How to Grow your Foreign Language Vocabulary Faster

If you would like to achieve fluency in a foreign language you are learning, you need to learn a lot of new words, i.e. grow your foreign language vocabulary. This is the reason a lot of language learners drop their study: they feel that there are too many words in a language and it will take ages before one learns enough of them to hold a decent conversation on topics other than the weather or how to get to the nearest train station. But what if you could learn new words faster? How do you actually do it?

Before answering this question, however, let’s look at the things that slow you down when you learn new words.

What Slows You Down When You Learn New Words

Learning new words might take a long time for a number of reasons. First, you just don’t really learn them. Yep, that’s right. You have your lessons with a teacher or attend a language course and you think that new words that pop up in texts, exercises and dialogues, will eventually stick. And “eventually” might take a while. Especially if you don’t read or listen a lot or if your level is higher than beginner and the words you don’t yet know are the ones that are used not too frequently. So, if you want to grow your vocabulary faster, you’d better make a conscious organised effort to learn those new words.

Second reason is you try to learn all of the new words you come across. There are two scenarios here. Both are not good. You either get overwhelmed by the number of new words you have to learn and stop learning them whatsoever. Or, if you are a stubborn nerdy type, learning new words gradually turns into a boring chore slash rote learning, it takes up a lot of your time, so that you actually have less and less time left for your other language learning activities.

So, if you want to grow your vocabulary faster, you need to avoid fishing out each and every unknown word from the texts you read or listen to, recording them pedantically and then torturing yourself with constant cramming. The Spanish inquisition methods are not in vogue anymore, in case you didn’t notice. Your task is to be happy and radiate happiness all around making everybody happy too. So as not to kill your happy, you need to look up and record only keywords, i.e. words crucial for understanding of the given text and words you have come across more than once or often enough for you to get curious of their meaning.

Third reason why learning new words takes a long time is that you use wrong tools. And this is usually a good old pen and notebook where you write new words and their translation. Or, instead of a single notebook, it could be lots of notebooks. Or lots of sticky notes. Or lots of sheets of paper. Apart from it being not environmentally friendly and creating clutter on your desk or in your drawers or under your bed or in other random places in your house or office, it doesn’t help you learn new words faster. What you need in this digital day and age, is computer software to take care of storing your new vocabulary in one place and reminding you to learn and revise it regularly, such as, for example, vocBlocks.

Revising new words is actually the key to learning them. Even if you have made an effort to memorise a new word, it takes a few revisions to actually plant this word into your long term memory. Research shows that you need fewer revisions if you space them, gradually increasing the intervals. For example, instead of revising a new word a couple of times on the same day, you need to revise it a couple of weeks later, then a month, then two months later, etc. This method is called spaced repetition and it’s used by vocBlocks.

Once you have started recording carefully selected new words for regular learning and revision into trusted spaced repetition software that reminds you to practise, you have all the chances to grow your vocabulary faster.

Active is the Only Fast and Effective

How do you actually learn new words faster? The answer is you need to fully engage with the task. Yep, how active you are while learning your new words determines how fast you learn them. Learning new words means making them your own. And you cannot make them your own if you are not fully engaged, if you are not active, if you are rote learning.

There are a number of techniques that can help you make new words your own. First is recalling the context in which you came across this word, the thoughts, feelings and emotions you had when you were reading or listening.

Was it a romantic story with an unhappy ending that made you cry, a story of a life lost when a “viper” (the new word you came across) bit the young girl just as she had found the love of her life and was about to get married and live happily ever after? Or was it a documentary unveiling the history of dentistry from which you picked up the new word “barber” and learnt that they used to pull out teeth at the hairdresser’s?

When you learn words from a book, film or song that made you think, cry or laugh, you are already halfway there, you have almost made these words your own. And in case you forget where the word came from and what the story was (after all, you do need to revise words you record for learning even a few months later), vocBlocks allows you to record the context. With vocBlocks you have a separate field where you can copy and paste the context. If you read online and use dictionary extension vocBlocks LookUp, the context is recorded automatically for the words you have looked up. And if you have picked out a paper book, you can take a photo of the paragraph that has this new word as vocBlocks allows you to attach it to the word for your reference.

Second technique helping you make new words your own is using your own images to illustrate the words you are recording for learning. With vocBlocks, you have an option to attach images to your new words. For example, you would like to learn a phrase “tote bag”, you record it and then snap a photo of your new designer tote you have been flaunting recently. Now, this new word is not some abstract object anymore, it has a personal meaning for you as a proud owner of this expensive accessory.

Or, for example, you need to learn the word “jolly”, so you attach a picture of your best friend who is the jolliest person you know and this new word is as good as learnt. It works even if you use images that you have found online and not your own photos, you will still have been selecting the pictures that you like and that illustrate well the words you have chosen, so you will have been actively engaged with the task which is the recipe for learning new words faster. By the way, vocBlocks finds quality images for you when you type in your new word, so you can select the picture you like easily and quickly.

