Stop obsessing over grammar: focus on this instead

Summary

The speaker emphasizes the importance of vocabulary acquisition in language learning, sharing their personal journey of adding 5,500 new Turkish words in a month, reaching a total of 15,000. They argue that while grammar has finite rules, vocabulary is vast and essential for understanding language patterns and engaging in conversations. The speaker uses their iPhone to demonstrate how they review and claim known words, highlighting the joy and motivation that comes from learning new words and the necessity of exposure to different contexts for better retention and language proficiency.

Takeaways

• 📈 The speaker emphasizes the importance of vocabulary as a key measurement of language learning potential.
• 📚 The speaker has reached a vocabulary count of 15,000 words in Turkish, with 5,500 new words added in the past month.
• 🔍 The speaker addresses criticisms about the complexity of Turkish word forms and verbs, suggesting that different forms are easier to remember than others.
• 🧠 The speaker references 'The Happy Brain' by Dean Burnett, which discusses the brain's need for novelty and how repetition and newness are both important for learning.
• 🌟 The speaker finds joy and a sense of achievement in adding new words to their vocabulary, which is a motivator for continued learning.
• 📘 Grammar and usage rules are finite and can be covered in a relatively thin book, unlike vocabulary which has almost infinite potential for growth.
• 📖 The speaker reads grammar books and uses various resources to learn Turkish, but emphasizes that knowing vocabulary is crucial for understanding examples and explanations.
• 📲 The speaker demonstrates how they use their iPhone to learn and review vocabulary, including claiming known words and editing saved words.
• 🧩 The speaker compares vocabulary accumulation to assembling a jigsaw puzzle, where each new word helps fill in the gaps and provides a clearer picture of the language.
• 🏋️‍♂️ The speaker suggests that challenging oneself with more difficult content is essential for improvement, similar to how athletes improve by competing against better opponents.
• 🗣️ Vocabulary accumulation is crucial for effective communication, as it enables learners to predict and respond in conversations, thereby improving language fluency.

Q & A

What does the speaker emphasize as the key measurement of language learning potential?

The speaker emphasizes vocabulary as the key measurement of language learning potential.

How many known words in Turkish does the speaker claim to have?

The speaker claims to have 15,000 known words in Turkish.

How many new words did the speaker add to their vocabulary in the past month?

The speaker added 5,500 new words to their vocabulary in the past month.

What does the speaker suggest about the different forms of a word in a language?

The speaker suggests that different forms of a word are easier to remember than others and can be considered as different words with different functions.

What book summary influenced the speaker's perspective on adding new words?

The summary of 'The Happy Brain' by Dean Burnett influenced the speaker's perspective on adding new words.

Why does the speaker believe that novelty is important in language learning?

The speaker believes that novelty is important in language learning because the brain requires both repetition and novelty for effective learning.

How does the speaker use their iPhone to manage their vocabulary learning?

The speaker uses their iPhone to review vocabulary from language courses, claim words they know, and save words they want to review later.

What is the speaker's strategy for learning new words daily?

The speaker's strategy is to learn 100 to 150 new words daily and review them after exposure to content.

What is the speaker's goal for vocabulary size when visiting Turkey?

The speaker's goal is to reach 30,000 known words before visiting Turkey.

How does the speaker relate the process of learning a language to a jigsaw puzzle?

The speaker relates the process of learning a language to a jigsaw puzzle by suggesting that as more pieces (words) are added, the learner gets a better sense of the overall picture and areas that need further development.

What role does the speaker believe vocabulary plays in predicting and understanding language structures?

The speaker believes that having a larger vocabulary helps in predicting and understanding language structures because it allows for better anticipation of what's coming in a sentence.

Outlines

00:00

📚 The Importance of Vocabulary in Language Learning

The speaker emphasizes the importance of vocabulary in language learning, stating that it is the key to measuring one's potential in a new language. They share their personal experience of learning Turkish, having reached a vocabulary of 15,000 words in just a month. The speaker addresses criticisms about the complexity of word forms in Turkish and compares it to Spanish, arguing that different forms should be considered separately due to their distinct functions. The main point is made that vocabulary accumulation is an indicator of one's active engagement with the language. The speaker also discusses the psychological aspect of learning, referencing 'The Happy Brain' by Dean Burnett, which explains the brain's need for novelty to maintain interest and motivation. The speaker concludes by highlighting the finite nature of grammar rules compared to the virtually infinite number of words one can learn, and the importance of using those words to understand language structures and examples.

