Author Michael McCarthy, Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Nottingham and co-writer of the Vocabulary in Use series for Cambridge University Press, gives us some advice on how to learn vocabulary.
First of all, I think it does help to write down new words, keep a notebook. It doesn't have to be a big notebook, it could be an electronic notebook, you could you use Smartphone, but always write down new and interesting words, that's the first tip
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The second tip is always write those words either in a short sentence or together with another word that it collocates with, or just make a couple of notes about the context in which you heard or read the new word.
The next tip is to keep looking at that notebook, come back to those words time and time again.
Another tip is to try to relate new words to your personal life in some way. So, for example, if you see a new word, can you connect it with any experience in your life? Can you use it to describe a person that you know, someone in your family or a friend? Can you use it to describe some experience that you've had? So making it relevant to you personally is probably one of the best tips of all.
Finally I would say this, that there will be hundreds, thousands of new words that you will meet as you read and listen to English, but the best tip of all is if you hear the same word coming back three or four or five times, then that's an important one that you simply must learn. Many other words might not be so important, you may only hear them or read them once, but if you hear them and read them repeatedly, then those are the important words that you should try to them.
Food luck with your learning of vocabulary.
