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Anyone Use Crossword Puzzles? | ||
Tags: Games | Vocabulary learning | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| chelovek Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6093 days ago 413 posts - 461 votes  5 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Russian | Message 1 of 12 11 May 2009 at 1:31am | IP Logged | ||
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For language learning, that is. I like doing them in English, and it occurred to me that it might be a great way to expand target language vocab. I found this site for Russian: http://absite.ru/crossw/
At this point, I can't really figure out a thing on my own, so I start with the answers, translate any words I don't know, and then I go through the puzzle without the answers and fill everything in again. Anyone had success with crosswords as a vocab-building method? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dmg Diglot Senior Member Canada dgryski.blogspot.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 7017 days ago 555 posts - 605 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Dutch, Esperanto | Message 2 of 12 11 May 2009 at 4:07am | IP Logged | ||
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While I never did crosswords in French, I did create a number of flash cards that were (french definition -> french word) which I guess is basically what crosswords are. I found that while I was good at being able to go from recognizing the definition to the word, that didn't actually help me _use_ those words while speaking.
However, I had heard that crosswords are good for language learning. If you like doing them in English, then you'll probably like doing them in Russian. Finding activities you enjoy in your target language is certainly a good step towards making learning less painful. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| maya_star17 Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5921 days ago 269 posts - 291 votes Speaks: English*, Russian*, French, Spanish Studies: Japanese | Message 3 of 12 11 May 2009 at 4:48am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm not a fan of crosswords even in English, so I don't think they'd be more appealing to me in other languages. That said, I can certainly see how they could be fun and useful to those that enjoy (or at least don't mind) doing them :)
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| ExtraLean Triglot Senior Member France languagelearners.myf Joined 6000 days ago 897 posts - 880 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 4 of 12 11 May 2009 at 5:31am | IP Logged | ||
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I like crosswords, in both English and French. I don't know if they are helpful to learn with. But they are nice to test out what you do know. Though if you were to go until you were stuck and then look up that which remains, I'm sure you'd learn a few new bits of vocab.
Still, I'll be damned if I can do the cryptic crosswords in French :s Either way, they're a good way to pass the time and keep your mind ticking over. Thom. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| andee Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 7083 days ago 681 posts - 724 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Korean, French | Message 5 of 12 11 May 2009 at 6:59am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm actually experimenting with Japanese crosswords at the moment, but I've never used them for other languages.
I do however, give them to my students to consolidate vocabulary we are learning in class. This is opposed to the typical word search other teachers give as the student has to think about the answer rather than just looking for words and not understanding. They have proved pretty successful in both retention and interest - even with 8 year olds. I've found they work best in the class situation when it's related vocabulary though, such as family, hobbies, etc. I incorporate other words games quite often as well - team scrabble has been a real bonus for intermediate classes. Edited by andee on 11 May 2009 at 6:59am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ExtraLean Triglot Senior Member France languagelearners.myf Joined 6000 days ago 897 posts - 880 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 6 of 12 11 May 2009 at 7:45am | IP Logged | ||
QFT. This is why I like them. Thom. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| chelovek Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6093 days ago 413 posts - 461 votes 5 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Russian | Message 7 of 12 11 May 2009 at 8:30am | IP Logged | ||
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Well, I've just started it today, so hopefully I'll have a better idea of its effectiveness in a few days. My hunch is that it'll get me thinking in the target language more, I'll pick up lots of passive vocab from the definitions/clues, and the actual target words can be solidified in my mind very well since I'll constantly be thinking about their structure and meaning.
Not to mention, once I get good at this, I'll have to rack my mind for synonyms which will surely be a good way consolidate vocab. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6909 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 8 of 12 11 May 2009 at 1:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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I pretty like crosswords in Polish (I used to do a lot of them). A few months ago I tried German crosswords to test and consolidate my vocabulary, and I had fun with them but quickly got bored. What's good about the crosswords (especially Swedish-style grid, which is usually generated by computer and which by the way I hate) is the fact that many words are repeated (in the whole book) so one can revise them over and over again. My biggest problem are the references to the famous people, places, dates etc. in the country (which would be now Switzerland), that I don't know and don't really care - that's really annoying and it doesn't really supplement the knowledge about the country, as most of these facts are irrelevant. I guess the crosswords made specially for children could be more efficient.
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