The most effective why to learn vocabulary seems to be learning
it in context – i.e. by reading and listening to lots of
material in the language you’re learning and by doing your best
to learn the new words you encounter, and also by trying to work
out the meaning of unfamiliar words from the context. Maybe the
first time you read or hear particular words they will mean
nothing to you, but if you hear them again several times in
different contexts you might be able to guess their meaning. If
you can guess the meanings of words you’re likely to remember
them better than if you use a dictionary. One useful exercise is
to take a particular text or recording and to study it in
detail. You could make sure that you know the meaning of all the
words, that you understand the grammar and word order, and that
you can pronounce everything. With recordings it might help to
make a transcription, and with written texts it might help to
have a native speaker record it for you, if possible, or to at
least read them aloud to