The first thing a student should do when learning how to speak a new language is focus on memorizing the new vocabulary. Whether you are in a big class room setting or doing an immersion program, your vocab is crucial for helping you speak the new language. With vocab alone, you will be able to understand the context of a conversation and be able to communicate, if only a little.
This is especially true if you are taking lessons in a formal classroom setting. With the Spanish students that we tutor, for example, we advise that they first memorize the vocabulary words and then try to do the rest of the homework. We see a lot of people try to do this the other way around, and what usually happens is they spend so much time looking up words in the glossary that homework becomes very long and hard. Spending the time upfront to commit the words to memory will not only ensure that your homework is easy, but you will actually learn the words now and be able to use them freely in the future. Finally, without knowing what the words mean, the grammar is pointless. It will be impossible to get the grammar right, which is what your teacher wants to see, if you are not even sure what the words mean and if they are verbs, nouns, or adjectives.
Here are a few tips to help you memorize your new vocab:
- Try to associate every word and its meaning to a visual story or image in your mind
- Only study a few words daily, rather than trying to cram in lots of words in one go
- Having learned new words, practice using them at least 3-5 times to commit them to memory (use flashcards!)
Good luck!
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