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How much vocabulary study is too much?

 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
JordanB8m
Newbie
Hong Kong
Joined 4921 days ago

23 posts - 27 votes

 
 Message 1 of 8
24 August 2012 at 8:28am | IP Logged 
I'm currently doing the Goldlist Method for vocabulary study.

How much vocabulary study is too much? Or is there a limit?
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freakyaye
Senior Member
Australia
Joined 4838 days ago

107 posts - 152 votes 

 
 Message 2 of 8
24 August 2012 at 8:36am | IP Logged 
With the goldlist method remember some key tennents, you will forget around 25% of the
words you study from your list. And also, work in 20 minute bursts so as not to overload.
At university it is typical to learn 30 words per week for class, so try 60 to begin
with. (As two blocks of 30)

LOL @ myself, as JordanB8M says, you should learn that 25%, and let them drop, not
'forget' them :-) Live and let learn :-)

Edited by freakyaye on 25 August 2012 at 5:50pm

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JordanB8m
Newbie
Hong Kong
Joined 4921 days ago

23 posts - 27 votes

 
 Message 3 of 8
24 August 2012 at 8:47am | IP Logged 
freakyaye wrote:
With the goldlist method remember some key tennents, you will forget around 25% of the words you study from your list. And also, work in 20 minute bursts so as not to overload. At university it is typical to learn 30 words per week for class, so try 60 to begin with. (As two blocks of 30)


I think you are confused. You SHOULD remember ~25% of the words, which is why you do 25 words, then 17 words, then 12 words...

You should work on a list for a maximum of 20 minutes with at least a 10 minute break.

Edited by JordanB8m on 24 August 2012 at 8:48am

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Cavesa
Triglot
Senior Member
Czech Republic
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3277 posts - 6779 votes 
Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1
Studies: Spanish, German, Italian

 
 Message 4 of 8
24 August 2012 at 4:21pm | IP Logged 
Yes, do not hurry with the lists. How many should you do each day? As much as you can
without feeling bored, tired, losing patience etc because all of that would make you
hurry and focus less. If it means ten lists, wonderful. If it means three or just two, it
is no worse. Quality is more important than quality in this. The Goldlists are good, I
have tried but I prefered SRS in the end, partially because I find it hard to work so
calmly :-D
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PMartin
Diglot
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United States
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Speaks: English*, Russian

 
 Message 5 of 8
24 August 2012 at 6:00pm | IP Logged 
I actually found the Goldlist method very helpful (I hate flashcards and don't have a convenient way to do electronic SRS systems). I used a frequency dictionary as well as words or phrases from my readings to create my list. (And, yes, I was reading and being exposed to my TL while doing the Goldlist even though Huliganov says not to.) However, once I got up to a certain level (I think about 2500 words on my main head list) I felt that it was no longer as useful as it had been. Since it had become possible for me to read authentic texts with understanding, I decided just to do that and to learn new words in context rather than taking the time to do the Goldlist. Basically, I just looked at my list one day and said, "I don't want to do this anymore. I'd rather just read a book."

So I think that when you have learned enough, you will know when to stop. Also, when I was doing the Goldlist, I found that I really couldn't handle more than 3 or 4 sessions per day.
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Peregrinus
Senior Member
United States
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149 posts - 273 votes 
Speaks: English*

 
 Message 6 of 8
24 August 2012 at 10:34pm | IP Logged 
JordanB8m wrote:
I'm currently doing the Goldlist Method for vocabulary study.

How much vocabulary study is too much? Or is there a limit?



Although I prefer computer based methods like Anki, I read those Gold List threads some time ago with interest. Two things stuck out in my mind other than the details of the method: 1) people were trying to cram in as many lists a day as they could; 2) very few if any had good enough results after a while to persevere, or at least they did not report back if they continued to have good results. At first many seemed to start off well but often stopped when they could not remember even 25%, although the method has a way to account for that.

Why not make this an experiment, and start off slow with 1 or 2 lists a day, and only add after the initial two week period if things seem to be going well. Also if results start to lag, why not consider as an additional experiment using Iversen's methods for some lists at the beginning. This would in essence make the Gold List a manual SRS for maintenance.

There are a lot of possible permutations with any method, and just because some don't work does not mean others won't. Experimentation and isolating one factor at a time might discover the combination that works for you. Good luck.
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Kyle Corrie
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4829 days ago

175 posts - 464 votes 

 
 Message 7 of 8
25 August 2012 at 2:15am | IP Logged 
These types of questions leave me totally perplexed. It's like asking, "How will I know
when I'm full from eating?"

Is there some sort of horrible stigma associated with knowing more and more words? Is it
hindering to have an ever-growing vocabulary?

If you're doing specific vocabulary study and it's working without inducing boredom then
why would you stop? And on the same page, if you're doing specific vocabulary acquisition
and it's producing no results then why won't you stop?

It just seems to me that questions like these should answer themselves.
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maydayayday
Pentaglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
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Speaks: English*, German, Italian, SpanishB2, FrenchB2
Studies: Arabic (Egyptian), Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Polish, Persian, Vietnamese
Studies: Urdu

 
 Message 8 of 8
25 August 2012 at 11:18am | IP Logged 
I'd like to interpret the OP question the other way to Kyle - what is the optimum rate of learning vocabulary? There is another thread running about how many words you need.....

It is a case of your own capacity, which may vary depending on various factors and what you already know; some people learn 10 headwords a week from starting out whiel some aim to learn a lot more.

Eventually you know so much everyday vocabulary that you only come across new words once in a while unless you are making a conscious effort to learn or remember subject specific vocabulary - the example that sticks in my my mind is the conference interpreter working on a negotiation of fishing quotas who actively revised the names of fish.


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