Third technique aimed at making the vocabulary you are learning your own is using your body. And I am not suggesting that you cover it with tattoos of new words. This might be super effective for remembering them but might not be too pleasing for the eye after a couple of years of applying this technique. So, it’s healthier for you and your skin to stick to spaced repetition software for recording new words. What I actually mean by using your body is performing the physical actions related to the words you need to learn.

It’s useful when you learn, for example, some verbs or adjectives. With movement verbs you just perform these movements while learning or revising the words with spaced repetition software. For example, if you need to memorise the word “gulp”, you actually gulp when the word comes up on the screen. Other examples are “nod”, “bow”, “wave”, “scream” and even “kick”. Isn’t it great when language learning implies some loud screaming and vigorous kicking? I bet your neighbours would never guess that all this noise coming from your dwelling is actually about education.

It’s not only verbs that describe your body movements that can get learnt this way. You can apply this technique when learning some other verbs that involve some movements, you just need to use your imagination as well. For example, if you need to learn the verb “wrap”, you could imagine that you are wrapping some presents while making certain movements with your hands; with the verb “gawk” you could stare ahead with your mouth open imagining that you are gawking while an IT guy is working some IT magic trying to fix some mysterious IT problem with your computer.

With adjectives you could imitate your reaction to the phenomena described by these adjectives or your feelings, actions and facial expression for adjectives describing your mood. For example, when the word that means “smelly” comes up on the screen you could imagine you have smelt mouldy cheese in your fridge and crinkle your nose. Or when you see the word “cute” you could smile and hug your teddy. Or with the phrase “withering look” you could imagine that your boyfriend has told you that you have put on a bit of weight and now you are looking at him with that facial expression that tells the lad that he’d better run and run fast.

So, if you would like to accelerate your foreign language learning by growing your vocabulary faster, you need to make a conscious organised effort to learn key words you come across while reading, listening or doing exercises, record these words in trusted spaced repetition software that would keep a schedule of learning and revision of your new words and remind you to practise regularly.

To memorise your new vocabulary faster while learning and revising it with spaced repetition software, you need to be fully engaged with this task and use some techniques that would help you make the words you are learning your own: record the context the new words come from, use your own images or the images you love to illustrate these words and use your body to plug in some muscle memory as well.

Happy fast learning!

P.S. Have you been inventive with learning your new words? Did you sing them? Did you rap them? Did you act them out? Feel free to share your stories in the comments below!

How to Develop your Speaking at Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced Levels

Plus Growing your Vocabulary with Speaking

Speaking is one of the four core skills that you need to develop when learning a foreign language.

For many people speaking is the ultimate language skill that they are trying to develop when learning a foreign language. Isn’t it cool to just open your mouth and start speaking a foreign tongue smoothly and effortlessly?

Speaking is arguably the most difficult foreign language skill. It requires quick and spontaneous verbal action in various situations. So, how do you develop your speaking to be able to do so? Let’s look at developing this skill at elementary, intermediate and advanced levels.

A quick note before you jump to your level below: even if your level is not, for example, elementary, I recommend not to skip this information as a lot of stuff that is relevant for elementary level learners is very relevant for intermediate and even advanced learners, too.

At the very start of elementary level, when you are just beginning to learn your foreign language, there is actually not much that you would be able to say. What you could do though is start preparing for speaking later. For example, you could practise your pronunciation.

When practising your pronunciation, you could follow a structured approach and train separate sounds, sounds in context and intonation. Or, if you don’t have time to work on your pronunciation separately and closely, you could just repeat words and phrases that you are learning after a speaker and read aloud in addition to reading in your head. Thus, you will be preparing yourself for speaking by reducing the physical barrier that each language learner faces.

By physical barrier I mean the inability of your organs of speech to move easily to produce the sounds of the foreign language you are studying. These sounds are different from those of your native language, so your organs of speech are not used to moving in a way they demand. When you try to pronounce words and phrases in your target language properly, your tongue, lips and soft palate refuse to move in the right way, it’s awkward, annoying and even painful. So, you feel like a clumsy toddler who is about to kick up a tantrum because she cannot articulate words properly and blooming adults don’t understand that she demands a bug and not a mug.

Whether you work on your pronunciation in a structured way or just repeat after a speaker and read aloud, you work out your facial muscles and train your organs of speech to deal with the new sounds and intonation. Later when you speak, you will be able to articulate in your target language without battling with your body over each and every sound or combination of sounds that are not typical of your mother tongue.

Once you have acquired some 400 words and phrases, you could already start speaking. However, as an adult language learner, who is used to having complex conversations in your native language seasoned with sophisticated vocabulary, mumbling some separate words or simple phrases seems like an embarrassing and pointless activity. So, you could think that it’s better to keep it quiet till you are able to give a lecture on your favourite quantum physics in your target language.

While there is certainly some truth in it and not everybody is happy to listen to you slaughtering their mother tongue trying to tell them some banalities, it misses a couple of points. First, Rome was not built in a day and the earlier you start with your speaking, the sooner and better your speaking develops. And, second, speaking doesn’t always mean communication (i.e. information exchange), well, at least not real communication when you speak with someone with a primary task of exchanging some information with them.

