لغات عملیاتی

Chapter 05 : ACTION VOCABULARY

So many students waste time trying to memorize English vocabulary. They study long lists of words. They repeat the lists many times, trying to memorize the English words and their translated meanings. Unfortunately, research shows that 80 percent of vocabulary learned in this way is forgotten in less than a year. That’s a lot of wasted time and effort.

There’s another problem with this vocabulary learning method — it’s boring, and it kills long- term motivation. As a student, you must be very careful— killing your motivation is the worst thing you can do. Learning English is a marathon, it’s a long run. It requires high levels of motivation that are sustained for many years.

Using boring vocabulary learning methods, therefore, is doubly bad: it is inefficient and it weakens motivation.

There is a better way, as participants in my breakthrough seminars have found out. It is possible to learn new vocabulary in a way that is far more powerful AND is a lot of fun. When you learn in this way, studies show that you can remember 80 percent one year later! That’s powerful.

The key to deep, powerful, long term vocabulary learning is movement. When you combine strong physical movements with understandable new vocabulary, you create deep connections in your brain and body. These connections are long term. They last! The key is to use a movement that reminds you of the meaning of the vocabulary.

For example, imagine you want to learn the phrase “to proclaim.” First you would find the meaning of the word, which is “to say or announce publicly, often in a loud way.” After you know the meaning, you create an action that reminds you of it. You might put your hands to your mouth and pretend you are yelling loudly (“to say publicly and loudly”). Finally, you would shout the phrase “to proclaim” as you did the gesture at the same time.

The more loudly you shout and the more energetically you do the gesture, the stronger the connection you make in your brain. By simply shouting the phrase and doing the movement vigorously several times, you will create a stronger and deeper memory of the meaning.

In a recent seminar I did in Vietnam, I taught a number of new words using this action vocabulary method. The students shouted the new words with me, while simultaneously using the strong actions I showed them. Each action was connected to the meaning of the new word or phrase. By the end of the lesson, they knew those words completely, never to forget them.

But that’s not all. Since Effortless English is a deep learning system, I repeated those new words again — this time in a story lesson. Each time I used one of the new words in the story, I asked the students to use the same strong gesture we had practiced. Through the Mini-Story lesson, the students got even more repetition of the vocabulary, with emotion and strong actions.

Finally, I gave the students homework: download the audio of the same Mini-Story lesson, and listen to that audio every day for one week. If students do this, they will learn these new vocabulary words very deeply, and will remember them forever. That is the power of the Effortless English system, and that is the power of using physical movement while learning!

EIGHT SIMPLE STEPS TO CHANGING YOUR EMOTIONS

1. Find some exciting, energetic music that you LOVE.

2. Before you start listening to your English lesson, play the music.

3. As this exciting music plays, raise your head. Look up. Change your body.

Pull your shoulders back. Stand tall. Then smile… smile a big smile.

Take deep breaths.

4. Next, move your body. Dance with the music. Keep looking up. Keep smiling. Jump and dance. Lift your arms over your head as you jump and dance and smile. Feel the happiness and energy from the music.

5. Stop and say loudly, “Yes!” Say it again, “Yes!” One more time, “Yes!”

6. Now play your English lesson. As you listen, keep your shoulders back. Keep your eyes up. Keep smiling. In fact, stand up and keep moving. Walk and breathe deeply as you listen to the lesson.

7. When you listen to my Mini-Story lessons, answer each question loudly. Don’t be shy. Shout your answer! Keep your head and eyes up. Keep a big smile on your face as you answer with a loud voice.

8. If you begin to feel tired or bored at any time, pause the lesson. Play your favorite music again and repeat all of these steps. Add more energy to your body and your emotions. Then play the lesson again. By managing your emotions in this way, you will study longer, you will remember more, and you will learn 2-4 times faster. You’ll also teach yourself to be strong and confident when you speak English.