Today, let’s reflect on which words need taming, which can be tamed, and which don’t necessarily need taming at all.
Everyone who starts independently learning a foreign language faces the problem of selecting words to memorize: they have to decide which words to learn first, which to leave “for later,” and which not even to attempt learning.
What’s so difficult about it? Just take a beginner’s textbook and study from it – the most necessary words are already selected there. I agree. A beginner acts wisely if they don’t clutter their mind with unnecessary questions and simply learn the words from the textbook.
By the way, how many words are in a typical beginner’s textbook? Usually 500 to 1000-1200. Is that a lot? Is it enough? Enough for what?
It might seem strange, but this is quite a complex question. I don’t have precise scientific data on what a person knowing about 1000 foreign words and basic grammar can actually do. I can only speak from my own experience and make some reasonable assumptions.
And my experience says that knowing 1000 words is almost nothing. Attempts to speak using only these words resemble a sophisticated form of torture. Attempts to read without a dictionary, and even with a dictionary, are also not for the faint-hearted, let alone understanding radio, TV, and films – there can be no talk of comprehension at all!
Did I say 1000 words is nothing? I got carried away. Seriously. In fact, knowing the right 1000 words is the most crucial step everyone who ultimately wants to speak (and not just speak) a foreign language fluently must climb.
The point is, at the initial stage, I consider the “right” words to be those most frequently encountered in most situations, texts, films, etc. It’s precisely these words that authors of beginner’s textbooks offer for study.
Why am I writing about this? So that those of you who have conquered the first step in learning a language don’t lose faith in the usefulness of the work done: so much time and effort spent, and what’s the result?
The result is a base, a solid foundation, the groundwork for the transition from quantity to quality. One fine day, you’ll suddenly feel that the circular motion, as it seemed to you, was actually an upward spiral, and now you can actually do something! But for many of you, this feeling lies in the future. That’s precisely why, having walked this path several times, I tell you: don’t lose faith and don’t quit what you’ve started. Never quit just because something isn’t working out, because “if you suffer long enough, something will eventually work out.”
So, to repeat: at the initial stage, learn the most frequent words, and for this, it’s usually enough to just take a beginner’s textbook and study from it.
Alright, let’s imagine the initial stage is passed – we know about 1000 of the most necessary words. What next? Take an intermediate textbook and study it? Can we? Why not? Learning it will give us another 1000 words. Now we’ll know 2000 words! Hooray! Now it will be slightly easier: we can already communicate decently at a basic level in the target language country. Will we be able to read easily enough? Unfortunately, no. Some radio broadcasts we might already understand (if we’ve been constantly listening to the language from the very beginning, even without understanding anything). We’ll understand some newspaper articles (with dictionary help, of course).
Okay, moving on. Take an advanced textbook (note, we’re already called “advanced learners”!). Study it. As a result, we gain another 1000 words, bringing our total to about 3000 words. What changed? Not much, it seems: knowing another 1000 words will allow us to expand the range of topics for conversation; we’ll be able to express ourselves about what concerns and interests us, though not as effortlessly as we’d like; we can already read simple authentic fiction (detectives, romance novels, fairy tales) without fear of fainting from strain; newspapers will become even more understandable…
That’s already something, isn’t it!
And now, the most interesting part begins! Starting precisely from this stage, language learning will go much faster, more effectively, and more pleasantly! And all because we’ve mastered 3000 words! Wow!
Why exactly now? There’s a very serious reason for this. Attention, I’m saying something important: constant reading, or constant watching of TV programs and/or videos and films, or constant reading of newspapers, or constant listening to the radio, or all of the above combined will save you.
Constant practice will save you!!!
It’s all elementary simple: if at the initial stage (before you learned 3000 words) you had to memorize those very words, now they will be learned almost effortlessly, but under one condition: with the constant, avalanche-like flow of information through the brain (a term by E.D. Averina).
Organizing an “avalanche-like flow of information through the brain” is not just simple, it’s very simple: read every day! listen to the radio every day! watch films every day!
The volume of what you’ve watched, listened to, and read is what matters! Once more: the volume of what you’ve listened to, read, and watched matters! And again: the volume of what you’ve read, listened to, and watched matters!
And what does that mean? It means you need to resort to the dictionary less often to speed up the process, say, of reading. You can and even should look in the dictionary, but only when you encounter a word for maybe the 20th time – and still can’t figure out from the context or situation what it finally means!
You’ll guess the meaning of many unfamiliar words while reading (or listening, etc.)!
Will you still need to learn, memorize some words? What a strange question? Of course, yes! Passive acquisition of words through reading, etc., is one thing; active acquisition is slightly different.
Of course, you’ll still need to memorize words – the right words. And now, no one will decide for us which words are right for us and which aren’t (unlike the initial stages of language learning).
All responsibility for expanding vocabulary falls on us ourselves!
And here we are again with the question: which words to learn and which not to. We started where we began.