When learning a foreign language, almost every person has a question about how to memorize foreign words quickly. Currently, there are many methods and techniques that will help you expand your foreign vocabulary easily and quickly, without resorting to tedious cramming, which is often not useful.
Method of interaction of sensations
This method is most effective when used in combination with other ways and methods of memorizing words.
Method of interaction of sensations shows how to better memorize foreign words through sensory perception. It is based not on a simple mechanical memorization of a word or phrase, but on their presentation and comparison with any sensations. This approach helps to use learned words more confidently in colloquial speech and not spend too much time simply remembering them. With the mere mention of a person, object, action or phenomenon, the previously used sensory associations will automatically remind the brain of the necessaryword.
An example is the English word cup, translated into Russian as "a cup". When using the method of interaction of sensations, one should not only memorize the pair "word - translation", but also imagine the cup itself, the manipulations that can be performed with it, as well as the sensations that can be associated with it.
The method of interaction of sensations can be combined with mnemonics based on the search for consonances in the native language and the inclusion of sound associations and translation into a common, easy-to-remember phrase. The English word cup is very similar to the Russian "cap". Based on a consonant association and translation, it is easy to compose a phrase like: "Water drips from a tap into a mug: drip-drip-drip." This combination of techniques perfectly shows how to memorize foreign words quickly and efficiently. Mnemonics helps to translate the word into long-term memory, and the method of interaction of sensations fixes it in memory and reminds the brain of it when it needs to be used.
Card and sticker method
Based on repetition of 10-20 words throughout the day. Small rectangles are cut from thick paper or cardboard. On one side words are written in a foreign language, on the other - a Russian translation. Words are viewed at any free moment: at breakfast, lunch or dinner, in transport, at work, etc. You can view both foreign words and their translation in Russian. The main thing - when viewing, try to remember the translation of the word or its original sound andwriting in a foreign language.
Flashcard lessons can be made more effective if carried out in several stages:
- Introduction to new words. Speaking, searching for associations, initial memorization.
- Memorizing new foreign words. Restoring the translation into Russian in memory, constantly shuffling the cards until all the words are learned.
- A stage similar to the previous one, but in reverse order - working with words in Russian.
- Reinforcing learned words. The fastest repetition of words using a stopwatch. The purpose of this stage is to recognize words without translation.
The original version of the card method is the use of stickers. With their help, you can learn the names of surrounding objects and actions that can be performed with them. For example, you can stick the English "door" on the door, and "push" on the side from which the door needs to be pushed, and "pull" on the side where the door is pulled into.
Another option for working with stickers is sticking them in places where the student can most often see them. This could be computer space (including screen), bathroom mirror, kitchen shelves, etc. Any foreign words can be written on stickers. The main condition is that the stickers should often catch the eye.
The use of stickers clearly shows how to memorize the words of a foreign language withusing visual information.
Associations
This is a very fun and easy way to learn, even for toddlers. Methods of lexical or phonetic associations tell how to memorize foreign words using Russian consonant with them. At the same time, a foreign and a Russian word consonant with it must be related in meaning. If such a semantic connection is not clearly visible, it should be invented independently.
For example, the English word palm translated into Russian means "palm" and is consonant with Russian "palm". To memorize the meaning of the word palm with the help of an association, one should think that the leaves of a palm tree look like human palms with spread fingers.
Don't think that there are exceptions for association methods. It is quite easy to pick up similar-sounding words in Russian for one foreign word, while another is completely inconsonant with nothing. However, for any foreign word, you can choose either a consonant variant, or divide it into its component parts and look for a similar phrase in Russian.
Or divide one compound word into two, simple ones already known to the student of the language, and by combining their translations form a single association. For example, the English word butterfly (butterfly) is easily divided into butter (oil) and fly (fly, fly). Thus, the butterfly is easily remembered with the help of associations such as "a fly in butter" or "oil flies".
Association methodsare described in many works of professional linguists and are widely used in the practice of language schools. Some of the most interesting works and effective methods were proposed by Igor Yuryevich Matyugin, the developer of a special technique that develops attention and memory. To make it easier to understand how to memorize foreign words, I. Yu. Matyugin presented the world with a book containing 2500 English words with bright and interesting associations.
Yartsev method
It is best suited for those who perceive information more easily visually. This method will not tell you how to memorize hundreds of foreign words a day, but it will definitely help to significantly expand your vocabulary, fixing it in long-term memory.
The essence of Yartsev's method lies in a certain writing of words. An ordinary notebook sheet is divided into 3 columns. In the first one the word is written, in the second - its translation. The third column is for synonyms and antonyms, as well as examples of phrases and phrases that will contain the word being studied.
