Vocab Learning Strategies

As a student of languages, I am confronted with dozens of new words every week. My choices are: a. not study them, b. use my photographic memory or c. simply learn them. The first one doesn’t make sense because I would like to keep studying and eventually get a job as an interpreter or translator. The second one is impossible because I wasn’t born with such a memory. So, I’m left with only one option: I have to learn them.

uvocab

To be honest, I am a rather old-fashioned person when it comes to memorizing words. This is why I really like vocabulary books. I can fill in the blanks and thanks to different types of exercises, studying isn’t that monotonous.

The words that don’t stick in my head I write on flashcards, so that it’s easier for me to repeat them. However, we do live in the 21st century and as it is indeed much faster to use electronic devices, I am gradually adapting to my environment.

Describing exactly how I turn my flashcards may be a bit boring for you, so I decided to experiment with modern technology and tested a few, free of charge vocab-learning apps for Android. I actually found some good ones that I’d like to use in my future attempts to memorize huge amounts of vocabulary.

1.) uvocab: This one is my favorite because it provides so much information about every word in an extensive SAT list. As shown in the screenshot, you find its meaning, synonyms, antonyms, example sentences and even the etymology. You can listen to the pronunciation and there is a link that leads you to the monolingual learner’s dictionary of your choice. This app contains an extensive range of words that you can easily browse. Unfortunately, you can’t create your own list. After learning the given set of words, you can test yourself with multiple choice questions or word match exercises. Every word you fail to remember is automatically recorded and so you can review them again and again. Finally, yet importantly, it is also possible to create electronic flashcards.

ankidroid

2.) AnkiDroid is an app that allows the user to create their own flashcards. In contrast to the previous app, however, you have to write the flashcards without additional information. When testing yourself you see a screen that looks like the screenshot I provided. You have to type in your answer and can then check it. Simple to use, yet effective.

SuperCard

3.) SuperCard: With this one, you again have to write every flashcard yourself. There are four different ways to do that: 1) Typing the word in, 2) taking or 3) importing a photo and 4) writing it on the screen with either your finger or a stylus. Additionally, you can test yourself in three different ways. I recommend using this app as it is easy to use and very fast.

4.) Flashcards: This app lets you create your own flashcards or browse through all the flashcard sets that have been created by other users. You can either learn your cards by flipping through them or test yourself with multiple-choice questions. The definitions are provided by dictionary.com, which is, in my opinion, a disadvantage because this dictionary is not appropriate for English learners. There are only a few definition per word and dictionary.com, so it lacks exactness and that is what an English learner actually needs: Collocations, example sentences, all the different meanings of a word and the prepositions that go with them.

flashcards

I found many more apps for memorizing vocabulary, but these four are my favorites, as they are easy to use and actually help to remember new words. They are not filled with advertisements and have an appealing layout.


I hope I was able to give you a useful insight into the vocab app world and that you maybe consider using one of them.