On Learning - 2007-03-07 06:38:30 On LearningOne thing that I first want to point out is that the most effective way of learning new vocabulary is not from a list at all, but from putting yourself in real life situations where the word comes into context and has a distinct situational meaning to you. This will allow it to stick in your mind and also provide examples of its usage so that you know how to string it into a sentence.ButHowever, we are not all lucky enough to be surrounded by such a real life environment and also this system takes a considerable amount of time. Most language students are required to learn large lists of vocab, especially for tests. Subsequently, a different method must be applied (though ideally in parallel to the above).Most effective way?So based on the fact that a list must be learned, we then come to the question, what is the most effective way. First look at the goal. How will this list need to reproduced from memory. If the answer is sequentially in order, then go away and read the list 100 times. Usually though, we will need to be able to translate the word in one or both directions on the fly. To achieve this, we will need to create hooks in our mind that bind the two (or 3 in case of Kanji and pronunciation) words together. This can be done by simple looking at them continuously, but normally the greatest problem to overcome is knowing what needs to be learned and concentrating on the the ones that we are least comfortable. To efficiently manage our time, we should target learning specifically to what we need to learn. |
