Learning Foreign Language Vocabulary - The Fundamentals
Summary
TLDRThis video script discusses the complexities of vocabulary acquisition for language learners, emphasizing the variety of word types and the importance of context in learning. It highlights the significance of cognates, high-frequency words, and idiomatic expressions, and warns against relying solely on one-to-one translations. The speaker introduces general principles and techniques for effective vocabulary learning, such as leveraging prior knowledge, using flashcards for active engagement, consuming comprehensible input, and practicing pushed output to refine language skills and avoid plateauing.
Takeaways
- 📚 The average adult native speaker knows about 10,000 words in their native language, but the definition of a word can vary.
- 🔍 Vocabulary acquisition for foreign language learners involves understanding different types of words, including cognates, false cognates, and words with simple translations.
- 🔑 High-frequency and cognate words are easier to learn compared to abstract, low-frequency, false cognates, and words without equivalence.
- 🌐 One-to-one translations are often deceptive; languages express meaning differently, and vocabulary learning should consider chunks of words and phrases.
- 📈 Vocabulary extends beyond individual words to include idiomatic expressions and frequently used phrases, which are essential for understanding natural language use.
- 🤔 The depth of vocabulary knowledge varies; it's not just about recognizing words but also about using them appropriately in context.
- 🧠 Leveraging prior knowledge aids in vocabulary acquisition; learning new words becomes easier when they relate to what one already knows.
- 📝 Learning words by examples in relevant contexts is more effective than memorizing definitions alone, as it provides a better understanding of usage.
- 📚 Flashcards can be a useful tool for vocabulary learning, especially when they prompt the learner to use words in sentences or contexts.
- 🎧 Comprehensible input, such as reading and listening to material slightly above one's current level, helps in learning vocabulary in a natural context.
- 🗣️ Pushed output, or using newly learned words in realistic contexts and getting feedback, is crucial for advancing language skills and avoiding plateaus.
Q & A
What is the estimated average vocabulary size for an adult native speaker in their native language?
-The average adult native speaker is estimated to know about 10,000 words in their native language, depending on the definition of a word.
What are cognates and how do they relate to vocabulary acquisition for language learners?
-Cognates are words that are the same and mean the same in both languages. They can be easier for language learners to acquire since they can leverage their existing knowledge of their native language.
Can you explain the concept of false cognates and how they might confuse language learners?
-False cognates are words that appear similar to a word in the learner's native language but have a different meaning. For example, 'support' in Spanish actually means 'to tolerate', not 'to support', which can lead to confusion.
What is the difference between high-frequency and low-frequency words in terms of vocabulary acquisition?
-High-frequency words are used often in listening, reading, and speaking, and are learned quickly. Low-frequency words are not encountered as often and may be needed in specific settings, making them harder to learn.
Why is it not effective to rely solely on one-to-one translations when learning a new language?
-Languages express meaning differently, and relying on one-to-one translations can be deceptive for many words. It's more helpful to think in terms of chunks of words or phrases that often come up together.
What is the importance of understanding idiomatic expressions and phrases in vocabulary acquisition?
-Idiomatic expressions and frequently used phrases are important because they represent common patterns of expression. Understanding these can enhance a learner's ability to use language naturally.
How does the concept of 'chunks' of words relate to vocabulary learning?
-Thinking in terms of 'chunks' of words or phrases that often occur together can be more effective in learning a language, as it reflects how language is naturally used and understood.
Why is it beneficial to learn words by examples in relevant contexts rather than just by definitions?
-Learning words by examples in relevant contexts provides a better understanding of how the word is used in everyday conversation and the appropriate times to use it, rather than just knowing its dictionary definition.
What is the role of 'pushed output' in language learning and vocabulary acquisition?
-'Pushed output' involves extending what has been learned through flashcards or comprehensible input into real-world contexts. It helps learners test new words and constructions and receive feedback, which can improve their language skills.
How can leveraging prior knowledge assist in vocabulary acquisition for language learners?
-Leveraging prior knowledge can make words easier to learn if the learner already knows something about them. For example, understanding a root word can make learning related words easier.
What are some techniques mentioned in the script for effective vocabulary acquisition in language learning?
-The script mentions using flashcards in a way that prompts learners to work with the word, engaging in reading and listening to comprehensible input, and practicing 'pushed output' to test new words in realistic contexts.
Outlines
📚 Understanding Vocabulary Acquisition
This paragraph discusses the complexity of vocabulary acquisition for language learners. It highlights the variety of word types, such as cognates, false cognates, simple translations, high and low frequency words, abstract and concrete words, and words with or without clear divisions. The speaker emphasizes the importance of recognizing that vocabulary learning is not just about memorizing words but also about understanding how they are used in context, including idiomatic expressions and phrases. The paragraph also touches on the idea that some words may not translate directly between languages and that thinking in terms of one-to-one translations can be deceptive.
