Use a Notebook to Learn More English Vocabulary Increase English Vocabulary
Hi I’m Sam.
Welcome to Oxford Online
English!
In this lesson, you can learn
what a vocabulary notebook is, why it’s
useful for learning vocabulary more
quickly, and how to use it.
Part one: why should you use a vocabulary
notebook.
A vocabulary notebook is a small
book where you can record new words.
The
best vocabulary notebook is small enough
to put in your pocket, so you can carry
it everywhere with you, like this.
Remembering new vocabulary is something
that many students find difficult.
To
really know a word means that you’re able
not just to recognize it, but to use it
correctly.
But how can you go from
recognizing and understanding a word to
using it well in your English speaking
and writing?
You need to form a long-term
memory of the word or phrase you’re
trying to remember.
When you learn new
words in class, or during self study, it’s
in your short-term memory.
You’re able to
recognize and even use the word during
your studies, and maybe even for a short
time afterwards, but then you may forget
it.
You need to move the word into your
long-term memory.
The only way to do this is to see, hear,
and use the word many times.
So then, why
is a vocabulary notebook helpful for
expanding your vocabulary more quickly?
A vocabulary notebook is an excellent tool
to help you move new words from your
short-term to your long-term memory.
You
can use it to record and review the
vocabulary, enabling you to see, hear and
use the vocabulary many times, which will
help you to remember it.
But how do you use avocabulary
notebook?
There are lots of different
ways to use a vocabulary network but
two things are important: record and review.
Part two: how to record the meaning of new
vocabulary.
Let’s look at recording vocabulary.
When
you learn new vocabulary, record it
instantly.
That means write it down at
that moment.
The physical act of writing
it down can help you to remember it
later.
So, whether you’re in class, studying at
home, or out and about, the best thing to
do is to record the word when you learn
it;
don’t wait until later!
There are four
easy steps.
The first step is recording
words clearly and correctly.
This may
sound obvious but many students find
they’re unable to read their own notes, or
they record and then learn words with incorrect
spelling.
So, always check how words are spelt.
So, what
else do you need to record?
The second
step is to record the meaning of the
vocabulary.
There are a number of ways to
do this depending on the word or phrase
that you want to learn.
Let’s use our example, ‘soup’.
Do you think
writing ‘pea or chicken’ will help you to
remember the meaning of this word?
It’s
true that pea and chicken are examples of
soup, but writing down the meaning like
this might not help you to remember what
‘soup’ means.
However, I’m quite sure most
countries have soup, so translation is a
quick and clear way to show the meaning
of ‘soup’.
I speak a little Turkish, so I’ll
use that.
In Turkish, ‘soup’ is ‘çorba’
Many students also find that drawing
pictures helps them to remember words.
Put the
picture on the right-hand page for
meaning.
For simple words like ‘soup’,
recording the translation your own
language is okay.
However, many words don’t have a direct
translation.
For this reason it’s usually
better to record the meaning in English.
But, use your own words; don’t just copy
the meaning from the dictionary.
This will make it easier for you to
understand and remember the meaning.
Let’s do an example.
Do you know the word
‘tasty’?
It describes food that has a strong
taste or flavour.
We can also say that this is a positive
objective, similar to ‘delicious’, so we can
write a positive symbol next to the
meaning.
With adjectives, it’s also a good
idea to record the opposite.
We can use
this sign for opposite.
The opposite of
‘tasty’ is ‘tasteless’.
It describes food that
has no flavour.
This is a negative adjective, so we can
write a negative symbol next to the
meaning.
Hopefully, now you have a good idea of
how to record meaning in your notebook.
Using a vocabulary notebook is a
learning process, and should be personal
to you, so experiment with different
ways of recording meaning.
But, however you
decide to record meaning, one thing is
important: it must be clear to you when
you come back to it.
So, there are four
steps to recording vocabulary: first,
record the word clearly and correctly;
second: record the meaning.
What’s next?
Part three: how to record the form of new
vocabulary.
Ask yourself or your teacher: is your
new vocabulary a noun, a verb, an adjective,
an idiom?
Remember that phrases
can be nouns or verbs too, so this is
true for both words and phrases.
If it’s a noun, is it countable or uncountable?
Make a note so that you understand how to
use it.
You can record the form in
brackets next to the word.
Here,
‘soup’ is a noun, so you can write ‘n’ after
it.
‘Soup’ can be countable or uncountable.
You
can show this by writing C/U.
You can put adj. to show that ‘tasty’
and ‘tasteless’ are adjectives.
It’s helpful to use abbreviations to
record form.
Here are some examples.
n. is for noun.
v. is for verb.
C is for countable.
U is for uncountable.
adj. is for adjective
adv. is for adverb.
Capital ‘I’ capital ‘D’ is for idiom.
mwv means multi-word verb.
