Not convinced of the power of vocab? Read on below.<\/p>\n
Words matter.<\/h2>\n
Bottom line: you can\u2019t attain advanced proficiency without grammar and pragmatics, but nothing drives proficiency gains faster than building vocabulary (especially for beginners).<\/strong><\/p>\n All four skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) require vocabulary. For example, vocabulary has been shown to account for up to 72% of the variance in reading scores among language learners[1]<\/a>. Another meta-analysis of many language-related studies found strong correlations between vocab size and reading comprehension[2]<\/a>.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t take our word for it (pun intended)\u2014look at all these independent studies that show how proficiency level increased in tandem with vocabulary.<\/p><\/div>\n This is probably confirmed many times over by your own experiences trying to use and understand your target language. You know how disruptive it is to try to read or listening to something and be missing a few crucial words or phrases.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t believe the myth that explicit and purposeful vocab study is somehow inconsistent with the principles of communicative learning.<\/p>\n But by \u201cexplicit and purposeful\u201d vocab study, we don\u2019t mean endless textbook vocabulary lists. We encourage you to learn vocabulary in the wild, through authentic sources like news articles, podcasts, songs, literature, social media, and beyond. (That\u2019s why CL-150 Cohort weekly lesson streams<\/a> pull exclusively from authentic sources and native speaker audio.)<\/p>\n Authentic sources provide an opportunity for real-world, \u201cscenario-driven\u201d vocabulary learning.<\/strong> Our brains don\u2019t organize vocabulary into semantic lists like \u201ccolors\u201d and \u201cnumbers\u201d\u2014they organize it into situations like \u201crainy day\u201d, which might include a bunch of topically-related nouns, verbs, adjectives, and expressions: puddle, torrential, umbrella, to rain cats and dogs, etc. Scenario-driven learning mirrors how vocabulary gets stored in our brains, making it easier to then apply that vocab to conversations in the real world or in classroom activities.<\/p>\n Ok, ok, you get it, vocab is important!<\/p>\n But vocabulary is not learned incidentally. Doing lots of reading or listening exposes you to a lot of contextualized learning, but for beginner or even intermediate learners of a language, that context isn\u2019t sufficient if you don\u2019t know enough of the surrounding vocabulary.<\/p>\n One study found that readers need to know 98% of the words in a text to comfortably read and understand it<\/strong>[3]<\/a>. Here\u2019s what a passage from The Wizard of Oz looks like with almost 30% of the vocabulary blanked out:<\/p>\n Completely unintelligible, even for a native speaker, right? That 70% doesn\u2019t get you very far!<\/p><\/div>\n Unless you\u2019re a very advanced learner, you can\u2019t expect to read or hear a word in context and just use context clues to figure it out like you might in your native language.<\/p>\n Before you make a big stack of flashcards, we have some ideas for you!<\/p>\n Join Bridgette (former teacher and member of our Engagement team) to explore her favorite methods to make explicit vocab learning fun and effective\u2014no index cards required. Stop by for a 30-minute discussion<\/strong><\/a> and get well on your way to building vocabulary (and your proficiency!)<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1]<\/a> St\u00e6hr, L. S. (2008). Vocabulary size and the skills of listening, reading and writing.\u00a0Language Learning Journal,\u00a036(2), 139-152.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Milton, J., & Alexiou, T. (2010). Developing a vocabulary size test for Greek as a foreign language<\/p>\n![\"vocabulary](\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/cl-150-bulletin\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2021\/03\/vocab-by-level-1.png\")
Authenticity matters.<\/h2>\n
Interaction and repetition matter.<\/h2>\n
![\"impact](\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/cl-150-bulletin\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2021\/03\/wizard-of-oz-blanked.png\")
So what can you do to learn vocab that\u2019s fast, fun, and effective?<\/h2>\n
![\"vocabulary](\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/cl-150-bulletin\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2021\/03\/vocab-by-level-1-350x167.png\")