The easiest way to learn new vocabulary

Pronunciation.  Form.  Meaning.

I now prefer to teach pronunciation of new vocabulary well ahead of teaching meaning and form, in a similar way to the Pimsleur method, as I describe below. I use interleaving of new words in a graduated way with clear breaking down of sounds from the end to the front of the word to master more complicated words.

I teach pronunciation first, as I would with a child, who does not need to know the written form or even complicated use until much later.  I remember my daughter being taught some quite big words in kindergarten, simply as a game.  The teacher would drill them as a group in words which they were not even ready to understand or use, and the children loved it!  It was so cute hearing little three year olds proudly repeating words such as con-ver-sa-tion, med-it-a-tion, u-ni-ver-si-ty and hos-pit-al.

How to start learning a new word.

Pronunciation, in particular, is introduced to my students via small video files with close ups of my mouth saying the word, see this example for accommodation words.  This is important so that the mechanics of making the sound by the form of the mouth can be learned and practised first.  There is time on the recording after each sound is made for the learner to repeat the sound.

Breaking down bigger words into sounds, starting with the last syllable, is a good way to understand the rhythm of the word, and where the stress lies.  Each sound can then easily be repeated until the whole word is created.  More words can be introduced and drilled in the same recording, going back to earlier words with a reasonable interval between each new word.

For the first three days the same video should be watched and the sounds of words, or words being built in the way described above, is repeated by the student.  By the third day, the student should have a thorough understanding of how these words should sound and how they can confidently and accurately say them.  This method is suitable for both beginners and advanced learners to learn a group of new words for an upcoming learning exercise involving these words.

On the fourth day, there is form.

Form is undoubtedly important, but still I don’t think reading or writing the word is helpful because the word needs to be understood with the mouth before anything else.  On the fourth day, a new recording can be introduced with the same words, which can now be effortlessly repeated by learners.  Learners can say these words in such a way that they will be easily understood with pronunciation more like that of a native speaker’s, rather than thickly accented with their own language.

At this point, new words can be heard in simple sentences and repeated.  Again, this helps for the rhythm of the word to be further ingrained and, if the sentences are simple enough, for some meaning to be guessed.  Hearing and repeating the form of the word in a sentence can demonstrate both collocation and register.  But still, at this point, pronunciation is king.

The second recording can be listened to for a couple more days as a drill, in the background, or in a more studied fashion, again repeating after each word and sentence in a graduated way.

On the sixth day, there is “proper learning”.

Finally spelling is introduced, and the whole sentence, which includes the word, can be studied.  This can be in the form of a grammar lesson, or with conversation practice or a writing exercise.  For beginner students, they may not even be at a place where they are ready to use a particular word, just as the three year olds were generally not using the words they were learning to say.  To already have mastered the pronunciation though, means that brain energy can then be focused on the other important things to learn about the word.

So why have I switched around the hallowed MFP?

When I was studying for my Certificate in English Language Teaching of Adults (CELTA), which is one of the base qualifications needed for teaching English as a second language, the method for teaching vocabulary was known as MFP.  MFP stands for Meaning, Form and Pronunciation which at the time was considered the best order to tackle learning words.

To do this, you start with eliciting the meaning, preferably by asking questions with easy yes and no answers.  This sounds fine in theory, but even the simplest words often do not have meanings where you are able to elicit the meaning properly with a concept checking question (known as CCQ).  These convoluted questions may leave students scratching their heads rather than knowing where you are going with this.

Can you guess the meaning of this word?

As I have said, I do agree that it is not a good idea for students to see the word in its written form first.  This is because their brain then gives them a way to pronounce it based on their existing knowledge of how letters sound in their first language.  So if I see ‘je ne comprende pas’ I will put a bad pronunciation on this based on reading the English sounds I know, rather than correct French pronunciation.

However, how do we introduce form before pronunciation without someone seeing the spelling of a word first?  The image below illustrates one way.  Is it just a happy accident if a student can guess the word though, presumably because they already know it?

Introducing form after meaning, before pronunciation also seems difficult without giving students the written form and thereby making correct pronunciation less likely to be correctly mastered.  Form includes use, collocation etc as illustrated above.  (The dilemma for students is that if they came across a word they didn’t know, they would need to spell it to look it up in a dictionary.  My solution to this is at the end of this blogpost.)

Finally, now would be the time to introduce pronunciation, giving students a little bit of time for individual drilling and choral drilling.  My issue with that is that a small amount of time given to pronunciation is not enough.

The genius of the Pimsleur method.

When I learned French with the Pimsleur method, I did not look at a written word until I was three months in, and even then, I actually have not bothered with writing and spelling as I have no need at this stage for a producing written French language.  And yet I can make a pretty good go of pronouncing the French words we covered including pronouncing words with the troublesome French R, (of which we have no English equivalent), without effort or even thought.

Speaking is the top priority in the Pimsleur method, and this is drilled with graduated interval recall, where vocabulary is repeated with the optimal spacing for information to move from short-term into long-term, or permanent, memory.  Pimsleur also uses the principle of anticipation, where asking for understanding, pausing for a response, and then reinforcing the correct response further drills the meaning of the vocabulary.  And core vocabulary is key – Pimsleur courses deliberately limit the amount you learn at any one time, giving your brain a chance to internalise each new item before moving on.

Introducing the pronunciation before the spelled word would therefore be better to look like this:

I am now committed to teaching pronunciation first, with a lot of time for students to drill and self-correct, just as children do when learning their first language naturally.  I hope you understand and support my reasons for doing this, as I have explained above.

I also recommend students use the Cambridge Dictionary audio player to create DIY pronunciation drill mp4 files for personal use to learn how to pronounce all new vocabulary first.