19
They cannot be compared directly, as they are used for entirely different skills.
When you hide a word, and show only the definition, you are testing your ability to recall.
I have a concept in mind; a smallish, round fruit, red in color, crispy when I bite into it, it grows on a tree, and Americans are said to make many pies from these fruits.
Can you ...
18
It's usually best to avoid dichotomies like "Is strategy X better or strategy Y better?". In most cases, strategies are not mutually exclusive but complementary.
With vocabulary learning, using just one strategy is probably the least efficient. This is because every strategy has certain strengths (certain skills it builds well) and certain weaknesses (...
18
The main advantage is that by learning higher frequency words, you get a greater "bang for your buck" - that is, if you know the most frequent words of the language, you'll be able to understand more of the words you encounter, and therefore you gain the greatest benefit by studying those frequent words first.
According to Nation & Waring (1997), text ...
17
This is what I used: o kama sona e toki pona! (on Tokipona.net, unfortunately no longer available). It's one of the most popular courses, although there are a few points that differ from Sonja's recent book (for example, the use of "e" after "kepeken").
There's also Toki Pona in 76 Lessons (in English, but also available in German), but ...
16
I haven't found any official source to answer your question, but several members of online forums have explained their methods in estimating what they believe to be the number of vocabulary words you need to know for each CEFR level. The most prominent online resource is the research paper you referenced in your question, so I have excluded that from the ...
15
Don't be worried, it takes years to begin thinking in a second language.
According to Fluentin3Months,
Thinking in a new language is a decision you can make. If you know even a few dozen key grammar words you can begin to think in your target language thanks largely to the 80/20 rule in language learning. It is easier than speaking in the language because ...
15
Each person has a different way of storing information in their brain. You have to find a technique that works best for you. Some that you can try include:
Notebook: for some people, maintaining and rereading a simple list every now and then can work. Too bad it didn't for you!
Flashcards: make small cards with the word (and possibly some basic grammatical ...
14
I found this 112 page Toki Pona instructional booklet, covering everything from the alphabet to more advanced concepts, like words for thematic vocabulary or living things. It seems to be one of the most comprehensive guides out there, if you're really into learning Toki Pona. The official Toki Pona website also might be a useful resource, as it includes ...
14
There is at least one language test that I have taken that maps its own levels to CEFR levels and that defines the number of words you need to know, namely Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK). HSK is a standardised test for Standard Chinese. Hanban, which administers the test for the Chinese Ministry of Education published a mapping between the 6 HSK levels and the ...
13
I think this method is better known as the "keyword method" or the "keyword mnemonic". The technique was introduced by Richard C. Atkinson's 1975 article Mnemotechnics in Second Language Learning. There has been research on this method and it appears to be quite effective.
According to Fiona McPherson it works best when:
you come up with your own ...
13
In addition to J. Siebeneichler's answer, using the language yourself is often a good way to solidify things in your brain.
One way you can do that is to try to blog at a site like lang-8 where native speakers of the language can tell you the things you do wrong with the language, and suggest ways of rewording things.
This won't work instantly, but if you ...
11
The best way is probably to use it. Speaking is harder than writing, so it's more intense, and tends to be more effective, faster.
But, as you say there are no native speakers around you, I offer some workarounds that helped me:
Talk to yourself in the language. Aloud. Preferably in private. You can talk about your thoughts, or what you're doing, or some ...
11
It seems I'm associating the Korean word more with the English words on the card than with the actual meaning.
This may be a key part of your problem. Your flash cards aren't teaching you to speak Korean, they're teaching you to translate between Korean and English!
To overcome this problem, don't put any English words on your flashcards.
If you make ...
10
In order to learn an ancient language, scholars usually rely on one (or several) of the following:
Knowledge of related extant languages. In case of Egyptian, Koptic was the clue.
Bilingual texts where one of the two languages is already well known. In case of Egyptian, the famous Rosetta stone was of great help.
Some knowledge about the writing system (...
10
If your flashcards are divided into just two piles—the big one and the small one—you may need to refine your reviewing system or "algorithm". One very common system is the Leitner system (named after Sebastian Leitner, who introduced it in the 1970s). This system assumes a larger number of stacks (excluding the set of cards that have not been learnt yet, i.e....
