How we improve our vocabulary: A (quick) look at the research

This talk was given virtually to the IZ Education Center (Iran) on 15 May 2020. I have included only an edited portion of my presentation, since I do not have permission to share the Q&A participants video/audio feeds.
For those looking for more information on some of the topics I discuss, see my blog:
www.BackseatLin...
Note: This was recorded via a Skype call and so the video/audio quality is not the best.

[@mejlgaardbliddal]

Always a joy to listen to someone who has done the research. When I heard about Krachens comprehensible input hypothesis back i 2014 I thought yes that is how I became fluent in English and German, but it will take to long, but then I started to look at my 10 year old son who got comprehensible input in abundance from KZbin videos and I realized that the reason some danish students where way more advanced in English compared to their classmates was the amount of compelling comprehensible input they had access to. Many of these students have a implicit knowledge of grammar acquired through reading or watching English languages material of their own choice., wich correlates with some of the findings Dr. Krashen has shared on his Twitter account. Thank you very much for giving us the empirical data we need to defend our choice of teaching through comprehensible and compelling input.

[@mietektrabka5352]

General public would benefit from these talks. Perhaps uploading more of them is a great idea

[@literarypixie]

This was life-changing! I am a new teacher (graduated June 2021 and currently teaching 10th grade ELA summer school!) and I have been trying to figure out how much time to spend on vocabulary and is SSL really worth doing in the classroom--- and this lecture cleared that up!! Thank you!! I will share with my cohort!!

[@jeffmcquillan]

Thanks, Sammy! Can I ask how you found this video? Did you do a search or was is recommended to you somewhere? I'm curious. -Jeff

[@wagendorf31]

Totally agree! Kids often times are watching the movie but not reading the words and making sense of how words are used. And if they’re not reading enough, then background knowledge is also put in jeopardy, and this is so important in helping kids make connections.

[@mietektrabka5352]

Thanks for sharing! Greetings from Poland.

[@yameizhang8732]

Hi, Dr. Jeff, I very love ESL POD, I checked your name on KZbin and found this amazing video. As a second English learner, I totally support your opinion, reading is the best way of learning words. Once upon a time, I learned vocabulary by remembering its meaning using my native language, I can remember a lot of words, but when I want to speak or write it, I don't know how to use it. Last month, I begin reading English books, such as English textbooks. At first, my reading speed is very low, and I know every word, but I didn't understand the meaning of sentences. And when I listen to some English podcasts or watch English videos, I often can't understand, but when I checked the subtitle, I can understand them. To solve this problem, I read English books, and when I finish a chapter, I will read and listen to the audiobook of the chapter again. I didn't know if was it efficient or not, can you recommend some efficient way to improve the phenomenon. Thanks for your video, I very much appreciate it.

[@losikov]

I absolutely agree that reading is the best way for vocabulary acquisition, and it works amazingly for native speakers, kids, or teenagers. The mentioned researches is a nice confirmation of that. Also, books reading will definitely help ESL students to advance and pass IELTS or TOEFL test. But, will it help them to understand American movies, and, what is more important, speak fluently? I learned English using the classical method going throw units with a new gramma, a list of words and exercises to nail down material. My total vocabulary was 1800 words. Later, I moved to the US, read tens of English books, listened to all eslpod.com audios, watched hundreds of movies, attended ESL classes (most useful related to pronunciation). I estimate my passive vocabulary to at least 8K now. But, I still have issues in real life situations finding required words to express something, I don't feel myself fluent enough. My active vocabulary required for fluency and built during initial learning doesn't grow the same as passive one. It would be nice to hear others' points of view and advices about this problem. I didn't find any useful resource which would help to advance active vocabulary and fluency.

[@arccosinusopinion2323]

Thank you very much doctor McQuilan for all the hard work you've done over the years. Can you please make a video on talent/ability. I know Beniko has had some research but it would be nice to listen to your perspective on the matter

[@krzysztofsitkowski4152]

Interesting as always. I'm a big fan of professor's activity (as well as prof Krashen). If someone is interested in academic vocabulary list, the name of its publicator is Averil Coxhead

[@192titan]

Thanks for sharing. I come across a tweet from Kelly Gallagher, and I would like to know how do you deal with an unknown vocabulary when reading? What are your strategies? Just look up the definition in a dictionary?

