How to learn English vocabulary
2023-12-05 20 min
Description & Show Notes
In this episode, we talk about:
· Quizlet app vs. physical vocabulary notebooks
· False fluency
· Interval learning
· Recall vs repetition
· Use your senses
· Vary your learning environment
· ‘Sticky Vocabulary’
· Be selective
· Play taboo
· Be CURIOUS
Christmas Special Episode coming on December 18th
Christmas Special Episode coming on December 18th
Transcript
(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, we are the 3 English Experts.
I'm Rebecca.
I'm Dave.
I'm Birgit.
And welcome to this episode.
3 English Experts is your English podcast to
help you speak better English and create a
positive and happy mindset for your English learning
journey.
So hi and welcome to the next episode.
In the last episode, we talked about how
to find the time to learn.
And today we'd like to move on to
actual learning, maybe learning vocabulary.
And of course, how tricks and tips, how
we advise our students, how they can fit
that into their day and how they can
do that, maybe what tools they can use
as well.
And of course, some of the more psychological
points that I'm sure Rebecca would also like
to introduce to us today.
She's got plans to give us.
So I'll start off if I can this
week with it being the app thing, the
app man, if you'd like to call it
that way.
I can highly recommend Quizlet as a cool
way to learn vocabulary and also to gamify
the whole thing.
So it's a little bit more fun.
And the positive thing about Quizlet in particular
is you can use it both on your
computer and also as an app on your
mobile phone, which is maybe what a lot
of people would want to use, especially if
they're on the go during the day or
in a queue somewhere.
Because in the last episode, as we said,
we talked about how to learn, find the
time.
And so this is an ideal thing to
use when you've got the time just to
go onto the app and then start playing
with it and learning with it, et cetera,
et cetera.
So what do I suggest to my students?
Pretty much from this 15 minutes that you
have maybe every day, 15 minutes, you choose
some words that you would like to learn
in that particular day, whatever is in your
list, maybe 10 to 20, whatever the number
suits you or however much practice you want
to have.
And then once you have your list of
vocabulary within the app system, then you go
throughout the day, sporadically through maybe at lunchtime
or maybe in the afternoon when you've got
a short break or maybe when you're stuck
in the traffic or maybe when you're on
the commute home from work.
These are all times that I think you
can train a little bit to learn the
same vocabulary.
And then the next day, of course, you
can try the next set of vocabulary.
So within a week, you could theoretically learn
up to 50 or 100 items of vocabulary,
phrases, whatever it might be.
So I think that's also something that doesn't
necessarily take much time.
And I think the most important thing is
it's free.
So it's totally free for students to use
Quizlet and I highly recommend that to my
students.
In future episodes, I'm sure I can explain
a lot more about how to put the
vocabulary into it, little tricks and tips on
how to do that.
But maybe you can ask your trainer also
just to tell you a little bit about
Quizlet or help you to start off with
Quizlet if you wanted to as well.
So I thought I'd now hand over to
Birgit.
Maybe Birgit's got some other ideas on how
she then helps her students with the vocabulary
thing.
Yes.
Thank you, Dave.
A very good input.
And I believe it's a combination is always
very good to make it interesting and to
stay open for new opportunities, for new devices.
Maybe you want to try out one of
these apps if you haven't.
And yes, open your senses toward learning.
So whenever you read something, you hear something,
you might ask yourself during the day, so
what does that word mean in English?
And I recommend my students to keep a
notebook.
I mean, what I do in my trainings
is I make the extra effort and write
down new words and send them out after
our lessons.
So everybody has the individual words.
And that's very useful and valuable, I believe,
to remember and to repeat what have we
spoken about.
Maybe an image comes up what the context
was, but it's still a good learning process
to repeat.
I've only discovered myself learning Dutch that I
really needed repetition.
Sometimes it's not enough just to hear a
word once.
I do recommend the old-fashioned notebook because
I like it to have separate files and
then you can take them out again and
you exactly know, okay, that was the time
when I was learning English or Dutch and
your brain usually remembers.
Keep it by the side.
And also another information for learners might be
useful to really recognize there are so many
words in the English language.
I think it's twice as many as in
German to accept.
You can't know them all.
There's always another way of expressing yourself.
So look out for words, look out for
options, allow your brain to stay open, not
to say, okay, I don't know that one
word so I can't say what I want
to say.
