You learn, you learn these words, but there is no sense! After a couple of days everything is forgotten.
Use a scientific approach to memorization! We present you three scientifically based methods that will allow you to quickly and permanently memorize foreign words.
HOW MANY WORDS SHOULD YOU KNOW?
To begin with, let's figure out how many words you need to learn in order to begin to understand most of the foreign speech, and to express your thoughts yourself. A five-year-old child living in an English-speaking country uses 4,000 - 5,000 words, and a university graduate uses about 20,000 words. However, a person who learns English as a foreign language has a vocabulary of only 5,000 words, despite several years of study.
But there is also good news.: a vocabulary of 2,000 words is enough to understand 80% of foreign speech. The researchers came to this conclusion based on the analysis of the Brown Corpus. A linguistic corpus is a collection of texts on various topics.
Interestingly, after you have learned 2,000 words, vocabulary replenishment for each subsequent 1,000 words allows you to increase the amount of text you understand by only 3-4%.
HOW TO REMEMBER A WORD QUICKLY?
The first question that interests everyone is how to quickly memorize foreign words?
Scientists have come to the conclusion that information is remembered faster, which has an emotional connotation. Accordingly, it is a good idea to learn words through games, riddles, movies. I liked the song - do not be too lazy to look at the translation of incomprehensible words. These words will forever be associated with the song you like, which means they will leave an emotional trace in your memory.
Excellent reception - mnemonics. Create colorful associations - this will allow you to remember even hard-to-pronounce words. Usage example: the word weather is similar to the Russian word wind, we build a wind-weather pair in our head, remember forever that weather translates to weather. There are special reference books where you can find various mnemonic techniques for memorizing English words. However, it is better to come up with such associations on your own, since our associations and emotions are strictly individual.
HOW CAN YOU NOT FORGET A WORD AS QUICKLY?
So, you learned a couple of hundred words, but after a week, about ten of them remained in your memory. What is the problem? This is due to the existence of short-term and long-term memory. The mechanisms of short-term memory allow you to store information for 15-30 minutes, then, noticing that this information is not used, the brain gets rid of it, as if it were something unnecessary. How can we make it clear to the brain that we really need these words? The answer is repetition. It's like with Pavlov's dog: the light bulb lights up - saliva is released. However, it is released only after 5-10 repetitions of the food + light chain. If food is not served when the light is turned on, the association of the light bulb with food in the dog's brain will be destroyed, and saliva will stop secreting.
So how many times does a word need to be repeated in order for it to stably move from short-term to long-term memory?
German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus developed the Forgetting Curve, which characterizes the amount of information lost over time in the absence of repetition. During the first 20 minutes after learning the words, we will already remember 60%, and within 1 hour we will lose more than 50% of the information. Then, over time, more and more information will be erased, and by day 3, only 20% of the information will remain in memory. Thus, if you miss at least one day in repetition, you will not return the forgotten words.
The conclusion is obvious: without repetition, nowhere. Use words in speech, make up stories using new words, play flashcards on your smartphone for at least a couple of minutes a day - all this will help you save the learned words. Otherwise, the time spent on their initial study will simply be wasted.
We suggest using the following repetition schedule:
- 10-15 minutes after learning the words;
- After 50-60 minutes;
- The next day;
- After 1 day;
- After 2 days.
After that, most of the information will be fixed for life.
HOW TO EXPRESS THOUGHTS FASTER?
I really want foreign words to flow from my mouth without requiring excessive brain tension and several minutes to formulate a phrase. There is an opportunity to accelerate the formation of foreign speech - this is the development of muscle memory. By muscles here we mean the muscles of our articulatory apparatus. These muscles, like the muscles of the legs when riding a bicycle or the muscles of the fingers of a pianist, have a memory that allows you to perform automated movements almost unconsciously.
In order for muscle memory to form, it is important when learning words to pronounce them out loud, making movements with the tongue and lips. It is also useful to simultaneously present an image of the subject being studied. Over time, you will no longer think about what word to say - the muscles will do it automatically.
Thus, the correct organization of the work of the brain in the formation of short-term, long-term and muscle memory will allow you to quickly and permanently replenish your vocabulary.
Good luck with your learning!
