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Vocabulary frequency lists have long been very popular with publishers, so I assume as well with language learners. The assumption behind these is that with kno

by wrp 7y ago

Vocabulary frequency lists have long been very popular with publishers, so I assume as well with language learners. The assumption behind these is that with knowledge of, say, 90% of the vocabulary you encounter, you will comprehend 90% of the writings you encounter. It doesn't work out at all that way, though, because it is generally the low frequency vocabulary that carries the key information in a text and on which the interpretation of everything else hinges.

jacobolus 7y ago
In the US, there are beginning reader books (e.g. the “I Can Read!” and “Ready to Read” series) which intentionally use somewhat limited vocabulary. These are somewhere between a picture book and a chapter book: they have usually 1.5 pages of text and 0.5 pages of picture in each 2-page spread; the text is set in a large font but there are at least a few sentences per page; usually the books are 30–50 pages long, with 3–5 “chapters”. I don’t know how useful these are for independent reading by 5–6-year-olds, but anecdotally they are great material for reading to 2-year-olds, better than most picture books. (Note: some of the recent readers are garbage marketing gimmicks with movie tie-ins, ranging from boring to incomprehensible; skip those.)
- bdowling 7y ago
  Notable examples are The Cat in the Hat, which uses 236 words, and Green Eggs and Ham, which uses only 50 words. (Wikipedia)
mantap 7y ago
When you want to learn an abstract word, you have to learn it in the context of a sentence in the foreign language. In order to do that you have to know the meanings of the other words in the sentence. This works passively as well, if you see a sign and you understand 90% of what's written on it but there's one word you don't understand, you will much more easily remember that word later because you can place it in context.

by wrp 7y ago

jacobolus 7y ago

In the US, there are beginning reader books (e.g. the “I Can Read!” and “Ready to Read” series) which intentionally use somewhat limited vocabulary. These are somewhere between a picture book and a chapter book: they have usually 1.5 pages of text and 0.5 pages of picture in each 2-page spread; the text is set in a large font but there are at least a few sentences per page; usually the books are 30–50 pages long, with 3–5 “chapters”. I don’t know how useful these are for independent reading by 5–6-year-olds, but anecdotally they are great material for reading to 2-year-olds, better than most picture books. (Note: some of the recent readers are garbage marketing gimmicks with movie tie-ins, ranging from boring to incomprehensible; skip those.)

bdowling 7y ago
Notable examples are The Cat in the Hat, which uses 236 words, and Green Eggs and Ham, which uses only 50 words. (Wikipedia)

mantap 7y ago

When you want to learn an abstract word, you have to learn it in the context of a sentence in the foreign language. In order to do that you have to know the meanings of the other words in the sentence. This works passively as well, if you see a sign and you understand 90% of what's written on it but there's one word you don't understand, you will much more easily remember that word later because you can place it in context.