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Flashcards vs. Extensive Reading | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6898 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 25 of 39 18 May 2006 at 2:30am | IP Logged | ||
What a fantastic quote! I've followed this thread with interest because I have been in the past an enthusiastic advocate of flashcards. I have only ever produced and tested via native to target flashcards (you get the active vocabulary and the passive comes by default). Had you asked me 6 months ago, I would have probably dismissed extensive reading as an alternative out of hand. Primarily because personal experience with French seemed to indicate that it produced massive passive vocabulary without any discernible associated increase in active. The problem with flashcards is, regardless of their efficiency, they are extremely boring to use and I've found it difficult this time round to get motivated enough for their production or even to find time in my schedule to actually run through them. I've also been following the "listening before speaking" discussions (another passive exercise). In consequence, I've spent the last couple of months doing nothing much more than listening and reading. The result has been an obvious increase in my ability to comprehend written and spoken Spanish but the surprising thing (to me anyway) has been the increase in the active vocabulary. It's obviously been a slower process than simply producing the cards and drilling them (and if I had to learn the vocab quickly I would do it via flashcards) but the big difference is that by ensuring that I pick resources I'm interested in reading and listening to, it has been enjoyable and also an invisibly painless process. I suspect that my experience with French was simply that I didn't give it enough time - looking for the quick fix that the flashcards would give. Andy. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6738 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 26 of 39 18 May 2006 at 6:39am | IP Logged | ||
This would be especially obvious if you went to live in another country - after some number of years, you'd have a vocabulary that's not that far from native. It's a mysterious process indeed. I do wonder about looking up at least some of the new words one meets (without recording them) versus just relying on context. Can one really figure them all out from context alone? What are the criteria for knowing which words should or shouldn't be looked up? Edited by frenkeld on 18 May 2006 at 7:05am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6898 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 27 of 39 18 May 2006 at 6:47am | IP Logged | ||
It would be difficult to figure them all out from context alone - particularly where a meaning is quite figurative or abstract. However, if the meaning of a phrase remains particularly opaque because of an uknown word, then I will look it up immediately but I never record them. I usually wait until I've come across a word more than once (thus targetting higher frequency words) and had a stab at its meaning before resorting to the dictionary for confirmation. Quite often, I find the key to guessing a word is often a known cognate in the target language rather than context alone. Andy. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6738 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 28 of 39 18 May 2006 at 7:03am | IP Logged | ||
I've been also thinking of deliberately using a modest-size dictionary (10,000 words or so) for a while. One problem with this approach is that while it allows to select for words to "ignore" at a given stage in learning, one often ends up immediately needing to look up the same high-frequency word in a bigger dictionary because the smaller one may not have all the needed meanings or uses in idiomatic phrases. Edited by frenkeld on 18 May 2006 at 7:14am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6563 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 29 of 39 18 May 2006 at 8:37am | IP Logged | ||
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My own approach to vocabulary is to work through vocabulary books, write
my own sentences using those words (paying close attention to how they're used in the dictionary), and then have my tutor check and correct my sentences for proper usage. Edited by Captain Haddock on 18 May 2006 at 8:37am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7000 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 30 of 39 13 July 2014 at 6:05am | IP Logged | ||
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I didn't realize it until re-reading
this thread that I was talking about listen/reading before the famous Listen/Reading thread. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4623 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 31 of 39 13 July 2014 at 8:15pm | IP Logged | ||
Indeed! You were ahead of the curve. I suppose there is nothing really new under the sun, although obviously technology has enabled, first on tape, then CD, then MP3, it to be done much more easily and by more people. It's just possible that in days gone by, learners might have paid native speakers to read out loud to them, while they read along, so it could have been done without modern technology, but I doubt if it was very widespread. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| MRoss Newbie Australia Joined 5973 days ago 15 posts - 21 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch, German, Spanish | Message 32 of 39 31 August 2014 at 3:43am | IP Logged | ||
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In my learning, I was restricted to reading/translating as I was having troubles getting
flashcard software to work. While the idea of flashcards with the top 1000 words was appealing, I couldn't take advantage of it. So my vocabulary list grew organically from my translating. Yes there were words I needed to translate six or seven times until their meaning sunk in, whiles others stuck after just one translation. But doing this has surprised me at how I can understand large chunks of text I've not previously read. I think, now that I've had good results without flashcards, that flashcards are best used as a memory jog only. Say, as a way to flick through a few dozen words now and then when you have a moment. As a reinforcing tool, not a learning. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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