Many who begin to learn a language are wondering from the very beginning how to memorize foreign words easily, quickly and with pleasure in order to immediately speak a foreign language.
Technology for memorizing foreign words
First of all, one of the most important remarks - this technology for memorizing foreign words is set up in such a way that you need to quickly learn words in the direction “foreign - Russian”, that is, we look at a foreign word and remember its meaning in Russian, but not vice versa!
As soon as you decide to quickly speak a foreign language, the question arises how to memorize hundreds of foreign words a day? This is not always possible, because the words themselves cannot jump into the head. You always need someone to put them there or enter them into memory like in a computer.
Stage 1 Working with foreign words
At the stage of working with foreign words, we choose, divide and memorize foreign words.
1) We choose a portion of words for memorization in the amount of one hundred pieces!
I want to note right away that 100 is the highest maximum, at least for me. Maybe if this technique starts working for you, you can immediately quickly learn words and overcome both 200 and 300, but for a start it’s better not to take more than 50-60. Limit your speed!
2) Divide the portion into five parts
This is akin to separate meals, so that not all at once, but all day, but little by little. Please note - the parts must be equal! Therefore, in order to quickly learn words, initially take an amount that is divisible by 5 without a remainder!
3) Remember words
Of course, you need to memorize as much as possible, because the art of quickly learning words requires great accuracy! In total, memorizing the words from the first part will take you no more than 30 seconds!
Mechanism of short-term memory
How does the mechanism of short-term memory work at stage 1? 30 seconds is a very significant figure! It is directly related to our short-term memory, which both allows and does not allow us to quickly learn words. Why? And because, short-term memory is like a RAM in a computer, only in a person it is very quickly overloaded.
Well, judge for yourself how to quickly learn words here, if this memory holds information in itself for only 30 seconds, and it remembers for these half a minute from 2 to 26 units of information! It cannot even be compared with the first computers of the 80s.
But! Man is not a machine, so his memory has some other interesting possibilities! For example, it does not matter how long a word you remember! That is, if we have seven letters, seven words and seven phrases, memorization will be the same! Moreover, preference is given to longer information. So it’s better to quickly learn not individual words, but whole expressions!
Impairment of short-term memory
And one more important circumstance - there may be a deterioration in short-term memory, short-term memory will not work if you, having started to quickly learn words, begin to repeat the word that you just memorized many times! The memory will simply overflow and freeze.
In other words, if you repeat one word for more than 30 seconds, then it will simply be erased from your short-term memory and will never go into long-term memory! And in reality, even if you learn words very quickly, a person is hardly able to repeat one word 10-20 times in half a minute with such speed.
Hence the conclusion - make the primary element longer - quickly learn not the word itself, but the phrase in context. This is more pleasant for memory and more useful in order for you to quickly learn to speak a foreign language. The number of foreign words and expressions that you memorize in "one sitting" should be limited.
If you increase it even a little, you will immediately begin to forget everything.
How does memory work in the brain
How does the process of memorization take place in the brain and what can improve it or, conversely, damage it. We don't repeat, we remember! Moreover, look - we remember from 2 to 26 units in "one sitting"! Therefore, do not overload initially - after all, you do not have additional blocks of RAM. Take breaks! Remember the words from one part - do not break into the next!
Slow down and switch to some neutral process that is not related to the desire to quickly learn words. The pause must be at least ten minutes! You need to "recharge" your short-term memory and open the long-awaited door to long-term memory.
In those ten minutes, you unconsciously begin to quickly learn and repeat the words you just memorized. Slowly "cooling down" the brain gives you a unique opportunity to increase the time spent finding new words in short-term memory up to a day - one and a half!
Stage Two: Rhythm, Contexts, Repetition
At the second stage, we have to learn how to work with rhythm, include words in contexts and repeat correctly.
1) We repeat the words!
10 minutes after memorizing the first part of the words, put a sheet of paper on the translation, run your eyes over the words and check how you remember them. Don't worry if you missed something. Catch up on everything in the next steps!
2) Let's beat the rhythm!
We take something evenly and loudly ticking, for example, a metronome - mechanical, electrical, computer or something like that. If this is not available, we boldly arm ourselves with a pencil and begin to knock a rhythm of 1 beat per second. In the same way, we set the rhythm on the metronome to 60 beats per minute.