05:03

📱 Utilizing Technology for Vocabulary Acquisition

This paragraph details the speaker's method of using their iPhone to expand their vocabulary. They describe the process of claiming known words, editing, and categorizing words into different statuses to facilitate review. The speaker likens vocabulary acquisition to assembling a jigsaw puzzle, where each new word contributes to a fuller understanding of the language. They stress the importance of challenging oneself with more difficult content and the role of novelty in maintaining brain engagement and improving language learning. The speaker also touches on the research that shows vocabulary, especially verbs, is better learned through varied contexts rather than mere repetition. They conclude by discussing the importance of word accumulation for language prediction and conversation, and how it serves as a personal motivator for continued learning and engagement with the language.

10:05

🎯 Setting Vocabulary Goals and Integrating Learning

In the final paragraph, the speaker discusses their strategy for reviewing words immediately after exposure to new content, emphasizing the importance of not studying words in isolation. They express their motivation to reach a vocabulary goal of 30,000 words to fully utilize the Turkish language environment when visiting Turkey. The speaker invites feedback from the audience and acknowledges that different individuals may have different experiences in language learning. The paragraph concludes with a summary of the speaker's approach to integrating vocabulary acquisition into their broader language learning process, aiming for a deeper and more functional understanding of the language.

Keywords

💡Vocabulary

Vocabulary refers to the collection of words and phrases that a person knows and can use in speech and writing. In the video's context, the speaker emphasizes the importance of expanding one's vocabulary as a key to language proficiency. The speaker shares their personal experience of increasing their Turkish vocabulary to 15,000 words, highlighting it as a measurement of their language learning progress.

💡Grammar

Grammar is the set of structural rules governing the composition of sentences, phrases, and words in a language. The video discusses the finite nature of grammar rules compared to the vastness of vocabulary. While grammar is essential for language structure, the speaker argues that vocabulary is more critical for overall language comprehension and expression.

💡Usage Pattern

Usage pattern refers to the customary way in which words and phrases are employed in a language. The speaker mentions that understanding the usage pattern is crucial for sounding like a native speaker. This concept is linked to the speaker's strategy of accumulating vocabulary to better grasp and predict language structures in various contexts.

💡Newness

Newness, in the context of the video, signifies the novelty or freshness of learning new words. The speaker draws a parallel between the brain's need for novelty and the joy derived from learning new vocabulary. This concept is used to explain the motivational aspect of vocabulary acquisition and its impact on the learning process.

💡Repetition

Repetition is the act of repeating something, often used in learning to reinforce memory. The speaker acknowledges the brain's requirement for repetition in learning but contrasts it with the need for novelty. Repetition is necessary for memorization, yet the speaker emphasizes that novelty, through new vocabulary, is what drives the learning process forward.

💡Novelty

Novelty is the state of being new or unfamiliar. The video discusses how novelty plays a significant role in the learning process, particularly in vocabulary acquisition. Each new word learned provides a sense of achievement and novelty, which is essential for maintaining motivation and engagement in language learning.

💡Motivation

Motivation is the drive or desire to do something. In the script, the speaker describes how increasing their vocabulary count serves as a motivational tool. This motivation not only stems from the joy of learning new words but also from the ability to access more complex language materials and improve language skills.

💡Predictability

Predictability in language learning refers to the ability to anticipate or predict upcoming words or structures in a sentence. The speaker explains that having a larger vocabulary improves one's ability to predict, which in turn aids in faster language acquisition. This concept is crucial for understanding how vocabulary accumulation facilitates language comprehension.

💡Context

Context is the circumstances or setting in which something occurs. The video emphasizes the importance of encountering words in different contexts to enhance memory and understanding. The speaker argues that seeing words used in various ways helps in better retention and application of language structures.

💡Error-Driven Probabilistic Process

An error-driven probabilistic process is a learning mechanism where errors or mistakes lead to a better understanding of the correct usage. The speaker mentions this concept in relation to grammar learning, suggesting that encountering and correcting errors helps in forming a more accurate understanding of language structures.

💡Utterance

Utterance refers to a spoken expression or statement. In the video, the speaker discusses the process of speech formation, where an utterance begins with a word that comes to mind, followed by a structure that is familiar, and ends with the suppression of irrelevant or incorrect elements. This concept illustrates the role of vocabulary in initiating and maintaining conversation.

Highlights

The speaker emphasizes vocabulary as the key measurement of language learning potential.

The speaker has reached 15,000 known words in Turkish, adding 5,500 new words in the past month.

Different forms of the same word are considered easier to remember than others, such as the imperfect tense in Spanish.

The speaker discusses the importance of novelty in language learning, referencing 'The Happy Brain' by Dean Burnett.

The brain requires both repetition and novelty for effective learning.

Each new word learned provides a sense of joy and achievement, motivating further learning.

The number of potential words to learn in a language is almost infinite, unlike the finite rules of grammar.

Grammar books can cover the majority of important language rules in a concise form.

