Many people have difficulties in learning new words. Remembering them presents a bigger challenge. Vocabulary is practically useless unless the words learnt can be recalled and used. Here are some suggestions for learning new words and retaining them. These suggestions work for any language.

The ability to organize and recall language is one of the main components of language learning skills. In order to process language, one should first be able to provide a label, function, association, similarity, difference and multiple meaning for vocabulary words. This is the theory. Now how does it relate to practice?

Research has proved repeatedly that

You’re more likely to remember something you’ve worked out for yourself.

You can use four basic techniques to increase your vocabulary retention.

Technique 1 – Discover significance

When you come across a new word or phrase, you could imagine it as a challenge, a mystery waiting to be solved. So before running to the dictionary to check the meaning in your mother tongue

• Try to discover its meaning from the context – e.g. Overhead Projector. The words Over and Head suggest something to you. If you discover the meaning of the verb to project, you can work out the meaning of the whole term.
• Try to deduce its meaning from the structure of the word - it may contain familiar elements – e.g. Take the word transnationali. If you find out the meaning of the parts national and trans, they could give you some idea what the word could mean.
• Check to find the etymology of the word – knowing how the word came into usage can be very helpful for remembering it

A word of warning here – as soon as you have a theory as to what that word might mean, check from the dictionary or a teacher to make sure you get the right meaning. Phrasal verbs in English are very treacherous and could lead you off into a totally wrong track, so always check them.

Technique 2 - Make associations. Relate new information to material already learned

When you come across a new word while reading, listening or work activities don’t rush straight for the dictionary. If you look up a word from the dictionary and even understand it correctly the information goes to the short-term memory area in your brain. This area is what the name says, short term. If you try to recall that word after a few days, there is a high probability that you cannot remember it. The aim is to connect this new word or phrase to your long-term memory. This is best achieved through tiny hooks called associations. There is no limit to what kind of memory associations the human mind could make.

If you have problems remembering the word “lieutenant”, split it up into three parts lie-u-tenant and visualize a picture. Many people have problems remembering the difference between “borrow” and “lend”. Make a simple association – if you lend money to someone, it is the “end” of your money, as you’ll never see it again. If you have created a strong and unique association special for you, there is a very good chance that you will never forget this new word or phrase.

Technique 3 – Make word lists

Millions of people have used this technique successfully to increase vocabulary retention and learn new words and phrases. Compile lists of new words as follows:

1. Divide a page into two columns and write the foreign language on one side with a corresponding word in your mother tongue on the other column.
2. Start a new sheet for each topic area e.g. One sheet for vocabulary related to sports, another for economy etc.
3. Use color (highlight pens): e.g. All verbs in red, nouns in blue, adjectives in green etc., so that when you think of the word later you will remember its colour and this will help you use it correctly.

Don’t write down every new word you come across. Do you really need to know that particular word, or only to understand it at this moment? Limit yourself to 10 new words per text, which you can then list with a view to learning. This way they will be really useful for you.

Technique 4 –Word list activity

Take the list you made earlier, cover up one column and work your way down testing yourself, first from the foreign language to the definition or the equivalent in your mother tongue and then reverse the process. You can have fun by working with a friend to test each other.

Take words from your list and write 3 different sentences in the target language using each word to illustrate its meaning. Make them humorous or even outright silly if possible. Then read them aloud.

You’ll remember words better when you’ve used them in context

Remember, this is a very important rule. If you have a memory association for that particular word, the better are your chances for remembering it through that memory.

As you start using any one of the techniques described above, you will start noticing improvement in your vocabulary retention in a matter of weeks. I learnt a very challenging language (Finnish) and a very delightful language (Italian) in a few months using the above methods. Good Luck!