Allow for this fluency and openness to find
a different way of expressing yourself.
And the last point I want to mention,
small steps are good.
Small steps are progress.
So a lot of many small steps make
up a lot of progress.
So don't expect too much from you.
Say, okay, after a week, so I haven't
learned a hundred new words.
I'm not making any progress.
That might not be true.
Next time you listen to a radio station
and you find it much easier to follow
and then you realize, okay, that's because I've
exposed my brain more to English.
Yes.
So it's about repeating, but I believe there's
a term false fluency.
Rebecca has mentioned before, and I would like
to pass over to her and listen what
she's got to say.
Sure.
There is this phrase false fluency.
And basically it means your brain gets bored,
basically quite easily.
And so if you learn the same words
every day, say you've got to learn 20
words for a test next week, and you
learn those words every single day, basically after
a couple of days, your brain gets bored
and your brain goes, oh, I know this.
I know this.
And it just stops trying to learn them.
It doesn't try very hard to learn them.
It assumes that I just know these words
already.
This is where interval learning comes in.
You've probably heard of this.
It's very common in language learning.
Don't learn the same thing every day.
So like Dave said, on the next day,
learn a different list of words.
Interleaving.
So like one day, learn your words.
And on the next day, maybe just listen
to a podcast or watch a video and
then learn the words two days later.
So there is this theory that when your
brain has to try a bit harder to
remember something, when it finally does remember, it
makes that pathway, that sort of memory pathway
in your brain much stronger.
It's really neuroscience.
It's not just mumbo jumbo.
It really is true.
So it's actually you have to kind of
let yourself forget a little bit, not completely
forget a little bit.
And then when you do remember it, your
brain tries a bit harder and it actually
sticks a bit better.
The other thing is this recall and repeat.
So what's the difference between recalling something and
repeating something?
Repeating is just you read a word, you
repeat it, listen, repeat, listen, repeat.
Whereas recall is like you have to actively
remember something.
And I read somewhere that it says you
should spend one third of your time reading
something and then two thirds of your time
trying to recall it from memory if you're
trying to memorize something.
So there were experiments, they gave people like
a poem to read and said, right, you've
got 10 minutes to memorize this poem.
And the people who read it for like
three minutes and then spent the other nine
to whatever, nine minutes trying to recall it
rather than just reading it and reading it
and reading it, as in they turned it
over and they had to recall it, actually
had a much better result in the end.
Does that make sense?
Yeah, definitely.
So it's not just repeating.
And this is this active vocabulary.
Like when you're using Quizlet, if you've got
the English and the German, start with the
German and force yourself to remember the English
word.
Don't have the English word.
Don't make it easy for your brain.
Try and make it a bit more difficult.
Can I really recall this English word rather
than just repeat, if that kind of makes
sense?
Yeah, it does.
And if I could just say that when
you mentioned in Quizlet again, and you will
be in the show notes as well, this
idea of actually spelling.
So this is a way that you can
put it into spelling mode when you want
to learn words, and the Quizlet will actually
speak out the word, pronounce the word in
English with a German translation and you have
to write in.
So to come back to the census perspective,
what are you doing?
You're listening to the word, you're reading the
German translation, and then you have to write
the in English.
So I think that's also a very cool
system to practice the vocab, especially as if
you've already, as Rebecca said, you've already tried
to learn the words in Quizlet.
Let's say you're trying to learn the words.
This is more like a kind of recalling
and sort of testing yourself.
So this would be the next stage that
you could do within Quizlet.
So I think that ties in very well
with what Rebecca says to how to recall
the things afterwards.
Yes.
And I believe that learning in different places
can also help in unusual places.
So just an example, I was riding in
the car and I asked my son of
the new keeper of football club.
I hadn't heard the name.
So he told me obviously.
And when I got home 10 minutes later,
I had already forgotten.
So that was interesting for me to see.
So I had to ask again.
And that's in a short time memory, exactly.
But it's not enough sometimes to hear only
once.
It's Jonas Omlin for Mönchengladbach.
But I never forget the name because then
I looked it up and I promised myself
I'd never forget that.
And I will never forget the situation.
I will never forget the face of my
son when I asked him the second time
he was like Omlin.
So he was sort of.
And I've done that with learners also.
