Many students struggle in learning new words. Let’s give them a hand!

They do not easily come up with the strategies themselves but you have to tell them what the options/strategies are. That opens the ideal road for each student to utilize their own favourite strategies.

We all learn words in a different way. If our students experiment and find their own style / strategy / way of learning words, we have helped them much more than making them do a lot of exercises that actually do not work for them. This is what worries me in ready-made exercises.

The other articles under Vocabulary heading are

3 ways to enhance vocabulary learning

1. The easy way out in making your students learn new words is to use the ready-made workbook exercises. Unfortunately, they are not always very motivating or do not match with the students learning style.
2. In the 3rd model lesson article I suggest an oral pre-task in pairs as the solution at the beginning of handling a new chapter. This is my number 1 favourite. A lot of oral practice.
3. The third option is to reveal the strategies below to the students and let them write exercises of their own, which is the point in this article.

• Let the students get to know what strategies there are (use my version below or make a list of your own). This is a MUST even if you decide to nothing else about strategies. You can introduce them gradually or have a crash course lesson with all of them.
• Use my exercise below (or one of your own) and let your students try to recognize which type of strategy it is in question in each case. This way the students will get an idea how to make word exercises.
• Organize a lesson where your students make exercises to revise recently studied vocabulary. It is up to you if they write one type of tasks or make use of any of the strategy types.

22 strategies to learn new words

Here is the same list of vocabulary learning strategies that I introduced in the previous article. You can study them first but the main idea is to introduce at least some of them to your students. We all have our favourites and that is exactly what we are trying to do with our students, too: The minute they identify what the best ways to learn new words for them are, you have done a great job.

Nevertheless, before you do anything else you might ask your students to discuss in groups the ways they learn and practise words best. You will be surprised with their creativity when they present their own strategies.

I hope to be able to add some videos on these strategies later on.

1. Link the new word with a picture or photo.
2. Link the new word to your mother tongue.
3. Write the unknown words of the chapter on a paper and make up a mindmap or a story.
4. Associate the new word with another (funny) word, story or setting. Explain to your pair how the association works for you.
5. Record a word list on your phone ( word in mother tongue – 1 sec pause– English word). Listen to it many times. (The favourite of my wife!)
6. Make word lists (mother tongue – English), cover up the other side and say the words aloud or write them down before checking. (My favourite + I make orally sentences of my own))
7. Make or have a look at a word list (mother tongue – English). Then make an exam for yourself or others.
8. Say or write a sentence where you use the new word.
9. Tell a story in your group where you use the new words. (Humour is the best medicine!)
10. Make two-sided word cards and use them in a game.
11. Learn words in groups (linked with a topic, nouns, adjectives etc.). Write them down in a grid or an excel file.
12. Use word formation technique. One word leads to a family of words.
13. Find synonyms or opposites for the word.
14. Make a gap exercise of the lyrics of a song.
15. Consult a dictionary (online or hard copy).
16. By doing various exercises (crossword puzzles, gap filling, hidden grid odd one out, etc.)
17. Guess the meaning of new words on the basis of the context.
18. Make use of free computer vocab exercises provided by publishers +
19. Give a definition of a word and your pair has to guess which it is (e.g. it is an adjective which means the same as ‘adequate’ – well ‘enough’ or ‘sufficient’)
20. Your say a word and your pair has to give a definition for it or explain it in another way (a vaccination – well, it is a shot given with a needle so that you do not get a disease)
21. Make use of the free vocab learning computer programmes in the internet.
22. When reading extra English materials such as magazines or books, take out your notebook and write down new words and phrases that you find interesting and useful.

Look at the examples below and decide which of the 2 2 types it is.

PANKKI	ASPHALT
BANAANI	SCHOOL
ASFALTTI	BANK
KOULU	BANANA

Sample C nation, international, nationality, national, native

Sample D weak – strong, interesting – boring, lazy – industrious

Sample E brick, concrete, seam, fireplace, chimney, flame

Sample F duty free, customs, metal detector, security check, passport control, gate

Sample G marvellous, superb, wonderful, terrific, excellent OR terrible >< awsome, terrific ><awful, day >< night, nearby >< remote

Sample H guarantee: I can guarantee you that the toaster is new.

Sample I gloves, extension cord, bulb, broom, hoover: Last Saturday when I began cleaning my garage, I put my gloves on and first used the broom to get rid of the sand. It turned out to be too dusty a job and therefore I fetched my vacuum cleaner. I have no electricity socket in my garage so I had to pick up an extension cord for the hoover. Next the bulb was gone and I had to open the garage door to see something. …

Sample J

D	E	Y	S	H	U	T	T	L	E
C	M	N	U	I	S	Q	M	B	L
U	L	O	R	T	E	P	O	I	C
S	C	E	T	U	N	N	E	L	I
T	E	S	P	O	L	V	C	D	H
O	A	K	T	A	R	M	A	C	E
M	L	O	S	K	S	W	X	Z	V
S	N	Z	B	I	E	N	O	L	K
A	I	K	O	R	V	A	E	Y	G
P	L	A	T	F	O	R	M	T	L

Sample K: strawberries, blood, cherries, most roses, tomatoes // grass, leaves, moss, cucumber // banana, sun, lemon, butter, cheese OR strawberries, blood, cherries, most roses, snow, tomatoes // grass, leaves, desert, moss, cucumber // banana, sun, lemon, butter, cheese, polar bear

Sample L: Look at the photos below. Which ‘vehicles’ can you find in the photos? Make a(n oral) story using the photos.

Sample M:

Sample N below

L	A	M	B
	S	H	A	V	E
	A	D	R	E	S	S
		A	B	O	V	E
E	N	T	E	R
D	O	O	R

Teach your students to make this kind of exercises and they will learn the words while doing so.

Sample O O Sole Mio, It’s Now or Never sung by Raimo

“When I first _______ you with your smile so __________ my h_________ was captured my s__________ surrended, I’d s_________ a life time waiting ______ the right time, now that you’re here the _________ is here _____ last …

https://raimoenglish.blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/its-now-or-never.mp3

Sample P Hemingway, “Farewell to arms” garrison, casulty, rifle, ward, wounded, ambush, bullet

Did you notice how I made you go up and down the strategy list when you were making up your mind? This way the strategies will stick better in your mind and you have learnt many of them at least on the level of recognition. I did not actually teach you the strategies but made your learning possible, in CLT style.

• The next article deals with what is meant by knowing a word and some other basic ideas on vocab learning
• In the following two articles I will demonstrate what you need to take into account when you make you students write vocabulary tasks themselves. Practical tips!

• Knowing a word, What does it really mean? Passive and active vocabulary.
• Getting students to design vocab tasks, Points 1-10, more detailed advice how to do it in practice
• Getting students to design vocab tasks, Points 11-22, practical advice

The point in this article is to identify and memorize as many of the 22 strategies of learning vocabulary as possible.