a number of techniques to boost vocabulary retention. Here are our most recommended:

1.Creating clusters

Focus on a single theme each week. The mind naturally clusters connected words together, so learning, say, types of weather in one lesson, and parts of the body the next, works in tune with your brain's natural system for classifying information.

2. Dissecting new words

When encountering a new word, take a look at its structure. Many words consist of prefixes and suffixes, and an understanding of these parts of speech is advantageous. This knowledge can lead to understanding whether a word is positive, negative, a verb, a noun, an adjecitve etc.

3. Reading, reading, reading

Reading helps you revisit learned vocabulary, and see those words in new sentences and contexts, thus becoming more memorable.

4. Focusing on phrases

Linguist Michael Lewis encourages language learning in lexical chunks, rather than on a word-by-word basis. Lexical chunks are groups of words that are often found together as they are strong collocations. For example, what word do you immediately associate with 'shrug'.....I'm guessing it was 'shoulders'. This proves Lewis's theory that learning lexis in chunks can really boost vocabulary, have a look at these Business English examples, and have a think about any equivalents in your language:

The company operates an airline in Mexico.

That's no way to run a business!

Let me give you a deal on a new PC.

We're bidding on two contracts at the moment.

We've got to be the best around to convince customers to part with their hard-earned cash!

5. Reviewing often

The goal is to transfer the short-term knowledge of new vocabulary into your long-term memory. Review is essential - in the first few days or weeks after learning new vocabulary, recycle those words and you'll entrench them in your memory.
www.telegraphhowtomemorisevocab
Don't have the time? Think again! How about instead of losing yourself in social media apps on your commute, you flip through your vocabulary flashcards? Think about chores or habitual activities you do at home which require no thought power, e.g. brushing your teeth, dong the washing up. Why not pin a list of new vocabulary up on your kitchen/bathroom wall? Every little counts!

World Record!

In 2015, Simon Reinhard successfully managed to memorise 125 random words in 5 minutes. This is particularly impressive as the words were completely random and had no relation to one another. Presumably Mr Reinhard created his own links to each item in order to commit them to memory. This brings us to some advice on autonomy and self-study techniques:

Always record new vocabulary from your lessons somewhere- a good old fashioned notebook (used solely for this purpose), your tablet, a spreadsheet, flash cards, voice recording etc.

Try out and finally choose your favourite method of recording and ordering the new vocabulary; for example:

Colour coding

Categorisation

Alphabetise

Creation of images/symbols

Quiz!

Now, read the following questions, close your eyes and answer them as quickly as possible!

What was the item needed at the supermarket?

What was the first in the list of recommended techniques for vocab retention?

Which was the easiest to answer? And what does this tell you about memory? Context is key.

A solid vocabulary can help in many situations, but is essential for business language learners - find out more about the courses we offer.

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Learning Vocabulary - Top tips for vocab memorisation | Language Services Direct

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By Vika Kukovenkova (adapted by Anna Sobell) She's got the memory of a.......ummm what's that expression again?! The memorisation of new vocabulary is often identified as the Achilles heel of the language learner, many struggle with the task and soon give up all together.

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A bad memory is one of the top excuses people give for not learning another language.

We see pages of unfamiliar words, or hear streams of sounds we can't decipher and think "I'll never be able to cram enough words into my brain to understand that".

I used to worry that my own crappy memory would make me a bad language learner: I'm the type of person who can't remember anything I learned at school, the last film I saw or what I ate for breakfast. Thankfully, once I got into language learning I realised that it doesn't have to stop me from remembering vocabulary.

In fact, lots of language learners with average memories manage to learn thousands of words and make it look easy.

But how?

The spaced repetition technique

Many learners swear by flashcard systems, which involve studying words or sentences in the language you're learning on one side of a card with a translation or picture on the other.

