Learn English Faster With These 4 Cognitive Strategies

A guide for ESL learners that describes some tips for improving learning and retention, as well as practical steps for using them

Learning English on your own can be difficult, though it’s even harder if you’re not using proper cognitive strategies. These types of strategies can help you remember everything from vocabulary to correct grammar form, and they can be incorporated into games, stories, or virtually any other activities that you might already be using. So if you’re looking to get an edge on your English-learning skills, here are some common cognitive strategies that are sure to help you in your ESL journey.

Strategy #1: Categorization

To strengthen your recall skills, any strategies that involve organizing new vocabulary words or phrases can be quite helpful. This process is called categorization because you can place parts of speech in a specific category so they’re easier to remember.

Whenever we link a word with another word, it’s often easier to recall both words if we can simply remember one of them. With categorization, we’re drawing links between multiple words, so instead of simply remembering one word as a means to recall another word, we can think of a category, which then helps us recall all of the words that belong to that category.

Activity: Categorizing Word Cards

A simple activity that you can use on your own is the categorizing activity, in which you organize new words you’ve learned into their respective categories.

The following steps outline how to carry out this activity, though you can make adjustments where needed to better suit your resources and topics:

1. Write down each new word you’d like to learn on a card, and make a list of the correct categories that each word would belong to (e.g. “spoon” would belong in the silverware category, whereas “chair” would belong in the furniture category).
   
2. Create small boxes that you can quickly place the cards into and label each box with a separate category from your list.
   
3. Flip the cards downward, so you can’t see the words. Now, one by one, turn each card over and place it in the box where it belongs based on its category.
   
4. Check your word/category list later to make sure that you did this correctly with each word and repeat the steps as many times as it takes until you can carry this out with accuracy.

Strategy #2: Repetition

The strategy of using repetition, also known as rehearsal, is one that most ESL learners are familiar with in one way or another because it’s easily the most commonly used strategy. The choices of how you use repetition are virtually endless, as you can incorporate it into everything from games to videos.

There are many types of repetition that you can use, especially when trying to memorize things on your own, If you’re simply repetitively saying things out loud to memorize them, which is a very common technique among learners, then you’ve likely used simple repetition before. However, in some cases, cumulative repetition may be more beneficial.

Simple vs. Cumulative Repetition

Simple Repetition:

You repeat a word, phrase, or block of text from start to finish as many times as it takes until it’s memorized.

Example: You would say the three sentences, “I will eat apples today. Tomorrow, I will eat grapes. Then, I will eat oranges.” You would read both sentences in full. After you say the word “oranges” at the end, you would start back at the beginning of the first sentence and repeat both sentences in order again.

Cumulative Repetition:

You repeat a phrase or block of text in chunks, by starting with one chunk, then, after repeating that one chunk, you would slowly add on another chunk at the end. You would then repeat both chunks together as a whole before adding on a third chunk, and so on.

Example: Instead of saying all three sentences about the apples, grapes, and oranges in the example above, you would say the sentence about the apples twice, before then adding the sentence about oranges after it while saying them both together. Only then, after repeating both sentences together, would you add on the third sentence and repeat all three together.

Which Type Should I Use?

Using simple repetition can work well when you have only a word, phrase, or small sentence to remember. However, cumulative can be much more efficient when trying to remember longer things, such as the words to a play, a page in a story, or lyrics to a song.

Strategy #3: Contextual Guessing

There will be times when you’re reading a passage from a story and come across a new vocabulary word that you’re unfamiliar with. Your natural inclination may be to look up the definition of this word by Googling it or checking a dictionary, but you should first resist this urge and try to decipher its meaning on your own by using the context around it as clues.

Activity: Guess the Meaning Activity

There are many free Guess the Meaning games available online, though this is typically how they work and one which you can play with your friends or a practice partner:

1. One person writes down a sentence with one word in the sentence that’s highlighted or fully capitalized. (e.g. “The CHARACTERS in the story went on a plane.”)
   
2. Four multiple-choice options are given for the meaning of the capitalized word, which might read, “What happens in the story,” “Where the story takes place,” “People in the story,” and “When the story takes place.”
   
3. You or the others playing this game must choose the correct answer to define the word “characters,” which in this case would be “People in the story.”

The question of “what happens” was answered already when it was stated that they went on a plane. The question of “where the story takes place” was answered when it was explained that it took place on a plane.

The question as to “when it took place” was answered when it was stated that they “went” on a plane, so we knew it took place in the past. We used all these clues to figure out that the only unanswered question was the “who” of the story, which were the characters, or people in the story.

This is what it means to use contextual guessing as a strategy and you can use this in many real-life scenarios to improve your English skills by figuring out what is said even when you don’t fully understand the meaning of every word.

Strategy #4 : Associative Imagery

Using imagery, whether it’s visual, auditory, or kinesthetic, is a great strategy, especially for those who have a strong imagination. Visual imagery is any that you can actually see with your eyes, while auditory imagery allows you to picture something based on what you hear, such as a story.

Kinesthetic imagery also relies on your imagination because you can imagine things based on what you feel. Using your imagination to associate new words with things can be done in many ways, and you can get quite creative when it comes to this.

Technique: Method of Loci (MoL)

A classic imagery technique that dates back as far as ancient Greek times is the Method of Loci, which allows us to associate new vocabulary terms with specific locations (i.e. locus) within an area that we can easily imagine.

You can use just about any area to do this, though your home is normally the best place because you’re most familiar with it, making it easier to remember and visualize.

How the MoL Technique Works

1. Imagine your home and the layout of your home, such as where the bedroom is, where the bathroom is, where the hallway is, etc.
   
2. Assign a new word or phrase to each of these locations. If, for example, you’re learning about the weather, then you can assign the words “sunny” to the bathroom, “cloudy” to the bedroom, and “raining” to the closet.
   
3. Once you attach these words to locations that you’re familiar with, you can imagine walking around the room and saying these words as you reach each location. In a way, this method also incorporates repetition because you can walk around in circles repeating this in your head.

All of this helps to memorize new words because you’re able to quickly recall the locations that are associated with them. This works particularly well when it comes to having to remember sequences of words in a certain order, such as the days of the week since you can imagine walking around a room or your home in a certain direction toward each location.

Personalize With Metacognitive Strategies

With so many strategies to choose from, none is a one-size-fits-all solution to learning English because everybody is different. Metacognitive strategies are those that require you to be objective and to look at your strengths, so you can determine which strategies best fit your learning style and needs. You should therefore always take a metacognitive approach when choosing which strategies to use and test out different ones until you find what works best for your particular learning style.