One didn't have the time to be in
the office, so we had a phone call
while he was driving in the car.
So that's a different learning experience.
And it's still an exercise for the brain
to ask for vocabulary recall.
I think that's a good situation.
Although when I have clients who want to
do their lesson while they're driving the car,
it freaks me out.
I'm like, oh, are you watching the road?
I've had a couple of people doing that.
It really freaks me out.
I just don't know if it's safe.
But in theory, you're right.
I think the different environments is absolutely true.
And, you know, when things happen, when your
brain remembers something, often it does remember where
you were when you heard that or when
you first saw that.
And I always like with the song, like
with the song as well, exactly.
I wouldn't suggest I wouldn't do that with
a very learner from the beginning, so you
couldn't spring out a sentence.
But with a learner who's capable of learning,
that would be OK for me to have
a conversation in the car.
Yeah.
So I guess a Zoom calls out to
the question then.
No, not yet.
Not yet.
Who knows?
Well, I also wanted to say that what
I say to people is you have to
make vocabulary sticky.
I would say sticky.
And it means like we have this easels
broker in German.
Mnemonic is such a boring word.
I hate that word.
Not donkey's bridge.
But you have to make a word sticky
so that it's and there's this theory that
is the weirder the connection, the more likely
you are to remember it.
So I had a client of the day
we were talking about the word bench and
obviously in German bank, you know, and I
was going, it's not a bank, it's a
bench.
You sit on the bench like in football.
You know, he's on the bench.
And she said, I don't know why, but
I've got a vision of Judi Dench now.
I said to her, you will never forget
that now.
You'll have this vision of Judi Dench sitting
on a bench.
And that's how to make things sticky.
These visual cues or these links.
And that is really how, you know, in
Japanese, the word for cold is Samui.
Right.
And I always think, Samui sounds a bit
like Samoa, like the really hot country.
And so for some reason, I remember that
it's like the opposite and that's my brain
connection.
And it's a bit weird, but that's how
you create these hooks, these like ways to
remember things.
Also, maybe pictures as well.
If you can picture things in your mind,
visuals.
Yeah, absolutely.
And it sounds like it takes a long
time, but it doesn't really.
Your brain is quite smart.
The other thing I want to say is
learn relevant words.
Our brain has an amazing spam filter.
If we have so much information going in
all the time and the brain has this
brilliant spam filter of anything that's not relevant
or really important, that could have been why
you didn't remember the keeper's name, Birgit from
München-Bergabach.
Maybe you weren't that interested.
It's like, I don't care.
I don't care who's the near keeper.
Wow.
Yeah.
It's called in one ear out of the
other, guys.
In one ear out of the other.
But Rebecca, that's exactly what I tell people.
If there's loads of material you can get
on the internet for free.
If you look up like vocabulary for arguing
and things, don't learn them all.
Only highlight those you find interesting because you
can't.
You just can't learn, I don't know, millions
of words.
I mean, I come across new words.
It's boring.
Yeah.
It gets boring.
I remember again, going back to my Japanese
course, and we had this awful book, Japanisch
im Zauberschritt, which was terrible.
It was so dry.
It was awful.
So I was learning Japanese and German, which
was even more complicated.
And I remember we did this chapter and
we were still beginners, real beginners.
And we had to do a role play.
You are at a train station in Tokyo.
You have left your knitted jumper with the
picture of a horse on it, with the
picture of a horse on it, on the
train.
As you do.
Call the lost and found.
And the lost and found had this really
weird name.
It was this really complicated Japanese office or
something.
And I was like, why am I learning
how to describe a jumper with a horse
on it?
When am I going to be wearing...
In Japanese.
In Japanese.
When am I going to be wearing a
picture?
And when am I going to need to
know the name of this little office?
I mean, who knows, maybe.
But it was just immediately, my brain kind
of switched off.
I was just like, I don't want to
learn this.
I don't want to learn my third cousin
on my mother's side.
I don't have any.
What's the name for Zauberschritt actually in English?
Good question.
It's like quick pace, is it?
Is it like Zauberschritt is when you're walking
quickly, right?
Nobody said that in German actually.
But Zausen isn't Zausen something else?
What does Zausen mean?
Zause is a party.
Right, exactly.
I thought it was something to do with
drinking.
Zause, like Zause schritt, drunken steps.
