Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[meirain01]

I am from east Asia.In my country,people are crazy in learning english,especially in the campus.English is a very important method of
communication.So I am eager to learning it well becase I want to know
the culture in different places.For me reciting vocabularies is difficult.
Often I often forget what I recited yesterday even just a few minutes
ago. Could you give me some advice?I can't admit that I have no good
memery.I am a person who usually forgets something.Many times I can't remember where I part my bike in my campus or where I place my key .

[enigma]

Hi

An effective method to enhance one's vocabulary is to learn a little at a time. Better known as mastery learning, a language learner selects a few new words that he has just learnt (within a context), perhaps 5 key words at one time, and goes over these words and their meaning until he/she is familiar with them and can remember them without any difficulty. Until he is able to do this, the language learner is not encouraged to learn a new set of words.
It is important that one understands what he learns because if he merely memorizes something without fully understanding how it works, he will not be able to apply what he has learnt.
Perhaps it will help if you go through the words you have chosen to learn twice or three times a day; spend only five minutes during one session.

You can say, learning this way is like taking medication that is prescribed twice or three times a day.

Hope I have been of help. Happy learning!!

Cherio
_________________
Carpe diem~

Life is an educational journey....

[Mirea]

I'm reading a lot of books in English, mainly novels, and I think it's a great way to better memorize the vocab. When I don't understand the meaning of a word, I check it up in the dictionary and by reading it a second and a third time it gets memorized more and more.
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"Who only speaks one language doesn't know his own" Goethe

[stream]

More over, it's hard to remember a naked word, taken from its context.
Some recomend to memorise the whole texts.
In any case you should "work" with the word somehow, not just to
repeat: a dog is "sobaka" day by day.
You can also invent some associations for new words.

Mechanical method is the simplest but not effective.

[enigma]

I fully agree that learning something by rote is mechanical and it can be exasperating when the need calls for application. I believe that this affects more non-native speakers of English. The English language can be complicating, hence it is difficult to learn 'a naked word', as Stream puts it. The meaning of a word may differ, depending on its context. I think that leisure reading is a good way to widen one's vocabulary, because learning English through reading something we enjoy will definitely be more effective than learning by rote. Once the learner is able to deduce the meaning of a word through its respective context (he can always double-check using a dictionary), he can reinforce what he has just learnt by working on the word (word class, sentence structure etc).
Like Mathematics, English works the same way- PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT!!!
Happy learning!
_________________
Carpe diem~

Life is an educational journey....

[fceblog]