Learning a language by learning vocabulary in context

August 14th, 2010 by admin

To learn a language, it’s important to expand your vocabulary continuously. To learn vocabulary, it’s critical to learn the vocabulary in context. The techniques of learning by heart, where you spend long hours learning endless lists of new words, are not effective at all and you lose a lot of time without necessarily getting a good return.

You’ve probably already paid the cost of these methods in classical language courses at school or university, and you’ve probably noticed that you always end up forgetting all new words learned in a few weeks. You sometimes shackled hundreds of words just to pass an exam. 

The most effective way to learn vocabulary is to take it directly in its context: in books, websites, films, radio, etc. When you learn a new word in context, you already have an example of a practical use of this word. And you might get it out even in an unconscious manner in a discussion because you already know the different uses of the word. Generally, when they can release a new word in a conversation without too much thought, we’re not going to forget. 

Now consider an example of learning from books.  Suppose you read a book in English and you encounter a new word, you should note this in a special notebook or in your flashcard. Now, copy the whole sentence by hand-writing. The act of writing this sentence will help you memorize the word even more. It is much more efficient than typing on the computer or simply emphasizing the book without taking notes. 

Then use a dictionary, which gives examples of sentences for each word. In the absence of examples, launch Google and search for the word, you will have hundreds of examples of usage contexts. 

You now have at your disposal: the meaning of the word, the context in which you found, and several examples. This is the best way to take note of a new word, and is much more effective than simply copying the definition of the word or its translation into your native language.  

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