And so, with each such blow, we look at the word that we remember and try to find it out. Knock-word, knock-word, knock-word ... and off we go. At the same time, we mentally count how many words have already passed. If at this moment we cannot remember the word, leave it and move on to the next one. Our task here is to keep the rhythm!
Why are we doing this at all? And then, just to turn on the internal resources of the brain and long-term memory, which activates the ability to quickly learn words. We, as it were, slightly introduce ourselves into a “language trance”, as we concentrate on the rhythm, and all our fears and internal criticism cost themselves, fooled And they can't stop us at this moment. At the same time, the mechanisms of word recognition and its deeper memorization are activated.
All actions, starting from Step 4, are fixed by the hour - how much time you need to go through all these steps. In the future, it will be possible to quickly learn words and plan the number of words to memorize in the total portion.
3) We work with the following parts of words
We pass to the second and subsequent parts of the words from our portion and repeat the first stage. Remember the 10-minute pause after the first memorization of each part! And so we quickly learn words and study the entire portion!
4) We check the whole portion!
We do it very simply - we read all the words that we memorized and repeated. This step is important in that we sum up a kind of result of our “brainstorming” and “clean up the tails”, that is, we recall those words that we have already forgotten.
As a result, it should take you no more than one hour to quickly learn words. How many words you have time to remember and repeat during this time is up to you, but be prudent. Quantity doesn't mean quality at all.
What do you do now, after the entire verbal portion has been studied? You must start the process of loading the learned material into long-term memory. This is done with the help of spaced repetitions in order to "push" information from short-term memory even deeper.
How not to forget foreign words
The answer to the question of how not to forget foreign words can be spaced repetitions. Spaced repetitions are repetitions of the learned portion of words at certain intervals, after which this tasty portion is remembered seriously and for a long time.
When you started to quickly learn the words, you already repeated them once - each part 10 minutes after memorization. Now you repeat the entire portion according to the following pattern:
The first repetition - after 24 hours
Second repetition 24 hours after the first
Third repetition - 24 hours after the second
The fourth, final repetition - 2-3 months after the third!
Don’t let such a big break in repetitions bother you - in reality, you will be able to remember the words even after a year! So don't worry about your memory! The main thing - be sure to go through all four intervals!
Well, you passed the first portion, but what about the rest? After all, the next day you will take the next portion, on the third day - one more, and then - more and more! How not to drown in this avalanche of words that will suddenly rush into your mind and completely confuse your cards?
Everything is very simple! You will need not only to quickly learn the words themselves, but also to streamline the process of learning foreign words and repeating them.
To do this, designate each serving with a serial number from 1 to infinity and put these numbers on the calendar, according to the repetition intervals.
Directly in the date window, enter the serial number of the portion and that's it! Just don't forget which number hides which portion of words. By the way, the portion number can be initially written in the very source of these words.
Is it possible to learn a foreign language on your own?
Having learned how to quickly memorize foreign words, the question immediately arises - is it possible to learn a foreign language on your own? What can I say? The technique works! The brain accelerates, but it does it gradually, as if spinning up the pace, but then it may not stop.
I quickly learned the words and in about one week I reached the level of 50 words per hour, but then I already feel the tension of the brain, a kind of “burning”. You know, I read that simultaneous interpreters in their work change every half an hour, because their brain simply cannot withstand a longer time due to constant tension and concentration.
Something similar is felt here! At first, everything is quite difficult and unpleasant. Everything inside refuses to quickly learn words and craves the usual cramming of words, which then safely disappear from memory.
However, after a few days of such accelerations, the body gets used to it and the first results begin to come. Even later, it is tempting to quickly learn words and swing this flywheel to the maximum, but here I would recommend that you do not rush.
The number of words in a portion needs to be increased little by little, and even then if you see that your technique has “gone”. What should be this very amount is up to you, but think for yourself! For me, the optimal portion is 50-60 words, well, it's like the speed limit in settlements.
Now about how often you need to apply this technique. Who wants to quickly learn the words "with a breeze" at 200 per hour, evaluate your ability to start. After testing it, I am deeply convinced that it should not be your basic way of learning foreign words.