🔍 Levels of Vocabulary Knowledge and Learning Principles
The second paragraph delves into the different levels of vocabulary knowledge, from simple recognition to the ability to use words in nuanced and creative ways. It stresses the importance of leveraging prior knowledge when learning new words, as this can significantly ease the learning process. The speaker shares a personal anecdote about learning Chinese characters to illustrate the principle of building on existing knowledge. The paragraph also emphasizes the importance of learning words through examples and relevant contexts rather than just definitions, as this provides a more accurate understanding of how words are used in everyday language.
📚 Techniques for Effective Vocabulary Learning
This paragraph outlines three techniques for effective vocabulary learning: using flashcards, engaging with comprehensible input, and practicing pushed output. Flashcards are recommended for words with clear one-to-one mappings but should be used in a way that encourages active use of the word in sentences. Comprehensible input involves exposure to language that is slightly above the learner's current level, allowing for natural vocabulary acquisition through context. Pushed output is the process of testing new words and constructions in real-world situations to gauge understanding and receive feedback. The speaker advises moving beyond flashcards quickly to see words in context and to keep exploring the language to avoid plateauing.
🌐 Additional Resources for Language Learning
The final paragraph provides recommendations for further insights into language learning, specifically for those interested in learning Chinese. The speaker suggests checking out two language learning channels that offer valuable information and discussions on language learning strategies and research applications. The paragraph concludes with an invitation to join the conversation and a thank you for watching the video.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Vocabulary acquisition
💡Cognates
💡False cognates
💡High-frequency words
💡Low-frequency words
💡Abstract words
💡Concrete words
💡One-to-one translations
💡Comprehensible input
💡Flashcards
💡Pushed output
Highlights
Adult native speakers are estimated to know about 10,000 words in their native language.
Different kinds of vocabulary exist, including cognates, false cognates, and words with simple one-to-one translations.
High-frequency words and cognates are easier to learn compared to abstract words, low-frequency words, and false cognates.
Vocabulary learning should not rely on one-to-one translations, but rather on understanding chunks of words and phrases.
Vocabulary acquisition goes beyond individual words to include idiomatic expressions and frequently used phrases.
Different levels of vocabulary knowledge exist, from mere recognition to the ability to use words with irony or in jokes.
Leveraging prior knowledge facilitates easier vocabulary learning.
Learning words by examples in relevant contexts is more effective than learning by dictionary definitions alone.
Flashcards can be used effectively for words with clear one-to-one mappings, but should prompt further engagement with the word.
Comprehensible input involves listening or reading material slightly beyond one's current level to encounter new vocabulary naturally.
Pushing output involves testing new vocabulary in realistic contexts and receiving feedback from native speakers.
Avoiding plateauing in language learning requires continuous exploration and practice with new vocabulary.
Root words in Indo-European languages, similar to radicals in Chinese, provide a foundation for learning related words.
Understanding the parts of a word can help in educated guessing of its meaning, especially when encountering new words.
The importance of learning not just the dictionary definition but also the usage and context of words.
Using apps like Pleco for Chinese language learning can provide examples that illustrate word usage beyond definitions.
The significance of learning vocabulary in chunks and patterns rather than in isolation.
The transcript suggests further insights into language learning through recommended channels and podcasts.
