How to organise vocabulary notebooks (Website)

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How to organise vocabulary notebooks

to remember new words better

Simple Bright Hand Drawn Remote Learning Study Space

There is no ideal way to organise your vocabulary

In this presentation, you will find suggestions about how this can be done to help you memorise words better and make the process more accessible. However, as we are all different, you will have to find what works best for you by experimenting.

Information to record about a word

part of speech
transcription
definition
translation
example of a sentence
synonyms / antonyms
picture / sketch
collocations
bits of grammar (what preposition it takes / what grammar pattern it belongs to)

Sections

You can also take part of a notebook and use it for organizing words into sections. Helpful pages or sections could have titles such as:

expressions with a keyword, such as get, go, make
expressions in a situation, such as Taking people out for a meal
greetings, including leaving expressions (I really must be going.)
sentence adverbials used in writing (In contrast, In much the same way)
saying what is coming next (What I think you should do is ...)
misunderstandings (That’s not quite what I meant / said)
checking common ground (Do you know how to ...? Have you ever used a ... ?)
my feelings (I didn’t know what to say. I was flabbergasted.)
expressions of place (in the middle of the room, on both sides)

Organise words into groups by:

topics (food / jobs / colours / etc.)
parts of speech (verbs / nouns / adjectives)
situations (giving and asking for directions / offering help / etc.)
collocations with, for example, a noun plus a group of collocating verbs or adjectives

e.g. high / low / hot / cold / holiday / dry / rainy + season