It would be very uncomfortable for me if every time during memorization and repetition I accelerated all my neurons, and then calmed them down for a long time. Somehow this is fraught, I think ... The technique is uniquely effective at the basic stage of vocabulary acquisition. This is where you need to quickly learn words in order to quickly start speaking a foreign language and learn how to perceive a foreign language by ear!
It is also possible to quickly learn words and apply the “two hundred words per hour” technique at the stage of mastering thematic vocabulary, that is, on some specific topics and areas, where there are many words and most of them are specific terms.
In a word, use this technique to quickly learn words periodically to keep your brain computers up and running and ready for battle, as well as to increase your motivation to learn foreign languages.
And as for motivation ... get rid of all the thoughts that they say, with this method you will begin to teach and quickly forget all the words! This should not prevail in the mind! Set yourself a goal - to master the skill of quickly learning words and bring the portion of the studied words to .... a certain amount per day, according to your capabilities.
That's all! And I am more than sure that the ability to memorize foreign words easily, quickly and with pleasure will come to you very soon and will stay with you for the rest of your life!
What determines the effectiveness of teaching a foreign language? Of course, on how rich your vocabulary will be. We talk about 10 strategies and methods for quickly memorizing words in our article.
This method of memorizing new words found a dense ranks of admirers, but also the same number of opponents. The thing is that the latter express doubts about the efficiency in the speed of remembering an associative pair. Let's take a closer look.
Let's start with how our brain works when we see a written word. Ideas, images, pictures and even feelings are formed in its bowels, a stable connection is formed between what the eyes saw and what the brain formed. Long-familiar material gets a connection with the new.
Close your eyes and imagine a tree, let it be a sprawling oak or a slender birch. Now let's learn the word "tree", add three leaves to your tree. So, in your head, the image is a tree with three leaves, which is now forever imprinted in your head like a tree.
How to make an analogy in the context of a whole sentence? Write the expression or sentence in the center of the sheet. Recorded? From the sentence, direct the rays in different directions, each of which will end with a word, or better with a picture. Do not think at the moment about how accurate and correct the associations are, the main thing is to write it down.
Now, every time you hear one of the words, the whole association and visual image of the sentence will be restored in your head.
Advice! To make the method even more effective, pronounce what is written, especially if you consider yourself to be a category of people who perceive information better by ear.
Work "in pairs" - remember phrases
Great if you have learned to quickly memorize individual words. But it is important to understand that English, like other languages, is not separate, disparate concepts, it is a system of connections for expressing thoughts. Therefore, examples of words should be looked for in context.
If you have already started a personal dictionary, and we believe that you have it, write down the words in the form of phrases. To memorize the word "ugly" write down "ugly duckling" and immediately remember the work of Hans Christian Andersen "The Ugly Duckling". The next step is to compose at least 3-4 sentences with the learned phrase.
Memorize new words with pictures
According to statistics, more than 70% of people on earth are visual, which is why the learning process should be associated with the visual perception of the image. In your dictionary, opposite each word, and especially those that are difficult to remember, draw small pictures. Well, well, you shouldn't grumble that you can't draw, it's even better.
Every day our brain receives a huge amount of monotonous information, such unusual and funny pictures will become a kind of “surprise”, and surprises are very well remembered.
Write for health
A large number of words are difficult to remember and we will not deny this fact. If you have to memorize a large array of words, make up a story with them, even an absurd story will become your reliable assistant.
Let's take an example. Words needed for memorization: piano, shoes, tree, boy, bird, pencil, bus.
look! There is a piano, it is sitting under the tree and wearing shoes. As for me, the tree is so strange, little boy has stuck pencil through it. A small bird is sitting on the pencil and looking for a bus.
In translation, the text is very bizarre and could pass for an unfortunate joke, but our goal is new words, and for this it is quite suitable.
This method is suitable for learning adjectives, of which there are a huge number in English. To form pairs, you can choose antonyms or synonyms (words that are close and opposite in meaning).
The simplest example is the well-known adjectives good/bad and bad/bum. Our brain is so arranged that we remember opposite and similar things faster than disparate single concepts.
