In short
- Recalling a word from memory does more for later recall than studying it again, and learners often cannot tell the difference.
- Spreading practice over days and weeks beats packing it into one session, most clearly on tests taken weeks later.
- Reading gives words meaning and context, but gains from reading alone are partial, so pair it with deliberate practice.
- Word cards work best as one large, shuffled pack reviewed over days; the keyword method helps with some hard words, but its benefits are narrow.
Ask a class how they learn new words and many will say they read the list again until it feels familiar. Familiar is not the same as remembered. Memory research has tested many study methods, and only a few hold up well over weeks. This article goes through the main methods for remembering vocabulary: retrieval, spacing, reading, word cards and the keyword method. For each one, it sets out what the method is, what it is good for and where it falls short. It ends with a weekly routine you can set for a class.
What is the best way to memorize English vocabulary?
The best-supported way is retrieval spread over time. Pupils meet a word in a text, then bring it back from memory on several separate days, with some gaps of a week or more. Dunlosky and colleagues (2013) reviewed ten common study techniques. They rated only two as high utility: practice testing and distributed practice. Both helped learners of different ages and abilities, including in real classrooms. Rereading and highlighting were rated low.
The other methods have narrower jobs, as the table shows.
| Method | What it is | Good for | Limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retrieval practice | Recalling a word or its meaning without looking | Making a word last, and showing what has really stuck | Feels harder than rereading; needs the answer shown when recall fails |
| Spaced practice | Spreading meetings with a word over days and weeks | Keeping words for months, not just until Friday | Needs planning and a record of which words are due |
| Reading | Meeting words in a story or text | Meaning, context and many words at once | Slow, and you cannot choose which words a text repeats |
| Word cards | The word on one side, its meaning on the other | Fast, deliberate learning of the link between form and meaning | Shows little about how the word is used; easy to cram |
| Keyword method | A sound-alike word and a mental image link the new word to its meaning | A few hard, concrete words that will not stick | Narrow benefits that may not last; needs a good keyword |
| Rereading a list | Looking over words and meanings again | A quick first look | Rated low utility; feels effective but does not reliably help |
Retrieval: make pupils bring the word back
Retrieval practice means recalling something from memory rather than looking at it again. For vocabulary, the pupil sees the meaning and produces the word, or sees the word and gives the meaning, before checking.
Karpicke and Roediger (2008) showed why this matters. University students learned foreign language vocabulary through rounds of study and testing. Once a student had recalled a word correctly, the researchers changed what happened to it next. Further study of that word had no effect on later recall. Further testing of it had a large positive effect. The students' predictions of their own performance were unrelated to how well they actually did.
Pupils are no different. Rereading feels productive because the words look familiar, while recall feels slow and hard. The effort is the point.
Ways to make pupils retrieve a word
- Meaning to word. Show a picture, a translation or a definition, and pupils write the English word.
- Word to meaning. Say the word, and pupils explain or translate it.
- Gapped story sentence. Pupils fill the gap with a word they read yesterday.
- Three-question starter. Open the lesson with three quick questions on words from earlier lessons.
Limits. Retrieval works best when pupils can often succeed. In practice, when a word is gone, show the answer at once and ask for it again later in the lesson. Practice questions before a quiz covers feedback in more detail.
Spacing: spread the meetings out
Spaced practice spreads the same amount of practice over several sessions with gaps between them. Massed practice packs it into one session. Kim and Webb (2022) combined 48 experiments on spaced practice in second language learning, with 3,411 learners in all. Spacing had a medium-to-large effect on learning.
They also found a trap. Shorter gaps did as well as longer gaps on tests taken straight after practice. On delayed tests, longer gaps did better. A week of daily drilling on the same words can look like success on Friday and be gone a month later.
Equal gaps and gaps that grow longer worked about equally well in their analysis. So the practical rule is simple. Bring each word back several times, and make some of the gaps a week or longer. Spaced repetition for vocabulary explains how long the gaps should be and how to run a schedule on paper.
