What Is The Best Way To Learn New Vocabulary When Learning A Language

Learning vocabulary in a new language is very important, the more words you know, the more you can understand and the more you can communicate.

Vocabulary really is the building blocks of the language and there are a number of different ways you can learn it, I will go through some of the different options and what I consider the best way to do it.

Learn Vocabulary In Context

The best way to learn new vocabulary is simply to learn the words in context. This is often ignored by most learners, who try and learn words in isolation and while this can work, it is nowhere near as efficient. 

In context means the new word you are trying to learn is surrounded by other words that you do know. Basically the new word makes more sense to you as the rest of the words give it some sort of structure …or context.

Your subconscious is able to link the new word to the ones you already know and anchors its meaning into your network of words. You won’t realise you are doing this, but you will start to see that it is a more efficient way and you will acquire words a lot faster after doing this.

Why Context Is Important?

Words have meaning, but some words have more than one meaning, and context is what allows you to make sense of things. Basically language is not supposed to be used as single words in isolation, they should be used together to create context.

If you are learning new word, you need to see it in context, so you can learn how to use it properly, knowing the meaning alone isn’t enough.

If you look at the English word “cool” it can mean two things … slightly cold, or as sort of acceptance or approval. These are two very different things, and if you where learning English, that would be confusing.

Hearing the word used in context is going to make more sense and help you understand when it means one thing or another.

If I just say “it’s cool” that doesn’t really mean much …until I give it some context …”she asked me if I liked her new car, I told her it’s cool” now from the context we can see the word is being used as a form of approval.

If I then give you the sentence “I thought this pie was supposed to be hot, it feels cool to me” …you would get from this context that the word is referring to temperature.

Context gives the words its true meaning and allows you to see the language in action, which will make a world of difference when it comes to learning new vocabulary; there really is no better way to learn it.

Immersion

Immersion is the best way you are going to come across new vocabulary in context. Everything you watch or read will be full of new words that are surrounded by those that you do know.

You might even be able to roughly work out what the new word means, based on the context around it.

You actually do this in your own language all the time. If you hear a sentence with a word you don’t know, you can usually work out what it means and you can probably remember it a lot easier compared to just being told a random new word and its meaning in isolation.

The best part about immersion is that the new word will probably appear many times which does two things. Firstly exposes you to the word over and over again, which is very helpful for you memory and secondly it allows you to see word in different contexts and situations, which as I discussed is extremely important.

(You can read more about – What Is Learning A Language By Immersion?)

Flash Cards

Flash cards are very useful for learning vocabulary, even if they technically go against what I have just said about words need to be in context.

Flash card apps like Anki are great for repeat exposure, they can really help you remember, but they are not perfect.

The main issue is that most of the cards are just single words, and while this can work it’s not the best method to acquire new words. Personally I have used anki like this; I have used premade decks and learned new words by seeing them on their own. You can learn words this way, but the lack of context will trip you up.

I found this out the hard way when learning French. I learned the French word for “blind” and a few months later I was In France and I was telling my friend how I really linked their blinds, they worked really well with the windows …they looked at me very confused …It turns out I had learned the word for blind …as in a lack of vision, not the thing that blocks light from your window.     

The best way to use flash cards is as a revision tool. Learn the new words through immersion so they are in context and then use Anki to help you remember them and get more exposure to them. Making your own cards like this is more effective than using premade decks and trying to learn new words out of context.

If you use immersion to make new cards, then you can actually take the whole sentence and add it to a card, meaning that when you do see it again, the new word is in context.

It is a little more effort to make your own cards, but it is worth the time.

(You can read more about – Is Anki The Best Flashcard App For Learning A Language?)

Focus On The Most Common Words First

When you are starting out and literally know zero vocabulary, you should start by trying to learn the most common words. 

While I have just said about the importance of learning words in context, this is of course impossible when you know nothing. You are going to have to start by learning a few words on their own and then slowly you will be able to actually learn words in context.

