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How to learn English vocabulary that sticks

Reading a word list feels like progress, but memory research points to a few habits that work better. Here are six. They work with flashcards, a notebook or any app, not only ours.

  1. Test yourself instead of rereading

    Trying to recall a word strengthens memory more than reading it again. Cover the meaning, say or write what you think it is, then check. [1]

  2. Check the answer straight after a mistake

    A wrong guess teaches you little until you see the right answer. Look it up at once, then try the word again later. Testing without feedback helps least when you get most answers wrong. [2][1]

  3. Spread your reviews over days

    Seeing a word on several days works better than seeing it many times in one sitting. Short reviews spread out beat one long session with the same total time. [3]

  4. Sleep on new words

    Sleep helps new words settle into memory. A quick check the next day tells you more about what you have learned than a second check a few minutes later, which mostly tests short-term memory. [4][5]

  5. Practice writing words, not only recognizing them

    Knowing what a word means when you see it and being able to produce it are different skills, and practicing one only partly trains the other. Choose meanings, and also type words from memory into sentences. [6][7]

  6. Keep similar words apart at first

    Words with close meanings are easier to mix up when you learn them together. Group new words by topic instead, and add near-synonyms once the first word feels secure. [8]

How Word Skyline uses these habits

Every game asks you to answer from memory, not to reread. When you miss a word, you see the right answer. Words come back on a schedule spread over days, and we count a word as kept only when you write it from memory a week or more after you last saw it.

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Sources

  1. Rowland, C. A. (2014). The effect of testing versus restudy on retention: A meta-analytic review of the testing effect. Psychological Bulletin. doi.org/10.1037/a0037559
  2. Pashler, H., Cepeda, N. J., Wixted, J. T., & Rohrer, D. (2005). When does feedback facilitate learning of words? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.31.1.3
  3. Cepeda, N. J., Pashler, H., Vul, E., Wixted, J. T., & Rohrer, D. (2006). Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: A review and quantitative synthesis. Psychological Bulletin. doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.132.3.354
  4. Dumay, N., & Gaskell, M. G. (2007). Sleep-associated changes in the mental representation of spoken words. Psychological Science. doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01845.x
  5. Schimke, E. A. E., Angwin, A. J., Cheng, B. B. Y., & Copland, D. A. (2021). The effect of sleep on novel word learning in healthy adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. doi.org/10.3758/s13423-021-01980-3
  6. Webb, S. (2009). The effects of receptive and productive learning of word pairs on vocabulary knowledge. RELC Journal. doi.org/10.1177/0033688209343854
  7. Pan, S. C., & Rickard, T. C. (2018). Transfer of test-enhanced learning: Meta-analytic review and synthesis. Psychological Bulletin. doi.org/10.1037/bul0000151
  8. Nakata, T., & Suzuki, Y. (2019). Effects of massing and spacing on the learning of semantically related and unrelated words. Studies in Second Language Acquisition. doi.org/10.1017/S0272263118000219