1,500 words in 30 days

[querido]

To neverending:

I'm happy with my switch to (mostly all-Chinese) cloze delete sentences and whole lessons (using the flashcard program as a review scheduler for whole lessons).

I suspect the greater benefit is in the heavy practice with *the other words on the card*; maybe, the practice reading and listening to those *other words* is worth more than the act of answering that card for the sake of that one word. If that is true, it has interesting implications (that I don't want to spend time writing about right now).

[neverending]

@querido:

I think that's a very good point, and one I've been mulling on ever since I did my first 1400 words. While I may be biased because of the hours I've spent using flashcards, I've come to the conclusion, based on my own methods for learning, that flashcards are a worthwhile part of vocabulary acquisition

So, allow me to argue for the benefits of an "in-head dictionary" (maybe I should call it a "mental dictionary" - a little less awkward). In particular, why should we have a mental dictionary, and not simply look up words in an ordinary dictionary (paper, electronic, OCR) when we encounter them?

• Firstly, learning a word to true fluency requires a large amount of input (listening/reading), so that we can encounter the word in context. Trying to go through this input using any type of ordinary dictionary is much, much slower than using a mental dictionary. The faster we can read/listen, the more material we are exposing ourselves to, and therefore the faster we can achieve true fluency.
  
• Secondly, If you've ever tried to go through native material using an ordinary dictionary for every second word, you'll know how frustrating it can be! Using a mental dictionary can be very mentally taxing, but it's still more enjoyable.
  
• Finally, every time you perform a lookup in your mental dictionary, you have to concentrate to recall the word, strengthening the neural connection between a word and its meaning, and getting you closer to using it effortlessly. The same does not apply to an ordinary dictionary lookup.
  

As for comparing word flashcards to cloze deletion/sentence flashcards, I think there's a lot to be said for both - I suspect neither is indisputably superior. Having never learned a language with both methods, however, I can't really discuss this with any authority.

Using a flashcard program to schedule whole lessons, alternatively, sounds like something I really ought to implement for my own intensive listening/reading!

[Yelrihs36]

This sounds like an interesting challenge... I'm willing to give it a try My grammar's fine and stuff, but my vocab's really weak...

[LWT_Project]

@querido:

If you put your lessons into LWT (see http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/36577-learning-with-texts/ or http://lwt.sf.net ) you can automate the whole process. Just load the text into LWT, read it and create entries for the unknown vocab. Now you are able to create & export cloze deletion sentences und export them to Anki, or you do the tests within LWT. You always know the status of every word in ALL your texts, even in new texts. That's the magic of LWT. It works like LingQ (IMHO better), but is totally free (and open source, and in the public domain). You can make your life even easier by uploading all your own vocab into LWT.

[edelweis]

Hi Yelrihs36, this thread is a bit old so most of the participants have stopped doing the challenge.

But of course you can start it again...

May I ask what your current level is?

Where do you intend to find the words? (pre-made SRS deck? reading? vocabulary book?)

and how much time daily do you intend to spend on this, what study methods will you use, and so on...