The best way to do this is to basically do what I mentioned above. Get a premade anki deck of the most common words and go through them ….however also immerse at the same time. If you learn the common words for “I, the, and, what” …you can pretty much guarantee that you will hear these in anything you immerse in.

You will of course have no idea what is going when you are immersing, but it’s a start. You will start to hear the words you are learning through anki and they will now be in context.

If you grind out the first 1000 words you will really be able to start to piece things together actually start to learn new words in context from your immersion.

Going from zero is a tough learning curve, but you will get there.

(You can read more about – Should You Learn The Most Common Words Of A Language?)

Take Your Time

Learning vocabulary is a long and slow process.  It takes time and you just have to allow that to happen.

I know you have probably heard that if you learn around 2000 words you should be able to get a good grasp of the language, and while that can be true, you still need to take your time.

Just learn a small number of new words every day and slowly you will get there. It can be too tempting to try and power through and learn 100 words in a day or something crazy. This may be doable for some people, or maybe for all of us for one day, but long term you cannot keep this level up. 

You will get very confused or forget a lot, so it’s not worth it, just take your time and learn a little every day and learn them properly, you will get there in the end.

Learn Vocabulary In Small Chunks

Carrying on from taking your time, you should learn vocabulary in small chunks throughout the day. Take 5-10 new words to learn and spend 5 minutes learning them. This doesn’t take much effort, which is why it can be tempting to tell yourself that you could easily do 100.

However, the secret is to go over these words a few times throughout the day. Initially learn them in the morning, then come back at lunch time and see if you can still remember them, then come back in the evening and see how you do.

Repeating the same small number of words like this is going to be far more powerful for your long term memory than quickly pumping through loads of them. It’s slow, but remember, it’s not a race.

Use The Words You Have Learned

A good way get new words to stick is to try and use them. Basically the more exposure you have to a word, the better you will remember it.

I have touched on this already as flash cards will do this job for you, and so will going back over the same words you have learned that day.

Also making sure you do a lot of immersion will make sure you are exposed to the words too. All these little things add up and hearing a word a few times throughout the day will make it so much stronger in your mind.

However, if you really want to take things to the next level you should try and use the words. I am normally an advocate of focusing on input initially, but once you do start outputting you should really try and use the new words as much as possible.

This is just getting that repeated exposure in a different way and is actually going to focus on your active vocabulary, where as the previous things would strengthen your passive one. 

Don’t Learn Vocabulary In Groups

I think it’s important to also discuss what you should NOT be doing, which is learning words in groups.

This is usually how things are taught and it actually does more harm than good. I can see the logic behind it, you want to sort of group common themes together; however, the problem is that everything gets muddled up far too easily.

If you take “hot and cold” for example, it makes sense that if you learn one of these words, you would want to know the other. The issue is that neither of these words will have any real meaning to you in the new language and they are too “similar” in your brain.

They both relate to temperature, and you can very quickly get them mixed up. I still have this problem with French, chaud/ froid may not look similar, but their meanings are and it does take me a second to try and remember what means what.

This can really happen with anything and the way around it is to not learn words like this together. Spread them out, learn the word for hot today, let that becomes established in your brain and then next week learn cold, simply spacing them out really does make a difference.

It’s Okay If You Forget Words

It’s also important to know that it’s okay if you forget words. You will find that some words stick right away and others you have to look up 100s of times before you can remember them.

It’s frustrating, but it’s normal, just don’t get caught up with it and allow it to annoy you. Just give it time and the difficult words will finally stick.

There is no real reason why this happens. Some words just seem to stick more than others and you just have to accept it. 

(You can read more about – How Does Our Brain Memorise New Vocabulary?)

Conclusion

Hopefully now you have a clearer idea of how to go about learning new vocabulary. It is a simple process, just take your time and learn a little more every day. Try and learn the words in context and get lots of repeated exposure to the same words.

If you can do this consistently every day, then your vocabulary will grow and you will start to really get to grips with thing. Just keep working on it and keep getting exposure to your new language and you will see results. 

(You can read more about – How Do We Acquire More Vocabulary?)