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How many words you learn per year (avg) | ||
Tags: Poll | Vocabulary learning | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6409 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes  4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 113 of 229 10 May 2015 at 6:10pm | IP Logged | |||||
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??? There's too much individual variation here. I use mostly sentences throughout my learning, others may use mostly single-word cards. Some use sentences in the beginning because single words don't stick (seems to be more common for Japanese learners, also due to the popularity of AJATT). Some cram in the beginning to get a solid foundation asap, others struggle to learn a large amount of words early on. At one point I went through a small Finnish-Russian dictionary for travellers and a list of 10k common words, to cover the possible gaps.
The only clear trend I can see is that pretty much nobody uses SRS for years from A1 to C2 without taking long breaks or starting a new deck etc. I agree that *something* generally changes at some point, whether it's your card format, pace of learning, intervals, source of cards or whatever. But I'm not sure what you're even disagreeing with. Edited by Serpent on 10 May 2015 at 8:59pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4345 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 114 of 229 10 May 2015 at 6:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I think the original question is difficult to answer in part because there are so many different legitimate ways of counting a word as learnt, and depending on the method you use, someone who says they learn about 3000 words/year could in fact be learning less than someone who's estimates they learn 1000/year.
Does learning a word mean: 1. Being able to passively understand a word in context? 2. Being able to understand the meaning of a word and be able to reproduce other grammatical facts about it (like gender or plural forms)? 3. Having the ability to actively use a word if needed? (you may never use "SIM Card" but you have it ready for active use if needed). 4. Using the word actively when writing/speaking (SIM Card isn't counted even if you know it as you don't actively use it). 5. Using the word actively when speaking. (SIM Card isn't counted even if you know it as you don't actively use it). I use #1 as an estimate for my own vocabulary, s_allard apparently is only interested in #5, people who use flash cards probably mean #1, #2 or #3, people who self-estimate they learnt X number of words/year could be using any of 1-5. Of course, there are other definitions not listed. Note also that these definitions are not mutually exclusive; knowing a word by definition #1 doesn't mean you don't also use it actively in speaking in #5. I think any of these measures are useful, it just makes it hard to compare across estimates. Edited by patrickwilken on 10 May 2015 at 6:39pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6409 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 115 of 229 10 May 2015 at 8:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hmmm am I lucky that I'm in the same range regardless of the type? I mean, if you count very liberally I can probably make the 8000+ range but it doesn't seem like a reasonable estimate. Similarly, if you make me list 3000 words I've learned over the past year I may fail, but that doesn't mean I'm below the 3000 mark.
I suppose the trickiest ranges here are 1500-3000 and 3000-5000. They're two of the narrowest, along with 1-1500. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| chaotic_thought Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 3354 days ago 129 posts - 274 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Dutch, French | Message 116 of 229 10 May 2015 at 9:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
I am trying now to estimate vocabulary by doing it the way Professor Arguelles does in his language series videos: 1. Get a passage and read each sentence natively, out loud. 2. Then, go through each word or phrase, and pretend that your audience does not know the language and that you are going to teach it to them by giving a quick translation of each word. If you can't come up with a one or two word translation without keeping your audience waiting (imaginary audience, of course), then it means you don't know that word. Strike it out, highlight it, or whatever. At the end, count how many total words there are in the passage and subtract the marked words (that you didn't know). That is your vocabulary coverage for that passage, e.g. 40 words known out of 50 means 80% coverage. I like this method because sometimes if I'm reading to myself (not outloud) then I can stare at a page for quite a while trying to think back (where I have a heard this before?). If I read it outloud and pretend an audience is listening, then I don't do that and it's easier to give myself an objective pass/fail mark for each word. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4721 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 117 of 229 10 May 2015 at 10:06pm | IP Logged | |||||
I had a similar measure in mind, along the lines of what Paul Nation wrote about in this article (referenced before, but here it is again): http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/rfl/PastIssues/rfl82hirsh.pdf. Basically, his concern here is for the number of words needed to read a book for pleasure, so Patrick's #1 is essentially what I think of. Being able to use the word actively is important, of course, but you need to start somewhere. Repeated exposure will increase the likelihood that you will find the right word when speaking/writing. In any case, I think the active/passive distinction is too binary; there's a whole spectrum of ability, and for most of us it changes from day to day. (EDIT: Patrickwilken's list takes this into account, but it still treats active and passive like paired opposites.) Edited by Jeffers on 10 May 2015 at 10:50pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| mustafamah6at Newbie Egypt mah6at.com/fawazer/Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3298 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Studies: EnglishB2 | Message 118 of 229 10 May 2015 at 11:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I believe a man or woman who works and have 1 other activity would be great if he or she
gets 1500 words per year:) Edited by mustafamah6at on 10 May 2015 at 11:43pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| AlexTG Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 4450 days ago 178 posts - 354 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Latin, German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 119 of 229 11 May 2015 at 12:41am | IP Logged | |||||
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The testyourvocab.com survey results suggest the average native English speaker learns
one new English word a day. source If the average adult is learning 365 words a year in their native language I think most language learners would be learning above 1500 words a year in their TL. (using the purely passive interpretation of learning a word) Edited by AlexTG on 11 May 2015 at 12:55am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| smallwhite Pentaglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5120 days ago 537 posts - 1045 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin, French, Spanish | Message 120 of 229 11 May 2015 at 2:48am | IP Logged | |||||
Thanks for reminding us of that survey. I find the IELTS score chart particularly useful, when used in combination with this CEFR chart. Together, they give: B2 = IELTS 5.0-6.5 = 5483-7393 words C1 = IELTS 6.5-8.0 = 7393-13274 words The Japanese JLPT N1 exam had a vocabulary list of 10,000 words. The CEFR chart above places this exam at C1 level. C1 = JLPT N1 = 10000 words which is consistent with the IELTS results above. I find these stats useful and consistent with my experience. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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