hi I'm kasha welcome to Oxford online
English I can't remember English
vocabulary how do I learn new words I
learned lots of new words in the English
but I can't use them I want to have a
bigger vocabulary in English in this
lesson you can see how to learn remember
and use new vocabulary in English you
can see the common mistakes which many
English learners make when learning
vocabulary and you'll see several simple
practical ideas that you can use to
build your English vocabulary and
remember what you learn let's start with
a general point that's very important
here are some things we often hear from
English learners I couldn't read it
there are too many new words and I
didn't have time to look them all up in
the dictionary I wrote down all of these
new words and try to learn them but I
can't remember any of them now sound
familiar
here's a fact about your brain your
brain is very good at throwing away
things it doesn't need vocabulary
learning starts when you choose which
words and phrases to learn or not to
learn this is where many English
learners go wrong by making one of these
mistakes trying to learn too many words
trying to learn words you don't need
trying to learn big lists of words
trying to learn words you don't know how
to use to avoid these mistakes you need
to choose the vocabulary you study
carefully most importantly if you want
to remember new words and new English
vocabulary you need to learn things
which are useful and meaningful to you
if you read a text and you try to look
up every word you don't know of course
you'll forget most of them most of the
words you look up probably won't be
useful to you and so your brain won't
hold on to them if you write down a list
of 100 new words and try to learn them
the words won't mean much to you they're
just a list on a piece of paper totally
abstract and also boring our brains
don't like boring boring gets forgotten
best so what's the solution only learn a
word or phrase if it's really useful or
meaningful to you in some way for
example your teacher keeps using a word
that you don't know you hear it several
times but you can't work out what it
means then you hear other people use the
same word
you're curious what is this word you
keep hearing you're reading a really
interesting article you don't know every
word but you can understand the general
ideas in one paragraph there's a word
which you don't know and which makes it
difficult for you to understand the idea
of the paragraph you think the paragraph
is important to the article and you're
interested to know what it means you're
on holiday in a country where English is
widely spoken there's one kind of food
you really want to order but you don't
know the word in English these are
situations where a new word will have
meaning to you if you look upwards in
situations like these you're more likely
to remember them firstly you'll remember
them because these are words you need to
use secondly you'll remember them
because these are all situations which
involve your feelings in some way in the
first example you're curious about
something in the second you're
interested in the article you're reading
in the third you're hopefully having fun
on holiday so this is the first and most
important point learn words and phrases
which are useful and meaningful for you
this gives you the best chance to
remember and use what you learned now
another important point when you say I
learned a new word you could mean one of
two things you could mean that you learn
to understand a new word or you could
mean that you learn to use a new word
those two things are different let's
talk about that
you might have heard of the terms
passive vocabulary and active vocabulary
your passive vocabulary means words you
can understand but you don't use your
active vocabulary means words you can
use in your speech or writing it's
normal that your passive vocabulary is
larger than your active vocabulary in
any language including your native
language many English learners say I can
understand words but I can't use them to
some extent this is normal however what
can you do if you want to develop your
active vocabulary in English there are
two important points here first you need
to use different techniques to build
passive or active vocabulary many
English learners have problems building
their active vocabulary because the
techniques they use to learn vocabulary
only increase their passive vocabulary
secondly building active vocabulary
takes a lot more time and work if you
want to build your active vocabulary you
need to spend a lot more time studying
and practicing each word or phrase you
want to learn let's look at the first
point here are some good techniques for
building passive vocabulary looking up a
translation of a word in your language
guessing the meaning of a word from the
context looking up a definition of a
word in a monolingual dictionary finding
example sentences reading and listening
so if your vocabulary learning consists
of translating everything into your
language don't be surprised if you can't
use what you learn this is an OK
technique for building your passive
vocabulary but it won't help you to use
the words and phrases you study what
about building active vocabulary here
are some good techniques for building
your active
Lari writing stories or other things
which are personal to you using a new
word several times in several different
conversations making example sentences
which are personal to you you can see
that these things are not necessarily
complicated but they do require more
effort it's much harder to write an
example sentence which is personal to
you than it is to read someone else's
example sentence it's much harder to
write a story which means something to
you
then is to read something which someone
else wrote but if you want to build your
active vocabulary this is how most
English learners are more interested in
developing their active vocabulary so in
the rest of this lesson we'll focus on
specific techniques you can use to build
your active vocabulary in English let's
start with a very important and powerful
idea
here's a question what is vocabulary did
you say words many people think that
vocabulary equals words of course words
are part of vocabulary but they're only
a part vocabulary also includes
collocations phrases and even full
sentences even when you're learning
words you rarely need single words when
you're speaking you need to combine the
words into phrases and sentences if you
want to use them so it makes sense to
learn vocabulary in the same way learn
phrases combinations and sentences
because this is what you need when
you're speaking and writing let's do an
example imagine that you see the word
challenge and you want to know what it
means so you look it up and find the
meaning next your goal is to write five
sentences using the word challenge each
sentence should be different and each
sentence should mean something to you
try to write things which relate to your
life your feelings and your thoughts you
can and should also try to use different
forms of the work like the adjective
