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August 16, 2009

How To Improve Vocabulary Retention Without Techniques

How do you improve your ability to memorize words and phrases from a new language?  By using strategies and techniques, of course.  Barring the employment of any special system, though, are there any things you can do to actually help with vocabulary retention?

Here are a few things we heartily recommend:

Enjoy The Process. Don’t stress yourself out with the pressures of learning a new language, such as forcing yourself to undertake activities you don’t enjoy.  Stress is known to have a serious impact on many of our cognitive functions, especially memory.  Make your language study less about “forcing yourself” and more about “finding fun ways to learn”.  Focusing your efforts on discovering how reading your phrasebooks and using your language software can be fun will pay off innumerable dividends.

Get Good Sleep. Memory just doesn’t function well when you’re sleep deprived, so make sure to get enough rest in before starting off on new lessons and such.  There’s no “one size fits all” answer about the question of how much sleep we all require – if you’re feeling particularly tired and lackluster, you probably need more.

Physical Activity. There is an increasing body of evidence that suggests exercise and fitness does have an effect on memory.  While this may still be an area of contention, a physically fit body never hurt anyone.

Making A Habit Of Learning. Turn your studies into a habit as much as possible.  Fitting it into your schedule and actually following it is usually enough to get you started on the path.

Filed under: Language Learning — Tags: , , , ,
August 13, 2009

Memorizing Vocabulary: How Do You Do It?

How do you memorize vocabulary?  Do you trudge through it like you memorized dates in primary school or do you take a more creative approach?

Back when I started with my language studies, I used the classic repeat method to learn vocabulary.  I’ll take a word from my language learning software and repeat it numerous times until I have retained it to memory.  The next time I’m in a conversation with a native speaker, I might recognize the word and, perhaps, even find a way to use it myself, eventually cementing it into my treasure trove of learned items.

This is a perfectly valid way of getting a grasp of vocabulary, although it does suffer from two glaring problems.  First, it’s incredibly boring – as snooze-inducing as memorizing the names of all the presidents back when I was in grade school.  Second, it’s completely inefficient, with a single word taking too much time to learn (that is, if you do manage to learn it at all).

There are many creative approaches to memorizing stuff that you can apply to vocabulary mastery.  If you’ve used particular techniques to remember facts in school, do note that you can apply the exact same things in your language studies.  Did you use word associations, images or some other mnemonics?  Look back at those days and try to figure out which ones worked best for you.  Chances are, they’re the same things that can help you best in your quest to gain a better grasp of your target vocabulary.

Filed under: Dictionary Software,Language Learning — Tags: , ,
May 6, 2009

Vocabulary, Verbs And Learning Language On Your Own

When a learning new language, it’s just as important to pay attention to verbs as you do with the vocabulary. Without a working grasp of action words, all you’ll be doing is sitting in a pile of nouns that you can’t do anything with.

Beginner Learning

Most beginners start at zero when they’re learning a new language. Memorizing phrases and vocabulary, their skill takes an upward stride within a short time frame. Once they step beyond the simple memorizing, however, the development begins to slow down.

Practicing Verbs

If you’ve performed due diligence learning your pre-made phrases, the next step in your learning development usually involves putting together the vocabulary you’ve gained from them into logical statements. This is where most beginning language learners falter, especially those trying to accomplish it on their own using language learning software.

Because it requires a good grasp of verbs to be able to manage sentence construction in pretty much any language, it’s important to focus on gaining a mastery of action words during this phase. Instead of doing that, however, most novice learners simply try to ease their difficulties by focusing on more vocabulary, hoping it will get them the clarity they’re searching for. As a result, their learning ends up stifled and they are unable to progress past the process of filling their heads with more words.

Doing It In Your Own

When you’re learning a new language on your own, make sure you strike a balance with your learning. Even though self-learning means that you set your own pace, it’s important to keep in mind that language is learned best by taking it step by step. Foregoing verbs in favor of expanding your vocabulary will only prove detrimental to your overall efforts.

Filed under: Language Learning,Language Program — Tags: , ,
March 23, 2009

Mastering The Vocabulary Of A Foreign Language

Once you have the basic grammar and pronunciation of a language down pat, the next step is frequently mastering its vocabulary. This, of course, is one of the hardest and most time-consuming parts of language learning. However, it is absolutely essential when you’re looking towards overall proficiency.

Learning a vocabulary works much like memorizing stuff back when you were in school. If you have tricks up your sleeve when it comes to memorizing all those names, dates and places, you can employ them to help you learn vocabulary in much the same way. Here are a few tips to accomplish that from our own playbook.

Use Mental Imagery. For every word in the foreign language, you can associate an image that makes sense to you. Most associations you will probably come up with will border on the silly or absurd, which makes the process all the more entertaining.

Learn Related Words Together. Grouping vocabulary elements are easier because they create an instant relationship among the words. For instance, you can learn the parts of a face together with actions and adverbs that relate to the face, such as smiling, frowning and beautiful.

Study Words That Are Relevant To You First. Instead of going through vocabulary learning like going through a grocery list, try giving it context. If you work in finance, for instance, you can jumpstart your learning by focusing on words that relate to your job. If you cook often, then study words that relate to food and its preparation. The more familiar a subject is to you, the easier learning the vocabulary related to that will be.

Test Yourself. Regularly test what you have learned. At least once a week, try to take one of the language quizzes that come with your language learning software to see how much of the vocabulary study you have retained. The more you test yourself, the better the information will usually sink in.

Filed under: Dictionary Software,Language Learning,Language Learning Software,Language Program,Language Software — Tags: , , ,

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