Nowadays, people use apps like Memrise and Anki which show flashcards at specific intervals to optimise learning. This technique, known as spaced repetition, is based on observations by memory researcher Hermann Ebbinghaus, who noticed that we're better at remembering information learned a few times over a longer period of time compared to many times within a short space of time. This means that we can learn more vocabulary with less effort, by spreading out our study sessions.

Despite their merits, flashcards have caused quite a stir in the language learning community. For each successful language learner who swears by them, there's another who wouldn't touch them with a 10 foot pole.

That's because learning vocabulary is more complex than memorising a bunch of words. When we focus too much on flashcards, there's a danger we'll end up recognising lots of words without knowing how to use them in real life. Also, languages are about communication - spending too much time with your head in an app is boring and it sucks the soul out of learning. Finally, if you don't dedicate enough time to engaging with the language in a real way by listening, reading and talking to native speakers, you'll never learn how people actually talk.

Importantly, the flashcard haters are a testimony to the fact that it is absolutely possible to learn a language without them.

My experience with flashcards

These conflicting viewpoints are the reason why my relationship with flashcards has been more on and off than a Justin Bieber love story.

In the honeymoon period, I'd get excited by all the words that seemed to pop into my head at just the right moment. But after a while, I'd notice that lots of words I was learning didn't come to me when I needed them in real life. Eventually, I'd get frustrated and delete the app.

But without flashcards, I'd start to get this nagging feeling that my vocabulary learning had slowed down dramatically. So I'd download the app and start the cycle all over again.

The right way to remember words

Over the last few months I've been using flashcards consistently for the first time ever and they've become my trusty secret for speedy word learning.

What changed?

I realised that there is a right way (and a wrong way!) to learn vocabulary. So I've been integrating wisdom from memory research, together with advice from renowned polyglots, to find ways to make flashcards more effective and minimise their shortcomings.

I've broken it down into 8 strategies that will help you get the most out of flashcards. When you put these ideas into practice, you'll be able to remember lots of words without taking up too much time or turning study sessions into a yawn fest.

How to remember words in a foreign language

This one's first on the list because it's by far the most important. Flashcard apps usually give you two options: use your own, or the sets other people have made. Making your own takes a little more effort in the beginning, but it's infinitely better to use words you have met in real contexts through listening, reading or conversations. This is because memory is highly context dependent - decades of research show that we remember information more easily when we associate it with the context we first learned it in. When you make your own sets with words you've already met, you can link them back to the original context and remember them much faster.

A man named Harry walks into a café. Eliza Doolittle, who is working in the restaurant as a waitress, greets him with her dodgy cockney accent, "Ari". He orders a slice of cake with layers of sponge, cream and forest fruit: a "gateaux". When Elisa brings over his order, Ari looks at the gateaux, and says "thank you".

Ari-gatou - you've just learned how to say thank you in Japanese through mnemonics, a memorisation strategy inspired by the ancient Greeks and endorsed by memory champions as the most effective way to quickly remember large amounts of information. Linking new words to things you already know such as images or rhymes makes them instantly easier to remember. The more detailed and unusual the imagery, the better - think Eliza Doolittle with a black forest gateaux in hand.

It's really tempting to record every new word you come across. Don't do it. I know it sometimes feels like you need to learn the word for bunsen burner in Spanish, but you don't. The impulse to learn everything is an asset, but if you don't keep it in check you'll soon find yourself with unmanageably longs lists of words you'll never actually learn. Our mental and time resources are precious and we need to spend them on stuff that's going to be useful. Choose words that are important for you, add those to your flashcard sets and forget the rest for now.

4. Make flashcards Robin, not Batman

Flashcards should be your trusty sidekick, not the star of the show. When you spend too much time using flashcards, you have less time to engage with language in a real way and meet words in authentic and varied contexts, aka the most important stuff. Also, turning a language into nothing more than a list of words makes it more boring than eating rice cakes.

5. Learn little and often

Flashcards work best when we study in short 5-10 minute bursts. Longer periods of time lead to inefficient learning as our brains get tired and can't absorb new information as easily.