Rana Sinha was born in India, studied and lived in many places and travelled in 80 countries, acquiring cross-cultural knowledge and building an extensive network of professionals. He has spent many years developing and delivering Cross-cultural Training, Professional Communications skills, Personal Development and Management solutions to all types of organizations and businesses. He now lives in Helsinki, Finland and runs http://www.dot-connect.com, which specializes in human resource development, presentation and negotiation skills coaching, training for relocating and doing business with India as well as communication and management skills and training with cross-cultural emphasis.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rana_Sinha

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Introduction

You want to expand your world, immerse yourself in a foreign culture, get new friends and broaden your experience? Congratulations! You are in for a thrilling ride. Nothing compares to the feeling you’ll get when you develop your language skills from “I have no clue what they are talking about” to “Yes, I’m a native English speaker, but I speak French too!”.

In this article, we’ll help you develop an effective strategy to learn French as quickly and efficiently as possible. We’ll reveal to you what you will experience, the books you can’t do without, the challenges you will face, and much more.

Your Strategy

How The Pros Do It: What Drives People?

Imagine the following… You’ve set yourself up to achieve a goal, perform a task, or … Learn French. You start ambitiously, but after a few days you see that you haven’t achieved your goal at all. Stuff got in the way, there were other more important things to do, you felt you needed some rest after a hard day’s work, etc…

You’ve fallen victim to the silent killer: procrastination. And there’s nothing you can do about it, you simply can’t make all things happen. You have to live with it. Better luck next time …

WRONG. You can defeat this silent killer. The only thing you need, is to realize why you procrastinate. It’s not because you don’t want to achieve your goal; it’s because there’s something else that gets your attention first. Something that gives you more pleasure than sitting down and taking out your French text books (”I’d really like to see that next LOST episode now!”), or something that causes less pain than looking up those foreign words (”Did I hear the doorbell? I have to answer the phone!”).

In a nutshell: people tend to move away from pain rather than move towards pleasure. Why do people don’t quit smoking? Because the pain of stopping (”it will hurt now”) is stronger than the benefit of a better physical condition (”I’m in fairly good shape already”).

So what do the Pros do? One of their approaches: they realize that they only procrastinate to avoid pain. So they act immediately. They do something, regardless how small, that brings them closer to that goal. Instead of closing their text books, they start doing at least one exercise, get “connected” and get one step closer to their goal.

The cost of procrastination:

• Unachieved goals
• Feelings of failure
• Frustration

The benefits of acting now:

• You’ll achieve your goals
• You will be successful
• You’ll impress other people

The quick way to start becoming a Pro:

1. Decide what you want to achieve (this sets your goal)
2. Ask yourself why you want to achieve it (this motivates you)
3. Do the first (small or big) step right away (this will get you going)

So, in our case: what do you want to achieve? Obviously, you want to learn to speak the French language. But before you go on, spend a few moments thinking about the answers that really motivate you: why do you want to learn French? What benefits will you get from it? How successful will you be once you are able to speak French?.

Take a pen and write those answers down. Stick them somewhere where you will regularly see them (your bathroom mirror, your alarm clock, any spot that you will often look at).

Now, it’s time to Take Action. Take the first step. Do it NOW! No excuses!

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Do you want to learn more about this? Anthony Robbins has written some great stuff about this. I thoroughly recommend one of the following products:

  

And, if you really want to take a step to improve your life, and if you are willing to invest 30 days (one or two hours per day) to make it happen:

What Are Your Goals?

Before starting to learn French, make sure to set your goals. Having clearly defined goals help you decide if you are “on track” and if you are ready for the next step. Do you want to speak French fluently? Do you want to specialize in a specific jargon (business, finance, etc.)? Or do you simply want to color up your vacation with some local French culture?

Remember to check your achievements often, for instance by using the milestones that we’ll discuss next. Are you still on track? If so, great! If not: not to worry. Simply make the right adjustments that get you back on track.

Milestones

Level 1

During this level, you’ll get at least a sense of what people around you are talking about. When walking around town, some of the words will start to mean something to you. When truly immersed in a language (that is, you are actually living in France, Canada or any other part of the world where the people speak French), you’ll spend about one week on this level. You’ll be amazed about the number of words and small expressions that you will learn!

