|
 |
Online book on vocabulary size | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| s0fist Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4980 days ago 260 posts - 445 votes  Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Sign Language, German, Spanish, French | Message 9 of 17 06 January 2012 at 7:34am | IP Logged | |||||
Following a joke that I first heard in a TED video of Sir Ken Robinson, "If a man speaks his mind in a forest, and no woman hears him, is he still wrong?" So, If a man speaks a word in a forest, and the word is never repeated again, is it a word? I don't know, but here (private language argument) is a good start. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4843 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 10 of 17 06 January 2012 at 11:50am | IP Logged | |||||
Hapax Legomena is something I am quite familiar with, so I was surprised to read that it's not used on HTLAL. For those who haven't worked it out, it is Greek and means something like "things said once". It is used a lot in Biblical studies, because when a word is a hapax legomenon, it becomes difficult to understand its exact sense by synchronic (contemporary) means rather than the less relevant diachronic means (e.g. etymology). It is, of course, more used for dead languages with a limited corpus. Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed the book. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| microsnout TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member Canada microsnout.wordpress Joined 5405 days ago 277 posts - 553 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 11 of 17 06 January 2012 at 7:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
And this is something that children do naturally, wanting to hear the same bedtime story or watch the same video over and over until they drive their parents crazy. Children have some innate advantages over adult learners but this is one that adults could share but often choose not too. I have met many language learners that just have no interest in watching the same movie more than once or listening to an audio book twice. Edited by microsnout on 06 January 2012 at 7:46pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5364 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 12 of 17 06 January 2012 at 8:03pm | IP Logged | |||||
Continuing on the same vein, I would add that I have noticed that even after listening to some material quite a few times I still get new insights. It may be a word, a point of grammar or just an idiom. I literally hear things that I hadn't heard previously. Of course, there's a point of diminishing returns but I find it quite interesting to listen to (Spanish) recordings to the point where I can begin to recite some of the dialog by heart at near-native speed. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5945 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 13 of 17 07 January 2012 at 1:47pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
But then there is the question of literal repetition vs varied repetition.
If I watch a film 3 times over, I've heard exactly the same stuff. But if I watch a full TV series, I'm listening to the same characters, scripted by the same writers, talk about the same thing in a few different ways. I personally feel (and my perception may be wrong) that a series does me a huge amount more good than the equivalent length of feature films. 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| microsnout TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member Canada microsnout.wordpress Joined 5405 days ago 277 posts - 553 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 14 of 17 07 January 2012 at 10:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
I agree. I like TV series better right now but more for listening comprehension than vocabulary building and I listen to the series multiple times so I get both kinds of repetition. The knowledge of the characters personalities and the continuing plot themes provides a higher level context that helps comprehension in a way that movies cannot. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5364 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 15 of 17 08 January 2012 at 6:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
I don't think that it's really a question of TV series over movies but more a question of the right material and the right amount of repetition. For example, watching a cooking show can be very effective for a certain kind of vocabulary and the use of the imperative mode. A radio interview can be useful for learning the language of narration and explanation. TV dramas and soap operas are wonderful for everyday dialogs.
I certainly would not argue against watching as much varied material as possible. On the other hand, there is something to be said for concentrating, where it is judged useful, on in-depth study of certain samples. Does that mean listening to a 2-minute segment 25 times? Why not? 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| microsnout TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member Canada microsnout.wordpress Joined 5405 days ago 277 posts - 553 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 16 of 17 08 January 2012 at 7:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
Watching a cooking show may well provide the benefits you list, I have learned a lot of vocabulary from the show
'Ricardo' but it would bore me to death to watch an episode repeatedly so I would just move on to the next and if something is important it will come up again. Real repetition (of a movie or series) requires material that you really enjoy even if it were in your native language. With enough repetition it does more than build passive vocab, it creates active vocabulary - like for example the way "Trekkies" who have seen original Star Trek episodes more times than they can count can reproduce contextually relevant lines when cued. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
