5 Tips on How to Memorize New Words Faster and Use Them in Your Speech

Tip 1—Remember Words in the Context

We tend to learn new words one by one but it’s actually not a good idea. Words are better remembered in the context. What I mean by context — phrases, collocations, whole sentences. In this case, you know how to use them in connection with other words because we don’t speak separate words, we speak sentences and phrases.

Where to find those collocations?

There are special dictionaries for collocations. Besides, in all dictionaries, you can find example sentences with the words that you search. And of course, you can just google the word and you will see how it’s used in the context of various materials.

Tip 2—Write Down New Words

Store new vocabulary in the form of collocations and phrases. After using different services to find the most common collocations with a new word that you learnt, put them in doc or write them down if you prefer handwriting. Make sure that they are in one place whenever you need access to them.

Tip 3—Use New Words in Your Target Language

Don’t just put them somewhere and leave it like that. Start using them in your own language.

The first thing that you can do is to make up your own example sentences with new phrases.

Secondly, you can make up a whole story using new words. The funnier the story is, the better you memorize new material.

Another hint to better memorizing is to make up sentences about yourself and your life. The more personalized your examples are, the better.

Tip 4—Keep New Words in Front of Your Eyes

If you want a new language to be a part of your active vocabulary, write them on stickers and put them in front of you. This way will help you to use them in your speech or writing as they will be in front of your eyes.

Tip 5—Spaced Repetition

There is a thing called spaced repetition. According to this idea, you should revise new material within several time intervals. For example, after 2-3 days then weeks and months. Recalling helps to refresh the material and not forget it.

You can simply reread your examples or create new ones with the same words.

Follow these tips and you will see the improvements!

In my lessons, I teach how to use these tools and I also share many more ways of remembering and using new words effectively. Book a lesson with me and improve your English!