Level 2

In this level, you’ll spend about two weeks to make small, two-word or three-word sentences without the need for a dictionary. You’ll use greeting and basic courtesy expressions. You’ll spot the first similarities between words and families of words. In most languages (particularly in French, but lesser so in languages such as Chinese, Finnish and Hungarian) you will also start to notice English words that are adopted by the foreign language - or is it the other way around?

From time to time, you’ll also get an overwhelming feeling of despair: “I will never learn French, it’s too difficult”. This is perfectly natural and it will happen more frequently at higher levels. It is very easy to forget everything you have already learned and focus on the things you don’t know yet. As soon as you get this “I will never learn” feeling, focus on your successes: all those French words that you have already mastered! You have already surpassed more than 95% of the English speaking population who never get to speak a foreign language - be proud of yourself!

Level 3

A strange thing happens while you are in level 3 (when immersed, you’ll reach this level typically after three weeks or so). Having more and more words at your disposal, you will start to become frustrated since you aren’t able to express yourself with those words. This is the signal that it is time to focus on the grammar of your new language: the way sentences are composed. You’ll start to learn the sentence structure, the order of words, the present and past tense.

Again, don’t let yourself be put off by the feelings of frustration you will get. You are actually achieving a lot. Start talking to people. Explain to them that you are learning French, even if they will notice that anyway: simply use any opportunity to say something, even if it is something your conversational partner might already know.

This is the time to use your grammar book(s). Try and find a coach: someone who is not only a native speaker (when you are immersed, most people will be), but who has a more than superficial knowledge of his/her own language. To find someone who qualifies as a language coach, ask them a question like “Why do you say … instead of …”? Real coaches will give you an explanation that makes sense. Avoid asking people questions who answer you like this (most of them will!): “I don’t know - it’s just the way we are used to”.

Level 3 is where you will learn most. When immersed, be prepared to spend one month here.

Level 4

This is where the fun begins. In level 4, you’ll start to become comfortable talking to people in your community. They know you are learning, so you won’t mind making a few (or many!) mistakes now and then.

Talk to them as often as you can. This is the time to buy some easy magazines (don’t ask for advice, simple go and find some magazines yourself, preferably magazines about a topic you are interested in). Also, go into a bookstore and buy one or more children’s books. Read them thoroughly and actively: mark down sentences that you don’t understand and look them up. If possible, ask a native speaker to help you.

On TV, start watching commercials. You’ll learn a lot from those. Start using the slogans and ask people what they mean. You’ll pick up more and more expressions: try to see if you can find out where they are coming from. You will be amazed to see the similarities between expressions in English and French! Surprise your friends by creating expressions yourself (simply translate an English expression into French). More often than not (I find that this applies to almost every language that I have learned), you’ll be right on target!

By know, you should be pretty comfortable in French. Spend a month at this level and leave it at that. Your mind will continue to study by itself (that’s right: even if you don’t do anything, your mind will still continue! It will bring you from “consciously competent” to “unconsciously competent” without you having to spend any attention to it).
Most people will stop here. But if you are an achiever and if you really want to master French: up to level 5!

Level 5

Time to go to school.

Yes. As soon as you reached this level, you’ll need two things: more practice and some professional guidance. You already know a lot, but a professional language teacher can help you put the icing on the cake, so to speak. Take a few lessons (again, preferably while you are immersed).

Then, keep in touch. Visit web sites, e-mail or chat with your new friends, etc. And don’t forget to update your resume if you have one. Thorough knowledge of a foreign language makes you a popular candidate when applying for some of the nicer jobs!

Your Tools

Books

So what books do you need? Two types, actually. Dictionaries and a good grammar book.

Dictionaries

You will need a good good pocket dictionary to get you out of situations where you get stuck and really need that one word. Focus on ‘pocket’ here, you’ll have this one with you all day. Make sure it is bi-directional: French into English and English into French. The one we recommend is the Langenscheidt French Pocket Dictionary.

