When you start learning a language, it’s important to start using association as your best friend. What do I mean? For example, if you are learning a specific set of vocabulary, it’s helpful to associate them with a set of actions (verbs), describing words (adjectives) and even articles (oh, what you love about Latin languages, masculine and feminine gendered words!- the/a). So, association is not only about images and other words in your own language that are similar to the ones you are learning, but also about creating a skillset that will help you think in your target language- without the need for translation. And especially after you go through the very basic levels, you will need association more than you think. You can use the next set I’m going to give you for free in Pdf to download, as an example, where you can also re-organise it as a mind-map (spidergram)- if it suits your learning style. Not everyone likes mind-mapping.
In the document below you will find words associated with summer holidays, which my students have created in Spanish. Try to scribble a list containing words associated with autumn. This set is in Spanish, but you can always adapt it to the target language you’re learning and to any vocabulary you wish. If you have just started and are learning about food and drinks vocabulary, try words associated with them, or simply mind-map the words with no association for now. Check ‘Eight tips to learn vocabulary without the brain fog.‘
I have suggested a space before the words for you to work out which articles to use (el/la/los/las) after the first ones. Then I show the verbs you may want to use. On subsequent pages, I show the phrases with the words and verbs all put together, yet with no conjugation. You do the work and write sentences with conjugated verbs (eg. I buy, I take, we go etc). You can even join two phrases and make sentences using connectives (and, but, however, later, etc…) or using adverbs of time, such as always, never, sometimes etc. Mind the four pages. Good luck! ¡Buena suerte! Bonne chance! Boa sorte!
LenguaJourney 