Other kinds of speaking, that are not real communication, include doing some speaking tasks or exercises and speaking with yourself. With these kinds of speaking, you eliminate the stress of real communication and focus primarily on the form (the language) and not on the content (what you are saying). Of course, what you are saying is still important and you cannot just talk absolute nonsense but in these artificial settings how you convey your message (making sure your pronunciation is comprehensible, using the right words and grammar structures) is more important than what you actually say.

While you are likely to struggle with a free flow speaking at elementary level, speaking tasks or exercises are more manageable as they are limited to a certain topic or situation. For example, when you speak based on a certain topic, you could introduce your family, describe your house, talk about the weather outside, etc.; when you act out a certain situation, you could improvise a dialogue in a restaurant, at the airport, at a grocery store, etc. using some typical phrases you have learnt.

If you use a course book for your language study, you have probably come across speaking exercises. And have probably skipped them. Indeed, when the task reads “Discuss with your partner...” or “Speak in groups of four...” etc. your instinct is to dismiss the task if you study alone. The problem is you are not just skipping a task that doesn’t seem suitable, you are skipping a chance to work on your speaking.

You don’t actually need a partner or a group of people to do this kind of exercises. This is especially true if you have a collection of false mustaches and a flair for acting :𝄽) And if you need other people’s input, you could hit a record button on your phone camera while you are speaking and upload this video in some language learning community to initiate a discussion.

Another kind of non-communication speaking is speaking with yourself. Unlike speaking exercises, this kind of speaking is free flow and can happen any time you feel like it, you don’t have to sit down, open books or switch on your computer and give a talk on a specific topic or act out a specific situation. You could just talk about whatever you want when you go about your other tasks like cooking dinner. For example, you could talk about your feelings or what is going on in your life.

If you prefer dialogues to monologues, you could pretend to have a conversation with a German or French friend. If your kids catch you muttering to yourself “Entschuldigung, ich bin Ausländer und spreche nicht gut Deutsch” or “Ca va tres bien, merci. Et toi?”, just explain that their mum hasn’t gone crazy and is just speaking to Hans or Marie. After all, who says that only kids can have imaginary friends?

Speaking to yourself will also help you get used to the sound of your own voice in this language and make you used to speaking it, so that you could actually open your mouth and speak this language in a real situation and not just smile, nod and say “Ja” and “Nein” (or “Qui” and “Non”), freaking out when you hear yourself, too.

As you progress to intermediate level, you will be able to have free flow spontaneous conversations more easily, so you could try real communication, for example, with a language partner online. Yep, time to make it real!

With speaking exercises, especially if you prepare for them rather than speak spontaneously, you think more about your vocabulary and grammar and keep a closer eye on using them correctly. With real communication, unlike with speaking tasks, you need to focus on both what you say and how you say it, and, consequently, you are prone to making more vocabulary and grammar mistakes and noticing them less.

Similarly, when speaking with yourself or your imaginary friends, you are more relaxed as obviously there is no one else who listens and can reply. Well, at least, if you don’t believe that Hans and Marie are real and you don’t actually hear them talking to you (time for a doctor appointment if this is the case lol). In contrast to it, when you speak to a real person you don’t know if they are going to understand what you are saying, if they are going to understand it the way you intended, what they are going to say in reply, etc.

So, with real communication, for example, with a language partner, you have less relaxed settings with more uncertainty and a higher probability that you will be making language mistakes. No wonder that learners, especially at the start when they are still new to communication in their target language, are not comfortable with speaking and sometimes are simply afraid to open their mouth.

There are a couple of things though, that could help you overcome this psychological barrier. First is dropping your ego and accepting that you will be making mistakes and your language partner might think you are less intelligent than you actually are because of how you speak in their native language. And this is ok, as mistakes are an inevitable part of learning and your language partner is not an examiner or a job interviewer whom you need to convince that you are smart.

For example, even if you are a CEO of a big successful company, you need to accept that you are just a foreigner when it comes to your target language, a foreigner who is bound to make silly toddler level mistakes. Just relax, breathe and keep speaking. If you are determined to improve your speaking, you won’t be this clumsy toddler forever, you will learn.

So, embracing your clumsiness and silliness when it comes to speaking this language, curbing your perfectionism and giving yourself permission to make mistakes so that you could learn from them, is one of the ways to deal with the psychological barrier when speaking.

Second thing you can do to reduce this psychological barrier is not comparing yourself to other learners or native speakers and focusing on carving your own way of developing your speaking. It doesn’t mean that you need to completely ignore what others are doing and dismiss their experience altogether. It means that you need to accept that different people have different circumstances and preferences which impacts the end result.

For example, if you are an introvert and speaking is not something you prefer doing when learning your target language, your speaking might be not as developed as that of someone who keeps chatting away in their target language with their three hundred and thirty-three friends slash language partners on Skype.

So, turning down the competitive jealous notes, so that they don’t blare out loud and drown you in negative emotions, you need to turn up the inquisitive notes that make you notice what others do, adapt some of it for your own study and learn by the mistakes they make.

Once you have made it to advanced level, it is important not to stop improving your speaking. Some of the challenges you could set for yourself are, for example, audio only and group conversations.

