{"id":475,"date":"2014-02-02T12:00:48","date_gmt":"2014-02-02T12:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.princetontutoring.com\/?p=475"},"modified":"2014-01-31T22:54:32","modified_gmt":"2014-01-31T22:54:32","slug":"studying-vocabulary-if-its-not-fun-youre-doing-it-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.princetontutoring.com\/blog\/2014\/02\/studying-vocabulary-if-its-not-fun-youre-doing-it-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"Studying Vocabulary:  If It\u2019s Not Fun, You\u2019re Doing It Wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\">According to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.phschool.com\/eteach\/language_arts\/2002_03\/essay.html\">a review of vocabulary acquisition research<\/a>, the three most effective methods of vocabulary acquisition requires students to:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>connect<\/strong> new vocabulary with what they already know<\/li>\n<li>experience <strong>repeated exposure<\/strong> to new words<\/li>\n<li><strong>use<\/strong> new vocabulary <strong>in meaningful ways<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div id=\"attachment_488\" style=\"width: 344px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.princetontutoring.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/King-with-Abs.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-488\" class=\"wp-image-488   \" alt=\"The king had such great washboard abs that he abdicated the throne to pursue a career in modelling!\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.princetontutoring.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/King-with-Abs.jpg\" width=\"334\" height=\"295\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.princetontutoring.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/King-with-Abs.jpg 2173w, https:\/\/www.princetontutoring.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/King-with-Abs-300x264.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.princetontutoring.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/King-with-Abs-1024x904.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.princetontutoring.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/King-with-Abs-624x551.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 334px) 100vw, 334px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-488\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The king had such great washboard abs that he abdicated the throne to pursue a career in modelling!<\/p><\/div>\n<p>While repeated exposure echoes the philosophy behind the most traditional methods, such as vocabulary flash cards, matching games, and crossword puzzle practice, the most common methods used by students today completely neglect two of the three most essential and most fun parts of vocabulary learning.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Read on below to find suggestions for making the study of vocabulary both fun and effective by bringing connection-making and the meaningful use of vocabulary back into the equation.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><!--more--><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Fun and Effective Ways to Increase your Vocabulary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>1. Make Ridiculous Connections To Your Vocabulary Lists<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong><\/strong>If you\u2019re assigned a list of words to study, find ways to draw connections between the vocabulary, your own life, and each of those words\u2019 meanings. From day one, you should create your own devices for remembering these words by getting in the habit of connecting ridiculous ideas to the definitions. Try:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Connecting words to family, friends, places, events that relate to the definition<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 90px;\">For example, the word \u201cpetulant\u201d has the word, \u201cpet\u201d in it. Since \u201cpetulant\u201d describes someone who is easily irritable, I can try to think of a \u201cpet\u201d that fits this description. My cousin\u2019s fluffy black cat who\u2019d hiss and claw at anyone within a ten foot radius is unforgettable and fits the profile of a petulant creature purrfectly.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Making associations with a word based on its sound, then connecting it to the definition<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\">For example the word, \u201cparsimonious,\u201d sounds like someone with a bad accent saying the word \u201cmoney\u201d or even \u201cpurse\u201d in it, which is great since it describes someone who is greedy or stingy. Mentally hearing \u201cm\u014dn\u0113\u201d whenever you see the word would make remembering the definition easy.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Drawing pictures to illustrate a silly scenario or image to connect to the word and definition<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\">Here\u2019s an unforgettable one:\u00a0the word \u201cabdicate\u201d means to give up the throne or relinquish power, but all ll I can think of is \u201cabs\u201d when I say this word, and this doesn&#8217;t really relate to kings and queens\u2026 unless I can create a silly story about it. So to remember the definition, just think of a\u00a0king who developed a great six-pack. He had such great washboard abs that he abdicated the throne to pursue a career in modelling! Drawing a king with abs next to the word would help me associate the word with the story and then consequently to the definition.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. Make Connections to Word Roots<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Personally, I enjoy making connections between root words and Pokemon. For example, Psyduck, who, though often plagued by headaches and general dimwittedness, has great psychic attack moves, which relates to the root \u201cpsych\u201d for <em>mind<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The Pokemon, Metapod, is another great example since he has essentially no function other than as an intermediary stage between two evolutionary forms. This makes the root \u201cmeta\u201d or <em>change<\/em> perfect since this is his predominant purpose&#8211; to change one evolutionary form to another.<\/p>\n<p>There are plenty of other ways to use the meaning of root words to study. Often root words are hidden within authors&#8217; character names, creatures, and places (particularly in the science fiction and fantasy genres). Check out my <a title=\"Root Words Blog\" href=\" http:\/\/blog.princetontutoring.com\/2013\/12\/root_words\/\">next blog post<\/a> for more examples of creative uses of root words within Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, and more!<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>3. Social Studying<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Once you have come up with off-the-wall ways of remembering definitions, share them with friends.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li dir=\"ltr\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Get together to play a game like \u201cCelebrity\u201d or \u201cPassword\u201d with vocabulary words. Forcing your teammates to guess the definition or vocabulary word based on use of the word in a sentence, a one word clue, or acted out clue will make them easy to recall come test day.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Or try playing a game like \u201cPictionary\u201d in which you must illustrate an assigned word so that you teammates can guess it. Drawing examples of the word or drawing your own bizarre clues will serve as great meaningful application of the words.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The words that are especially difficult will be the most memorable after study techniques like these since you\u2019ll be forced to say, do, and draw ridiculous things to try to get your teammates to correctly guess the word. Playing fun vocabulary games will make the difficult terms unforgettable.<\/p>\n<p><strong>4. Record Vocabulary From Your Favorite Reads<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">For improving your overall use of vocabulary words, instead of studying lists of words that you have little interest in, create a glossary of words that you find in your latest books. Alternatively, find online vocabulary lists for the book you just picked up. Try reviewing the list of terms for your book from a website such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vocabulary.com\/lists\/\">Vocabulary.com<\/a>\u00a0to help you pick up on new words.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Associating new words with favorite characters and settings will help you connect the words to your prior knowledge.\u00a0For repeated exposures of these personal vocabulary words, try taking a screen shot of each vocabulary word and definition, then put them in a folder, and set your computer&#8217;s screensaver to cycle through them!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to a review of vocabulary acquisition research, the three most effective methods of vocabulary acquisition requires students to: connect new vocabulary with what they already know experience repeated exposure to new words use new vocabulary in meaningful ways While repeated exposure echoes the philosophy behind the most traditional methods, such as vocabulary flash cards, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5,1,51],"tags":[15,16,53,52],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.princetontutoring.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.princetontutoring.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.princetontutoring.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.princetontutoring.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.princetontutoring.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.princetontutoring.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":608,"href":"https:\/\/www.princetontutoring.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475\/revisions\/608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.princetontutoring.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.princetontutoring.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.princetontutoring.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}