Additionally, you will do yourself a huge favor with a comprehensive reference dictionary, which you will be using when you take time to study. Again: bi-directional. An excellent dictionary (one of the best, actually) is the Larousse Advanced Dictionary.

A Grammar Book

You can’t do without a good grammar book. Words are one thing, but it all will start to make sense once you understand the structure of the language: the grammatical rules. The one grammar book that we recommend is Schaum’s Outline of French Grammar.

For your reference, here are the books again. Clicking on either one to get more information, reader’s reviews, etc.

      

Audio courses

Got some money to spare? And do you really, we mean really want to boost your results? In that case, invest in an audio course. There are many packages available, but the one we can recommend is Pimsleur French I, II, III (Comprehensive), with an Audiofy USB Reader (Audiofy Digital Audiobook Chips). You don’t need an iPod or a CD player to use this, thanks to the Audiofy player (which you actually get for free). The 90 lessons (over 45 hours of material!) are very well structured: the Pimsleur language teaching techniques will guarantee results!

(From the Amazon review:)
“Maximize your savings by purchasing the Audiofy Audiobook Reader, Pimsleur Comprehensive French I, II and III together! Everything you need for language lessons on the go… The Audiofy Audiobook USB Reader is compact and lightweight, includes support for USB 2.0 interface. Fully backwards compatible with USB 1.1. No batteries or external power needed. Completely plug-and-play and hot swappable. Pimsleur has been a recognized name in language training for decades, and updated Audiofy Audiobook editions of the flagship Pimsleur Comprehensive series have shrunk the traditional binder of a dozen cassettes or CDs into a tiny memory card - yielding an affordable, durable, more portable product. Each Audiofy Audiobook, hardly larger than a stamp, holds an unabridged course with 15 hours or more of digital audio, and saves the last listening position automatically (unlike CDs). This bundle of Comprehensive French I, II and III offers 90 half-hour lessons on three Audiofy Audiobooks, designed to help adult learners reach a “high intermediate” level of spoken proficiency on the ACTFL scale, emphasizing native-like pronunciation. Lessons progress from vocabulary for travel and interaction with native speakers, to conversational skills for discussion of social and professional topics. While Pimsleur courses focus on speaking rather than reading or writing, small booklets of optional reading material offer practice recognizing and pronouncing common words.”

Tricks From The Pros

Do you want to learn as effectively as possible? Here are the tricks that will bring you closer to your goal. You’ll also learn how to avoid the blockers: actions that will limit you rather than help you.

DO’s

• DO immerse yourself in the language. By studying the language in its country, you will learn it at least TEN TIMES as quickly! People who spend two months in a foreign country to study a language, will speak it better than people who study it at home for four or more years. It’s that simple.
• DO take good books with you. You’ll need two dictionaries and at least one grammar book.
• DO carry a notepad and pen with you at all times. Write down every word and/or sentence that you want to understand.
• DO ask people for help. Most of them will be happy to assist you.
• DO speak the language as often as possible, even while you are at a beginner’s level.
• DO avoid to speak or read English. Every minute that you spend using your new language brings you one step closer to your goal.

DON’Ts

• DON’T speak or read English if you are immersed You’re there to learn a foreign language. At higher levels, try to get foreign-language explanations of new words, as opposed to the meaning in English.
• DON’T be ashamed when you make mistakes. People will laugh, but they don’t laugh at you. Ask them what is humorous about what you just said. Write it down: when you have mastered the language, you will have a laugh yourself!
• DON’T get discouraged if you get the “I will never learn this” feeling. You WILL learn the language. The feeling of frustration is part of the process and actually indicates that you are learning.
• DON’T take no for an answer when you have a question. If the person whom you’re with doesn’t know the answer, find someone else who knows.
• DON’T forget to take part in the culture of the country you are immersing yourself in. Visit clubs, events, shops, exhibition: any place where you get a chance to talk, or listen to, your new language.

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