|
 |
Is there an easier way to learn vocab? | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| gwyner Pentaglot Newbie United States Joined 5951 days ago 23 posts - 75 votes  Speaks: English*, FrenchC1, GermanC1, ItalianB1, Russian Studies: Hungarian | Message 1 of 16 31 May 2013 at 6:06pm | IP Logged |
|
In all of my language classes and textbooks, vocabulary is presented in groups of related words: fruits, numbers, professions, etc.
I just finished an article about learning vocabulary, which looks at what the research says. As it turns out, learning groups of related words is much harder than learning unrelated words. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6551 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 2 of 16 31 May 2013 at 6:43pm | IP Logged |
|
Thanks - this is a good article. It explains somethings that have been clear to me but others disagree with.
1) Vocabulary is easier to remember in the beginning than later on. 2) It's easier to remember vocabulary if you only start one language at a time. That being said, I think his solution of alphabetic lists are a bad idea. You'll ge a lot of interference from similarly spelled words. The theme idea is better. I like his use of google images too. But I think people should avoid isolated lists if possible. I like to memorize the vocab after reading or listening to something; I find the context makes it easier. I avoid memorizing sentences, because I find it more difficult than words, and I feel it inhibits my ability to form different spontaneous sentences. Of course, that's just a generality. In the beginning, I memorize lots of sentences using Pimsleur, for example. But Pimsleur is way off the vocabulary topic, so I'll drop it here. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| osoymar Tetraglot Pro Member United States Joined 4737 days ago 190 posts - 344 votes Speaks: English*, German, Portuguese, Japanese Studies: Spanish, French Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 16 31 May 2013 at 6:49pm | IP Logged |
|
This is interesting, and makes a fair amount of sense- at least as far as memorization
goes. I still think having access to thematic groups of vocabulary is important for learning words. The trickiest vocabulary words are those where there isn't a one-to-one relationship with the L1, and in that case I find it helpful to see all the related options in one place. Nonetheless I think I'll try applying this to my studies. Thanks for the link, gwyner! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4666 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 4 of 16 31 May 2013 at 7:23pm | IP Logged |
|
I've tried making context-free lists of vocab, but it felt so much like schoolwork to me that I didn't even keep it up long enough to test how well it really worked. Personally I just read things, make a gloss of whatever unknown words or expressions were in the text, and go back to it periodically for my "review." So it's not that learning "in context" necessarily works better for me, but more that I find vocabulary accumulation feels too chore-like otherwise. Edited by tastyonions on 31 May 2013 at 7:24pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| gwyner Pentaglot Newbie United States Joined 5951 days ago 23 posts - 75 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchC1, GermanC1, ItalianB1, Russian Studies: Hungarian | Message 5 of 16 31 May 2013 at 7:24pm | IP Logged |
|
leosmith: You caught something important that I'm going to clarify in the article. An alphabetical list in your target
language is a crappy idea for exactly the reasons you said; you're going to get a bunch of similar sounding words that are just as hard to memorize. But it's a pretty convenient way to work off of an *English* word list, since the translations will end up effectively random anyways. I'll fix that now. (Note: I only use English word lists for my first ~600 words, to save time. Past that, a target language frequency list seems like the best way to scramble up the order of your words) In terms of whether or not to learn words from a list at all, that's a big topic for discussion, and maybe a future article. I agree that learning words in total isolation (particularly translations in isolation) isn't particularly useful. For me, I use word lists in conjunction with captions from Google Images, so I'm always learning in context. Word lists are just a handy way to structure my studies, so I know what to search for when I'm looking for new sentences. Edited by gwyner on 31 May 2013 at 7:28pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5767 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 6 of 16 31 May 2013 at 8:46pm | IP Logged |
|
This reminds me of something ... I remember reading a study that found that apparently, phonetic similarity inhibits vocabulary acquisition even in proficient learners ... but it's been a while since I read it and I don't remember the details.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6598 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 7 of 16 31 May 2013 at 9:09pm | IP Logged |
|
I think it (as usual) depends on the learner. The three dictionaries technique seems useful for example.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tanya b Senior Member United States Joined 4779 days ago 159 posts - 518 votes Speaks: Russian | Message 8 of 16 31 May 2013 at 11:13pm | IP Logged |
|
For me vocab acquisition has been the easiest aspect of language learning--it can actually be fun, unlike learning grammar or pronounciation. Maybe those with more methodical personality types do better because they can learn alphabetically if they want, and practice their writing skills if they are trying to learn a new alphabet.
Regardless of how specific our goals are there are certain groups of words which are just general knowledge and fundamental to fluency. Colors Numbers Parts of the Body Professions Animals Food The last two groups could potentially number in the thousands because of the variety that exists in those categories. You don't have to be a marine biologist or a gourmet chef to want to know what the word for "octopus" or "meatball" is in your target language. You're more likely to be mistaken for a native speaker, too, if you're not fumbling around for words. Edited by tanya b on 31 May 2013 at 11:17pm 1 person has 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. |
