Vocabulary Acquisition Strategy Comparison for Adult Learners

You've got a fixed slot each week for the language and a pile of competing advice on how to learn words. This compares the strategies you name, explaining how each works, the mental mechanism it leans on, and what the evidence says, so you stop guessing and commit to the method that suits your actual hours.

I am an adult learner studying {TARGET_LANGUAGE} with {HOURS_PER_WEEK} hours per week. I want to decide between the following vocabulary acquisition strategies: {STRATEGY_LIST}.

For each strategy provide:
- A plain-language explanation of how it works
- The cognitive mechanism it exploits (e.g., elaborative encoding, retrieval practice, contextual inference)
- Evidence base: briefly cite what second-language acquisition research says about its effectiveness
- Best fit: what learner profile, learning style, or stage benefits most
- Realistic time-to-measurable-results estimate
- Main weakness or failure mode

Then recommend the optimal combination for my specific situation, explaining the reasoning. If two strategies work best sequentially, describe the handoff point. Close with one concrete first step I can take today.