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Your best vocabulary learning methods?

 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies Post Reply
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rdearman
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 Message 17 of 58
05 June 2015 at 12:16am | IP Logged 
I think the best method for easy words is just reading. Common words will appear repeatedly. You've already got a basic vocabulary of common words, so reading will reinforce and expand it. Use the flashcards (paper if you want) for the rare and uncommon words.
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shk00design
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 Message 18 of 58
05 June 2015 at 3:57am | IP Logged 
According to Steve Kaufmann the polyglot, you don't even try to push yourself to memorize anything. Push
your brain to work hard is low-efficiency. He suggested to let your brain forget once in a while like someone
would come across a new term in English but quickly forget. You simply spend many hours to expose yourself
to a language. The more times come across the same word / phrase enough number of times, you'd
remember naturally.

How To Memorize Vocabulary - Is It Even Necessary?

Another similar video by Luca:
Just forget it! The secret of learning new words

Edited by shk00design on 05 June 2015 at 4:07am

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rtickner
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 Message 19 of 58
05 June 2015 at 5:11am | IP Logged 
I've found the opposite to be true - memorising from an SRS / Iverson List / Goldlist /
Leitner box / etc., has been MUCH more efficient for me, judging on my own results. If
you want to learn vocab "really fast", as stated in your initial post, you want some good
old fashioned intensive learning. Do a search on this forum for paper based methods
already discussed here in detail - Iverson Lists, Goldlists, or check out SuperMemo 0,
the paper version - http://www.supermemo.com/english/ol/beginning.htm#Algorithm.
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chaotic_thought
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 Message 20 of 58
05 June 2015 at 11:53am | IP Logged 
rtickner wrote:
I've found the opposite to be true - memorising from an SRS / Iverson List / Goldlist /
Leitner box / etc., has been MUCH more efficient for me, judging on my own results.


Please distinguish what you mean by efficiency. For example, you may indeed be able to use a method to efficently memorize a list of 1000 words, along with definitions, translations or whatever. But whether this also boosts your efficiency to, say, read a novel...?

It may, but it may not. I'm quite sceptical. As I notice myself getting better and better at reading, I really have the feeling it has not so much to do with "how many words I remembered." I tend to rate my own efficiency in reading by judging some factors such as "Can I quickly assess basic information about words on the page (which words are nouns, are they proper nouns, which ones are verbs, etc.)" or "Can I understand this sentence without looking up any words?" or "Is the meaning of word X in this sentence clear to me?".

Edited by chaotic_thought on 05 June 2015 at 12:03pm

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Jeffers
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 Message 21 of 58
05 June 2015 at 12:44pm | IP Logged 
I've spent time memorizing words on SRS, and I've spent time trying to learn by using (mainly reading). What I've sort of always known (but only recently have been actually practicing) is that doing these two things together works best. Make flashcards of words which come up in your readings, learn the flashcards, re-read the text. This creates a sort of synergy of methods which make the words stick better. It also makes both flashcard work and reading more enjoyable in my experience.
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patrickwilken
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 Message 22 of 58
05 June 2015 at 1:04pm | IP Logged 
Jeffers wrote:
I've spent time memorizing words on SRS, and I've spent time trying to learn by using (mainly reading). What I've sort of always known (but only recently have been actually practicing) is that doing these two things together works best. Make flashcards of words which come up in your readings, learn the flashcards, re-read the text. This creates a sort of synergy of methods which make the words stick better. It also makes both flashcard work and reading more enjoyable in my experience.


So are you re-reading books? Or just short passages. I think I'm unfortunately too lazy for such efforts. :(
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Jeffers
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 Message 23 of 58
05 June 2015 at 2:28pm | IP Logged 
patrickwilken wrote:
Jeffers wrote:
I've spent time memorizing words on SRS, and I've spent time trying to learn by using (mainly reading). What I've sort of always known (but only recently have been actually practicing) is that doing these two things together works best. Make flashcards of words which come up in your readings, learn the flashcards, re-read the text. This creates a sort of synergy of methods which make the words stick better. It also makes both flashcard work and reading more enjoyable in my experience.


So are you re-reading books? Or just short passages. I think I'm unfortunately too lazy for such efforts. :(


I'm currently taking this chapter by chapter, using my own form of intensive reading. I have a couple of readers for Hindi which have running vocabularies for each chapter, so it's quite convenient for this method. I read it and underline unknown words, then add them to SRS, learning about 50 words per chapter. After reviewing the words for a few days, I then reread the chapter a couple times. I've also gone back and reviewed previous chapters a couple of times. All the while I'm continuing to do regular reviews on Anki. I would never do this with every book I read, just a select few, in the hopes that more intensive work on those books will make extensive reading easier.

For me the re-reading isn't just about learning the vocabulary; it's how I assimilate language structures as well.

[EDIT:] Right now I'm working through about one chapter per week of my Hindi reader, but that's because I really need a boost in my Hindi vocabulary for most of the things I want to read. If I keep up with the method after this summer I'll probably try to keep doing a more manageable chapter per month for a while, and spend more of my reading time on extensive reading.

Edited by Jeffers on 05 June 2015 at 2:35pm

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patrickwilken
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 Message 24 of 58
05 June 2015 at 2:37pm | IP Logged 
Jeffers: I find Readlang really good for grabbing text off ebooks for SRS. Not sure how well it works with Hindi though.


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