9
For learners at low levels using L1 is recommended as L2 definitions will probably comprise more unfamiliar words making it difficult to comprehend and require retaining too much new information.
For higher level learners L1 translations provide easier and faster opportunity when you aim at learning just particular words. If your aim is to improve overall ...
9
There is a wealth of research supporting the effectiveness of SRS. From Want to recall 92% of everything you learn? This algorithm makes forgetting difficult:
Does SRS really work?
Over two dozen studies by Dr. Price Kerfoot, an Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, conclude that it does. Prof. Gabe Teninbaum, a Suffolk Law faculty ...
9
Vocabulary size and CEFR levels in English based on Vocabulary size and the common European framework of reference for languages by James Milton, Thomaï Alexiou, 2009:
A1 <1500
A2 1500–2500
B1 2750–3250
B2 3250–3750
C1 3750–4500
C2 4500–5000
They checked vocabulary of students that passed Cambridge exams at different levels so their results are ...
8
Part of the problem is that you're dealing with words. Words outside of the context of a sentence are just words. They need to be vitalized by putting them into the context of a sentence.
In order to strengthen a word's position in your active vocabulary, you have to know more than what that word means: you have to know how it's used in that language.
...
8
It is important to distinguish between classifiers and measure words. Though they are commonly referred to as synonyms, their uses are distinct. Some classifiers change the meaning of the noun they are attached to, and are not just for counting. I will use the word classifier as it encompasses your question better.
Outside of that, let me use the example of ...
8
Well, using flashcards you will learn words and build your vocabulary. However, learning vocabulary through sentences will help you learn how to use these words. In this way, you can learn a language more efficiently.
That is why learning vocabulary through sentences, giving context to the used words, is beneficial over learning to recognize words alone.
...
8
There are a lot of methods to build up vocabulary I could find. I have created a important list of them here.
Read a lot : Read stories, newspapers, articles a lot. Have a dictionary in the side and look the meaning for words you don't know.
Use mnemonics : Use specialised memory tricks that can suite you to keep the words in memory.
Study it in context : ...
8
Free
Duolingo is an immensely popular language learning platform, and they released their Russian course for English speakers around 8 months ago. I have experience with Duolingo, and can attest to the quality of their courses in general, but I've not tried their Russian course. Usually, Duolingo courses focus more on vocabulary than grammar.
Memrise I also ...
8
In the paper "Lexical Inventions: French Interlanguage as L2 versus L3" (Applied Linguistics, 19.4 (1998)), Jean-Marc Dewaele refers to a paper by E. Haugen ("The Analysis of Linguistic Borrowing", Language, 1950), who proposed a taxonomy of crosslinguistic borrowings (emphasis added):
He distinguished loanwords (without morphemic substitution), ...
7
Try to speak with yourself at times.
Conversing with yourself can help bring out a lot of new vocabulary into your active vocabulary as you are forced to use some new words from time to time. Stick to a subject per conversation and pretend you're talking to someone else (which is you). Maybe talk about politics or a favorite subject in school in your new ...
7
From my experience, I suddenly found myself thinking in English (second language) when I had argued in English a lot in a company, then went out and still thinking about the matter of the argument, continued in my mind discussion, seeking persuasive words etc.
The language level: during the argue for me there was no need to think "how to translate (...
7
I think the biggest advantage is morale. If you for example learn all the parts of the body at an early stage, then you're forced to learn words like elbow and heel which are almost never used. This is demoralising since you are very likely to forget these rare words because there are so many other more common words vying for your attention, resulting in ...
7
Well, SRS alone is not sufficient. It will make sure you remember what you learn. However, it will not increase your knowledge except boosting comprehension. It is very useful in practicing character recognition/writing, listening comprehension, and translation, but it does not improve fluency which you can only achieve by getting more exposure to the ...
7
According to this and this,
You can use any range you like, of course. But for me, the sweet spot is about 15 new words a day. If I’m focusing really hard for a short period, I can double that. Usually, though, I stick right to that 15-word range and enjoy steady long-term results. One of the most important things to keep in mind is that you rarely learn ...
7
This is quite difficult since preferences can't exactly be proven by research which brings up the answer: whatever works for you.
Take the cielo24 article for instance. It promptly states that:
If the student is trying to take notes while they are watching the video, the subtitles will make it easier to copy what is being said. Watching a video with ...
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