How to improve your vocabulary

WEEK 3

It felt like a long week, so I think I need to adjust my schedule to make my study/work/life routine more manageable for the future. Being consistent will be the best way for me to improve.

Teacher: You often hear teachers to "study everyday" and that is good advice...if you can. However, real life doesn't always let you. So the best you can do, is to be as consistent as possible with your learning. If you don't study today, it's ok. Don't worry. Study a little more tomorrow.

A good idea is to think of a weekly average of study, not a daily average. It will prevent feelings of 'falling behind'.

How to improve my vocabulary

I've always wanted to try this method. Sticking notes to items in your house to remember the word. Has it helped? ... meh :/

I thought seeing the word everyday might help me remember these words quickly. However, the reality for me is that I just wanted to relax and play games/watch TV when I got home.

Salt / 'shio' is probably the most memorable because it is in front of me when I have breakfast.

Whiteboard learning

I see that this is popular on Youtube too. This has been more helpful because it's really big and visible. But I don't practice writing them enough (which is my problem).

Using motions

I learnt prepositions of place (e.g. up, down, in etc..) in class. The teacher actions/motions were very helpful. It was easy to remember the word and use them.

Surprisingly though, listening to prepositions of place in a quick sentence was a little harder. So I have to just get used to the speaking speed.

Teacher: Applying different methods of learning is important. Some grammar points like this is best done with motion instead of just a picture. It can further be improved by adding context in real life.

e.g. Tom sits in front of me in class. (Tom is really loud and should stop talking so much)

In the end, using the vocabulary as often as possible has been the best way to learn it (in my case, hearing it used in class a lot). More context can speed up the learning too.

Fear of falling behind

Going back to what I said at the beginning of the post, I felt tired and slow this week. I thought that fatigue and the fast pace in class could catch up to me and I could start falling behind. It hasn't happened yet but time management seems to be the next problem I have to control so I can study more.

Teacher: If students can't keep up with the class, they might stop attending. The teacher has to balance the pace of the class as much as possible by being clear with instructions and time limits for reading/writing/group work in class.

For stronger students who finish quickly, the teacher should give them an extension of the exercise and NOT let them do nothing or speed up the class.