GEEK - Another's view of how we learn.

According to a post by EFL Geek (an much-loved English teacher in Korea) there are three process involved in successfully aquiring vocabulary.

'Noticing' that a the word or phrase you'er looking at is new and focusing on it in order to understand it better. This is the moment when your brain thinks 'Aha, I've seen that before! (Now what did it mean again?)' or maybe 'Oh, this word seems to mean something different here to how I've seen it used before.'

'Retrieval' - that is, vocabulary review, or attempting to sing that song you've just learnt the lyrics to, or acting out that scene from a film you've just enjoyed. This strengthens the meaning(s) of the word in your mind. The more you come across the word, or the more you make yourself think of it, the stronger the links that hold it in your brain. However

It is important however that the time between encounters is not too long. This is particularly important for the first two to three exposures.

And of course, you have to notice that you've seen it before.

'Creative (generative) use' of the words you know. For example, when you notice a word when you're reading or listening and it has a slightly different meaning to what you understand of the word. This creates new meaning for the word. Also, when you yourself stretch the meaning of a word in speech or writing, using your understanding of its different meanings creatively.