challenging you should also research
other examples before you write yours
look for common collocations word
combinations with the word you want to
learn for example what adjectives are
commonly used with the word challenge
think about it
what phrases or sentences could you
write with this word we'll give you an
example but remember that you should
make your own examples because they
should be personal to you here are five
possible sentences I'm bored at work I
need a new challenge teaching teenagers
is fun but it can be very challenging
running a full marathon was one of the
biggest challenges I've ever faced I set
myself a challenge last year to learn
German to a native equivalent level my
sister
is a really determined person she's not
someone who'll run away from a challenge
we'll say it again because it's the most
important point here whatever you write
should be personal to you don't write a
sentence about your sister if you don't
have a sister don't say something about
your sister which isn't true make it
true and make it personal if it's
personal to you you'll remember it if it
isn't you'll forget it it's simple right
at this point there's one more important
thing you should do ask a teacher a
native speaker or a friend who's very
good at English to check your sentences
you want to make sure you're learning
your new vocabulary correctly and you
need feedback to do that you can also
see that writing sentences like this
lets you learn several useful phrases at
one time for example here you have the
collocation x' a new challenge to face a
challenge a big challenge to set
yourself a challenge and run away from a
challenge so if you follow this strategy
you won't just learn one word like
challenge you'll learn several words and
phrases together in a natural way
remember that this strategy is personal
on both sides you're starting with words
that are meaningful to you personally
and then you're learning these words by
writing examples which are also
meaningful to you personally yes this
needs work and it might be very
different from what you do now however
if you want an effective way to learn
and remember vocabulary this is it if
you do things this way nothing is
abstract and nothing is boring your
brain will remember what you learn
because it's relevant to you your life
and your feelings however if you're
trying to learn a lot of vocabulary it's
also important to review what you've
learned regularly regular review helps
you keep vocabulary for
in your mind which will help you
remember the words and phrases you need
when you're speaking or writing in
English let's look at the most effective
ways to review your vocabulary
if you have a lot of English vocabulary
to review and remember it's a big
complex job but we have good news
there are several free tools and apps
which can make this easy you need a
digital flashcard app these apps are
designed to help you memorize and review
large amounts of information two of the
most popular or and key & Quizlet you
can find links below the video
we aren't recommending any particular
product or company but many students
have used both of these with good
results we hear that Quizlet is a little
easier to use while Anki is more
powerful and has more options but is
also more complex try both or find
another program and see what works for
you all of these programs work in the
same way they allow you to set questions
for yourself you can create a card with
a question and an answer you can write
whatever you want for the question and
the answer after you see a question and
the answer you decide if the question
was easy or difficult for you if the
question is easy the app will ask you
again
after a longer period if the question is
difficult the app will ask you the same
question again after a shorter period
maybe even the same day this is very
effective because it allows you to focus
more on the things you don't know and it
doesn't waste your time reviewing things
you already know well you can often
download packs of questions that other
people with me but you should make your
own questions using your own
personalized example sentences let's see
how look at the five sentences we wrote
before to learn the word challenge
let's make five questions from these
five sentences question I'm bored at
work I need answer I'm bored at work I
need a new challenge question
teaching teenagers is fun but answer
teaching teenagers is fun but it can be
very challenging question I'm last year
to learn German to a native equivalent
level answer I set myself a challenge
last year to learn German to a native
equivalent level question running a full
marathon was answer running a full
marathon was one of the biggest
challenges I've ever faced question my
sister is a really determined person mmm
my sister is a really determined person
she's not someone who'll run away from a
challenge can you see what's going on
here the questions are getting
progressively more difficult for the
first question you only have to remember
three words a new challenge for the
fifth question you need to remember a
whole clause after you've made your
questions what next review your
vocabulary cards or questions every day
we recommend you install Anki Quizlet or
whatever you use on your phone this way
you can review vocabulary when you have
nothing else to do for example on the
subway or during your lunch break try to
use your app and review vocabulary every
day but don't overload yourself limit
the number of new questions or cards you
see each day five new questions per day
is a good target again this takes quite
a lot of work you might think do I
really have to do all this just to
remember one word let me ask you some
questions in return do you want to
really build your English vocabulary do
you want to remember new English words
that you study do you want to learn to
use new english vocabulary if you
answered yes yes and
yes then this is how it takes time and
effort but it also works let's review
the steps you need to take 1 choose
words which are useful and meaningful to
you personally
don't learn big lists of words and don't
learn words which you won't use to
decide if you want to just understand a
word or if you want to use it use
different vocabulary learning techniques
depending on what you want 3 if you want
to add words to your active vocabulary
then write 3 to 5 example sentences
using the new work the sentences should
be relevant to you your life your
thoughts and your feelings for get
feedback on your example sentences from
a teacher or friend to make sure you're
using your new vocabulary correctly 5
add your example sentences to a digital
flashcard app like Quizlet McConkey make
questions of different difficulty so
that some questions are easier and some
are harder 6 use your digital flash card
app daily or as often as you can follow
these steps and your English vocabulary
will increase you'll remember new words
in English and you'll be able to use the
new English words you learn want to see
more free lessons like this check out
our website oxfordonlineenglish.com
thanks for watching see you next time