46 Unit 03 | Learning and teaching Learning new words and phrases is one of the most important ways to improve in a language. How have you been learning new words in foreign languages so far? Take some notes, then compare with a partner and in class. Read the following text about the number of words and phrases you need to know at different stages of your language learning journey and guess the correct options. Compare your ideas in class, then check with your teacher. SPEAKING 18 Improving your vocabulary READING 19 To understand everyday conversations in English, you need to know about (1) 1,000 / 2,000 / 3,000 word families. A word family consists of all the forms of a word, e.g. train – trained – trainer, and so on. If you want to understand spoken dialogue in modern films or series, this number increases to around (2) 5,000 / 7,000 / 9,000 word families. Authentic written texts, such as novels or articles, require as many as (3) 9,000 / 11,000 / 14,000 word families to be fully understood, while university textbooks contain additional technical terms that you would also need to know. English has a comparatively large vocabulary: Educated native speakers of English are believed to understand around (4) 14,000 / 17,000 / 22,000 word families. All these numbers refer to passive vocabulary knowledge; the range of words actively used in conversations or written language is much smaller. Noticing and learning important new words and phrases The following activities should make you more aware of what is involved in expanding your vocabulary and inspire you to try out new ways of learning new words. Go through the units you have completed so far. What methods of presenting words can you find there? STRATEGIES 20 a 1 English words and their translations 2 a vocabulary section in list form 3 words written in different colours 4 words presented using physical movement 5 synonyms and antonyms of new words 6 words presented with/in pictures 7 language presented in audio recordings 8 words shown in the context of a longer text 9 word fields on certain topics 10 tables of word families How effective are these methods in getting you to notice words you need to study? Talk to a partner and try to agree on the three most effective methods. Below you can find different methods to study vocabulary. In each group, tick the one that you think works best. b 21 a 1 a learning all words of a unit in one go b dividing the phrases of one unit into sets of five to seven items c taking regular breaks to check your mobile 2 a r evising vocabulary again the next day, e.g. by doing the tasks in the way2go! e-book+ b only looking at the vocabulary list once c r evising vocabulary on the same day, the next day and a couple of days later (‘spaced repetition’) 3 a h ighlighting all the words in the vocabulary lists that you have problems remembering b writing new words and word fields into your notebook by hand c t yping the English words and their German translations into your computer Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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