How do I practice vocabulary

TLDR

1. Read and note unknown words (max. 5 per day)

2. Create flashcards:

• Front: word + original sentence
• Back: word meaning + sentences examples

3. Before each day of reading:

• Set a study time frame
• For each word, try to remember the meanings and the sentences examples mentally
• Then consult the meaning thoroughly
• Then write and speak out loud what you just consulted to reinforce memory

Use Anki to create flashcards and automate reviews.

Introduction

To improve my vocabulary, I read. Ta-dah!

No seriously, I generally take the opportunity when I'm reading a book in English to do this, but it works with any type of media, for example, a foreign article or news.

The advantage of books is that you'll possibly notice that the word you want to learn repeats later in the reading. This will help you remember and reinforce your understanding of the word.

Personally, I like it because when you encounter the word later in the book you'll feel that reading will flow better, and thus, a sense of progress.

Keep in mind that it's a process that takes time and that at the beginning, reading will be less fluid. It takes time because you have to stop, research the word, read the meaning, read a couple of examples of its application in sentences, take notes and dedicate time to remember their meanings regularly.

On the other hand, this way you'll retain more information, strengthen your brain connections and have a higher quality of reading.

Anki, your flashcard brain wizard

I'll quote how the Anki site describes it.

Anki is a flashcard program that helps you spend more time on challenging material, and less on what you already know.

And that's sufficient for describing most of what Anki does. However, what the site doesn't mention is its powerful ability to do spaced repetition for you.

So what's spaced repetition?

The idea of spaced repetition is nothing more than you reinforcing the memories of these words before they are forgotten.

Instead of reviewing all words at once, this method tells us to space this review over time.

The great thing about using Anki is that you don't need to worry about manually controlling the spacing of reviews over time. The program does it for you!

The core concept

Take your reading material and start reading.

When you encounter a word you don't know, stop, note it down in Anki, and research its meaning. I like to use Cambridge Dictionary to research meanings.

My annotation style for each word follows the flashcard idea, where on the front of the card I put the word and the sentence where it appeared. On the back of the card I write the meaning and more examples of the word's application in sentences.

Using the word "ad-hoc" as an example. In the front I write:

ad-hoc

"We held an ad hoc meeting to address the server crash"

and on the back I write:

Describes something create or done spontaneously, impromptu, or as needed. It's a fancy way to say "on the fly".

Examples:

"We held an ad hoc meeting to address the server crash"

"The team formed an ad hoc committee to handle the merger"

In tech context, it means that something unexpected/unplanned came up that disrupt the regular workflow.

Examples:

"My spring backlog grew due to the ad hoc bug fixes"

"The ad hoc standup lasted 20 minutes to align on the hotfix"

"Yesterday I spent my time in ad hoc debugging, instead of my planned assigned ticket"

The important thing here is that on the front, you just put the minimum to try remember the meaning. The back of the card should be consulted only after trying to remember the word's meaning.

Continue reading and repeat the process when you encounter another unknown word, but do this for a maximum of 5 words per day.

Doing this you'll create an arsenal of words to practice in a regular time space.

The importance of writing

There's something very powerful about writing that makes my brain really strive to remember something. Writing it's also helpful in spell the word, the spelling. Writing combined with the practice of speaking out loud will make it easier to retain meanings.

For each day, I like to set aside some time to review the words before resuming reading. My way of studying has been the following for each word that Anki tells me I need to review on that day:

• I set aside some time, like 1 minute
• I try to remember its meaning and its application in sentences mentally
• I then consult the meaning and its application in sentences thoroughly
• Now, again without looking at the consultation, I write and speak out loud the meaning and application in sentences. Remembering what I just read from the consultation itself

And that's it! I now get a small frisson of excitement when I suddenly recall what some random word means, proving that this steps helps me retain information for longer.

Thank you for reading!

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