Learning-to-Learn: Vocabulary Mapping
By Karenne Sylvester
This article first appeared on Kalinago English (http://how2learnenglish.blogspot.com/)
How do you keep note of the new words you learn in your lessons, that you come across in newspapers and magazines, that you learn on this blog?
Are you making lists, doing this?
You are not alone.
So was my student, Gerhard. The truth is that I see many, many students who write out lists and lists and lists of vocabulary.
Some of them do it in little notebooks, some make flashcards and some people write these out on A4 sheets which they store in a file.
This is not a wrong thing to do.
These are, in fact, great things to do – if you follow up on them.
I guess the question is, do you go back and review your new words and how often do you do this?
Once a week? More? Less?
Regularly reviewing new vocabulary is the most important thing you can do to learn new words. Remember that your brain has a lot to do, there is a lot of other stuff going on in your life, right?
So, if the brain thinks a word isn’t important because you didn’t go back to it and say “hello again,” it trashes the new vocabulary and doesn’t store it in the long-term memory.
You know what I’m talking about.
On the other hand some people do go back to their word-lists and they still don’t remember the words when they have to use them. This is very frustrating.
Quite often lists just don’t help because they don’t connect with anything else, they are just random words on a piece of paper with some translations next to them.
Your brain needs bridges. See more on this subject here.
Also, not everyone learns by making lists! As I mentioned in one of my earlier entries, different people learn in different ways.
Cosmic Fairy (the teacher with the ‘magic tricks’) has a couple of effective strategies for you to think about.
People who are visual learners will very much benefit from her advice.
Here’s what some of my students are doing:
Volker creates a mind map with the new words he learns and he connects them to phrases he would like to say.
He thinks about the context they will be used in and adds more words. He doesn’t translate.
Mirko doesn’t like his handwriting so he makes his word-maps using powerpoint.
If you have the time and tools, this is a really great option.
Nowadays, even Gerhard has a new trick!
Every morning he goes on to flickr and picks a picture that matches one of the new words he wants to learn.
They don’t have to be a literal representation – sometimes they are simply a bridge which will help him remember a particular word.
He then stores each new word on to his computer and using the preview option, matches the words to the pictures and regularly reviews his new lexis.
Can you guess what word this picture makes a bridge to in Gerhard’s mind?
Have a look at his list above if you can’t guess immediately.
Still not sure? ‘Hover’ your mouse over the picture, the answer’s there!
What do you do to learn new words?
Do you have another suggestion?
Don’t hesitate to let us know what it is by clicking on the comments. If you’d like to ask a question, go ahead!
My blogging colleague, Nik Peachey, has also written a lot about tools that can help you learn vocabulary. One of his posts is about a very interesting mind-mapping software, you can read that posting here.
Descriptions of more software tools which do this here.
For more useful tips, tricks and learning strategies from the Cosmic Fairy, here.
Best,
Karenne
Karenne Sylvester is a certified TESOL trainer, working as a freelancer in Stuttgart, Germany and she specialize in teaching adult learners in the financial/ banking, energy, engineering and IT sectors.
She has lived and worked all over the world: from the Caribbean to the US, UK, Australia, Hong Kong and Ecuador.
She is the sole proprietor and webmaster of Kalinago English and author of SimplyConversationsTM, a pedagogically sound speaking skills system, designed to activate language learners’ fluency.
**Reprinted with kind permission, Karenne Sylvester of Kalinago English (http://kalinago.blogspot.com/).
*** ELTWeekly would like to thank Karenne Sylvester for contributing this article.
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