Not to mistake with Brause.
Yes.
So as I said, learn vocabulary that is
relevant to you, to your job, to your
life.
Don't spend hours.
And this is the problem when you learn
other people's lists.
I mean, on Quizlet, you can upload lists
from other people, which can be useful, but
sometimes they're just not relevant.
They're just not relevant to what you need.
And then it gets boring and it gets
too much.
And so I think choosing relevant words.
In Japanese, I learned how to say another
white wine, please, because that's my vocabulary.
That's what I need to know.
Two more hours of karaoke, please.
That's what I need to know.
That's also a very good idea.
If you've got a list, I mean, I
often give my students the list from the
sessions and then every month we do sort
of like a game of taboo.
And if the student is really enthusiastic student,
I ask them to make up their own
list for the month, maybe the top 20
words or phrases that they think are the
most useful for them.
And then we have a game of taboo.
I mean, not in the normal sense of
taboo.
They just have to try to explain the
word, to describe the word or phrase.
And then I have to say, OK, you
mean that word or phrase and vice versa.
Then they will try to describe or I
describe a word and they have to guess
the word I mean.
So I think that's also a great way
of repeating.
They maybe don't get the whole vocab.
It's recall again.
It's recalling.
It's a recall.
They have to recall, not repeat.
They have to think of what that word
is.
And my other advice is always when I
like playing taboo as well with my students.
And I think it's this workaround.
There will always be times when you can't
find the right word, even in your own
language.
And you have this block and it's everyone's
fear.
They go, what if I forget the words?
What if I'm in a presentation, I forget
the words and I go, that's when you
have to find a workaround.
You've got to find a way of talking
around the words or using a different word
or a similar description.
And that's so taboo, like describing a situation
or describing what is really helpful because there
will be situations where you need to do
that.
Well, it's like I always say, it's like
a muscle.
They're building a muscle.
Yeah.
Training how to, the word is paraphrase.
So you use a different word or different
words to explain the word that you're looking
for.
We call it in English to paraphrase.
So yeah, paraphrasing, it's a great way to
great method to do that.
It's a great skill generally.
I play it in taboo.
Definitely.
Yeah, definitely.
And the brain needs exercise, doesn't it?
I mean, that's what I say.
We can compare that to sport, to action
activities.
Everybody, everything needs training and that's the brain,
the muscle.
Yes.
Yeah, super.
And my other last point, my psychology point,
curiosity.
I think my clients who I know are
curious, who look at words and find words
and go, Oh, what does that mean?
And they have questions for me.
I always say, bring a question.
And the people who bring questions, in my
experience, are the people who learn quicker because
they're the curious ones.
They look and they're aware of words around
them.
They see a word and go, I'm not
quite sure how to use that.
And they bring it to class.
And then we talk about it.
Curiosity from a psychology point of view is
one of the top characteristics in language learners
and successful language learners.
We're curious people.
We want to know what does that mean
and why is it that word and not
this word?
And how is that similar to my own
language?
Maybe there's a connection between the German or
the Spanish and the, you know what I
mean?
So curiosity is a great characteristic.
So try to be curious.
You can't spoon feed people with vocabulary.
They have to take it.
Yeah, they have to have an interest.
Yeah, that's a very good point.
Yes.
And that's also, I believe, one task of
the trainer to sort of arouse this curiosity
or to make it interesting and to tell
people, OK, it's worth looking out, it's worth
asking to find answers and to get progress
on the other side.
Yes.
Yeah, absolutely.
So what are we going to talk about
in our next episode then?
Well, perhaps we should go back to my
awful Japanese book and learning irrelevant information.
Perhaps we should give some tips on where
to find good material, because good material is
so important.
The right books, the right podcasts, the right
videos.
So, Dave, what do you think?
Do you have some tips for our listeners?
Do you think next week about content?
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
YouTube is absolutely full with content you can
use.
I'm sure I can come up with some
ideas from there or maybe even audible to
listen to books or something like that.
So I'm sure I'll find something.
Perfect.
All right.
See you next week, guys.
Take it easy.
See you next time.
Bye bye.
Bye bye.
Thank you so much for pressing play today.
If you have any comments, questions or perhaps
suggestions for future episodes, feel free to contact
us at our website 3englishexperts.com.
Have a great day and see you next
time.