Are Eyeballs
the Best Way to Learn
English Words?
Learn English words? Eyeballs? What are we really asking
here?
What I am really
asking is:
Is it better
to learn by reading
or by listening ?
The short answer is: it depends.
What do you need to learn for?
Written tests
If
you are studying to pass a written test, then eyeballs are the best way
to learn English words. That is, study by reading.
This is
also true for work that requires a lot of reading, and writing.
Translations, business correspondence, and other related
work.
Our visual memory is much better if we have to only recognize
the content, not reproduce it. Our visual memory is also
better
at capturing many details. It can be strenthtened even more
if we
arrange the information in spatial diagrams that show relationships
between the information.
***BUT***
Social
Situations
In social situations, listening and speaking are going to be your best
way to learn English words. This means listen to the
new vocabulary, prefereably in context. If you listen many
times,
and also practice speaking the new vocabulary (repeating what you hear,
and then making your own sentences), you can greatly increase your
listening (auditory) memory.
Auditory memory is not as detailed (rich) as visual
memory, but it is better when we need to actually use the words we are
learning in conversation. Auditory memory works well
when we
learn things in a sequence; we can remember it better. This
goes
back perhaps to the oral history traditions that humans had for most of
our unrecorded history.
Listening to new words in context
helps strengthen the habit of guessing the meaning of a new word from
context. This helps us 'learn on our feet' in real life
situations. We can start to add new words to our vocabulary
in
everyday English life.
How to learn
English words by listening.
Listen
to the words in context. Try to guess the meaning from the
general story (the context) and look up the meanings later to confirm
your ideas. Reviewing verbally adds a new dimension to the
memory
and strengthens it, so after you hear it, repeat it out loud. Then if
we draw pictures to represent the meanings, the memory is even
stronger. Finally, if we review the information on an
interval
basis, we can learn much more information much faster.
Happy learning!
Longing for Equality
Verb
List
1. Level out
if a rate or amount levels off, it stops rising or falling and it stays
at the same level.
2. Chip in
to give an amount of money, especially when a group of people are
giving money to pay for something together
3. Hold out
if you hold out for something, you beleive that it could happen
4. Long for
to have a desire for; to yearn for; to crave for
5. Phone up
to telephone someone
This text will be replaced
Craig
told his friends that things were difficult in southern
Africa. Craig
used to work there as a volunteer, and now he wants to help children in
Africa. He asked his friends to chip in
to support a foster child through Unicef. He has been phoning
his friends up one by one. He told them that the
new ecnomic problems are very hard on Africa and they won't level
off for a long time. He is holding out
for ten friends to help him by chipping in.
Craig is an idealist and he longs for a fair world
where all people are equal.

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