Transcripts
researchers estimate that the average
adult native speaker knows about 10,000
words in their native language depending
on how you define a word so how do we as
foreign language Learners acquire all of
that vocabulary before I talk about
specific techniques I want to make a
couple of observations and talk general
principles first observation there are
different kinds of vocabulary words
there's cognates words that the same and
mean the same in both languages so
computa for instance in Japanese means
computer at least last time I checked
there are false cognates like support in
Spanish which seems like it should mean
to support but it actually means to
tolerate or lectura in Spanish which
seems like it should mean a lecture but
it actually means a reading there are
words with simple onetoone translations
that you can use pretty much in the same
way that you use the word in English
like the word CA in Spanish meaning
chair in English as far as I know you
can pretty much use that just like you
use the word chair there are high
frequency words words that you use all
the time if you're listening reading
speaking you're going to be using these
words and you're going to learn them
pretty quickly and there are low
frequency words words that you don't
encounter very often but maybe you need
in a particular setting or a particular
circumstance but you know you just don't
come across them very often there are
abstract words and concrete words there
are words where the meaning can be
derived from the different parts and
there are words where it's impossible to
do that it's just a big chunk and you
can't figure out what the word means
just from looking at the word how easily
you learn a word and even how you should
learn a word depends a little bit on the
kind of word it is highfrequency words
and cognates are going to be very very
easy to learn to come across abstract
words low frequency words false cognates
words without equivalence
all of these are going to be a little
bit harder to learn and you might
consider doing something a little bit
different to learn them there are words
that don't map cleanly on to the
divisions that we have in English a word
like take in English for instance has
such a wide variety of different uses
you can take a walk you can take that
bag you can take a hike you can take a
photo you can take something for granted
so if you're learning English as a
foreign language take is not a word that
is going to fall cleanly within the
divisions of words that you have in your
language this brings me to an important
principle thinking in terms of onetoone
translations is usually not a good thing
it can work for basic nouns but
languages just Express meaning in
different ways and relying on one toone
translations or thinking that vocabulary
is about one toone translations is
deceptive for a lot of different words
it's a little more helpful to think in
terms of chunks of words together words
that often come up together or words
that are used in the same kind of phrase
or certain construction that comes up
frequently which brings me to another
observation vocabulary goes beyond words
there are idiomatic expressions like
take for granted that we just looked at
there's uh frequently used phrases or
constructions like it's hard to do
something it's easy to do something and
an individual word might occur with
other words very frequently so if we
think about the word chew for instance
probably are going to be using words
like food or bite or easy to chew or
hard to chew or something the likelihood
of hearing those words goes up if you
hear the word chew and just knowing the
dictionary meaning of the word is not
the same as knowing how that word is
used knowing that one of of the meanings
of the word hard in English is difficult
doesn't necessarily tell you that the
phrase hard to do something is a pretty
common occurrence it's hard to hit it's
hard to catch it's hard to learn it's
hard to avoid I guess to repeat what
I've already said twice now maybe it's
not just individual words that we need
to focus on it's patterns of the
expression a lot of times you can
understand how to use an overall
expression but not know what the
individual words might mean in that
expression even in the expression take
for granted for instance if you told me
to explain why take for granted means
what it does as a native English speaker
I would have a hard time saying that I
just use it because I know what the
meaning of the phrase is and I think
that the the people who are listening to
me talking know what the meaning of the
phrase is but expressions of meaning do
not always need to be individually
picked apart to death okay third
observation there are different levels
of vocabulary knowledge people will say
things like I know a 100 vocabulary
words but that is a very simplistic way
of talking and thinking now maybe you
can only recognize a word if you see it
and then remember what it means maybe
you know the rough English equivalent
without prompting maybe you can use it
correctly and in some example sentences
maybe you're skilled at using it at
socially appropriate times maybe you can
use it with irony or in jokes or in
combination with other words to express
new Concepts maybe you knew the word at
one point and have forgotten it
completely but it'll be easy to learn
the word again maybe you never learned
the word before but you can quickly
figure out what it means because you
understand the parts of the word and
what their likely meanings are so you
can kind of make an educated guess as to
what the word means maybe I've said this
more than once already but it's not
about just remembering the dictionary
definition of the word it's about de
deepening your skills at using words and
patterns of words to express meaning
back two principles again you should
leverage prior knowledge if you can now
earlier I talked about a word being
easier to use because of something about
the word itself but how easy a word is
to learn also has something to do with
the learner right words are easier to
learn if we already know something about
them to begin with let me tell you a
quick story when I was first learning
Chinese I would see a new word get
excited and put it in my handy dandy
flashcard app I was on the street and I
saw someone with a hat that
said now this combination of sounds and
these characters mean Jesus Christ and
so I was like oh cool I'll put that in
my flash card app and that's cool as the
flash card came up again and again I
would frequently forget what these words
meant I had struggled with the
characters I just struggled remembering
this and part of the problem was that
basically every one of these characters
is new to me I knew a little bit of
pieces of some of them and I don't use
the words Jesus Christ that often in in
in everyday conversation when I I was
living in Taiwan I don't use them in
English not often either so trying to
learn the words jidu yesu it was
probably not a good idea for me at that
time because I didn't have that much
prior knowledge I had to learn all of
these four characters as a chunk just to
learn one new word but I was also having
conversations with other people and I
learned a similar word chuao chuao is
Christianity in Chinese for some reason
this word was a lot easier to learn than
J yesu I already knew that there was a