6. Learn whole sentences

There's no point in learning lots of isolated words without knowing how to use them. Recording the whole sentence (or a short snippet if it's too long) gives you information about the sentence structure so that you can build new sentences with your word. Learning sentences also helps you associate the word with the original context, giving you an extra memory boost.

7. See it in your mind's eye

Associate new words with images you already have in your mind. For instance, if you review the word "el río" in Spanish, try conjuring up a mental image of a river. This technique helps you link new words to your existing mental representations, making them more relevant and memorable.

The more you use your new words, the faster you'll remember them. There are lots of different ways to put this into practice: you can build new sentences in your mind, write a few examples, or try throwing the words into a conversation when opportunity arises. Always be on the look out for opportunities to bring your new words out of books and apps and into real life contexts.

Et voilà, 8 different ways to make the most out of flashcards. Everyone has different learning styles so I recommend giving them a go to see if they work for you.

If you choose not to go the flashcard route, the above tips can be integrated into almost any vocabulary learning strategy to help you remember words faster.

What do you think?

How do you like to study vocabulary? Let us know in the comments below!

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How to remember words in a foreign language - Joyoflanguages

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A bad memory is one of the top excuses people give for not learning another language. We see pages of unfamiliar words, or hear streams of sounds we can't decipher and think "I'll never be able to cram enough words into my brain to understand that".

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I am that kind of person who learn more easily using visual tools. It is a little bit embarrassing though I must confess that everytime I go to the Uk I feel excited when I can find those typical books for kids called something like "My first 1000 words" in a bookshop or supermarket. These books might seem too basic but the truth is I enjoy them a lot. I always find new words. For me it is an amusing way of remembering and memorize English vocabulary. From my point of view, these books are quite helpful because they allow you to find out the meaning of a word not only at a glance but in an orderly manner because the words appear classified by topics such as food, animals or clothes. In addiction to this, I recently discovered the website Opdome.com which is a picture dictionary in English where you can also learn how words are pronouncied.

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A web application for viewing English vocabulary items. Suitable for ESL learners or very young children. The app has 30 sets of content with images and audio.

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1. Put the words in context
2. Learn from real-life situations
3. Focus on useful works
4. Use a  vocabulary notebook
5. Do word puzzles and games like crosswords, anagrams and wordsearches.
6. Learn words with a friend. It would be more fun and easier to learn someone else.
7. Use pictures and video to remember words
8. Think and learn in opposites

I would like to share with you a game that I usually do in a summer camps with the children and I think that is good for improving memory.

Good day!
Eva

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1-  Say these new words out loud
This helps you retain them in your mind and improve yout vocabulary.
2- Write the words by hand.
3- Be imaginative
Match words with colors, textures, smells and tastes.
4- Listen to yourself
Make some simple sentences with them and record yourself saying them.
5-Learn with humor
With humorous elements, new words are more easily memorized and assimilated.
You can follow this web page which could be useful to learn in a fun way.
Have a good day!
Ana Sánchez

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I’ve been publishing comics on this website since 2009. Every few years, I compile these comics into books, such as How to tell if your cat is plotting to kill you. I also make card games, such as Exploding Kittens and Throw Throw Burrito. Right now, I’m busy making an animated TV…

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Studying abroad is one of my best tips but I know that right now it's not the best option nor is it accessible to everyone but surrounding yourself with an English speaking environment helps a lot. Another good tip is to listen and read in English in movies with subtitles and in your favorite books that you can see in writing new vocabulary and how it is used, also now with the technology it is very easy to acquire these materials, like netflix, amazon prime, etc.
Finally, I share with you two applications that I usually use when I go by train or bus (free time) to improve all the skills and learn vocabulary: ABA English and BBC learning english.
I also share you a very interesting youtube channel of expressions that we usually say wrong.
Regards,
Sabrina.

