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How many words do you need to learn? | ||
Tags: Vocabulary learning | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| xtremelingo Trilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6074 days ago 398 posts - 515 votes  Speaks: English*, Hindi*, Punjabi* Studies: German, French, Arabic (Written) | Message 49 of 64 02 October 2007 at 2:36am | IP Logged | |||||
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For obvious reasons,
I would start with high frequency words and work downwards to low frequency words. I don't think the goal is to avoid low-frequency words altogether, but instead organize your language plan toward learning high frequency first and low frequency last, for more efficient results. The likelihood of learning new vocabulary words from context is much higher when you have studied high-frequency words first, as they are likely to reinforce the learning of low-frequency words. Whereas low-frequency words just for that reason are unlikely to appear often enough to build reinforcement of other new words. As for how many? I think initial drills between 700-1000 high frequency words are ideal (that are frequent in the TARGET language). I LOVE using Flashcards. I think it is very important to have your own mental dictionary, no words = no language. Perhaps they should do a lexemic/frequency compilation of words used in an average actual speech/conversation/dialogue. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6337 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 50 of 64 02 October 2007 at 2:59am | IP Logged | |||||
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So what's your point here? Are you suggesting people drill 700-1000 words, and learn the other 19,000 from context? And how did you come up with 700-1000 - another secret research project?
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 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6696 days ago 4250 posts - 5710 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 51 of 64 02 October 2007 at 3:51am | IP Logged | |||||
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I've seen lists of basic/high frequency vocabulary having anywhere from ~500 to <2000 words, so xtremelingo's figures are probably not just made up (however, possibly based on some research). Isn't there "corpus software" able to extract high frequency words?
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| Linguamor Decaglot Senior Member United States Joined 6405 days ago 469 posts - 599 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, French, Norwegian, Portuguese, Dutch | Message 52 of 64 02 October 2007 at 4:04am | IP Logged | |||||
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"We are now ready to answer the question "How much vocabulary does a second language learner need?" Clearly the learner needs to know the 3,000 or so high frequency words of the language. These are an immediate high priority and there is little sense in focusing on other vocabulary until these are well learned. Nation (1990) argues that after these high frequency words are learned, the next focus for the teacher is on helping the learners develop strategies to comprehend and learn the low frequency words of the language."
"A way to manage the learning of huge amounts of vocabulary is through indirect or incidental learning. An example of this is learning new words (or deepening the knowledge of already known words) in context through extensive listening and reading. Learning from context is so important that some studies suggest that first language learners learn most of their vocabulary in this way (Sternberg, 1987). Extensive reading is a good way to enhance word knowledge and get a lot of exposure to the most frequent and useful words." "The problem for beginning learners and readers is getting to the threshold where they can start to learn from context. Simply put, if one does not know enough of the words on a page and have comprehension of what is being read, one cannot easily learn from context. Liu Na and Nation (1985) have shown that we need a vocabulary of about 3000 words which provides coverage of at least 95% of a text before we can efficiently learn from context with unsimplified text." VOCABULARY SIZE, TEXT COVERAGE AND WORD LISTS Paul Nation and Robert Waring www1.harenet.ne.jp/~waring/papers/cup.html Edited by Linguamor on 02 October 2007 at 4:16am 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| apparition Octoglot Senior Member United States Joined 6437 days ago 600 posts - 667 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), French, Arabic (Iraqi), Portuguese, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Pashto | Message 53 of 64 02 October 2007 at 10:08am | IP Logged | |||||
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This reminds me of Stuart Jay Raj, who said in that interview on Thai TV that he tries to learn 3000-5000 words in the first week, using a dictionary. I doubt he remember them all, of course, but what he does remember probably helps him immensely when starting to learn from context.
I'm also a big believer in basic vocab before sentences/context. After that initial push, however, getting to context seems to be the most useful. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Linguamor Decaglot Senior Member United States Joined 6405 days ago 469 posts - 599 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, French, Norwegian, Portuguese, Dutch | Message 54 of 64 02 October 2007 at 11:31am | IP Logged | |||||
Don't confuse learning from context with learning in context. Even basic vocabulary is best learned in context. Edited by Linguamor on 02 October 2007 at 11:32am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| slucido Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Spain https://goo.gl/126Yv Joined 6462 days ago 1296 posts - 1781 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan* Studies: English | Message 55 of 64 02 October 2007 at 12:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
Sorry. What's the difference between 'from context' and "in context"? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| apparition Octoglot Senior Member United States Joined 6437 days ago 600 posts - 667 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), French, Arabic (Iraqi), Portuguese, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Pashto | Message 56 of 64 02 October 2007 at 1:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
I, too, am confused... :-( 1 person has voted this message useful |
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