First, more vocabulary learning strategies should be introduced to learners and strategy training is essential for learning. In addition, choosing their own learning strategies according to their characteristics such as proficiency and learning style may be beneficial for learners.
Additionally, learners and teachers should be mindful of the quality or depth of the learned vocabulary for the sake of achieving basic success in EFL learning, and also should reach a general consensus on the learning goal during designing the course or curriculum.
Memorizing a bunch of words at a short time seems to be quite difficult; so putting the words where to be seen as often as possible such as on a wall, in a notebook to carry around, on computer desktop, etc. should be frequently done in order to get in more review and memorize them more easily. Reading engaging stories helps language learners begin to build emotional and sensory contexts around new vocabulary instead of just studying isolated
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words by rote; and then fosters more new vocabulary to be memorized quicker and deeper owing to be linked to characters, places and relationships, just like real life.
One tip for learning vocabulary is to study it in context. Learners need to communicate with phrases and sentences, not individual words. Language students, especially independent learners, will often learn new words through flicking vocabulary flashcards or flashcard apps which are a great tool, but not enough on their own. It is more important for a student to know how to apply those words in different contexts, not just learn hundreds of individually-new vocabulary items. Focus on favorite topics and materials, avoid rote memory, non-contextual vocabulary lists, and flashcards with only single words and learn with complete sentences. For an unknown word, learners should look at its place in the sentence, the words that typically appear around, patterns and context clues to try and deduce meaning. Learning phrases instead of just words is the better approach for learning vocabulary because of being easy to create a picture in minds about the happening. The more vivid image helps students have the better learning. The brain love context; hence, learners can learn the correct word order faster from the beginning and subconsciously learn grammar. A notebook of phrases is a good choice for students to write down phrases to learn and review them from time to time.
Building context deduction skills constitutes an invaluable asset for a language learner. Once learned the word, try and use it in a few sentences or stories, which are built up of phrases and therefore have all the advantages said to provide a much richer context; because many things are going on in the story. Stories can prompt the brain to learn in a more subconscious, natural and deeper way, and make it easier to write and speak the target language.
According to Flora Petersen – the Communications Manager of Babbel.com (where you can learn a host of languages online with 17 million users), for vocabulary learning, one single method or a dully isolating way of study does not work well; because indeed, there are as many ways as there are personalities in this world. Therefore, the new language needs to be embedded into learners‘ life and into their daily routine, not the other way around and varies with the situations in which learners find themselves. For various situations, learners should set up appropriate methods to review newly-acquired vocabulary, write the words, listen to them, spell them, sing them, be creative and play with them. Learners are strongly needed to be aware of themselves and their goals, and not limit their studying to preconceived notions or set situations given.
Especially, for a visual learner, reading and writing are great ways to improve vocabulary. In terms of reading, picking up a bilingual book seems to be the fastest way to learn because of the fact that with unknown words, learners can simply look at the translation
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on the facing page. On the other hand, writing greatly forces them to use the dictionary and look up words they are likely to need again. It is an effective way to write a note to a friend, or recount a story. An ultralingua dictionary on mobile devices is also a good choice for enhancing vocabulary learning.
Also, a favorite method is known as language exchange, for instance, getting together for coffee once a week, for an hour or so, with someone who wants to learn in learners‘ language, and has learners‘ target language (half the time in learners‘ language and half the time in the target language). Learners, during exchange times, are forced to dig deep in their own memory for words already known, at the same time, realize words never encountered; so they intend to check with their partner directly, with the bonus exercise of trying to explain the missing concept in the target language, or look it up in a dictionary (if neither knows), and keep talking to their partner for practice without being afraid to make mistakes or to forget a word. The words will be burnt into their own memory. For partner‘s turn come along with his/her vocabulary issues, learners could learn more words by having to help them. Moreover, the interesting sources of new words are chatting with friends online or through phone, in which words come up in conversations are generally encountered again.
The role of learners and learner responsibility are shed light on the results of the study.
As demonstrated in recent research, learner initiative and independence are crucial factors in order to attain higher levels of achievement. On the other hand, that more learners are aware of how learning is best carried out is more likely to foster the better learning. For instance, knowing what vocabulary to learn, learners continue to increase their vocabulary size and enrich the words they already know. Hence, besides what the teacher does or what the course book presents, it is ultimately important for the learner to do the learning by themselves. To building up the vocabulary, learners are highly recommended to set a goal for themselves with an attempt to learn three new words a week and work them into learners‘ speech and writing.
Conscious effort can help learners learn several thousands of new words to remember and use until it becomes a part of their vocabulary, which means they can use these words effectively and accurately in a sentence.
