How do you eat an elephant?
Any ideas??? No, it’s not the start of a corny joke, it’s about how to tackle a seemingly impossible tasks.
So, how do you eat an elephant? Gradually, in small chunks.
Well, it’s the same with learning large numbers of new words and getting them to stick in your long term memory.
What brought this thought on?
I was having a bit of a sort out recently. Who hasn’t during the lock down? I came across this little vocab book which I had forgotten all about.
One brief flick through it and I was transported back to lower sixth days at school and how this book was always with me so I could look at it in the dinner queue or other such spare moments.
You see, I knew that a little and often approach would fix the words into my brain and it was no effort really to carry this little pocket sized book around with me and look at it regularly.
I was also enthralled by the exam game and winning at it. I wanted to get an A grade (there weren’t A * s back then.) and one way of securing it was to know every word they could throw at me.
Not everybody is motivated in the same way, of course. But I do urge you to try out a more strategic approach to vocabulary acquisition.
For example: Break down each topic into the number of word you need to know.
Then break these down further into manageable amounts such as 5 words per day. But, you have to commit to this!!! Then, interact with these word at least 3 times a day and then, the next day add 5 more and repeat the process. At the end of 7 days, you will have learnt 35 words.
Keep this up over a month and your vocab- bank will really rack up.