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s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5242 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish
| Message 201 of 229 14 May 2015 at 10:08pm | IP Logged |
patrickwilken wrote:
I would divide learning into: (1) knowing the word in context; (2) being able to talk about
the word in isolation if prompted (meaning, grammatical facts); (3) being able to actively use the word without
being prompted; (4) actively using the word in a given lexicon.
Note: Some people conflate 3 and 4, you can measure the number of words some group uses (4) but that doesn't
necessarily tell you which words can can actively use if needed (3). Some of the tension between s_allard and
others on this discussion is that he favors 4, while most other people are interested in 3 (or perhaps 1 or 2). So
when s_allard says that Spanish university students have a +5000 word lexicon, he is referring to 4, and other's
object by referring to 3. Of course if you just want to read newspapers like me, 1 is plenty good enough.
1 is passive knowledge of a word, 3 and 4 active knowledge; 2 is perhaps somewhere between passive and active
as you won't necessarily be able to use the word without prompting.
The problem with the original survey is that we are all using different meanings of learn. |
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I think we have come full circle. After 25 pages of sometimes heated discussion, we are now discussing the
definition of a word and what it means to learn a word. I don't necessarily agree with the wording of the
distinctions in this post but I think there is some common ground with my position: learning can have very
different meanings. So, if we don't use the same definition of a word and the same definition of to learn, it's
really hard to make any sense of the poll here.
1 person has voted this message useful
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5242 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish
| Message 202 of 229 14 May 2015 at 11:29pm | IP Logged |
I have the ultimate solution. Since the words "learn" and "word" seem to be at the heart of the argument here, why
not just remove them from the poll? Say we use the following question:
The number of vocabulary or SRS entries you use (avg) per year?
The results can remain the same. I wouldn't get worked up and peeve off a bunch of people. No shouting, no
tantrums, no acrimony, no name-calling.
But, then again, maybe we wouldn't have anything to talk about.
1 person has voted this message useful
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4345 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German
| Message 203 of 229 14 May 2015 at 11:44pm | IP Logged |
s_allard wrote:
But, then again, maybe we wouldn't have anything to talk about. |
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I am just curious, why do you keep popping up on this thread if you think there is nothing to discuss?
5 persons have voted this message useful
| smallwhite Pentaglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5120 days ago 537 posts - 1045 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin, French, Spanish
| Message 204 of 229 15 May 2015 at 4:02am | IP Logged |
meramarina wrote:
Let's try to stay on topic since this thread is getting so long. Why not start a new thread to discuss the newbie
question? It's a good one and probably deserves its own discussion. |
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Sorry.
I don't think the poll would help as the problem really is we want to hear success stories from successful learners but we don't want ones too successful. I might start a log instead to write about my methods, and just link to it every time I get asked about them, and answer questions about them just there. I saw here that one can talk about learning 5000 words in 34 days and 8100 words in 56 days without problems in logs.
Edited by smallwhite on 15 May 2015 at 4:08am
4 persons have 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 205 of 229 15 May 2015 at 4:40am | IP Logged |
Well smallwhite you posted your study plan and rate of vocab learning in a thread called "How much time studying vocabulary?"
where an experienced language learner asked "I am just wondering what other's vocabulary study plan looks like." If you can't
post your success story there then something is really wrong with attitudes on this forum. We shouldn't have to post constant
disclaimers about how different people have different learning strategies in advanced threads like that. In threads where newbies
are asking for advice we do need to be careful, but we shouldn't let that shut down discussion of what's possible throughout the
whole forum. (and if we have to consider how our statements affect newbies we will shut down discussion)
Edited by AlexTG on 15 May 2015 at 4:49am
2 persons have voted this message useful
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5048 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin
| Message 206 of 229 15 May 2015 at 11:04am | IP Logged |
smallwhite wrote:
meramarina wrote:
Let's try to stay on topic since this thread is getting so long. Why not start a new thread to discuss the newbie
question? It's a good one and probably deserves its own discussion. |
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Sorry.
I don't think the poll would help as the problem really is we want to hear success stories from successful learners but we don't want ones too successful. I might start a log instead to write about my methods, and just link to it every time I get asked about them, and answer questions about them just there. I saw here that one can talk about learning 5000 words in 34 days and 8100 words in 56 days without problems in logs.