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Here are some tips to help you memorise English vocabulary:

- Write the words once and again in a piece of paper. Handwriting increases neuronal activity and improves your photographic memory.
- Making up some stories or mnemonics comes in handy to learn lists of adjectives, nouns or verb patterns.
- Sparing the rod is over! Have a go at learning and having fun at the same time using apps like Memrise or Duolingo. It'll take you only 15 minutes a day to prevent your vocabulary from fading in your memory.

Last but not least, a recommendation to commit information to memory: Don't waste your neurones trying to remember absolutely everything. As David Allen says in his book "Getting Things Done", release your mind from recalling those memory-consuming routine tasks. Instead, let your mobile or agenda do this job for you and your brain will be able to focus on retaining as much data as you need.

Carmen

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I normally use two strategies to memorize new vocabulary in English and the other languages I'm studying.

The first strategy to memorize new vocabulary I use is to write a “vocabulary notebook”, in which I make a list of the new words I learn by categories or word groups, and I try to make sentences or small texts with them, in order to put them in context. In this notebook I also include mind maps or other visual tools.

The second strategy is to put sticky notes in different rooms of my home. With this, I can memorize more easily the new vocabulary because I see it every time I'm in these rooms.

Maybe these strategies are simple, but in my case are effective.

Patricia

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First of all, vocabulary is the worst part of english for me. I think that it is really hard to get new vocabulary or use new expression and not clingging to the same construction again and again.
Besides I teach english so I try to learn the most amount of vocabulary that I can, so I found a girl in youtube that apart from explaining grammar, she also films videos about how to avoid some expressions that we have embraced.
Here is the link of her last video: (184) Stop Saying "THANK YOU!" Use these alternatives to SOUND LIKE A NATIVE - YouTube
Take a look I think is really interesting.
However the way I am used to study new words and expressions is learning them by hard and then trying to using them when I speak.

ANA CARRIÓN

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Stop Saying "THANK YOU!" Use these alternatives to SOUND LIKE A NATIVE

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Playing with vocabulary it's always useful!!!

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Playing with vocabulary it's always useful!!!

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A great resource to practise new vocabulary.
I first knew this app in my last year english lessons. I used it all year long to practise  vocabulary yet having many amusing times. The app I'm talking about is Quizlet. I 'd post the link to it if I knew how to do it...sorry.

Appart from that, every time I come through a new word or expression I first look it up in the diccionary to check its meaning, then I try to picture it creating some bizarre image of the word in my mind. Finally I imagine situations in which I'd use it and I saiy some sentences containing the word.
And of course, don't ever forget to check every new word you read pronunciation.
Virginia

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Done!!!!!
This is the Quizlet app I've just told you about

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To be honest, I am pretty bad at remembering and memorizing words and stuff, so I am going to share with you my daily routine plan to study.
1. Wake up early in the morning at the same time and prepare yourself a balanced breakfast including vitamins (orange juice or some fruits) and calcium (milk, cheese or yogurt). Try to avoid pastries, coffee and fats).
2. Study at least 3 hours before lunch, resting with breaks no more than 15/20 minutes long.
3. Have lunch, calmly, don't be stressed if you haven't finished something that you should have to. Then you just lie down in your sofa for 30 minutes before going back to study (don't take a nap!)
Take it easy, it is your time to relax.
4. Return to work: change your place to study if you were not concentrate at all in the morning and try to study as good as you can. Prepare a snack in case you are starving (your brain also consumes energy) and drink too much water (avoid energy drinks).
5. When it is all over, go back home and do not forget to do physical exercise: gym, running, cycling,... whatever. It is important to drop any stress you may have during the day to be ready for tomorrow.
6. Have a shower, have a light dinner and I go to bed, you deserve it!

Best regards!
Gonzalo

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If you have to memorize new vocabulary it would be very useful the following tips
1.- Make a list of new words with their meaning.
In my case the best way to memorize a word is by handwriting
2.-Underline the words with different colours in order to attract the visual attention
due to I have a photographic memory
3.-Repeat the word time after tiime and try to build some sentences.
4.-The use of an app is a good tool.
In my case I have been using BBC learning English since Ihave studied in the EOI
RAQUEL