general format of having some characters
with Jiao at the end and that meaning a
religion so Jiao made sense to me also I
already knew Jia Jia is a character I
already knew pretty well and so really
I'm only learning like two new
characters so before all of the
characters are new I'm trying to learn
all these four characters at once but in
theu situation not only do I understand
why the characters are arranged the way
they are but only 2third of the
characters are new to me this is what
I'm talking about when I when I'm saying
develop vocabulary based on what you
already know I wish I would have gone
back in time and been like hey man don't
put J yesu in your flash card app you
don't need that you're never going to
talk about that wait until it becomes
relevant to
you wait until you already know if I
learned Jiao first then J yesu becomes
that much easier to learn now in many
Indo-European languages and probably a
lot of other languages I'm not really
sure root words serve the same kind of
function that radicals and characters
might serve in in a Chinese or in
Japanese for instance bicycle cyclical
Cyclone tricycle unicycle right all
those are using the psych route so
there's something similar about them if
you know a couple of them then learning
the next one is that much easier you
don't have to learn everything from
scratch again another principle that I
think is important here learn words by
examples in relevant contexts not by
definition only people act sometimes
like knowing the dictionary definition
of the word is what knowing a word
actually means but the dictionary
definition is just a best guess
approximation of the meaning of the word
uh it doesn't really tell you how the
word is used in everyday conversation
and where are appropriate times to use
the word does it sound like you're from
the 18th century if you use this word
does it sound like you are a member of
the upper cross does it sound like
you're a heathen you know what does it
sound like an app like pleco for Chinese
language learning has a lot of examples
that come with the definitions and those
examples are really really helpful a lot
of times I go to the examples first to
see how the word is being used and then
the dictionary definition is kind of
unnecessary by that point we've made
some observations we've talked about
principles now I'm going to talk about
three different techniques in language
learning and how to use these techniques
so the first as you might guess is
flashcards so basic flashcards are good
for words that have very clear onetoone
mappings from one language to the other
but if you just use them in a basic way
like I put the word on the front side
and I put the dictionary definition on
another and that's my primary source of
learning
vocabulary I don't think it's going to
be all that effective for you another
way of using flashcards would be to
prompt you to work with the word so
let's say you get a flash card with a
new word on it and you have to use that
word in a sentence you write a couple
sentences with that word or you take a a
bunch of words coming up the sentences
and saying them with that word in them
or with that construction in them that
involves practicing a skill that's much
closer to the skill that you want to
acquire which is to be able to use words
naturally to express meaning instead in
of using words as cues you can also use
topics or situations as cues like hey
you're here at the doctor's office what
words are going to come up at the
doctor's office what are useful
constructions at the doctor's office
maybe come up with a handful of
sentences that you're going to explain
to the doctor that you're sick this is a
more free recall style of retrieval
which I think is going to benefit you
more than just doing the cued recall of
a standard basic flash card but but
whatever the method ideally you want to
be going beyond the flashcards very very
quickly you want to be seeing those
words in context so you want to be
reading material with those Target words
in them you want to be using those words
in conversation with other people if
you're not using the words then having
them in your flashcard app is kind of
not it's not really serving you that
well second strategy reading and
listening to a lot of comprehensible
input has got to be part of the strategy
comprehensible input if you don't
already know is listening or reading to
stuff that is just a little bit beyond
your current level so where you
understand most of what you are hearing
there's going to be some new vocabulary
words some new constructions but getting
to the level where you can read
something or listen to something and
understand you know 80% 90% of what you
are hearing is ideally what you want to
be shooting for and there are so many
advantages to using comprehensible input
to learn a language learn the
constructions and the new vocabulary
words you're encountering words in their
natural contexts where they commonly
co-occur with other words in a situation
that is appropriate for them you're
learning words through examples and not
through definitions often you can figure
out a tentative meaning from Context and
then you might look up that word to see
further examples of of the word in use
you can always learn more about the word
later you don't have to learn everything
about every new word that you encounter
with comprehensible input words come up
naturally in groups and chunks and so
often you are using prior knowledge as
part of the learning process to
understand the words and constructions
more deeply but you also want to be
testing out new words and new
constructions as much as possible in
what's called pushed output and this is
where you extend what you've been
learning through flashcards or through
comprehensible input or some mixture of
courses and stuff that you're taking
into the real world into realistic
contexts and seeing the response that
you get from people you're not just
copying and repeating what you've read
you're using words to express meaning
and then you get to see the response
from other people about what you've said
are they giving you funny looks do they
understand what you said are they
rephrasing what you said using other
more appropriate vocabulary words are
they replying to the wrong question is
there some miscommunication going on the
goal here is to avoid plateauing it's to
avoid defaulting to the same words the
same phrases that you use all the time
advancing your language skills means you
have to keep exploring the language and
playing with it the more cycles that you
get of this process of learning new
words or chunks of words trying to learn
from examples and moving from what you
already know and then expressing those
words in realistic contexts the smoother
the vocabulary acquisition is going to
go for more insights into language
learning and especially if you're trying
to learn Chinese check out these two
language learning channels here I talk
to William Hart who runs a great channel
on on Chinese language learning and here
I talk to Daniel of the chinese's hard
podcast on uh learning forign languages
and trying to apply the research on
learning to language learning check it
out it's a great conversation that we
have and I'll see you next time thanks
for watching
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