Actually, vocabulary should be dealt with by teachers in systematic and principled ways to prompt the learners to get the most benefit from the time spent and a rich environment to learn vocabulary in and outside class time. An excellent source of increasing learners‘ word knowledge are word puzzles owing to the fact that the puzzle creators will often need to resort to an array of unusual words to ensure that the words fit into their puzzles and interesting for the puzzle doer. Many varieties of vocabulary puzzles, including crosswords, find-a-word and
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hidden word puzzles help strengthen learners‘ word knowledge and also improve their critical thinking skills. For word games, such games as Scrabble, Boggle, and Cranium are often used to extend learners‘ vocabulary.
To outline the appropriate vocabulary learning strategies, understanding the conception of vocabulary as a dynamic complex of knowledge plus skill plays an especially important role; because of the fact that within the multifaceted task of vocabulary learning, different dimensions of the lexicon lead to the demanding of different learning strategies; but strategies which are suitable for one dimension might not be suitable for another dimension.
More vocabulary learning strategies should be introduced to learners and strategy training is essential for learning. Learners will have benefits to choose their own learning strategies according to their characteristics such as proficiency and learning style. Teachers and learners should reach a general consensus on the learning goal when designing the course or curriculum. It is crucial for learner initiative and independence to attain higher levels of their achievement. Teachers also should deal with vocabulary in systematic and principled ways for learners to get the most benefit from the time-spending and provide a rich environment to learn vocabulary inside and outside class times. All persons, either students or teachers, have their own learning style; therefore, no particular teaching or learning method can suit the needs of all learners due to the fact that learning styles exist on wide continuums. Learning styles are considered value-neutral; because no one style is better than others. Students should be encouraged to ―stretch‖ their learning styles in order to be more empowered in a variety of learning situations.
Creating a safe and comfortable environment in which all students feel recognized and valued is one of the most significant factors in encouraging motivation. Many students will feel more comfortable participating in classroom activities as soon as they quite know their teacher and their peers after taking time to adjust themselves to a new setting. Students provided with a learner-centered, low-anxiety classroom environment has a great language acquisition. Personalizing the environment prompts students to relax and enhance the friendly atmosphere increasing their desire to learn and develop their language skills. Greater motivation will be displayed by students feeling safe and comfortable and more secure taking chances to read aloud in class or write an essay without the fear of being criticized.
Talks also play an important role in teaching. For example, children often talking to their parents on a range of topics tend to be absorbed with a much larger vocabulary than children from homes where talk is limited. Hence, providing students with the same sort of highly interactive, language-rich environment as advantaged ones have at home assists them with
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vocabulary deficits. Furthermore, they should be higher engaged in conversations on a wide range of topics, focused on the shades of meaning of interesting words in their daily interactions with text (both written and oral), and promoted a spirit of curiosity about words and the different meanings rooted in different contexts.
While teaching, including powerful, difficult words in their oral language and encouraging students to use those words in their speaking and writing are definitely helpful for increasing their own vocabulary. One single most effective way is by maximizing the students‘ amount of reading. An illustration is that students reading just 10 minutes a day outside of school reveal significantly higher rates of vocabulary growth than students almost not reading outside of school (Nagy & Anderson, 1984). Most importantly, the more reading, the more frequent encounters with words in different contexts, the better true word knowledge.
It is strongly necessary for students to encounter words repeatedly and in a range of contexts before these words become part of their working vocabulary due to the fact that they didn‘t really know and understand words only encountered 4 times, but did know and understand words encountered 12 times (Mckeown, Beck, Omanson & Pople, 1985).
Teachers can teach students using contexts by giving them texts with some unfamiliar words, asking them to circle the unknown words, guess the meanings, and explain about their guess, finally make a list on the board of the strategies they used. How to use dictionaries to look up the meanings of unknown words such as using guide words, understanding parts of speech also should be taught and practiced for students during the study process. Inexpensively small pocket dictionaries help provide a wealth of information and introduce multiple meanings of words. Several defined meanings of a word relevant in a given passage will be practiced working out. Such words used often or easily confused could be stuck in the classroom‘s word wall and added gradually (a few each week). Additionally, students should be provided with plenty of opportunities to speak and write such these words and by themselves choose a word and give clues about the word for other students to guess.
A sense of accomplishment constitutes a great factor in motivating students by giving positive feedback and reinforcement, which all can increase students' satisfaction and encourage positive self-evaluation. These students will feel better to direct his or her own studies and learning outcomes because they are more affected by positive feedback and success. Praise helps improve students' self-confidence, competence, and self-esteem.
Success can be achieved by setting their own goals and by directing their studies toward their own expectations, particularly determining their own language needs and defining why
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they want to learn the language; due to the fact that having goals and expectations leads to increased motivation in turn leading to a higher level of language competences; hence, teachers should encourage students to have specific short-term goals such as communicating with English speakers or reading books in English.