Knowing vocabulary is essential for understanding grammar examples and usage patterns.

The speaker's strategy of adding 100-150 known words daily has significantly improved language comprehension.

The speaker demonstrates how to use an iPhone app for vocabulary learning and review.

The process of claiming known words and managing vocabulary status helps in active language learning.

Vocabulary accumulation is likened to completing a jigsaw puzzle, with each word filling in gaps.

Challenging oneself with more difficult content is crucial for language improvement.

The brain gets tired of repetitive material, and novelty in learning helps maintain engagement.

Vocabulary accumulation, especially of verbs, is more dependent on context than frequency of exposure.

Having a larger vocabulary improves the ability to predict and understand language structures.

In speech, a reservoir of words is necessary to maintain conversation and adapt structures.

The speaker's word count goal is 30,000 words to fully utilize the Turkish language environment.

Transcripts

What's more important, vocabulary, words, or grammar, or the structure,

the usage pattern of a language?

As you know, I emphasize vocabulary as the key measurement of our potential.

And I showed you last time how I add to my word total.

In fact, I should point out, I am now at 15, 000 known words in Turkish.

I've added 5, 500 new known words to my known word total just in the past month.

And why is this important?

And I want to.

Refer to some of the comments and criticisms that I

received from that last video.

I will also show you how I do this on my iPhone, that is to say how I am able

to focus in every day on pushing that known word total to the level that I

think I need in order to be able to eventually do well in Turkey when I visit.

So the first thing is, people said in Turkish there's so many

different forms of the same word.

Different forms of verbs.

All of this is true, but some forms are easier to remember than others.

If we take the case of Spanish, for example, I find that the imperfect

amaba is easier to remember than the pure past tense, the preterite,

which has different endings.

To me, it's much more difficult because there is a natural

order of learning things.

We don't know why some things are easier than others.

But different forms of the word, in my opinion, they're different words,

they have different functions, so I don't mind counting them as extra.

But the main thing, the point that I wanted to make was that this word count

is an indication of your activity level.

But then I started thinking about why am I so keen on adding words?

So I was reading a book, or at least, rather, I should say that

the summary of a book came up in a Turkish language podcast.

That I was listening to.

And the book was The Happy Brain by, I think it's Dean Burnett.

And the book makes the point that once we are accustomed to certain

things, we kind of derive less pleasure or less joy from those things.

He uses the example of monkeys who were given asparagus to do certain tasks, and

then they started losing interest and then they gave them fruit juice and then

they got even more motivated and then.

When they tried to go back to asparagus, the monkeys got all upset.

The example that, you know, a joke is only funny the first time.

It's also pointed out in the book that we are always keen to eat because

we have a biological need for food.

But for things where there is no biological need, newness is important.

And Manfred Spitzer often points this out that in learning things,

the brain requires repetition, but the brain also requires novelty.

The big thing about adding words is that each word is a new word, at

least When I discover it and when I see it for a second time and I

add it to my Known words, total.

I have a sense of something new and better is happening.

It's, it gives me a sense of joy and achievement.

The fact of the matter is the number of words we could potentially learn

in a language is almost infinite.

Whereas the rules of grammar, the rules of usage, it's a finite number.

You can get a grammar book that's this thin for just about any language,

and it'll cover almost all of the important things you need to know.

Beyond that.

You have to get used to the language, used to how words sort of appear

with other words to sound more and more like what is considered normal

usage for speakers of that language.

But the other thing is I do read grammar books.

It's not like I spent all my time.

Adding words to my word total.

I got tons of books.

Elementary Turkish.

500 words, Turkish words in context.

I've got my complete Turkish.

I've got my, you know, Asimil, Le Turk, and so on and so forth.

That's, that's not even all of them.

But until I added those 5, 500 words to my known words total, I

had a lot of trouble reading them because I didn't know the words.

If you are trying to understand and get used to a structure in the language

and you don't know half the words in that sentence, it's not very effective.

So I now find a month after I started into Turkish or started up again,

where I've added all these known words.

Now I go through these books and I understand the examples.

So you need the words in order to see the examples because it's the examples

of usage in the target language, Turkish in this case, it's not the explanation in

English that's going to help us that much.

It's going to be exposure to patterns over and over again, and

you need words to achieve that.

And there's no question that my strategy of adding known words, you

know, making sure that I get 100 and 150 new known words a day has enabled

me to access these books in a way that was much, much more difficult before.

Now let's look at this on my iPhone.

I go in, grab a course from our library, bring it up here.

This is a lesson in the course has some blue words.

So I go to the vocabulary review and rather than doing the

links, I go to the new words.

Blue words, some of which I know, but if I come across words that I

don't know, I convert them to yellow so that I can review them later on.