Limits. You need to know which words are due, so spacing needs a word list kept by week.
Meeting words in reading
Reading is how most words arrive with a meaning attached. A word met in a story has a sentence around it, a situation and often a feeling. Nation (2013), a standard reference on second language vocabulary, has a chapter on learning words from context and another on deliberate learning from word cards. Both routes have a place in a class plan.
Reading alone does teach words, but partly. Webb and Chang (2015) followed 61 Taiwanese learners of English who read and listened to ten graded readers. Relative gains in the 100 target words were 44% after the ten books and 37% three months later. How often a word appeared did not significantly predict whether it was learned. The authors concluded that frequency was probably one of many factors.
Good for: meaning, context, the words a word keeps company with, and many words at once. Limits: you cannot choose which words a text repeats, and the gains are incomplete. Reading gives the first meeting; the other methods give the later ones. For how many meetings a word needs, see how many times must a learner meet a word?
Word cards, used well
A word card has the English word on one side and its meaning on the other: a translation, a picture or a short definition. Cards are quick, and every turn is a retrieval if the pupil tries to recall before flipping.
Kornell (2009) tested how flashcards are best used. In three experiments, participants learned word pairs of the kind used in graduate admissions tests, with a web-based program. Studying one large stack was more effective than studying four small stacks separately, because the large stack spaced the repetitions. Spacing beat massing for 90% of participants. Yet after the first session, 72% believed massing had worked better.
Rules for using word cards
- Put the story sentence on the back with the meaning, so the word keeps its context.
- Look at one side and say or write the other before turning the card.
- Keep one large pack and shuffle it, rather than drilling small piles until they feel easy.
- Practise both directions. Meaning to word is harder, and pupils need it to use the word.
- Keep a card in the pack after the first correct answer. In Karpicke and Roediger (2008), dropping recalled words from testing hurt later recall.
- Go through the cards on several days of the week, not the night before a test.
Limits. A card holds a form and a meaning. It cannot show which words a word goes with, or when it sounds natural. That is why cards sit beside reading and writing, not in place of them.
The keyword method, for some learners and some words
The keyword method links a new word to its meaning in two steps. First, the learner finds a word in their own language that sounds like part of the new word. Then they picture that keyword together with the meaning.
Classroom example
A Spanish-speaking pupil keeps forgetting the English word carpet. The Spanish word carpa (a tent) sounds like its first part. The pupil pictures a circus tent made from a huge rolled-out rug. Next time they read carpet, the sound calls up carpa, the tent appears, and the tent is made of a rug.
Atkinson and Raugh (1975) tested the method with Russian vocabulary. On their most important test, learners using keywords scored 72% correct, against 46% for learners who studied in their own way.
Later reviewers were more cautious. Dunlosky and colleagues (2013) rated the keyword mnemonic as low utility. It was hard to use in some contexts, and its benefits appeared only for some materials and over short retention intervals.
In practice, keep it for a narrow job:
- A few stubborn words that have resisted other methods.
- Concrete words that are easy to picture.
- Classes where pupils share a first language you can use for keywords.
- Never as the main method for a whole word list.
A weekly routine you can set
The routine below combines the methods. It takes about ten minutes a day beside the reading. It is a sketch to adapt, not a tested program.
| Day | Task (about 10 minutes) | Method |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Read the new chapter. Choose six to eight key words. Pupils make a card for each, with the story sentence on the back. | Reading, word cards |
| Tuesday | Pairs test each other with the whole pack, meaning to word, including cards from earlier weeks. | Retrieval, spacing |
| Wednesday | Three-question starter: two of Monday's words and one from last week. | Retrieval, spacing |
| Thursday | Pupils write two sentences, each with a word they recalled without looking. | Retrieval, use |
| Friday | Mixed recall of this week's words and words from two and four weeks ago. A card recalled on two separate days moves to a monthly pile. | Spacing |
Classroom example (an illustration, not a study)
Class: 12-year-olds reading an A2 story about a lighthouse keeper.