Audio only conversations could be either phone conversations or Skype ones without video. Such conversations can be quite challenging as you don’t see the person you are talking to, the movement of their lips, their gestures, facial expression, etc., so it’s more difficult for you to understand what they are saying.

For example, you could have audio only conversations with your language partners via Skype. Just explain to them that the purpose of this inconvenience is practising your target language in a variety of settings. After you have practised in this way, you will be able to have more successful interactions over the phone, should you need to make a phone call in this language.

Another challenge you could set for yourself to improve your speaking is group conversations. Having a group talk is very different from having a dialogue. With a group conversation, you have to deal with individual accents, manners of speech, vocabulary preferences of more than one person. On top of it, if you are discussing something, you have to deal with multiple ideas, opinions and perspectives, and of course, express your own, too.

Group conversations can be either online or face to face. It’s easy to have an online group conversation: you can initiate a group call with some of your language partners, provided that you have more than one of those. Alternatively, you can post in your language learning community asking if anyone wants to have a group call with you.

If you struggle to engage your conversation partners at the start of such a call, you could draw and send out some sort of agenda or plan for this meeting to avoid awkward silence at the beginning or stalled conversation throughout. It is also helpful in the case when your partners have different language abilities so that those who need it could get prepared for the call beforehand.

Face to face group conversations are more difficult to organise but there is nothing like meeting up in person with people you share your language learning passion with. Also, if you don’t have too much time for your language practice, you could both work on your language skills and have a night out. Just find people in your area who speak the language you are learning and meet up with them for a beer and a chat. There is actually an app that can help you with your quest Meetup

Face to face interaction with a group of people is really beneficial for developing your speaking. It can be quite challenging not only because you are talking to more than one person. In addition to it, when you meet somewhere, there is a lot going on around: music playing, other people chatting, a waiter interrupting, people turn and move about while talking and not just sit facing you all the time as on Skype.

Even when you are speaking your target language in less challenging settings, for example, with your usual language partners on Skype, you can sometimes find yourself not really fluent even with your advanced level. And that’s absolutely normal. Sometimes the gods of smooth effortless conversation are not on your side and you feel you cannot find the right words, are screwing your grammar and on the whole feel like you are far from being advanced at the language you are learning. Just remember that this can happen even when you speak your native language, so relax and keep talking.

Growing your Vocabulary with Speaking

When it comes to growing your vocabulary, speaking and writing are two activities that help you make the vocabulary, that you have picked up while reading and listening, your own. It means once you have used a new word or phrase while speaking or writing, it becomes personally meaningful to you and you are more likely to remember it and use it again and again.

Very often, however, language learners struggle to recall words that they need while speaking. Unlike with writing, you cannot just look it up, you cannot put a conversation on hold and start looking for this word. It is especially frustrating when you cannot recall a word or phrase you have literally just come across the other day while reading or listening. You feel this word would be just right for what you are trying to say, would be a perfect match for the situation, would just nail your idea. But no, it’s gone and you have missed a chance to add it to your vocabulary.

Of course, if you cannot recall a word or phrase, there is a workaround and you can often paraphrase (i.e. use other words) to keep the conversation going. Very often though, a substitute phrase or a lengthy description instead of one word that you cannot recall or vigorous gesticulating and saying “Well, you know that thingie”, leaves you deeply unsatisfied and wondering if you do all this reading and listening for nothing.

There will be fewer instances like this and your chances of solidifying your new vocabulary with speaking will increase if you do not just read and listen but actually learn the new words and phrases you come across. When you use My vocBlocks and practise with Memoriser’s spaced repetition schedule, you learn new words more effectively, spend less time on it and, consequently, have more time for speaking and other creative language activities that give you a chance to use your new vocabulary and make these words your own.

If a word “repetition” makes you yawn, I get it. Some people might think that repetition equals rote learning. With vocBlocks it is not the case. You do different exercises to practise your new vocabulary, you play the sound and you can liven up your new words with your own images. Isn’t it cool to have a picture of your husband next to the new Spanish word “gruñón” you are learning?

In addition to your own pictures, in My vocBlocks you can record the context in which you have come across this word as a reminder. And when you use vocBlocks LookUp for reading online, the context is recorded automatically for the words you have looked up. With the familiar context to refer to, you are not learning “cold” words: you recall the text this word came from together with emotions and thoughts you had when you were reading it.

Working on your new words and phrases with vocBlocks helps you plant them in your brain so firmly and deeply, that they just roll off your tongue when you speak. All you need to do is spend about five minutes per day doing exercises with Memoriser when you get notifications in your inbox.

The result: you will be using these new words when you speak, will be using more and more of your new words when you speak, will be growing your vocabulary with speaking.

Happy speaking!

Want to develop all four core foreign language skills? Check out our other posts to learn how:

How to Develop your Reading at Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced Levels

How to Develop your Listening at Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced Levels

How to Develop your Writing at Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced Levels

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How to Develop your Writing at Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced Levels

Plus Growing your Vocabulary with Writing

Writing is one of the four core skills that you need to develop when learning a foreign language.

