How Do We Acquire More Vocabulary?

It can seem like there is a number of different ways to learn new vocabulary, but the reality is that no matter what you do, the words all enter your memory in the same way.

Words will firstly enter your passive vocabulary and from there they may go to your active vocabulary. I will explain exactly how you learn words and how they become a part of these different vocabularies.

Once you understand how this process works it can help you learn words going forward, as you will understand what you brain is doing and what you need to do to help it.

Active and Passive Vocabulary

We actually have two types of vocabulary, your passive and active, and while they are different they are still linked.

Your passive vocabulary is made up of words you can recognise, while your active vocabulary consists of all the words you can recall and use yourself.

By increasing one; you will be affecting the other. This is simply due to the process of how we acquire new words and how our memory stores them, which I will cover below.

 (You can read more about – Active vs Passive Vocabulary, What Is The Difference?)

How Are Words Acquired Into Your Vocabulary?

The acquisition of new words is mainly done subconsciously in 3 steps, which I will discuss in detail below.

You can certainly make a conscious effort to try and help get them into your memory, which can actually be really effective.

(If you want to read more about these techniques you can read this article about it – Techniques That Will Increase Your Vocabulary)

While these techniques can help, you can really see that words are acquired subconsciously by the fact that some will be really easy to remember while others will just not stick no matter what you try.

If memory acquisition was a fully conscious process, then we would be able to repeat the same technique for each word and get the same results each time. Learning would be very linear if this was the case.

If you have been learning a language for any length of time you will realise that this really isn’t what happens and it can actually seem like there is no pattern to why some words are able to stick a lot faster than others.

1. Comprehending New Vocabulary

The journey of a word into your vocabulary has to start with you being able to comprehend its meaning.

In your native language this will be done through association, or using the language itself.

Think about how you show a baby a picture of a cat and just say “cat” to them over and over again. Slowly they start to comprehend that a cat is represented by the word “cat” and they are able to associate the two things.

When children are a little older they have enough vocabulary to be able to comprehend new words through the language its self. This is really as simple as just telling them what something means and you will often find kids asking you “what does X mean” and you can use the language to explain whatever it is to them.

This would also be the same as using the dictionary, where you look up the word and comprehending its meaning though the definition. You are using the language to comprehend more of the language.

Comprehension in Language Learning

When you are learning a second language you can comprehend the new words in the exact same way as your native language, but you also have an extra trick up your sleeve …you already know a language.

This means that you can see how the new word compares to the framework you already have. All you need to do is look up the translation of that word and instantly you can comprehend what it means.

This is by far the quickest method to comprehend something as you are really just tagging on the new word to some concept that you already have stored in your memory.

I don’t need to try and explain to you what a cat is in French, I can just say “chat means cat” and you are able to comprehend instantly as you can link what you already know to what I’ve just said.    

2. Passive Vocabulary Acquisition 

Passive acquisition is going to pretty much happen from the first time you see a word and are able to comprehend it.

You can passively remember words where you don’t know the meaning, but they usually lost as they have no meaning to you and your brain just forgets them. You might question if you have actually seen the word before and may think it’s your first time seeing it, even if its not.

However, if you are actually able to understand the meaning of the word, either through looking it up, or through the surrounding context, then you have a much higher chance of recognising it again.

When you next see the word again, along with how many times you see it is really going to make a lot of difference on how easily you can remember them.

If I show you 2 words today, then show you 1 of the words in six months times you will struggle to recognise it compared to the other word which will show you a handful of times tomorrow.

Basically the more expose you get to a word, along with how short the time is between exposures will affect how you can recognise a word.

This is why immersion is so important as its is going to make sure you get bombarded with really common words.

Initially you might just be unsure if you recognise it or knows what it means, but the more exposure you get, the more this fuzzy feeling around the word will go.

You may even need to look the meaning up a few times and each time you will get that “ah yes of course it means that” feeling, but with each exposure that should fade and eventually you will see the word and automatically recognise it.

