Tips and Tricks on How to Effectively Memorize English Words!
Improving your vocabulary is essential to improving your English.
There are a small number of English words that you learn naturally, but in general, your vocabulary will not increase unless you make a conscious effort to remember them.
However, memorizing English vocabulary is a difficult task.
Therefore, in this article, we will introduce some tips and tricks on how to memorize English vocabulary efficiently.
If you know effective methods and tips, you will get different results even if you spend the same amount of time, so please read to the end.
Table of Contents
Patterns of how to memorize English words that lead you to fail
First, we will show you some of the most common ways to remember English vocabulary that are prone to failure.
The following methods are unplanned, inefficient, and unscientific and are not recommended.
- Trying to memorize a large number of English words at once
- Trying to memorize in one study
- Do not review
- Memorizing only the Japanese meanings
- Trying to memorize words you don’t know in the dark
It would be great if it were easy to memorize English words by the above methods, but in reality, I must say that it is difficult. Many people can relate to this from their past learning experiences.
It is important to learn English vocabulary and increase your vocabulary in a systematic, efficient, and scientifically proven good way.
Set your goal at 2,000 words at the start
If you are wondering, “How many English words do I need to memorize?” Let’s set your goal at 2,000 words that are commonly evident in English conversation.
Linguistics has shown that these 2,000 words cover 90% of English conversations, and will improve your practical English skills more than just memorizing English words in the dark.\
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The most important thing is the “turnover rate” of learning over and over again
The human brain is not only incapable of remembering a large number of things at once but also forgets even a single word very quickly.
This has been proven scientifically, and it can be clearly seen in the “Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve,” a graph that shows the “human forgetting mechanism”.
Please see below for an easy-to-understand version of this graph.
It clearly shows that if you do not review (repeat learning) regularly, it will not stick in your brain and you will not be able to remember it.
As long as you study repeatedly, it will stabilize in your brain
As mentioned above, the mechanism of the brain is that “if you don’t review, what you have learned will not stick and you will forget it,” but on the other hand, it means that “as long as you review several times, you can make it stick in your brain”.
In other words, what you should be most conscious of when you want to memorize English vocabulary is the “frequency of review”.
Increase the frequency rather than seeking perfection
No matter how hard you try, you cannot memorize all the English words you want to learn in one study.
Instead of trying to memorize them perfectly in one session, increase the “frequency of trying to memorize”.
“Quantity (frequency) is more important than quality” to promote memory.
Try to shorten the time spent on each word and increase the learning turnover rate.
Detailed learning methods to Memorize English Words
I mentioned earlier that “quantity (frequency) is more important than quality,” but this does not mean that bad “quality” is good.
If it is just memorization, bad “quality” is fine, but in the case of English vocabulary, “quality” is also important because you need to acquire the vocabulary so that you can actually use it.
Note that the aforementioned “quantity (frequency) is more important than quality” means “do not be overly concerned with quality in order to memorize the vocabulary in one go, but rather do it a number of times in order to make it stick in your brain”.
From here, we will introduce detailed learning methods that increase the turnover rate while also focusing on quality.
The study methods introduced so far are only for reference, so there is no problem in finding a method that suits you.
The most important thing is to repeat the lesson over and over again without trying to memorize it all at once. As the number of repetitions increases, the degree of retention in the brain will increase.
Things to be aware of to increase efficiency
We have already mentioned that the key to improving vocabulary is to increase the turnover rate and “the number of times you try to remember”. It is also helpful to prompt your memory by creating “a better situation for memorizing”.
It is recommended that you keep the following two points in mind when learning. It is recommended that you keep the following two points in mind when learning, as they will make it easier for you to get the best results.
- Timing of the work (time of day)
- Use images (pictures)
Work on learning at a time of day when it is easier to remember
Even if you are engaged in the same study, you can learn more effectively if you understand that there are times of the day when you are more productive and times of the day when your memory is more likely to be retained.
When memorizing English vocabulary, it is especially recommended to be aware of the following times and timing.
The golden hour of 3 hours after waking up
The three hours after waking up is said to be the golden hour when the brain is most active.
This is because memories and information are organized in the brain during sleep, and this creates space in the brain for new memories and information to be input.
Simply getting up a little earlier each morning and making time to memorize English vocabulary can lead to higher results.
Time just before bedtime
We mentioned earlier that the brain organizes memories and information during sleep, and it is said that working on learning just before this is also highly effective.
Therefore, it is also recommended to work on learning at the time just before going to bed.
Fresh memories and information are organized in the brain while you sleep, making it easier for them to take root and increasing learning efficiency.
If you make use of both this study just before bedtime and the golden hour after waking up mentioned earlier, you can expect a synergistic effect, so if you want to improve your vocabulary, it is a good idea to make it a routine.
Use Power Naps
Power naps are “naps” taken for about 15 to 30 minutes between 12:00 and 15:00 in the afternoon.
Research has shown that taking short, conscious naps during this time improves cognitive performance and alertness.
World-class companies such as Google and Apple, as well as Microsoft and NIKE, have set up napping areas in their offices and are practicing this power nap to increase productivity.
Although it is often difficult to concentrate on learning because of sleepiness after lunch, it is a good idea to proactively use power naps to improve learning outcomes.
Use images to help you remember hard-to-remember English words
The second recommended method for creating a “situation in which it is easy to remember” is to use images.
Some English words that are unfamiliar to you may be difficult to remember.
In such cases, you can use Google’s image search function to visually grasp the image of the English word.
For example, if the noun “certificate” is a word that you know the meaning of but you have trouble linking the word to its meaning in your mind, it may be helpful to link see an image to link these together.
By looking at this image, you can imagine that “certificate” means “a paper certificate or authorization,” and it will be easier to remember.
Although it is only an image, it is surprisingly useful when you encounter English words that are difficult to remember, so it is worth a try.
An efficient way to memorize English words is all about turnover rate!
In this article, we introduced tips and tricks on how to memorize English words efficiently.
Memorizing English vocabulary requires very diligent study, but if you work on it efficiently, you will get different results even if you spend the same amount of time.
if you found this artcile fun, read our other blog post here: Best English Study Apps Review: App list : 英語学習アプリレビュー：アプリ一覧