Let’s first define writing. “Writing is a medium of human communication that represents language and emotion with signs and symbols. In most languages, writing is a complement to speech or spoken language. Writing is not a language, but a tool used to make languages be read." [source]

As you know from history, people used to scribble on cave walls, clay tablets, bark, papyrus, etc. This was all writing. In our digital age, we are witnessing a shift from handwriting on paper to creating digital documents by typing.

Handwriting on paper still plays a big role, however, especially when one thinks about education in general and learning languages in particular. After all, there are so many brilliant resources for learning languages in the form of physical course books.

So, in this post, by writing I will mean both handwriting and typing, as learners of foreign languages are likely to be using both modes.

A quick note before you jump to your level below: even if your level is not, for example, elementary, I recommend not to skip this information as a lot of stuff that is relevant for elementary level learners is very relevant for intermediate and even advanced learners, too.

At elementary level, you will mostly be dealing with separate words and short phrases. So, at the start, you will be taking writing in your target language in baby steps, too, and your writing will be limited to separate words and simple phrases or sentences.

As nowadays the tools for correcting spelling are quite advanced and reliable, you might be tempted to skip learning how exactly the words you are trying to remember are spelt. After all, as a busy adult, you don’t have too much time for learning your foreign language and might want to save time on tasks that do not seem too important.

However, you need to be cautious with setting the bar too low here. The reason you can get away with spelling mistakes in your native language is because they are minor mistakes. For example, in your native language, it’s not a problem if you cannot remember if the word “company” is spelt with an “a” or an “o”, you just type it and a spell checker will correct it. A spell checker is your best friend when it comes to typing: it won’t look down on you because of your gaffes, will never accuse you of being ignorant or uneducated.

With your target language, however, if you set the bar too low and are too relaxed about spelling from the start, you risk skipping more than just correct spelling. As a beginner, who doesn’t know anything about the language yet, you risk throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Spelling of any language is a system that you need to gradually understand and get used to. So, aiming at getting your spelling correct when writing is far from being a waste of time.

For example, if you learn French, you have noticed that the spelling is not phonetic, i.e. there is a big gap between pronunciation and spelling of the words, so spelling is an extra pain in the rear when you learn new words. It doesn’t mean that French words have some random spelling, though it might well seem so for you as a beginner. There are certain combinations of letters that produce certain sounds, so as you keep writing in French and aid your practical efforts with theory, you memorise these combinations of letters and get more comfortable with these weird clusters.

Another example is Russian. Once you have come to grips with the Cyrillic monsters, the spelling system is not as bad as French but still not phonetic, so you have to learn correct spelling. While you probably don’t have to obsess about spelling adjectives with one “n” or double “n” (“н”/“нн”) correctly (even native speakers can get it wrong), other spelling rules help you with adequate language acquisition. For example, spelling of nouns with an “o” or an “a” (“o”/“a”), an “i” or an “e” (“и”/“е”) in the roots of words correctly helps you recognise related words by the same root and not get lost among all different forms of these words.

Even if you aim at getting your spelling 100% right, you will be making spelling mistakes from time to time. That’s where a spell checker comes in: it will correct your minor mistakes and typos. So, don’t get paranoid about spelling but keep your eyes and mind open to learning how words are spelt and when writing the words you are learning aim at spelling them correctly.

With the writing exercises in vocBlocks’ Memoriser, we have been trying to keep this balance of using your time efficiently when learning new words and practising accurate spelling. By default, the tool will accept minor spelling mistakes and typos so that you could progress with your task quicker. However, if you see that the spelling mistake you have made is not a typo and you would like to make sure you get the spelling 100% accurate, you need to click the thumb down button below the answer before you proceed to the next word. Thus, you will signal to Memoriser that you are not happy with your answer and would like the word to be shown again.

One of the very effective and level appropriate activities at elementary level is simple dialogues. So, in addition to writing separate words and sentences, you could practise writing dialogues that you are putting together from the phrases and words you are learning. Of course, here comes a question of time as usual: it is much quicker to copy and paste. However, if you would like to remember the words and phrases better, you’d better type them from scratch: it will take longer but it won’t be a waste of time as you will eventually learn the words and phrases from these dialogues quicker as well as the whole dialogues to perform them in front of a mirror or with your language partner/teacher.

As you progress to intermediate level, you will be able to manage more complex input, i.e. read and listen to more complex materials in your target language, and also produce more complex output yourself both in writing and speaking.

How much you speak and how much you write depends on your language goals which could be set by answering the question whether you need to use your target language in oral or written form more in order to achieve your personal or professional goals.

However, even if your primary goal is speaking rather than writing, you shouldn’t neglect writing if you are serious about your target language acquisition and would like to take it beyond casual conversations. Compared to speaking, writing gives you more precision and accuracy with your grammar and vocabulary.

First, when writing, you are likely to use more precise and advanced vocabulary and grammar, simply because you have more time to think, verify your ideas with some language community/a native speaker/a teacher, refer to a dictionary or other source, etc.

Second, while grammar and vocabulary mistakes don’t sound too bad when you speak, they are very visible when you write. And it is not only easier to catch these mistakes, it is also easier to correct them: with writing you get a second chance, you can go back, reread and amend.

