How easily and effectively memorize foreign words

They say that languages children are better than adults. Hundreds of educational resources promise that will help you learn just as easy: in a natural way, with a minimum of conscious effort. It is tempting. But the truth is it is necessary to learn as much as children do?

Adults should not be underestimated. To fully master the language (though without specific vocabulary), a child needs about six years. But a mature man, able to use both resources subconscious and conscious approach to learning, can reach the advanced level in just one year.

Perhaps it sounds safely. But I'm living proof, because in varying degrees - from intermediate to advanced level - mastered 11 languages. Most of them I've learned as an adult.

The secret of my success - combined child and adult approach to the study of languages. We can take the best from each of them, adhering to the following principles.

1. Selection

When dealing with new vocabulary it is important to understand how to select the most interesting and useful for your words. In every language, hundreds of thousands of words, and the vast majority of them are not useful at the start. The ability to filter the noise of language - one of the most underrated skills of an experienced student.

Topics in most textbooks range from shopping and travel by plane to the zoo, and people are reluctant to teach these words, convince myself that it's necessary. With the same success it is possible to read the entire paper, when you need to know only the sports news.

Do not make this mistake. Learn the most useful words in the language and move on in accordance with their needs and interests.

Usually the most used 3000 words make up 90% of the daily vocabulary of the language used by the media.

Of course, the carrier knows thousands of words related to a large number of topics. But most of the people acquire vocabulary in the process of communication. As a child, they only care about the interesting and necessary for everyday communication the word. The rest of the lexicon comes with age, when changing depth and specific interests.

Focus on really useful words. They form the basis for what I call the basic vocabulary. This includes vocabulary related to everyday life, such as "go" verbs, "walk", "sleep", "want" and the nouns "name", "house", "car", "city", "hand", " bed".

When you master the 3000 most used words, with the others have more complicated. At this stage of language learning speed may drop. It seems as if progress slows down, and it is unclear why.

The reason is this. The larger your vocabulary, the more difficult to find new useful words, not to mention their memorization. At this stage it is important to focus on the themes of personal life, work and their own interests. This lexicon is a personal vocabulary.

Biologists, for example, is to learn words like "gene", "cell", "synapse", "skeleton", and a history buff - "war", "Monarchy", "Company", "trade".

Interest - an important ally in the fight against forgetfulness. If you focus on the important words for you, increase your chances to remember learned a long time. This is a logical, coherent and inclusive approach to expanding vocabulary.

2. Search associations

Selection of useful words - the key to successful learning. But if you remember these words out of context, then it will be difficult to put them together to actively use the language. Form the context help Association.

Search association - a process in which new information is associated with pre-existing knowledge.

One piece of information can have thousands of associations with memories, emotions, experiences and individual facts. This process naturally occurs in the brain, but we can take it under conscious control.

To do this, go back to the above said: "gene", "cell", "synapse", "skeleton"... If we remember them individually, you will soon forget everything. But if you learn these words in the context of a sentence, it will be much easier to put them together in his mind. Think about it for 10 seconds and try to link these four words.

You can get something similar to: "The genes influence the development of so many different elements, such as the skeleton, brain synapses and even individual cells." All four words are now united by a common context - like pieces in a puzzle.

Come to this exercise progressively. First, try to combine groups of words, which combines a certain topic such as physics or politics. Then try to build a more complex associations between unrelated words. With practice, you will have obtained all the better.

3. Reiteration

More than a hundred years ago, the German physicist Ebbinghaus came to the conclusion that we forget certain information on the scheme, which he called "forgetting curve». We remember all that has recently learned. But the same information from the memory disappears in a matter of days.

Ebbinghaus discovered the mechanism to combat this phenomenon.

If new information repeated at precise intervals, forget it will be increasingly difficult. After a few spaced repetition is entrenched in long-term memory, and is likely to remain in the mind forever.

You need to regularly repeat the old information, working in parallel with the new.

4. record

The ancient Romans used to say: "Words fly away, the written remains." That is, to remember the information you need to fix it in a constant format. When you learn new words, write them down or typed on the keyboard to save and return to them later.

Faced with a useful new word or phrase in conversation, watching a movie or reading a book, enter them into the smartphone or laptop. Thus, you can repeat recorded at every opportunity.

5. application

Use the learned in meaningful conversations. This is the essence of the last of the basic methods of effective learning words.

Researchers from the University of Montreal, Victor Boucher (Victor Boucher) and Alexis Lafleur (Alexis Lafleur) foundHonor Whiteman.Repeating words aloud to another person increases memory recall. That use words in conversation efficient in terms of memorizing than to say them out loud to yourself.

In other words, the more you communicate with other people, the better your linguistic memory and the faster growing level of proficiency. Therefore, always use the learned material in real conversations. This method repeatedly improve your skills and provide experience in the use of new and long-memorized words.

Suppose you read an article on the topic you are interested. You can choose from her unfamiliar words and apply them later in a brief conversation with a language partner. It may be noted and learn key words and then summarize them with the help of the article content. You see how well you learn the material after the conversation.