Words that I do know, I can claim.

I make the odd mistake.

It doesn't matter.

I see that a word that I claim is known that I don't know.

I'll save it later.

A word that I put in the garbage can, cause I thought it was a word, a

name, cause I was moving too quickly.

I can always go back later and undo that.

So.

Nothing here is perfect, but in principle what I'm doing is claiming words that

I know, anything that's a name that I don't want to add to my words, known

words total, I basically reject it.

And go through in this way, claiming words as known or moving them to the saved links

category, like gladiator I don't want to take because Maybe I could, it's a

word, but it's, it's also a foreign word.

It's all pretty arbitrary.

These are your own personal statistics to do with whatever you want.

The main thing is it indicates that you're active.

So then I moved to the links, which words that I had previously saved or

words that I have moved to links here.

I can edit some of them.

Like this is Germany's apostrophe S rather than just Germany.

So I edit that.

By looking it up in the dictionary, confirming, you

know, what part of speech it is.

And words that I know, I can, sometimes I can claim them as known.

Sometimes I just want to move them up in status because I'm kind of getting

more familiar with them, but I'm not totally ready to claim them as known.

Others I leave as status one and you'll see I have various status words.

The advantage of moving words to status three is that eventually I

can go into the vocabulary section and harvest those status three words.

And there you have it.

In my previous video on this subject, I said that accumulating words was a bit

like where, when I was a child, we played the kissers with our hockey cards, and

they would eventually, as we dropped them, fluttering to the floor, some

cards would land on top of another card and I got to collect all those cards.

I think a better.

Example or a better simile might be a jigsaw puzzle where

you have this enormous puzzle.

And in the case of the language, it's a humongous puzzle.

And as more and more of the pieces of the puzzle start to show up, you get a better

sense of the blanks of the areas of the puzzle that are not yet covered by pieces.

And so you have to continue adding to that so that slowly the puzzle Puzzle

starts to take shape and you're able to access more and more difficult content.

Remember in sports, you only improve if you are playing against people who are

at least as good as you or better than you, you have to challenge yourself and

it's very important to challenge yourself with more and more difficult content.

And we also know that the brain.

Gets tired.

As I say, there's less of a dopamine kick when you're going over the same

material many, many times, far better to be able to access new material, where

you start to know more and more of the words you start to see structures of the

language in different contexts, which makes it easier for to remember them.

Research on the brain shows that vocabulary accumulation, especially when

it comes to verbs, is more dependent on seeing these in different contexts than

in how many times you come across them.

So enabling yourself to access words and structures in different contexts,

because you have more and more words, It's going to help you, you know,

improve faster and remember those words and remember those structures better.

Also, when we are reading and our ability to sort of become familiar

with the grammar has been called error driven probabilistic process.

In other words, we start to predict what's coming at us.

We have to be able to predict what's coming at us.

If we don't have enough words, if all the words that are coming

at us are meaningless to us, we can't predict anything.

We can't predict the structure.

We can't predict what word is going to be used.

We can't predict whether that word or some other word is in fact,

the one that should be used there.

So the more words we have, the better we are at predicting and therefore the

faster we're going to learn the language.

Now, the same is true when we come to speak.

Again, through the magnetic imaging, we know that when we go to make an utterance

in a language, The first thing we do is a word comes up that somehow we think of

a word, and I've experienced this in my, even in my conversations with my Turkish

tutor, that I'll just trot out a word.

I see it there, out it comes.

Bingo.

It keeps me in the conversation.

And then we trot out a structure that we have used before, that we're confident in.

And the third thing we do is we suppress those things that don't belong.

In my case, it's going to be a word from Farsi.

From Persian, which I kind of think doesn't belong, but I'm not

sure, but I'd have to suppress it.

So that's the process.

But there again, we need this reservoir of words so that we can trot out the

word and we can trot out the structures in order to stay in the conversation,

hear what comes back and slowly improve our ability in the language.

It all requires words.

But finally, you know, I've said that, that working on my word

count is a motivator for me.

It enriches my grasp of the language.

It enables me to access grammar books.

It enables me to access more and more challenging and more

and more compelling content.

The words, when I review them, I make sure that they are Reviewed right after having

read and listened to a bit of content.

And after doing that, I'll go back in and read the content.

So I'm not just studying words in isolation.

So it is a motivator, but it also drives me to get exposed to more and more.

Content, I get enjoyment from doing it, but I know that it's also improving

my capability in the language.

I'm at 15, 000 words today.

My goal is to get to 30, 000 words so that when I get to Turkey, I

can take advantage of being in that Turkish language environment.

So I hope that's helpful to you.

And please let me know what you think.

And maybe your experience is different than my experience.

Bye for now.