September 2006, Working on Vocabulary

I want to talk a little about increasing your vocabulary on The Linguist.

We want you to learn words in context. Queremos que aprendas palabras en contexto. We want you to learn words and phrases from content that you find interesting. We ask you to save words and phrases. For many learners it does not take long to accumulate several thousand words. Muchos estudiantes no tardan mucho en acumular varios miles de palabras.

I should point out that our champion saver of words is a learner from Japan by the name of Sadatoshi Matsumoto who has saved 9,250 words and 3140 phrases in ten months with The Linguist. Debo señalar que nuestro campeón ahorrador de palabras es un estudiante de Japón llamado Sadatoshi Matsumoto que ha guardado 9250 palabras y 3140 frases en diez meses con The Linguist. Devo ressaltar que nosso campeão de economia de palavras é um aprendiz do Japão chamado Sadatoshi Matsumoto, que salvou 9.250 palavras e 3140 frases em dez meses com o The Linguist. Sadataoshi has reviewed a total of 535 content items, of which 294 were imported, and the remainder were from our Library. Sadataoshi ha revisado un total de 535 elementos de contenido, de los cuales 294 fueron importados y el resto de nuestra Biblioteca. Our Library has a total of 22, 134 words. But Sadatoshi’s total of known words is 25,578. According to our statistics he has learned almost 3,000 words in one year and 364 phrases. Según nuestras estadísticas ha aprendido casi 3.000 palabras en un año y 364 frases. Of course he has learned more than that number because in addition to the words he has consciously learned, he has become familiar with many others through his reading and listening. Por supuesto que ha aprendido más que ese número porque además de las palabras que ha aprendido conscientemente, se ha familiarizado con muchas otras a través de su lectura y escucha. Not everyone is like Sadatoshi.

Many people, when faced with a list of a few thousand words to review simply throw up their hands. Mucha gente, cuando se enfrenta a una lista de unos pocos miles de palabras para revisar, simplemente se da por vencida. What is the best way to review? I recommend the following.

First of all create shorter lists. Begin by reviewing the words that are presented in the Daily Word and Phrase Review. These words appear based on an algorithm that reflects how often you have seen these words, or used them, or tested correctly on them in the test in that section. Beyond that you should use the filters in the Words I am Learning and Phrases I am Learning sections. Além disso, você deve usar os filtros nas seções Palavras que estou aprendendo e Frases que estou aprendendo.

First of all choose one content item and review the words and phrases from that content item. Then listen to and read that content item again. It might be a content item from two months ago. It does not matter. Review old items again. They are full of words and phrases that you still do not use comfortably. Next you can create lists by putting in prefixes or suffixes. A continuación, puede crear listas poniendo prefijos o sufijos.

You can look at just the last 20 words, or just the words that you saved in the last three weeks. Puede mirar solo las últimas 20 palabras, o solo las palabras que guardó en las últimas tres semanas. You can always select especially difficult words by ticking in the right hand column. Siempre puede seleccionar palabras especialmente difíciles marcando en la columna de la derecha. Then you can print these lists and study them. Try to use these words in your writing and speaking. The key is to break your long list down into shorter lists to concentrate on. La clave es dividir su lista larga en listas más cortas para concentrarse.

Remember to review your old content along with the words and phrases. This will help you really become familiar with them. Above all do not get frustrated because you keep forgetting. Sobre todo no te frustres porque te sigues olvidando.

Forgetting is part of learning when it comes to vocabulary. Olvidar es parte del aprendizaje cuando se trata de vocabulario.