learning vocabulary. I once asked a group of students: "If you learn 100 English words,

how many will you remember next week?" They gave me different answers. Maybe 80, 50, I

don't know. Then I asked: "How many will you remember next month?" They gave me lower answers:

perhaps 10, 20. Then I asked: "How many will you remember next year?" Everybody - there

were perhaps 80 people there - everybody said zero! No words in a year. Now, this doesn't

have to be like this. It is possible to learn vocabulary and remember it. But, if this is

your situation, if you think "If Iearnt 100 new words, I would forget them all within

a year," then perhaps you should change the way you study vocabulary. In today's lesson,

I'm going to give you some simple advice to help you learn and remember vocabulary more

easily and more effectively. So, let's start with number one: you need to find examples

of how the word is used. Now, the best way to remember vocabulary is to use it. Before

you can use it, you need to know how to use it correctly. Use a good learner's dictionary

and try to get at least three examples of how the word is used in a sentence, and try

to remember these examples, so you understand how to use the words. Number two: learn one

meaning at a time. Many words have several different meanings For example, the verb 'set'

has 68 different meanings in the Longman dictionary! And that's just the verb. 'Set' can be a noun,

too. It can also be an adjective. Think how many meanings it must have. If you try to

learn different meanings at the same time, you will get confused, and it will be much

more difficult to remember the vocabulary. Number three: use the vocabulary in a phrase

or in a sentence. Let's imagine you're trying to remember the English verb 'dance.' Ok,

you can write it down in your book: 'dance,' maybe with a translation in your language.

But, that doesn't really help your imagination. Why don't you write down something like 'dance

beautifully,' 'dance like an idiot,' 'dance with your aunt at a wedding'? Using vocabulary

in a phrase or a sentence like this helps you to see a picture and this helps you to

remember the word. You can also make a full sentence. For example: "I feel shy when I

dance." Something like that. The more you use the word, the easier it will be to remember

the word. Number four: stick new words around your house. Many students have told me that

this is a great way to remember vocabulary. So for example, if you want to learn five

new words, you can write them on small pieces of paper, and stick them in different places

in your house where you will see them every day. So for example, you can stick one on

your bathroom mirror, one on the door of your fridge, one on the top of your computer screen.

Then you can change the words, perhaps every three days or every week, and it will be easy

to remember them. Number five: make new words into a picture, a story or a song. Unfortunately,

your brain (and my brain) - our brains are very bad at remembering facts. For example,

the meaning of new vocabulary in a foreign language. Your brain is just bad at remembering

this. But, your brain is very good at remembering pictures, songs and stories. So why not use

this to remember new vocabulary? So, if you want to learn ten new words, maybe try to

draw a picture, which includes all ten ideas. Or, try to make a short story, and practice

reading the story, with the new words in. This might sound strange, but trust me: it

works really well, and you're using your brain in the best possible way. Your brain is good

at remembering things like this. So there you go: five simple ideas that you can use

to learn vocabulary more easily and with a higher success rate. I hope that lesson was

useful for you. If you want to read the text of this lesson, come to our website: www.oxfordonlineenglish.com.

We have many other free English lessons as well, and new lessons every week. That's all

for today. Thank you very much for watching. I'll see you next time. Bye bye!