For example, it is very easy for learners of English to mix up different phrasal verbs, especially when speaking. However, if you want to sound more authentic when speaking English, phrasal verbs are a must. So, before you confuse your foreign friends with a sentence: “I’d like to sing on with you, guys” while you meant to say “I’d like to sing along with you, guys”, you need to practise phrasal verbs by doing some exercises or using them when you compose something in writing.

With ready vocBlocks Phrasal Verbs you have exercises where you need to fill in the gaps in sentences by typing a correct verb. Unlike many vocabulary learning applications, vocBlocks allows you to free type your answers and not just choose them from the available options. We believe that writing answers from scratch without any prompts is a more effective and efficient way of learning these words that will ensure that you spontaneously use them later in speaking.

At intermediate level, you can also start using your writing for real communication, especially if you are too shy to communicate via speaking and mainly speak with yourself in the mirror, your cat or your language teacher.

In the old days, when it came to written interaction with native speakers of the language you were learning, you had only “snail” mail. Today, you have at least three modes of online communication in writing at your disposal: texting, emailing and posting.

If you are very new to any of these three modes in your target language, it’s easier to start with emailing. For this, you will need a language partner whom you could actually send your emails. They don’t have to be long at first, and if you and your partner hit it off, you can gradually increase the length of your emails. Obviously, you should be sensible and leave your war-and-peace-volume creations to your journal or diary, otherwise, your language partner might disappear quietly and politely.

Compared to emailing, texting (i.e. exchange of instant messages via Skype, WhatsApp, etc.) is trickier as very often it is real-time conversation albeit in the written form. So, you have to read (+ understand, of course) and type your messages quite quickly. Don’t worry though, the speed means you can be more casual with your grammar and vocabulary, use shorter phrases rather than sentences, slaughter punctuation, shorten those long words you cannot spell properly anyway and cherry top it all with acronyms. When you cannot find the right words, with texting it’s ok to resort to “non-verbal” communication like emojis and pictures.

Parallel to emailing and texting activities, you could practise your writing by creating posts, commenting and posting questions on social media, blogs and forums. For example, there are public and private Facebook groups for those who learn foreign languages where you could find like-minded language geeks and native speakers for general and language-specific advice (polyglots Olly Richards and Lindsay Williams have very helpful Facebook groups, for example).

Please, note though, that the primary purpose of this activity is sharing and getting information while developing your writing skill is a nice bonus. If you need to purely practise your writing, there are places where you can post your masterpieces and ask the community for a feedback and possible corrections. For example, italki’s notebook and busuu’s social have lovely communities happy to help you in your writing endeavours. Please, note, however, that not all corrections are made... hm, correctly, so you need to check the credentials of the user who made them.

At advanced level, you could add other, more challenging, writing activities to your writing range: writing essays or blog posts in your area of expertise or, if you happen to be a vlogger, you could write scripts for videos in your target language to reach new audiences.

For example, if you love travelling, you could practise your writing by blogging in your target language and telling the world about a hairy cow you got spooked by in Scottish Highlands, a scorpion on a stick you munched in China, an ostrich race you cheered in New Orleans; if you are a parent, you could blog and vent about your kids and rant about other parents in your target language; if you love cooking, you could translate into your target language and post some of your favourite recipes that help native speakers of your target language discover your national cuisine; if you are an avid reader and read a lot in your target language, you could write book reviews in this language helping others discover great books and find the ones suitable for them.

Well, the possibilities for writing at advanced level are endless, you just need to keep your eyes open for them and keep your writing development in mind.

Growing your Vocabulary with Writing

Writing plays an important role in growing your vocabulary as it makes learning new words more efficient. Of course, you can pick up new words by reading and listening but if you plug in writing, you can greatly increase your efficiency with learning new words.

With this in mind, we have included writing exercises into vocabulary practice with Memoriser. Once you have selected words you would like to learn from Ready vocBlocks or recorded your own in My vocBlocks and sent them to Memoriser, you are offered a range of exercises with these words. The most challenging, writing exercises conclude the learning stage. With these exercises, you look at the pictures, translation or explanation of the new words you are learning and type them in your target language without any prompts.

So, with reading or listening you need to come across a word multiple times before you remember it. But if you have to recall and write it yourself while doing some vocabulary exercises, with vocBlocks’ Memoriser, for example, or use this word while writing your own texts, you will remember it quicker.

Of course, speaking also helps you remember new words because you have to recall and actively use them yourself rather than just see or hear them. However, compared to speaking, when writing, you spend more time with the vocabulary you are learning, can work with a dictionary and other sources, can research different examples of usage of these words, look at the grammar side, etc.

There is a Russian proverb: “Что написано пером, не вырубишь топором”, which can be roughly translated as “What is written cannot be removed”. While this proverb is not actually connected to learning languages, it perfectly reflects the nature of writing: writing produces tangible stuff. So, when you use the new words you are learning in writing and not just in speaking, you remember them better.

Happy writing!

Want to develop all four core foreign language skills? Check out our other posts to learn how:

How to Develop your Reading at Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced Levels

How to Develop your Listening at Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced Levels

How to Develop your Speaking at Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced Levels

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How to Develop your Listening at Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced Levels

Plus Growing your Vocabulary with Listening

Listening is one of the four core skills that you need to develop when learning a foreign language.

