谭蓉：How To Remember New Words

（湖北省恩施州巴东光明中学   谭蓉   444300）

     What do you do if you are in a foreign country and you want to order a drink in a Coffee House or you need to buy some cookies or potatoes? You will probably reach for your smartphone or your dictionary and look for a translation of the words you need. You probably won't reach for your grammar book!

     Grammar is important, I'm not saying it isn't, but if you don't have the correct vocabulary you can't say anything! No amount of grammar is going to help you get a coffee if you don't know the word for ‘coffee’ in the local language. So, how can you remember words? There are thousands of words, right? ‘It's impossible!’ I hear you shout! Well, here are a few ideas to help you remember all the new words you meet. Try them out and see which ones work for you.

    1. Word families – why learn one new word when you can easily learn six?

    Word families are words which are related. Take the word ‘happy’ for example. If this is a new word to you, you look it up in your dictionary. But don't stop there. Ask yourself some questions:

·         ‘What kind of word is it?’ – adjective.

·         ‘What is the opposite?’ – unhappy.

·         ‘What about the adverb?’ – happily. - (Note the change in spelling ‘y’ to ‘i’).

·         ‘And is there an opposite adverb?’ – Yes! – unhappily.

·         ‘Is there a noun from this word?’ – Yes!! – happiness.

·         ‘Can we say ‘unhappiness’ – Yes!

·         ‘Is there a verb?’ – no! But we can say ‘to be happy’.

So from one new word, you suddenly have six!! And they are all in the same family so you are more likely to remember them. You just need to do a little bit of work with the new word that you meet. And by doing that work you have a greater chance of remembering those words – your brain has ‘played’ with the words and so will remember them better.

    2. Mind maps

    Learning in topic areas is another good way to remember new words. I'm sure your teacher has told you this. Great! But now that you have written down all the words related to ‘The Emotions’ how will you remember them? Making a list with a translation is one way, but it's not very effective. Your brain does not work in lists. It works in patterns.

Collect together at least 4 different coloured pens. Take a big sheet of paper and write ‘Emotions’ in the middle. Put a circle or a pretty cloud shape around the words. Take another colour and draw a line from the cloud and write from that line any adjectives you know that related to ‘‘Emotions’, e.g. ‘happy’, ‘sad’,‘scared’, ‘excited’.Now draw more linesconnected to the word ‘happy’. What words do you know (or can you find) that associated with ‘happy’? I can think of ‘fulfilled’, ‘contented’, ‘glad’, ‘optimistic’, ‘pleased’.Here is mine after I added some more:

You can decide how you want to arrange the words on the paper. Maybe you do only adjectives; or perhaps verb and noun collocations; phrasal verbs… you can choose.

    3.  Learn phrases, not words

    What does it mean to know a word? To be able to translate it into your language? To know the plural? To know the irregular forms of verbs?

To know a word means all of these things, but also much more! One of my students was recently telling me about his day. He had been at work and was very busy. He was trying to tell me what he had done; he knew the words ‘meeting’ and ‘workshop’ but he didn't know that you hold a meeting(if you are in charge) or that you give a workshop (again, if you are in charge of it). So he couldn't tell me about his day very clearly.

When you meet a new word, you need to use a good dictionary to find out how to actually use the word in the correct context. Ask yourself some more questions:

·         ‘What verb/noun goes with (collocates with) this word. Is there more than one?’

·         ‘What is the grammar after this word?’ E.g. If it is a verb do you put –ing or the infinitive after it? Do you need a noun after or noun phrase? Can you put a clause after it?

Let's look at ‘recommend’.

·         I recommend you do...

·         I recommend that you do...

·         I recommend doing…

But NOT

·         I recommend you to do.

·         I recommend you should do.

This is possibly the most important tip you should remember because if you can't use the words properly, there is no point in learning them in the first place!

So, let's sum up.There are many ways you can help yourself learn new words. It is not enough to just translate the words and make a nice long list in your notebook or in a file on your computer. You need to do some work with the words; your brain needs to play with them and you need to do this again and again.

But it doesn't need to be boring. Notice that I used the word play. Use your imagination to make up fun activities. Use colours and big pieces of paper. Get out your scissors and glue and be a child again!