A Quick Word on Context
Before introducing the techniques I’ve just mentioned, though, I need to make an important point that I believe is central to the acquisition of new vocabulary and the understanding of word meanings; that is, the importance of context. It is my belief that context is at the very foundation of vocabulary acquisition, and without it you will really make your life harder and things will be a pain in the neck to remember. Context, by the way, simply refers to the parts of a written or spoken statement that precede or follow a specific word or passage. So, in other words, what comes before and after a word.
Why is context so important when memorizing new words? Well, first of all, the meaning of words can change dramatically depending on context. Let’s pretend for a moment that you are learning English these days. How could you possibly memorize the meanings of the verb “get” out of a word list? “Get” is one of those words in English that has literally hundreds of definitions, and learning one out of those hundreds won’t get you very far, and won’t necessarily be that useful when you actually come across that word in real life, but find out it is used to convey a very different meaning from what you learned. Here’s an example sentence I borrowed from John Perry’s Structured Procrastination blog: