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How best to learn a 3000 word vocab book?

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Butter75
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United Kingdom
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 Message 1 of 11
13 February 2012 at 8:56am | IP Logged 
I have a vocabulary book with 3000 words. What is the best way to learn all the words in the quickest amount of time possible?
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Wulfgar
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 Message 2 of 11
13 February 2012 at 9:51am | IP Logged 
First, I wonder if this book is a word list, a text for language learning, a book written for natives, etc. They may have a perfectly
good way to teach you those words, so please take what I tell you with a grain of salt.

I'm going to simplify your question to "what's the fastest way to learn 3000 words?"
I think it depends on your expectations. If you just want to have learned the definitions quickly one time, with little or no
review, then lists are probably your best choice. You could probably learn 100 words a day this way. If you want better recall,
but still aren't concerned with really good production, then I think an SRS is a good option. I think 50 a day is possible, but be
prepared for some long review sessions. But if you want excellent recall and production, memorize some of them every day,
and use the hell out of them in context. You need to read and listen to material that uses the vocabulary. You need to have
conversations using the vocabulary. You need to write with the vocabulary, if writing is a goal. I've heard that people fully
immersed can absorb 30 vocabulary items per day, but I suspect that the number is quite a bit lower for the average learner
who is not immersed.
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Splog
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 Message 3 of 11
13 February 2012 at 10:45am | IP Logged 
Here is a lengthy thread on the topic of Super-fast vocabulary learning techniques
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jimbo
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 Message 4 of 11
13 February 2012 at 11:30am | IP Logged 
Splog wrote:
Here is a lengthy thread on the topic of Super-fast vocabulary learning techniques


Reading through that will take FOREVER. Let's start a new thread.

;-)
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Wulfgar
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 Message 5 of 11
13 February 2012 at 3:24pm | IP Logged 
Splog wrote:
Here is a lengthy thread on the topic of Super-fast vocabulary learning
techniques

Thanks for that, Splog!
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Iversen
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 Message 6 of 11
14 February 2012 at 4:37pm | IP Logged 
jimbo wrote:
Splog wrote:
Here is a lengthy thread on the topic of Super-fast vocabulary learning techniques


Reading through that will take FOREVER. Let's start a new thread.

;-)


Learning a dictionary of 3000 words by heart will take for ever (although I have read that some Oriental language learners try to use that method - but more as an exercise in memorization than as language learning).

When you are past the initial stage and feel like extending your vocabulary it may be relevant to learn words directly from a dictionary because that saves you the time it takes to look words from texts up one by one. Personally I use my own wordlist layout for that purpose, but you can of course also use SRS methods if that's more your style.

When I write that this isn't the way to start a language this opinion is based on at least three factors: 1) a beginner will in any genuine text meet so many new words that learning them will take up all the available time, 2) among those words you can expect the most common words to be, and it is important to learn these at an early stage (but contrary to some I also want to learn less frequent words from the beginning - they are like the spice on your daily menu), 3) the need for a context is most important for a beginner. Some more advanced students will continue to need a context for every word, while others can proceed to picking words directly from dictionaries. And please don't start learning all the words in any dictionary systematically from A to Z - pick the ones you like or which somehow catch your eyes, else you will burn out before you reach B.

Observation no. 3 is not only a question of avoiding boredom, but also of having enough associations to other words and things in general ready when you memorize. Let me add that memorization of words isn't supposed to give you more than a nodding acquaintance with the words you learn - context will give you the 'feel', and practice will give you the ability to recall and use them. But personally I feel that I need that first brief encounter with the words in order to profit from casual meetings later on in texts and speech.


Edited by Iversen on 14 February 2012 at 4:51pm

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DreamCH
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Switzerland
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 Message 7 of 11
09 March 2012 at 1:47pm | IP Logged 
It depends on your knowledge. After my first few hundred words in Italian I picked up I`m going trough a vocab book now that contains 4000 words so far, checking/adding 100 every day.

In French, my knowledge is a few 1000 words, but jumping into a C1-vocabulary book was too challenging.


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