Strategies for learning vocabulary

• Put the words and their definitions on individual cards. Include a sample sentence that illustrates how the word may be used in context.
• Say the words aloud or write them over and over again as you study. Vary the order when you write them.
• Compose sentences with the words you are studying. Try different contexts, and check with your teacher.
• Tape record the words and their definitions, if you prefer to learn through the ear. Listen to the tape as many times as you need to achieve 100% retention on a self-test.
• Highlight words that cause you the most trouble so that you can give them extra attention.
• Put words that start with the same letter or sound together. For instance who, what, where, etc.
• Associate words with the physical world. A word is more easily learned if it can be associated with color, size, feel, or other physical characteristic. For instance names of vegetables and fruits you can associate some with being red, round, long or green.
• Associate words with their functions. For instance words for furniture, you can group them according to which are used for sitting , which for lying, etc.
• Use natural word associations, such as opposites. For instance cold and hot, brother and sister.
• Organize words by grammatical class. Nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc.
• Associate words with pictures
• Associate words in English with words in Spanish.
• Guess the meaning of words from context.

Taken from: Rubin & Thompson (1994). How to be a more successful language learner. Boston: Heinle & Heinle.