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I don't think that was meramarina's point. I think she was just saying that we seemed to have combined two discussions into the same thread and it gets a little confusing when people are cross-posting about different (but related) topics into the same thread. :D
But please start a log about your vocabulary methods, I for one would be a regular reader!
2 persons have voted this message useful
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5242 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish
| Message 207 of 229 15 May 2015 at 2:36pm | IP Logged |
Just when I thought things had quieted down a bit, I got all excited by this revelation that all this hubbub over
learning 8000 words in a year was for nought because that's small potatoes compared to the learning of 8100
words in 56 days. To the chagrin undoubtedly of some posters, I decided to pop in or pop up and have a look at
this language learning phenomenon. Mein Gott, here I am struggling with learning 4 or 5 words a day in Spanish
when I could be zooming along at 300 a day.
All facetiousness aside, I have to say that I now have a better understanding of where this whole business of
vocabulary list cramming is coming from. Once you understand how the words "learn" and "word" are used, you
realize that as a technique for memorizing vast quantities of words, it's quite probably useful.
So, in my usual fashion, I went straight to the source and read through the entire thread quoted above. Quite an
eye-opener indeed. The learner, Rob Tickner, finished a Pimsleur Swedish course and wants to kick start his
learning by intensively acquiring a large stock of vocabulary of Swedish vocabulary. He has also studied German
and observes that this is helpful in the acquisition of Swedish vocabulary. He acquires two large Anki English-
Swedish stacks and proceeds to study over 200 words a day.
Right from the get-go, it is clear that there is no interest in grammar, no listening comprehension. Just simple
words to "prime the pump". When asked about what's on the cards, the learner says:
Rob Tickner wrote:
Simple word pairs. Shown the English word, give the Swedish word. Verbs in the infinitive,
all nouns have corresponding genders.
Several years ago I experimented with different card formats in Anki for some ad hoc German vocab work. I found
that it wasn't necessary to do both English -> German and German -> English - for me, English -> German was
more than sufficient.
No example sentences. The purpose here is to internalize a large bank of common Swedish words in my brain in
a short period of time, which requires a fast way to generate reliable word lists (using scripts run across a
dictionary or vocabulary book). The simple, pure list of word pairs eliminates distraction, and is, in a way, almost
beautiful in its simplicity. |
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Here the learner is asked about using the words:
Bbcatcher 08 wrote:
Are you even trying to use them yet, or just concentrating like you said, on pure learning
of the vocabulary. |
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Rob Tickner wrote:
@Bbcatcher 08: Not using them, just learning them, getting to know them, and tending to
them. |
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Finally, at this breakneck speed, the learner arrives at 8100 words.
Rob Tickner wrote:
Day 55
Total: 8100
New: 300
Reviews: 557
Time: 144 mins |
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In this exercise, it is quite clear that the word learning means learning only to recognize. We are also talking
about word forms not word families.
This is an exercise in memorization. This is not an exercise in learning to speak Swedish. In fact, there is not a
word about what the learner can do in Swedish at the end of all this. I suspect that the learner could hardly speak
any Swedish at all. But that was not the goal.
For what it attempts to accomplish, this exercise is, in my opinion, really quite interesting. It's not about learning
to speak Swedish; it's about learning a large number of words on which to build later.
It may not be my cup of tea, however I think there may be something to be said for this approach. It is the polar
opposite of my own idea of the language kernel but it is something to try.
What I strongly object to is calling this learning of words or vocabulary to use. Well, according to my
understanding of learning. For me it's pure memorization, something akin to learning lists of number. How
effective this is in the big picture remains to be seen.
3 persons have voted this message useful
| Ezy Ryder Diglot Senior Member Poland youtube.com/user/Kat Joined 4161 days ago 284 posts - 387 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: Mandarin, Japanese
| Message 208 of 229 15 May 2015 at 2:57pm | IP Logged |
Rob Tickner wrote:
Simple word pairs. Shown the English word, give the Swedish word. |
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s_allard wrote:
In this exercise, it is quite clear that the word learning means learning only to recognize. |
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Edited by Ezy Ryder on 15 May 2015 at 2:59pm
2 persons have voted this message useful
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