Listening is a skill that can get overlooked, especially when the main sources of your target language are written texts. With modern technology today, however, when video and audio content has become so easily accessible and so widespread, you have to develop your listening skill in your target language, so as not to miss out on lots of opportunities to progress with your study and get access to more content and more exciting content. So, let’s look at how to develop listening at different levels.

A quick note before you jump to your level below: even if your level is not, for example, elementary, I recommend not to skip this information as a lot of stuff that is relevant for elementary level learners is very relevant for intermediate and even advanced learners, too.

At elementary level, when you are just starting to learn a foreign language, your vocabulary is limited, so listening is not something you would do a lot. Still, when learning new words, it is important that you not only read them but also listen to how they are pronounced.

First, listening to separate words will help you get used to the sounds of your target language before you actually start speaking and producing these sounds yourself. If you love how the language sounds, be careful not to get carried away: stick to separate words and short phrases you are able to understand.

As you won’t be able to understand much at this point, listening to larger doses of language doesn’t make too much sense. You are likely to get distracted and start daydreaming about sunny beaches of Italy if you are listening to Italian, busy streets of Morocco if you are listening to Arabic or luxurious spas of Turkey if you are listening to Turkish. In other words, your “listening” will have nothing to do with language learning listening.

Second, listening to separate words will help you avoid some pronunciation mistakes. For example, it will ensure that you put a stress in the right place, catch silent letters and don’t read them, notice certain sounds peculiar to this language and later work on them closely as part of your pronunciation training.

If the spelling of the language you are learning is not phonetic (what you see is not what you read), listening plus using transcription symbols for precision are a must .

Many good dictionaries, as well as a dictionary plugin vocBlocks LookUp, have both audio pronunciation for the words and their IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription. So, it’s worth getting acquainted with the IPA symbols because with transcription you see exactly which sounds comprise this or that word even if you don’t hear them clearly with audio.

For example, it is important for learners of English who can be certain of one thing only: uncertainty that they are reading new words correctly. So, every time you come across a new word and check its meaning in the dictionary, don’t forget to click that sound button and check its pronunciation. You might be surprised even if you are an advanced learner!

Even with languages which spelling is closer to pronunciation like, for example, Russian, you still have spelling rules that dictate that words are spelt not exactly the way they are pronounced. So, a dictionary with audio and transcription is very useful to ensure you learn a new word in all its dimensions and not only how it’s spelt.

However, listening to separate words won’t get you too far, as people speak in phrases and sentences and not in separate words. Well, at least if they are being eloquent and polite and not just shouting to someone to shut up or get lost.

Some languages like, for example, French have such wonder as ellison. Simply put, when speaking, French folks link words to each other so that poor foreigners have trouble saying where one word finishes and the next one starts. I am pretty sure that ellison was invented by French as some secret language weapon aimed at causing headache in foreign heads. So, even if you have been diligently checking audio pronunciation of separate words in French but haven’t had a chance to regularly listen to phrases and longer texts, you might discover that you cannot recognise even familiar words in sentences when ellison happens.

French joys aside, even if words do not blend with subsequent ones in the language you are learning and are pronounced very distinctly from each other like, for example, in German, they still sound different when they are included into a phrase or sentence: neighbouring sounds affect each other and do not sound the same as when they are isolated. Assimilation, reduction, insertion, all sorts of phonetic wonders happen there. You don’t even want to know if you are not a linguist. On top of it, intonation comes into play and some more meaningful words are stressed while others, especially auxiliary ones, are barely audible.

While at the beginning it’s phrases and short dialogues that you might want to tackle, as you progress to intermediate level, you need to increase the length of the audio pieces you listen to. But even at intermediate level, it’s better to stick to the materials for learners as most of the native level stuff is way too difficult for you at this point and your brain might not cope with this ordeal.

Please, kindly respect your grey cells and the language you are learning: your target language is there to transmit information and your brain is there to process it. If neither is happening, the language is just noise. Whether pleasant noise, as in the case with French, or not too pleasant, as in the case with German, but it’s still noise.

By the way, if you adore German as I do, you don’t really get it when people cringe when they hear it. The reason is, when you understand a language, the question whether it sounds pleasant or unpleasant is irrelevant as you don’t just listen to the sounds, you get the information you need. Or don’t need, if your language partner is telling you (for the fifth time!) the story of how he got drunk at his grandma’s birthday celebration.

Even though your listening materials should be suitable for your level, they need to be varied. And I don’t mean just varied content (different genres and areas of knowledge). In addition to varied content, you need to make sure you listen to your target language spoken by people of both sexes, different ages, social and ethnic backgrounds, etc. Obviously, it shouldn’t be native level stuff at this point with some cockney English thrown in, that actually natives would struggle to understand. Still, it needs to be spoken by different people with a variety of individual and group characteristics rather than just by a couple of youtubers whose language learning videos you are subscribed to or by a couple of speakers with perfect pronunciation who recorded audio for the whole course book.