Monday: key words harbour, lantern, crew, shiver, rescue and drift go on cards, each with its sentence from the chapter.
Tuesday: in pairs, Omar misses harbour twice. It stays in the pack.
Wednesday: 'The boat came back to the ______ at night.' Most of the class writes harbour.
Friday: lantern and crew were recalled on Tuesday and Friday, so they move to the monthly pile. Drift is still failing, so the teacher helps the class build a keyword for it.
Every word starts in the reading, and every review mixes in older words. If you have less time, keep the reading and one recall task a day, and drop the rest.
How iRead handles this
In iRead, four word games are regenerated every 24 hours from the vocabulary of the story the class is reading, with no teacher setup. A quiz runs after every session, and practice questions are available between sessions. Every game clear and quiz answer feeds one progress record per word, and a word cleared on two different days is marked Mastered. Teachers see retention per word, per game and per class, and the vocabulary games page shows each game.
The core principle: Test, don't reread, and bring each word back on separate days. Cards, keywords and games are all ways to create those recalls.
See it in iRead: Four word games are regenerated every 24 hours from the vocabulary of the story the class is reading. Every game clear and quiz answer feeds one progress record per word.
See the four gamesKey takeaway
Start from words met in reading, then make pupils recall them on several separate days, with some gaps of a week or more. Use word cards and keywords as tools, not as the whole plan.
Frequently asked questions
What is the fastest way to memorize English vocabulary?
There is no shortcut that lasts. The quickest route to words that stay is short recall practice on several separate days, starting from words met in reading. Karpicke and Roediger (2008) found that testing a word again did far more for later recall than studying it again.
Are flashcards a good way to learn vocabulary?
Yes, if pupils recall before flipping and keep one large, shuffled pack. Kornell (2009) found that one large stack beat several small stacks for 90% of participants, because it spaced the repetitions. Cards teach the form and meaning of a word, so pair them with reading and writing.
Does the keyword method work for English learners?
It can help with particular words. Atkinson and Raugh (1975) found large gains for Russian vocabulary. Dunlosky and colleagues (2013) rated it low utility overall, because its benefits were limited to some materials and short retention intervals. Use it for a few stubborn, concrete words, not whole lists.
Is reading enough to learn new words?
Reading teaches many words partly, but not reliably. In Webb and Chang (2015), relative gains from ten graded readers were 44%, falling to 37% three months later. Reading gives words meaning and context. Recall practice on later days makes the key words more likely to stick.
Why do pupils forget words they knew last week?
Usually because the practice was packed into a few days. Kim and Webb (2022) found that short gaps matched long ones on immediate tests but fell behind on delayed tests. Bring each word back on separate days, with some gaps of a week or more, and mix older words into every review.
Sources
- Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students' learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4-58. doi.org/10.1177/1529100612453266
- Karpicke, J. D., & Roediger, H. L. (2008). The critical importance of retrieval for learning. Science, 319(5865), 966-968. doi.org/10.1126/science.1152408
- Kim, S. K., & Webb, S. (2022). The effects of spaced practice on second language learning: A meta-analysis. Language Learning, 72(1), 269-319. doi.org/10.1111/lang.12479
- Nation, I. S. P. (2013). Learning Vocabulary in Another Language (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139858656
- Webb, S., & Chang, A. C.-S. (2015). Second language vocabulary learning through extensive reading with audio support: How do frequency and distribution of occurrence affect learning?. Language Teaching Research, 19(6), 667-686. doi.org/10.1177/1362168814559800
- Kornell, N. (2009). Optimising learning using flashcards: Spacing is more effective than cramming. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 23(9), 1297-1317. doi.org/10.1002/acp.1537
- Atkinson, R. C., & Raugh, M. R. (1975). An application of the mnemonic keyword method to the acquisition of a Russian vocabulary. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 1(2), 126-133. doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.1.2.126