Word by composition
To parse a word by composition, you will have to remember the school curriculum, but a short memory of such concepts as a suffix, prefix and root will greatly facilitate the process of learning new words.
Let's take the word "microbiology" as an example, it is not necessary to be a polyglot to understand that the prefix "micro" means something small, and the suffix "-logy" in Latin means science. And now a chain is already being established - a science that studies something small, "bio" - living beings, which means that we have a word denoting the science of microscopic organisms.
You can guess the translation of new words by studying the meaning of the most common prefixes and suffixes. The former include ir-, im-, micro-, dis-, con-, un-, il- (usually have a negative or opposite meaning), the latter -ly, -able, -ive, -tion, -ent.
- Il-- used with words beginning with the consonant l:
Logical - illogical (logical - illogical); legible - illegible (legible about handwriting - illegible).
- Ir-- used with words beginning with the consonant r:
Responsible - irresponsible (responsible - irresponsible); replaceable - irreplaceable (replaceable - irreplaceable).
- Im-- usually used before adjectives beginning with the consonant r:
Polite - impolite (polite - impolite); personal - impersonal (personal - impersonal).
Choose the right time
Psychologists who are working on the study of memorization processes have long deduced the most optimal scheme for memorizing new material.
It is necessary to use a new word immediately after meeting it, then after 10 minutes, after an hour, after a day, and definitely after a week. After that, the probability of forgetting the word is minimized.
Stickers and flashcards are a great solution for learning words
You may not like the following idea, but it will definitely make your learning fun and entertaining. Stick stickers with English names on everything that is in your apartment. Thus, you will learn not only a huge array of vocabulary, but also learn how to quickly reproduce a graphic image.
The method has one, but a very significant drawback - it is limited to the topic "House".
If you do not want to limit yourself, replace the stickers with cards with words written on the back. At your discretion, words can be divided into topics or according to another principle convenient for you.
The undoubted advantages can be called the fact that your training material will always be at hand and you can plunge into the learning process even on a long journey.
Folklore for vocabulary replenishment
If you want to learn new words not only quickly, but also fun, use sayings, proverbs, short rhymes and tongue twisters. All this is a great way to expand vocabulary and form the correct pronunciation. In addition, you have a great opportunity to get acquainted with the culture of the people whose language you study with such diligence.
Remember the game "Snowball", where a new word was added to each line, the English language is also full of such poems, for example, the well-known "The house that Jack built". This method of memorizing words not only expands vocabulary, but also trains memory.
We listen and read
And of course, do not forget about the lexical load that reading and listening to texts entails. The advantage of reading is that the expansion of vocabulary becomes a necessity, and memorization occurs due to the repeated repetition of words in the text. Therefore, choose for yourself interesting books that you would read with pleasure.
The audio-linguistic method will appeal to those who classify themselves as auditory and remember well information perceived by ear. The advantage of watching movies and listening to texts is that you will quickly get rid of the accent, but it would be unfair not to mention the disadvantage - the lack of a visual image of the word in memory.
Video with tips on how to memorize new English words:
Luca Lampariello
Italian polyglot. Knows 11 languages, among them - German, Russian, Polish, Northern Chinese. Lampariello became a well-known figure in the language learning community. Currently lives in Rome.
Association search is the process by which new information is linked to existing knowledge.
One piece of information can have thousands of associations with memories, emotions, experiences and individual facts. This process occurs naturally in the brain, but we can take it under conscious control.
To do this, let's return to the above-mentioned words: "gene", "cell", "synapse", "skeleton" ... If we memorize them separately, we will soon forget everything. But if we learn these words in the context of a sentence, it will be much easier for us to put them together in our mind. Think about it for 10 seconds and try to connect these four words.
You might end up with something similar: "Genes influence the development of elements as diverse as the skeleton, brain synapses, and even individual cells." All four words are now united by a common context - like pieces in a puzzle.
Approach these exercises progressively. First, try to combine groups of words that are united by a certain topic like physics or politics. Then try to build more complex associations between unrelated words. With practice, you will get better and better.
3. Repetition
More than a hundred years ago, the German physicist Ebbinghaus came to the conclusion that we forget information according to a certain pattern, which he called the "forgetting curve". We perfectly remember everything that we have recently learned. But this same information disappears from memory in a matter of days.