A pleasant moment of using this technique is the lack of cramming. The written words should be reread from time to time, thus gradually fixing them in memory. But one reading will not be enough. Words, in addition to lists, should also appear in articles, films, etc. Thus, they must be activated in memory.
Group methods
This technique helps to figure out how to quickly memorize foreign words. Combining them into groups can occur:
- Meaningfully.
- According to grammarfeatured.
In the case of grouping by meaning, words that are synonyms or antonyms are collected together. The purpose of this grouping is to maximize the enrichment of the vocabulary. An example is the following group of words translated into any foreign language:
good, great, great, great, bad, no matter, etc.
There can be a lot of options for grouping words according to grammatical features. When compiling groups, you can rely on words with the same root, on nouns of the same gender, on verbs with a certain ending, etc. Such grouping helps not only to replenish vocabulary, but also to improve understanding of the basic grammar of the language.
Mnemonic associations
Mnemonics is a creative approach to the question of how to memorize foreign words and bring them into long-term memory. According to this method, for each foreign word it is necessary to come up with a consonant Russian that will be associated with the foreign original. Then the sound association and translation are combined into a phrase or story that needs to be remembered. The repetition algorithm looks like this:
- Foreign word.
- Consonant association in Russian.
- Phrase or story.
- Translation.
As part of the methodology, the algorithm for each word is spoken 4 times a day for two days. The result is an exception from the algorithm of the stages "association" and "history, phrase" and the displacement of the pair "foreignword - translation" into the part of the brain responsible for long-term memory.
Initially, the story gets into it, the translation is delayed in fast memory by only 30 minutes. In the future, at one glance at the word, a sound association will pop up in memory, a phrase will be remembered with it, and then a translation is extracted from the phrase. The algorithm will also work in the opposite direction: the translation helps the brain to remember the phrase, and a sound analogy is extracted from it or the story, which reminds of the original foreign word. Thus, the technique of mnemonic associations shows how to effectively memorize foreign words, leaving them in memory for a long time.
An example is the English word puddle, which means "puddle" in Russian. The sound association for him will be the Russian "fell", and as a phrase it will do: "Nikita fell into a puddle many times." The word repetition algorithm will look like this:
- Puddle (original foreign word).
- Falling (sound association).
- Nikita fell into a puddle many times (a phrase or story containing a consonant association and translation).
- Puddle (translation).
Using the method of mnemonic associations, in order to easily memorize foreign words, it is not necessary to invent consonances and examples of phrases on your own. Currently, there are a large number of information resources that offer ready-made algorithms for memorizing foreign words and phrases.
Intervalrepetitions
The spaced repetition method also suggests learning foreign words using flashcards. Its main difference from the card method is the suggestion of how to memorize foreign words. The spaced repetition method assumes that the words on the cards will be viewed and pronounced at certain intervals. Thanks to this repetition algorithm, the studied foreign words will be fixed in the long-term memory of the brain. But without the lack of repetition, the brain will "delete" unnecessary (in its opinion) information.
The spaced repetition method is not always useful or appropriate. For example, when learning frequently used words (days of the week, frequent actions, etc.) that are constantly heard and used regularly in speech, the repetition of words will become a natural process - they will often occur in conversations, when reading and watching videos.
Listening
This method will be ideal for those who like to listen to music or any information. It is based on listening to foreign words that must be pronounced correctly, as well as their repetition. Both special educational audio recordings and various videos with a detailed analysis of words, phrases and sentences can serve as materials.
Reading
When deciding how to memorize foreign words, books, articles and other printed materials in the target language can be of great help. The study of words while reading texts in a foreign language is appropriate when the person studying the language knowsalready about 2-3 thousand words. It is with the presence of such a vocabulary that the understanding of simple texts comes.
The best way to memorize through reading is to write out unknown words from texts. In this case, you do not need to write out all the incomprehensible phrases in a row. Attention should be paid only to those without which it is impossible to understand the general meaning of the sentences. Surely they will come in handy in the further use of a foreign language. Such memorization will be much more efficient, since new information is "extracted" from the context, forming more vivid and pronounced associations in memory.
The number of written words should also be limited. To replenish vocabulary without stopping reading, it is enough to write out just a few of them from one read page.
If you wish, you can do without writing out, as the vocabulary is replenished even in the process of continuous reading. But memorizing words and fixing them in long-term memory in this case is much slower.
Watch video
Learning new words from videos also requires the learner to have certain knowledge of the language. Otherwise, it will be quite difficult to understand which foreign word, still unknown to the student, was uttered. Watching a video in a foreign language allows you to achieve two results at once: expand your vocabulary and improve your listening comprehension skills.
The easiest approach in this technique is to watch the video without the distraction of writing out the unknownwords. But the most positive result will be achieved only if, while watching, you stop the film, take notes and analyze new words and phrases for the language learner.