Abbreviations help you to record form
quickly and use less space in your
notebook.
So, when recording vocabulary,
you should: record it clearly and
correctly, record the meaning, record the
form.
There’s one more thing you should record.
Part four: how to record the pronunciation
of new vocabulary.
You’re learning
English.
That means you know how
confusing and irregular English
pronunciation can be.
That’s why you
should record some details about the
pronunciation of words.
You could: write
the sounds in phonetics, mark stressed
syllables, mark any silent syllables or
letters, and record any difficult or
irregular sounds.
For example, students sometimes confuse
the pronunciation of ‘soup’ with ‘soap’.
So, the vowel sound here is important.
This is the symbol for the ‘oo’ sound.
You don’t have to use phonetic symbols,
but they can help you to remember
the correct pronunciation of words.
Vowel
sounds are a good place to start.
You can write
the ‘oo’ sound under the letters that
make that sound.
The word ‘tasty’ has more
than one syllable, so you should record
the stress in the word.
You can do this by underlining the vowel
where the stress is.
In ‘tasty’,
the stress is on ‘a’ Some students may
also find it helpful here to record the
vowel sound; the vowel sound is ‘ay’: tasty.
In
speech, the second t in ‘tasteless’ is
silent.
You can show this by writing a small
cross under the second ’t': tasteless.
So, now we have the basic information we
need to record.
We’ve written the word
clearly and correctly, and we’ve checked
the spelling.
We’ve also recorded the meaning, the form
and the pronunciation of the words.
You
may notice that I’ve used different colours.
It’s helpful to use colour in your notes,
and to be consistent.
That means always using the same colour
for the same thing.
You could use
different colours for different parts of
speech, as I’ve done here: my nouns are
black and my adjectives are red.
You could use different colours for verbs
and
adverbs, too.
This helps you understand and
remember the form of the word quickly.
Also, using a different colour for your
pronunciation notes helps them stand out.
I
always use green.
Finally, you might want to add some
information to your notes later, do
leave some space.
What else might you want to add?
You’ll see
some ideas later.
Part five: remember
vocabulary by reviewing and developing
your notes.
So, now you know how to record
new vocabulary in your notebook, but
that’s not enough.
You also need to be able to remember the
vocabulary.
When you’re learning English,
you can forget around eighty percent of
your vocabulary if you don’t review it.
Reviewing vocabulary means seeing it again
and
using it.
You don’t need to spend a long
time each time you review.
The most
important thing is that you review it
many times over time.
Carrying a
vocabulary notebook with you everywhere
helps you to do this.
Let’s make a review
plan: imagine you recorded some
vocabulary in the notebook today.
How should you review it?
Research shows that students forget 80%
of what they’ve learned within 24 hours
of a lesson.
So, a short time after you’ve
written some new vocabulary down, take
five minutes to look at it again.
The
very best time to do this is 10 minutes
after, when you still remember most of
the lesson.
Maybe you’re waiting for the
bus, or having a coffee.
You can take your notebook out and
review the vocabulary quickly.
Read through what you’ve written.
Remember the meaning, the form and the
pronunciation.
Say the words in your head: ‘soup’ is ‘çorba’.
Then, test yourself.
You can cover the meaning
site of the notebook, look at the words,
and see if you can remember the meaning.
Then you can cover the words on the left
side, and see if you can remember how to
say them by looking at the meaning:
‘çorba’ is ‘soup’.
Focus on the pronunciation: ‘soup’.
Then, uncover the left
side and check the pronunciation and the
word.
Later that day, when you have a bit more
time, you can sit down and add some
information to your notes.
Firstly, you
should add collocations if you can find
them.
A good dictionary will give you
collocations.
Use an English learner’s
dictionary such as Oxford, Cambridge, or
Macmillan to find the vocabulary.
What about collocations with ‘soup’?
We
often use words the different types of
soup.
For example, ‘chicken soup’, ‘potato
soup’, ‘tomato soup’.
We can also say, ‘a
bowl of soup’ or ‘a tin of soup’.
Write the
collocation in the space you left under
the vocabulary.
This will help you to remember the word
or phrase in the way that it’s actually used.
Another good tip is to write sentences
using your new words.
The best way to do
this to help you remember your new
vocabulary is to personalize them.
For
example,
‘My mum loves tomato soup, but I hate it.’
So, at the end of day one, you’ve found some
new vocabulary, you’ve recorded the
meaning, the form and the pronunciation.
You’ve reviewed it by looking at it again
as soon as possible after you first saw
it.
Then, you’ve reviewed it again by
looking it up in a dictionary and adding
collocations and a personalized sentence.
Congratulations!
You now have enough
information in your notebook to start
using it to really expand your
vocabulary.
I hope this lesson has helped you.
Remember, you can find more of our free
English lessons on Oxford Online English
dot com.
Thanks very much for watching!
See you next time.