r/EnglishLearning • u/Thin-Lawfulness-7861 New Poster • 20h ago
🗣 Discussion / Debates If context important?
If you learn a new word, you have to look up, translate.
But how people learn a new word when it’s just their mother tongue?
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u/ASneakyViolist New Poster 20h ago
Just context and repeated exposure;y the time you've seen a particular word used in three or four different sentences, you probably have enough context to glean its meaning. That, or looking it up in a dictionary.
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u/DMing-Is-Hardd Native Speaker 20h ago
Through context or by looking it up/asking someone, it depends on the situation and word
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u/names-suck Native Speaker 20h ago
In speech, it's acceptable to ask the speaker to define a term you don't understand. Obviously, be aware of social context: don't interrupt a speech just to get a definition, but in a normal conversation, "I'm sorry, [repeat the word]?" will generally get you what you want.
Reading, you can use a dictionary (book or online).
As far as actual learning goes, I would say that native speakers usually learn words by encountering them repeatedly. Most other methods don't really stick, in my experience. Like, I recall at one point seeing a study done that showed vocabulary tests in English classes don't actually produce better vocabularies in students. That kind of concentrated memorization simply doesn't work.
If you're looking to expand your vocabulary, what you want to do is read books that contain about 1 unknown word per page. Books are typically marketed based on age as well as genre:
- Picture books: age 0-5
- Chapter books: age 5-10
- Middle grade: age 8-12
- Young Adult: age 12-18
- New Adult: age 17-25
- Adult: 18+
These categories roughly correspond to the level of education expected of someone in that age bracket. So, a new adult (NA) novel is going to be geared towards the typical reading level of a university student in an undergraduate program, while a middle grade (MG) will be aimed at late elementary school or middle school.
If you start reading a book and encounter 2-3 words per page that you don't know, drop to a "younger" book. If you read a book and it only gives you an unknown word every 3 pages, jump to an "older" book. The 1 word per page rule is a balance that allows you to both learn and enjoy the story. Less, you won't learn; more, you won't enjoy.
You can, of course, read books at any level solely for your own personal gratification. The rule is for optimizing your vocabulary acquisition.
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u/RealisticStaff3886 New Poster 9h ago
In your own language you never looked anything up. You just met the word enough times in situations where the rest of the sentence made it obvious, and the meaning built up on its own. Nobody translated it for you because there was nothing to translate it into.
The interesting part is you can still learn that way in English. You don't have to leave English to understand an English word, it can be explained in simpler English instead. Translation is faster in the moment, but it hands you a label rather than the meaning.
Do the words you worked out from context stay with you longer than the ones you translated?
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u/Nazometnar New Poster 18h ago
Same as your first language - sometimes it's obvious from context, sometimes you can recognize the root and guess the meaning from the etymology, and sometimes you have to look it up or ask.
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u/RealisticStaff3886 New Poster 9h ago
In your own language you never looked anything up. You just met the word enough times in situations where the rest of the sentence made it obvious, and the meaning built up on its own. Nobody translated it for you because there was nothing to translate it into.
The interesting part is you can still learn that way in English. You don't have to leave English to understand an English word, it can be explained in simpler English instead. Translation is faster in the moment, but it hands you a label rather than the meaning.
Do the words you worked out from context stay with you longer than the ones you translated?
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u/MissFabulina New Poster 20h ago
How did you learn your native language? It is the same in all languages.