ForEnglishbeginners,memorizingnewwordsisnecessarybutdifficult,andlonglistsofwordsandheavyvocabularybooksmaketheeffortseemimpossible.Theyarepuzzledwhytheytrytomemorizewordswithgreateffortsbutforgetthemeasily.That'swhythereareofteninquiriesabouthowtomemorizenewwords.Infact,learningnewwordsneedn’tbethatdifficult;herearesometipstohelp.

　　Readaloud

　　Speakthewordwhilememorizingit.Wetoooftenseparatetheprocessofnewwordmemorizationfrompronunciation.Infact,thesetwocanbecombinedandeachwillenhancetheother.Vocalizingthewordtoourselveshelpsactivateaural(hearing)memory,whichhelpsthememory.Thesoundofawordnotonlyhelpsusrecallthespellingbutalsofamiliarizesuswiththeword.Themorefamiliarwearewiththeword,thegreaterchancewewillhavetokeepitfortherestofourlife.

　　Understandwordformation

　　Whenstudyingnewwords,trytoidentifyprefixesorsuffixesthatareoftenusedtochangeoraddtotherootword'smeaning.Takeforexampletheword"courage.”Wecanaddthesuffix"-ous"tomaketheadjective"courageous,”theprefix"en-"tomaketheverb“encourage,”ortheprefix“dis-”togiveitanoppositemeaning.

　　Therearemanybooksavailablethatteachstudentshowtouseprefixesandsuffixestohelpmemorizenewwords.However,don'toverusethismethodandrelytoomuchonprefixesandsuffixes.Sincetheyappearfrequently,wecanlearnthemwithoutdedicatingexclusivetimetothem.

　　Memorizewordsingroups

　　NevermemorizesingleEnglishwords,makeasmanyassociationsandconnectionsaspossible.Relatethewordtotermswealreadyknow,eitherasasynonymorantonym.Forexample,theword"gargantuan"(verylarge)issimilarinmeaningtowords“gigantic,”“huge”and“large.”Makeasequenceofwords:“small,medium,large,giganticandgargantuan.”Createamentalimageofthewordthatinvolvesstrongemotions.Think,"Thegargantuanwhaleisgoingtoswallowmewhole!"

　　LearningEnglishwordsrequiresaction.Complainingabouthowdifficultitistomemorizenewwordswillbeoflittlehelp.So,takeactionnow.Haveatrywith10wordsadayandyouwillseewhatadifferenceitmakesinyourEnglishlearning.