Page 47 - Young Wise

Yeşim USTAOĞLU ACADEMIC CORNER

IMPROVE YOUR VOCABULARY:

THE SMART WAY TO LEARN

Do you ever feel like your brain is a leaking bucket? Imagine this: You have an English exam
tomorrow. You sit down with a list of fifty new words. You read them and repeat them. But two
days later, most of those words have disappeared from your memory. If this sounds familiar, don’t
worry. You are not ‘bad at languages’. This happens because of how our brains work. Here is how
you can turn vocabulary learning into an exciting and effective journey.

#1 CONTEXT IS KING #3 SMART EXPOSURE IN THE DIGITAL AGE

The first rule of smart learning is simple: never learn a word alone. We live in a great time for resources. You don’t need a plane
This is called ‘Contextual Learning’. ticket to be around English; you have the world in your pocket.
Ho w t o d o i t Ho w t o d o i t

When you see a new word in a series or a video, do not look at
1. While you are watching films or series online, use English
the dictionary immediately. Try to guess the meaning from the
subtitles instead of Turkish subtitles. This way, your brain
sentence first. Make it personal. For example, instead of writing
connects the sounds you hear with the words you see.
‘Accomplish = Başarmak’, write: “She worked hard to accomplish
her dream of becoming a pilot”. 2. If you use social media, you can make it educational. Follow
accounts that you like, such as science, fashion, and football,
but in English.
3. You can learn a word by playing games in class or using apps.
It keeps you motivated and focused on your progress by
#2 BEING A ‘WORD DETECTIVE’ giving you instant rewards and allowing you to track your own
progress.

English is like LEGO. Many long, difficult words are just simple
pieces that are put together. If you know the roots, prefixes and
suffixes, you can understand the words you have never seen before. #4
Ho w t o d o i t ACTIVE TECHNIQUES: SHADOWING
Another effective method used by polyglots (people who speak
• ‘-re’ means again (e.g. rewrite) many languages) is called ‘Shadowing’. It is simple but powerful.
Ho w
• ‘-un’ or ‘-dis’ means not (e.g. unhappy, disagree) t o d o i t
• If you see a long word like ‘unpredictable’, break it into parts: Pick a short audio or video to start with. It could be a podcast,
un (not) + predict (guess) + able (can). Suddenly, you know a news report, or a scene from a show you like. Listen to a
exactly what it means without using a dictionary! sentence, pause the audio, and then repeat it exactly as you
heard it. Make sure to copy the speed, feeling, and tone of the
original audio exactly.

Learning a language is a marathon, and you’ve just completed
the first mile! Keep running with us in the next issue! 50%
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