Vocabulary is the beating heart of language. You can’t do much with grammar if you don’t have words to hang it on. And yet, teachers (me included, in my early years) often fall into the trap of thinking vocabulary is “easy.” Hand out a list. Translate. Test next week. Done.

The reality? Students forget. Fast. And when they do, it’s demoralising for them and frustrating for you. They want to remember. You want them to remember. But unless we change how we teach vocabulary, most of those words will...