Passive Vocabulary Is Like A Scale

This does mean that the words in your passive vocabulary fall along a scale, from very fuzzy to very clear.

You will find some words you can recognise instantly, while others you may really have to stop and think about it and even question if you know what they mean   

This is your subconscious doing its thing and making stronger associations between certain words compared to others.

Usually as times passes and you get more exposure the words you are not too sure about will get recognised a lot easier.

3. Active Vocabulary Acquisition

A word may stay at the passive stage for a long time, maybe forever. However, if it really is common and you are seeing it multiple times a day, slowly you will become so comfortable with it that you find that you can go beyond just recognising it and actually start to recall it yourself.

This is the start of the word entering your active vocabulary. 

Again this whole process will be a bit of a sliding scale. The words may be difficult to recall at first and a little fuzzy.

You might make slight mistakes, or just not be that confident that you have recalled it properly. However, the more you do this, the stronger you ability will become.  

Strengthening this ability is something you can consciously do as you can make the effort to try and recall the word and actually use it.

Moving Words From Passive To Active Vocabulary

This whole process of moving from one vocabulary to another is a little blurry and some words may move faster than others. There is no magic formula to say why one word will move faster than other.

Usually a lot of repeated exposure and actually using the word will make sure the word becomes a part of your active vocabulary.

Really your brain will decide what words you need in your active vocabulary subconsciously. If it thinks these words are going to be important for you, then they are much more likely to be moved across.

This is also why the conscious techniques can help you, as you are basically forcing yourself to use the words more and tricking your subconscious into believing they must be extremely important words (because they will be).

Words Can Be Forgotten

You also need to understand that this who process is pretty fluid which means words can come and go from your memory.

Just because a word is in your active vocabulary now, does not mean it can’t go back to being passive or just be totally forgotten all together.

You can easily forget words if you have not seen or used in a long time, but other more common words that you use daily can also just seemingly disappear from your memory for no real reason.

Generally words will leave your active vocabulary if you are not using them a lot. This is really common if you work in a job with a really specific vocabulary. When you leave the job you will stop using those specific words and over time you can totally forget them.

However, you will find that they have probably just slipped back into your passive vocabulary and if you seen the words again in the future their meaning would come instantly flooding back.

There are also some words that are so common and used so much, that they will just become a permanent fixture in your active vocabulary very quickly. It doesn’t matter how long you don’t use them for, you will just always remember these words. Your own name is going to be one of these words.

Your brain tends to only keep words it deems extremely important in your active vocabulary, but you will usually find that it will keep words in your passive vocabulary for a lot longer before totally forgetting them. You will find you may not have seen a word for years, but you can still recognise and understand it.

This is also why your passive vocabulary is always bigger than your active one.

(You can read more about – Is It Normal To Forget Words You Have Learned In Your New Language?)

How To Avoid Forgetting

The key to keeping a word in your active vocabulary is to keep it active.

If you are using a word often, then it’s less likely to fade away and slip back into your passive vocabulary. Your brain will think these words must be important as you are forever trying to write them down or say them.

This is extremely important for your second language as you really need to wrestle with your brain at times to make it accept that this new language you are learning is actual vital information that needs to be kept.

Really the more you use the language, the less likely you will forget it. Even just doing a lot of immersion is going to keep a lot of the words strong in your mind as you will be continually seeing them and thinking about  them.

(You can read more about – What Is The Best Way To Learn New Vocabulary When Learning A Language)

Conclusion

Hopefully now you can understand how your brain actually acquires more vocabulary.

While it is all subconscious, you can certainly encourage it consciously through making sure you get enough exposure. The more you see and try and recall a word, the more likely it is going to end up in your active vocabulary.

All you really need to do is just keep doing this over and over again with a large number of words and pretty soon you will have enough to cover a basic understanding of the language. Just keep working away at it, you will get to the level in the language that you want.  

(You can read more about – Should You Learn Phrases Or Words When Learning A Language?)