Ebbinghaus discovered a mechanism to combat this phenomenon.
If new information is repeated at precise intervals, it will become increasingly difficult to forget it. After a few spaced repetitions, it will be fixed in long-term memory and, most likely, will remain in the head forever.
You need to regularly review old information while working with new information.
4. Recording
The ancient Romans said: "Words fly away, the written remains." That is, in order to remember information, you need to fix it in a permanent format. As you learn new words, write them down or type on the keyboard so you can save them and come back to them later.
When you come across a new useful word or phrase while talking, watching a movie, or reading a book, write it down on your smartphone or laptop. Thus, you will be able to repeat recorded at any opportunity.
5. Application
Use what you learn in meaningful conversations. This is the essence of the last of the basic methods of effective word learning.
University of Montreal researchers Victor Boucher and Alexis Lafleur found Honor Whiteman. Repeating words aloud to another person increases memory recall. that using words in conversation is more effective in terms of memorization than saying them out loud to yourself.
In other words, the more you communicate with other people, the better your linguistic memory works and the faster the level of language proficiency grows. Therefore, always use the learned material in real conversations. This method will greatly improve your skills and give you experience in using new and long-learned words.
Suppose you have read an article on a topic that interests you. You can choose unfamiliar words from it and apply them later in a short conversation with a language partner. You can mark and learn key words, and then retell the content of the article with their help. See how well you learn the material after the conversation.
We have been learning English all our lives, we know the rules, but still we cannot correctly answer a foreigner and watch the series in the original without pain. Why is that?
We decided to look into this injustice and found a way to learn foreign words better. There is a universal memory formula proposed by the German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus. And she works.
Why do we forget
The brain protects us from overload and constantly gets rid of unnecessary information. That is why all the new words that we learn first fall not into long-term, but into short-term memory. If they are not repeated and used, they are forgotten.
The Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve shows that within 1 hour of memorization, we forget more than half of the information. And in a week we remember only 20%.
How to remember everything
So that new words do not fly out of your head, you need to try to "place" them in long-term memory. Memorization in this case is ineffective, since the brain does not have time to quickly comprehend the information and build strong associative links. To remember longer - it is better to stretch the memorization process for several days, or even weeks. At the same time, it is enough to repeat once.
You can practice spaced repetitions with homemade flashcards or special apps like: Anki (Android, iOS) and SuperMemo (Android, iOS)
12 more secrets to memorizing new words
- Teach Consciously. Meaningful material is remembered 9 times faster.
- Decide on a list of words you need to keep the conversation going. There are only about 300-400 of them. Remember them first.
- Please note that words at the beginning and at the end of the list are remembered better("edge effect").
- Switch your attention from the chosen topic to another. Know that similar memories mingle(the principle of interference) and turn into "porridge".
- Teach the opposite. If you remember day, then consider night. Antonyms are remembered faster and easier.
- Build your "halls of memory". The essence of the method is that you need to associate memorized words with a specific place. For example, while walking around the room, associate new words with individual details in the interior. Repeat several times and leave the room. After that, restore the room in your memory and at the same time the words learned with its prompts.
- Use the word-nail technique. The essence of the method is to join the memorized word to the already known one for memorization. So, when you think of "nail", you may be able to think of another word. For example, in the counting rhyme: "One, two, three, four, let's count the holes in the cheese", the words "four" and "in the cheese" are connected with each other.
- Associate new words with those you already know. For example, the word heel (heel) can be remembered by remembering Achilles and his Achilles heel. And the word look (look) can be learned if you remember how difficult it is to look when you cut an onion.
- Make up stories. If you need to memorize the words in a certain order, try building them up into an impromptu story. It is important that all the words are related to each other in the plot.
- Use a voice recorder. Say the words to the recording, and then listen to them several times. This method is especially suitable for those who perceive information better by ear.
- Animate and visualize. Use facial expressions when studying emotions. Move around when learning sports words. This way you also use muscle memory.
- Do not learn the language from the dictionary and school textbooks. If you love Game of Thrones, try learning the words from this show. So much more interesting.
