Yonina Liss

In addition to our lessons, I also work with a number of other students and have developed a vocabulary-building method that has consistently yielded positive results. During each session, I pay close attention to the words or phrases that students are unfamiliar with. I make a note of these as we go along, and after the lesson, I compile a personalized list for each student. This list is then emailed to them so they can review it at their own pace throughout the week. I encourage them to take a few minutes each day to revisit the words, consider their meanings, and reflect on how they might use them in different contexts.

In the next lesson, I make a conscious effort to reintroduce these words naturally into our conversation. Rather than drilling them in isolation, I include them into questions, discussion topics, or example sentences relevant to the student's interests or the subject matter at hand. This way, the vocabulary is not just memorized, but understood and applied in a meaningful, real-world context.

Over time, I’ve found this method to be particularly effective—not only in improving vocabulary retention but also in boosting confidence when speaking. Students are often more engaged and motivated when they see that the words they’ve learned are actually useful and can be effortlessly incorporated into everyday conversation. It also promotes active learning, as students begin to recognize patterns in usage and start anticipating how new vocabulary might appear in future discussions. Ultimately, the goal is to make language learning feel less like a chore and more like a natural, evolving dialogue.