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Reading a Dictionary | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| souley Senior Member Joined 7240 days ago 178 posts - 177 votes  Speaks: Swedish* Studies: Arabic (Written), French | Message 1 of 22 06 March 2006 at 6:26am | IP Logged | ||
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Has anyone on this forum ever tried reading a dictionary cover to cover?
I first came across this technique when I read the autobiography of Malcolm X where he tells of his reading dictionaries to increase his vocabulary. I did not think more of it until acouple of days ago when I stumpled upon a article on dictionary.com which talks about increasing ones vocabulary, and it says: Is randomly flipping through the dictionary a good way to learn new words or should one be more systematic? We recommend reading a dictionary - seriously! Buy the best dictionary (and thesaurus) you can afford. Make notes in them; use a highlighting pencil! You can comb the dictionary for words that will be useful to you. You can set a goal like reading four pages of a dictionary each day. If you love words, it will be a very rewarding experience. Any experience, good or bad ? Edited by souley on 06 March 2006 at 6:26am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| maxb Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 7182 days ago 536 posts - 589 votes 7 sounds Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 2 of 22 06 March 2006 at 7:40am | IP Logged | ||
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I have heard that people in China memorize dictionaries to increase their vocabulary when studying foreign languages. I can think of a lot of reasons why this is a bad idea. Here are some:
-It is terribly boring (At least I think) -You don't get enough context. Context is very important to understand how words are used. Unless you see a word in many contexts you will not get a thorough enough understanding of it. You will only be able to associate it with the translation found in the dictionary. This prevents you from thinking in the language I think. -A lot of words in the dictionary are fairly useless. If you are going to memorize word lists you should at least get a list of the most common words in the language. -Unless you are a genius you are bound to forget some of the words. Probably when you need them the most..... Apart from learning simple concrete nouns (like radiator, helicopter etc.) I don't see how it is possible to increase your vocabulary through a dictionary. I would never do it anyway. If you instead learn words by reading books and/or watching movies you will learn every word in context and after a lot of reading/watching you are likely to come across the same words over and over again. Edited by maxb on 06 March 2006 at 7:50am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| rafaelrbp Pentaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 7012 days ago 181 posts - 201 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Spanish, English, French, Italian Studies: German | Message 3 of 22 06 March 2006 at 8:04am | IP Logged | ||
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As maxb said, I think it's better to read a book, and use the dictionary every time you don't recognize a word.
This way you are going to learn all words in context and you can also elaborate word lists from these book readings (a lot more useful). And answering your question, I've just read a dictionary for letters "ch" and "ll" in Spanish (only 200-500 words each). It isn't productive! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| souley Senior Member Joined 7240 days ago 178 posts - 177 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: Arabic (Written), French | Message 4 of 22 06 March 2006 at 8:08am | IP Logged | ||
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I agree. However I don't believe the idea of reading a dictionary, in the context of which I brought it up, is to memorize every word you see, but rather to get a feel of the language and it's structure.
I have a pretty decent dictionary in my target language which gives 2,3 sentences per word, to learn it's context. And everytime I look up a word in this dictionary, I find myself reading a couple of pages, simply due to sheer interest. I do reckon however, like you mentioned, that it would become a bit trite and stodgy after a while. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Alfonso Octoglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 6860 days ago 511 posts - 536 votes Speaks: Biblical Hebrew, Spanish*, French, English, Tzotzil, Italian, Portuguese, Ancient Greek Studies: Nahuatl, Tzeltal, German | Message 5 of 22 06 March 2006 at 8:31am | IP Logged | ||
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I think it's a good idea to "comb" a dictionary in order to learn new words. Another good idea -maybe- could be to subscribe oneself -as I do- to a mailing list to receive "The word of the Day". You receive a different word dayly directly to your e-mail account. This has been for me at least an excellent way to learn learn new words in different languages (mainly in English).
There are many online dictionaries which offer this service for free! For those who are learning English -as I do- here's an example: Merriam-Webster Dictionary Word of the Day or: Dictionary.com Word of the Day Edited by Alfonso on 06 March 2006 at 8:33am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Eidolio Bilingual Octoglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 6860 days ago 159 posts - 164 votes 2 sounds Speaks: Dutch*, Flemish*, French, English, Latin, Ancient Greek, Italian, Greek | Message 6 of 22 06 March 2006 at 10:29am | IP Logged | ||
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haha if you try this I think you'll really need loads of coffee to avoid falling asleep :-D
but Alfonso's hint sounds great - thnx for the link! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Guanche Hexaglot Senior Member Spain danielmarin.blogspot Joined 7045 days ago 168 posts - 178 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2, GermanC1, RussianB1, French, Japanese Studies: Greek, Mandarin, Arabic (Written) | Message 7 of 22 06 March 2006 at 10:59am | IP Logged | ||
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Reading a normal dictionary is not a great idea, but reading a lexicon will boost your vocabulary to amazing levels. When I learn a new language, one of the first things I do is try to buy a lexicon or a book with vocabulary grouped by areas.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| maxb Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 7182 days ago 536 posts - 589 votes 7 sounds Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 8 of 22 06 March 2006 at 12:15pm | IP Logged | ||
This is exactly the way I'm studying now. I'll select a passage from the book and make a word list. Since I also have the audio book I then listen to that bit while at the same time looking at the word list. This way is great I think because the next time I encounter a word I can often remember in what context I saw it last time. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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