Hey everyone, and welcome back to the Easy English Podcast.
I'm your host Oliver, and today we are getting into a topic that is so important for English language learners.
And that is how to memorize English better or more effectively.
And of course, with English, we need to learn lots and lots of new words, especially when we are at that beginner and intermediate stage.
There are so many words to learn.
The reason I picked this topic today was one of my Patreon members was asking me about some apps to learn vocabulary.
So i began to think about this and to think about um vocabulary learning and do a little research and reading online.
So, based on what i have read, what i have researched, some of my experience, we are going to discuss some practical techniques So the role of repetition, so repeating something, and how science can actually help us learn English vocabulary better.
And I'll even share some studies from a or results from a Princeton University study which is about note-taking.
And this could really transform how you remember English vocabulary and grammar.
So make sure that you stay until the end.
Let's get started.
So why does memorization, not memorization, why is memorization so important when learning English?
Well, I'm not going to talk about this for too long, because memorization is simply the foundation of communication.
To speak, read or write in English, you need to have words, phrases and grammar stored in your memory.
Think of it as building a toolbox.
The more tools that you have, the more tasks that you can complete that you can do.
But memorization is not just about taking lots of words and facts and pushing them into your brain.
It's about making sure that that information stays there.
So it's easy to recall, to remember when you need it.
And that's where these effective strategies will come in.
That we will look at a little bit later in the episode.
So let's talk about one powerful tool for memorizing English.
And this will link us to the study that I want to look at today, a scientific study.
And that is note-taking.
You might think, taking notes?
That's so simple, Oliver.
But there's actually a science behind it.
In 2014, researchers at Princeton University conducted a fascinating study.
Fascinating, very interesting is what that means. about note-taking.
They compared students who took notes by hand to those who typed their notes on a laptop.
And what they find was incredibly surprising.
Students who wrote their notes by hand remembered more and they understood the material better than those who typed.
That's crazy.
Even though they had the same information and both of them in a way wrote that information, they recorded it.
The people who wrote their notes by hand and not using technology understood the material better than those who typed it.
So why does this matter for English learners?
When you take notes by hand.
With the process of writing, you're forced to slow down and think about the material, about what you're writing.
Writing requires you to process the information, summarize key ideas, and organize thoughts.
This deeper engagement helps your brain to create stronger connections to what you're learning.
And this is essential when memorizing a new language.
So let's connect this to English.
Imagine you are in an English class or you're listening to the Easy English podcast.
Instead of typing out everything that you hear or the phrases that you hear which are new, try writing down only the most important ideas or new vocabulary first.
For example, if you hear a new phrase, write it in your own words or maybe use it in a sentence, even better.
This active process makes the learning stick much better than just passively copying from what you hear.
Of course, typing things is not a bad thing, but what this study shows is that we use our brain more actively when we are actually writing physically with a pen and paper.
And in my opinion, I think that you can do both.
So write down the new words first, write them in a sentence.
Not only does it practice your English writing, but it helps with the memory process.
Then put those words into an app, a digital flip card app, for example, like AnkiDroid or Quizlet.
And the process again of transferring and writing these words into the app is another step in helping to strengthen these memories.
And then, of course, you can learn them with flip cards, as you usually do.
Another benefit of handwriting is that it engages more parts of your brain.
Studies have shown that when you write something down, your brain processes it both visually, physically and mentally.
And this multi-sensory experience, so senses are, for example your uh your, What you see, what you taste, what you feel.
But because you're using both your eyes and your hands, this is a multi-sensory experience and it strengthens your memory, which makes it easier to recall what you've learned later on.
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Okay, welcome back and let's have a look at another example.
Let's say you're trying to memorize a list of English verbs.
So instead of just reading them over and over, write them out by hand.
Then write using sentences or write sentences using each verb.
And this will not only help you remember the words, but also understand how to use them in context.
And you'll be practicing grammar and all sorts of other aspects of English language.
So handwritten notes are also highly personal.
When you write in your own words, you're going to start creating material that is designed for your own unique learning style.
So you can underline, draw arrows, even draw little drawings and just write the way.
That will help you to remember.
So the next time you're learning something new in English, grab a pen and paper.
Your brain will really thank you for it.
So that's the first bit that I wanted to talk about today.
But let's say you get the new words, you make sentences and you want to continue that process of memorization.
So what I recommend to do then is something called the spaced repetition method.
And what this involves is it involves taking these new words, putting them into flip cards.
Ideally, I would recommend for this something digital, a flip card app.
You can find lots of them online.
On the App Store for iOS or the Google Play Store for Android.
But personally, in the past, on Android, I have used AnkiDroid, A-N-K-I-D-R-O-I-D.
And on iOS, I have used Quizlet, Quizlet.
So that's Quiz-L-E-T.
And these are great resources to use.
You can create your own decks and even find card decks that other people have made.
And what these apps do is they show you new words and you select afterwards how well you remembered it.
Was it very easy, easy, hard, normal?
You pick really on a scale.
And depending on what you pick, it will decide when to show you the vocabulary or the word again.
For example, if you know it very, very well, it might not show it to you until next week again.
If you don't know it very well and you didn't remember it, it might show it to you again in 10 minutes, and then tomorrow and then three days from now.
And that way it strengthens your memory By spacing out practice sessions and helping get words from your short-term memory into your long-term memory.
And this is very important for English language learning.
Okay, so you've written out your words by hand and you've put them into the flip cards and you have started memorizing these words using the spaced repetition method.
So what can you do next?
And the next point is to turn your notes and your words into action.
Don't just let your vocabulary sit around unused.
You need to turn them into practice activities.
Definitely continue to write sentences using your new words or practice new grammar that you're learning with the new words that you have learned.
Combine them.
Utilize and use the words.
This is a great way to continue building that memorization and to connect all of that learning from different areas together.
And then you want to make sure that you're combining all of this writing and vocabulary with speaking.
So make sure to say these words out loud and to try to actively put them into your speaking vocabulary.
And this will really help.
By this stage, you will have put these words into your long-term memory and you'll be very unlikely to forget them in the future.
So if you stick to those steps and you utilize all of those tools and skills, I would be very surprised if you forgot these words.
In the future, with consistent practice.
So, to bring all this together, let me share a quick story about one of my friends from class when I was studying language who struggled with memorizing vocabulary.
He had tried everything flashcards, apps and even putting little sticky notes all over his apartment.
But what finally worked, for him anyway, was combining techniques.
And thinking back and after reading the study and looking into this, I realized that he basically did what we've talked about.
He started writing words by hand, and he usually did this anyway into a notebook, but he combined it by putting these words into a spaced repetition app to review them.
And he used the words to create simple sentences to use each word in context.
And within months he started to remember the words much better and felt confident with using them in everyday conversations.
So the lesson here is that there's no single magic method.
You need to combine techniques to strengthen your memory and stay consistent and keep experimenting until you find what works best for you.
So combine methods, use different parts of your memory, different parts of your senses, and this will create a multi-sensory learning experience and help those make, make those memories stronger in your brain.
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Goodbye.