At advanced level you can start gradually moving all your listening to the native level realm. This might be challenging at first but will eventually open up for you a whole host of opportunities to get loads of audio information in your target language. This, by the way, will help you increase your language input dramatically if you don’t have much time for reading but are able to do listening regularly while doing some mundane tasks like cleaning your lovely cosy dwelling, taking your fluffy animal companion for a stroll or taxiing your teenage divas to parties.

As with reading, advanced level is the time for you to focus on the content rather than the language itself, and switch some of your usual listening activities from your mother language to your target one. For example, you could listen to news in your target language or, if you are not too keen on keeping up with reality and are a fan of fiction, you could listen to some radio drama or audio books in your target language instead of in your native one as you usually do.

Listening Immersion

With listening, just like with reading, you need to immerse yourself in the language you are learning. Again, as with reading, by immersion I do not mean plunging into the native level materials: they should suit your level as you need to understand most of what you listen to.

Saying that, if you are not used to listening, you are likely to struggle to understand any material at the very start. Compared to reading, listening is a different path of acquiring information. So, if you have been mainly reading in your target language, i.e. have been taking mainly this path, your listening path lies there neglected and overgrown and you won’t be able to easily use it at first. With practice though you will improve and will be happily striding along your listening path enjoying your walk.

When you are just starting to immerse yourself into your target language through listening, there are some tricks that will help you understand better, so that you persevere with your listening and not give up so easily at the start.

First trick is listening to the same audio more than once. Usually, when listening for the second time you understand more. If you still feel that you are not happy with how much you have understood, listen to it for the third time. And probably fourth. Each time you will be able to catch more and more details, understand the text clearer and clearer.

It doesn’t mean though that you need to put some audio on repeat and bore yourself to tears listening to the same thing over and over again. If you are bored, you are very likely to zone out and even fall asleep, especially if you do your listening just before bedtime. Instead, choose several audio pieces for listening, rotate them, add new ones and drop the ones you have had enough of after a few repetitions.

What you will not get tired of listening to multiple times is songs. Well, at least, if you like the ones you have chosen. When listening to songs, rhythm, rhyme and melody help you remember the lyrics in no time, which is a definite bonus! Just don’t complain if you get an ear-worm or start noticing annoyed faces of your family members whom you have been terrorising with your singing performance in Russian, the language they don’t understand and, eh, don’t like.

Second trick helping you understand better, is listening with your headphones on. This will help you hear more clearly and also avoid distractions if you are listening while doing something else. You can turn up the volume if you still don’t hear clearly enough. Just make sure you don’t overdo it: even developing your foreign language listening skill is not a valid reason for you to go deaf. If your pink Swarovski-studded headphones do not match all of your outfits, don’t worry - you won’t always have to wear them while listening in your target language. Better listening comprehension is a matter of time and practice so gradually you will be able to understand more even when you don’t wear your headphones.

Third trick is sticking to the familiar content when choosing listening materials: you will be struggling with the language (the form), so the content should be more or less familiar to compensate for it. For example, if you are not too interested in politics and haven’t been keeping up with the news in your native language, including news programmes into your target language listening practice from the start is probably not a good idea.

Of course, another trick to aid your listening practice is transcripts. If you have a transcript of the audio you listen to, you can refer to it if you struggle to understand just by listening. But do try other tricks to make out as much as possible before you go ahead and grab the transcript.

Saying that, transcripts are indispensable, when it comes to growing your vocabulary while listening, as it’s not always possible to record a new word for learning when you hear it.

Growing your Vocabulary with Listening

While listening immersion is very useful for you to develop your listening skill and surround yourself with as much language as possible, transcripts are really useful if you would like to grow your vocabulary with listening.

It doesn’t mean that you have to refer to transcripts to fish out every single word you don’t know. If you do it, listening will no longer be an immersion experience plus you might end up with lots of new words 80% of which you don’t have to know at this point and will struggle to memorise.

Instead, I would recommend working with keywords (i.e. words important for understanding of the texts you are listening to) and also with words that you have heard several times.

Thus, you won’t be learning “cold” words which have little or no association for you. If you choose keywords, they will already be familiar as you will recall the context in which they were used. Besides, with keywords, as well as with words you have heard several times already, you will have had several repetitions of these words before you start working on putting them into your long term memory.

If you listen in your target language a lot and pick out several words per audio, it makes sense to automate your vocabulary learning with a spaced repetition tool, such as vocBlocks.

With a free dictionary plugin vocBlocks LookUp you both look up new words by clicking on them in your transcripts and have them saved for learning on a spaced repetition schedule.

We know that context is important when learning new words, so the words you have looked up with vocBlocks LookUp will be saved with the sentences in which they were used in your transcript. So, you will be able to refer to the context when learning your new words to avoid rote learning. And of course, you will have translation, transcription and audio pronunciation of these new words recorded automatically.

Happy listening!

Want to develop all four core foreign language skills? Check out our other posts to learn how:

How to Develop your Reading at Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced Levels

How to Develop your Writing at Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced Levels

How to Develop your Speaking at Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced Levels

Enter your email address at the right to receive updates from our blog and not to miss any upcoming posts.