6 Effective Ways to Learn New Words

Learning new words can come in handy at any time. You might be a student, teacher, working professional, housemaker, or any other designation; learning and using new words are always helpful.

Some designations demand hard work to expand your vocabulary. For instance, a teaching job or other jobs in which you have to give presentations or attend meetings with several people will demand an expanded vocabulary.

One of the most difficult challenges is to use these words in speech. Learning can be a troublesome process also, but you do not need to worry about that. Make sure to follow this blog to the end, and you will learn some best tips and tricks to learn new words.

WLR

Many of you might not know about this acronym because it does not exist. It means Write, Look, and Repeat. Here is how this technique can be helpful for you.

Write

It hardly matters how fast you can catch and learn new things, writing these things to learn or remember is still one of the best ways. The same equation applies to learning new words. The more you write them, the more likely you will remember them.

You can also make small changes to this approach to make it less boring. For instance, you can add colored pens, highlighters, sticky notes, etc., to

make learning fun. However, you do not want to invest all of your time and focus on doing these things because you will not have enough energy and time to learn new words.

Look

I am not asking you to keep staring at those words. You can try that too but make sure you remember their meanings while doing it. I am asking you to look at a photo or situation related to that word.

For instance, you learned a new word, inexorable. Now try to relate a picture or scenario with it. You can look at photos like your pet’s wagging tail or doing zoomies, or any event that happen every month or year like an Independence Day parade, etc.

Repeat

Repeat these two processes till you can not recall all words and their meanings in seconds. You can skip the second part because once you understand a word according to the situation, you might not need to look at the pictures again.

Online Tools

Online tools can help you a lot in learning new words. You can use them while playing word games, discussing new words and their meanings with others, and improving your vocabulary. Here is how these tools can help you:

During Word Games

Word games are a fun way to learn new words and expand your vocabulary. These tools allow you to make new words, search unknown words according to specific conditions and games, unscramble letters, etc. You can also allow your opponents to use these tools to end word games more quickly. You can unscramble words on this page at Word-Finder.com.

You can also use these tools to solve daily Wordles or crosswords. New York Times gives you a daily Wordle. You can use these tools to play games like Words With Friends, Scrabble, Boggle, Bananagrams, etc. All games use different dictionaries, so you might need to find a specific tool for each game individually.

During Reading

You can also use online tools or websites like thesaurus or dictionary while reading. There is no point in reading many books and novels if you can not put effort into learning word meanings.

Several websites and apps give you word meanings and synonyms in one place. Some of these will also tell you about the usage of that particular word. You can use these tools whenever you are in a virtual meeting, reading new novels or books, writing official letters, etc.

Say No to Random Words

Almost all people remember words that are relevant to them. Making lists of new random words is not very helpful and usually does not give effective results. You might learn some words momentarily but will find it hard to use them later.

Making lists of words works fine if you try to revise your vocab. I suggest you link the new words with something relevant and meaningful like pictures, phrases, scripts, etc. It will make things easier for you.

You can use these new words in things or hobbies you love. Let’s assume that you love football. You can use the word mesmerizing with players like mesmerizing Messi or mesmerizing goal or footwork. It will help you to understand the meaning and usage of the word for a long time.

You can also apply the same trick by carefully listening to the commentary during the games and writing down the new words along with the sentences. It will also be a good listening exercise. You can also click on this link to do some listening activities to improve your vocabulary.

Use your inner voice

Listening to other people’s voices and advice continuously does not help much in learning. You need to shift your focus to your inner voice if you want to learn and remember some words for a long time.

You can keep listening to new words in audiobooks, lectures, or other sources, but you might need to follow these steps to understand new words and their meanings in a better way.

1) Listen to or read a new word or phrase and close or pause the source you used.

2) Listen to this word inside your head with or without the same expression or tone from your source.

3) Start saying this word aloud inside your head and get used to it in your voice.

4) At the end, you can record it in your voice and listen to the recordings.

All these steps will make it easier to learn and remember new words for a long time. You might wonder why listening to new words in your voice is necessary.

It is not necessary, but sometimes your tutor might have or use a completely different accent or slang you might find harder to catch or remember words in that accent. You can use your tone, slang, accent, situations, etc., for a better understanding and learning.

Use spaced repetition

Repetition can be a game changer if you are trying to learn new words. Several times people repeat a new word or phrase a hundred times in one or two days, which is not very effective. You waste more time, which leaves you with less time to learn new words, and you usually remember these new words for two-three weeks.

You can start repeating these new words five or ten times daily over several days or weeks. It is called spaced repetition. You can try this method daily too. Read and understand a new word and stop thinking about it for an hour. After an hour, recall this word along with its meaning, review and use it in a different sentence. That will be it for a day. Review it after some days, repeat the process, and you will remember it for a long time.

People also use different apps and websites to keep up with this schedule or method. However, you can make index cards or use sticky notes and write words, phrases, or sentences. You can also draw or put a relatable picture, definition, or translation on the other side. You can also count the number of times you learned a specific word. The best method is to color these cards as per the times you used them.

Speak it Into Reality

Recalling the newly learned word or phrase at the exact moment is not an easy task. It does not matter how many times you memorize it, you can still get stuck easily. However, you can stop this from happening by following these steps.

1) You can follow the same recording and listening method with a modification. This time, you can try to use the word in three or four sentences in a paragraph of three to four minutes. Keep speaking and use the word in some sentences.

Try to pick easy topics like your opinions on certain things or actions, describe the world or people around you, your health, etc. After recording your speech, listen to it and notice the words and phrases you used. Try to think about better ways to implement these words and phrases and repeat the process.

Wrapping Up

Learning new words is not difficult but doing so with consistency is. Several people do not pay much attention to improving vocabulary as they pay to learning other topics or books.

You can also take help from your families or friends by telling them to follow the same methods. After that, you all can meet or plan a quick call to use all the words and phrases. You can also pick the winner by selecting the most uncommon or unknown words.