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Your best vocabulary learning methods?

 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies Post Reply
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Ezy Ryder
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 Message 33 of 58
06 June 2015 at 11:52am | IP Logged 
patrickwilken wrote:
And if you can't use them properly what have you really learnt?

To understand them in reading and listening?
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patrickwilken
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 Message 34 of 58
06 June 2015 at 12:46pm | IP Logged 
Ezy Ryder wrote:
patrickwilken wrote:
And if you can't use them properly what have you really learnt?

To understand them in reading and listening?


You realize you can learn learn reading by reading and listening by listening don't you? ;)

But anyway thanks for making my point clearer. If the OP wants to access reading materials quickly then word lists might help, if on the other hand the OP wants to start writing texts it might be better just to read.

Judging by the original poster's level of English I think it would be more effective just to access lots of native materials.



Edited by patrickwilken on 06 June 2015 at 12:51pm
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s_allard
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 Message 35 of 58
06 June 2015 at 3:11pm | IP Logged 
Lucie Tellier wrote:
I've been using tons of native materials and it doesn't seem like I learn that many words with
this method. Moreover, I'd like the French equivalent of the words, so I'll use flashcards/wordlists any day over
native materials.

One minute here; we're talking about two different things. If you want to recognize many words quickly, then
wordlists are the way to go. On the other hand, if you want to understand how the words are used and eventually
how to use them when speaking or writing, then native materials are absolutely necessary.

This discussion smacks of this other debate on learning words quickly with some magic formula.Asuggestion I
would make, and I'm serious here, is to simply read a dictionary, the ultimate wordlist. Just read the larger entries,
not every single word. I'm not a fan of this technique myself but it's certainly one way to see a lot of words quickly.

Edited by s_allard on 06 June 2015 at 3:15pm
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rtickner
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 Message 36 of 58
06 June 2015 at 3:14pm | IP Logged 
Obviously we have different opinions and different methods, sounds like the OP has settled
on a method that is working for them. Have fun growing your vocab OP!

Edit: s_allard, second your recommendation of a little dictionary reading work, found it to
be quite fruitful with my German studies. I used the Collins Easy Learning German
Dictionary, good examples, decent print size and full colour.

Edited by rtickner on 06 June 2015 at 3:19pm
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Cavesa
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 Message 37 of 58
06 June 2015 at 3:50pm | IP Logged 
patrickwilken wrote:
rtickner wrote:
Why would you want to take 500 hours to learn what you could learn in 100 hours?


This is just begging the question.

The question is whether you can indeed learn words in 100 hours using SRS as well as you can in 500 hours of reading, which comes down to how you define learning, which in turn depends a lot on what you want do do with the words once you've "learnt" them.

To use an extreme example (which has been beaten to death on HTLAL lately) I very much doubt "learning" 8000 words quickly over four months via word lists will somehow allow you to magically be able to use these words properly in speech or writing. And if you can't use them properly what have you really learnt?

That's not to say that learning words via lists doesn't have its uses, but you need to be clear about what you want to achieve before anyone can meaningfully say whether a certain technique is likely to be useful or not.

Saying "I need to learn lots of words now" is too vague a goal to allow people to meaningfully suggest the most appropriate technique(s).


I agree with patrick this just begs for various answers and thoughts

Efficiency is, in my honest opinion, not just learning the most words per hour. Well, it is kind of efficiency (I once learned 2500 words for an exam in 12 hours spread across one weekend, that probably fits into your idea of efficiency). But more important kind of efficiency, from my point of view, is how many of the words are you going to remember and understand/use/whatever after a longer period of time.

So, you might want to differenciate between learning as fast as possible and learning as "deep" as possible. For most people, spending more time on a task trully does strengthen the memory.

And another point: You might want to "be less efficient", if you get another quality in exchange. An example (not real hour counts), I could probably learn as much intermediate grammar and vocabulary in 100 hours with courses and such material instead of learning the same amount in 500 hours of tv series and books. However, the latter teaches me other things as well (thinking in the language, comprehension, fluency) AND it is much more enjoyable. And this positive emotion is an extremely important part of language learning, from my experience.
....

I agree with s_allard about using a dictionary as an "ultimate wordlist". I've been doing this on a smaller scale and keep dreaming of just going from the first to the last page of a dictionary soon to pick the rest of likely useful things for my active French. I haven't had the time so far (and courage) but I am definitely gonna try during the summer.
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patrickwilken
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 Message 38 of 58
06 June 2015 at 4:46pm | IP Logged 
Cavesa wrote:

I agree with s_allard about using a dictionary as an "ultimate wordlist". I've been doing this on a smaller scale and keep dreaming of just going from the first to the last page of a dictionary soon to pick the rest of likely useful things for my active French. I haven't had the time so far (and courage) but I am definitely gonna try during the summer.


Hmmm... I've been toying with the idea of reading my Langenscheidt Großwörterbuch Deutsch als Fremdsprache. It's got 66000 headwords and is only 1315 pages long.

Feel like taking up a dictionary challenge this year?
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rdearman
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 Message 39 of 58
06 June 2015 at 6:58pm | IP Logged 
patrickwilken wrote:

Hmmm... I've been toying with the idea of reading my Langenscheidt Großwörterbuch Deutsch als Fremdsprache. It's got 66000 headwords and is only 1315 pages long.


I thought about that once, so I sat down and drank a couple of beers until it passed.
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patrickwilken
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 Message 40 of 58
06 June 2015 at 7:55pm | IP Logged 
rdearman wrote:
I thought about that once, so I sat down and drank a couple of beers...


Was that before or after you took on two super challenges? :p

Edited by patrickwilken on 06 June 2015 at 7:55pm


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