[@adamFluency]

Thanks very much Jeff, very nice talk indeed. A couple of questions come to mind... 1 is if reading/mouthing words has a positive impact on effectiveness (and maybe even prosody) - it is something that young readers do. Does it hold any value for language learning. If anyone happens to know of some material on this, that would be great! 2, I am it seems a rare unicorn,,,, 25 years teaching and 15 years a web programmer... so what app should I build!?! (I have some apps already - specifically one where I collect errors [booooo!] for students while they talk.... but I wonder what tech / app could beat simply picking up a book for Comprehensible Input? (I mean there are already apps like Lingq etc). If anyone has an answer I could build it!

[@jeffmcquillan]

Good questions! 1. I don't think there's any evidence that mouthing or reading aloud improves fluency, although it may have a psychological impact in lowering the Affective Filter (see my other video, Fundamental of Second Language Acquisition, for more on this concept). kzbin.info/www/bejne/mmW1emN9jNOKe9U&lc=Ugzm0zs4-70c3TjMVNR4AaABAg 2. Apps that tells stories in a slow, comprehensible fashion (i.e. the visuals make the language comprehensible) would be a great idea. No need for focusing on individual words or phrases (a la Duolingo). Just lots of interesting, illustrated stories. I suspect with DALL-E and other tools this will all become much easier in the next few years. But most programmers will screw it up by trying to make it a memorization game rather than a source of interesting CI.

[@adamFluency]

@@jeffmcquillan ha ha! But I like the concept of AI generating a cartoon (like the ones they show for talks eg Sir Ken Robinson) as the story is told - obviously there are already cartoons and videos, but this would mean any type of text and as I have seen already AI can take a book and summarize it to (let's say "B2") and then you can ask for the AI to generate an accompanying series of images... very interesting (if I got your drift right) and I am pretty sure you don't need a programmer! But I may well look into this - watch this space! And thank you kindly for the link! Much appreciated!

[@jeffmcquillan]

Exactly. I'm working on some things now, getting myself more acquainted with the "prompt engineering" side of things. Please do drop me a line if you develop anything - you can contact me via www.backseatlinguist.com or via eslpod.com @@adamFluency

[@kemitchell]

I really appreciate you sharing this video! In the context of Krashen's hypothesis, does "vocabulary" mean productive as well as receptive vocabulary? Is reading the most efficient way to improve my speaking and writing vocabulary in a second language?

[@jeffmcquillaninla]

There are few tests of productive vocabulary looking at what words people produce "spontaneously" vs. on a translation or other "prompted" test. Those sorts of studies are difficult to carry out (time consuming!). But generally we assume that increased receptive vocabulary will lead (with a lag) to more productive vocabulary, so the short answer to your question is "yes." In terms of efficiency, we can generally read faster than we can listen, so yes, reading > listening on words per minute efficiency of acquisition. Thanks for the questions! How did you come across this video? Curious to see how people find this, since while it is on my blog, I don't promote it otherwise. -Jeff

[@kemitchell]

​@@jeffmcquillaninla Thank you so much for your reply! To your question: I searched KZbin specifically for videos about research on vocabulary acquisition. Lots of eye-catching, clickbait schlock, frankly. I can't recall the search string that led to your video, somewhere down the list. But "vocabulary" and "research" were certainly part of it. It took me two or three searches to find what I had in mind, which was your clip! On reading versus listening efficiency, I don't know whether the fact that my L2 is Russian makes any difference. Stress, noun declensions, verb conjugations, and perfective/imperfective verb pairing aren't always evident from the page. Neither from a single spoken word form, but hearing stress spoken can be a big shortcut. There's also a meaningful difference in written-spoken style and vocab, so I'm trying to keep up a strong diet of reading and interview/news videos. I cannot tell you how much I wish "Russian 101" in college was in fact "Language Learning 101", with some hints to start. But perhaps when I went through the system, that knowledge simply wasn't ready for freshmen and sophomores. Coax you into e-mailing OUP about writing Language Learning: A Very Short Introduction? PS: I can make apps and websites on my own. Way back when, I worked with Tom Garza at U Texas on multimedia for Russian instruction. rr.coerll.utexas.edu/

[@brahim2869]

Thanks

[@loridechellis331]

What does the research say about vocabulary retention for SSR vs explicit vocabulary instruction? When the students are tested, are they tested only for receptive skills or does it also include productive skills as well?

[@jeffmcquillaninla]

Most studies are of receptive skills (reading/listening) for both SSR and explicit vocabulary studies. Productive - "output" - lags receptive, of course, so doing immediate post-testing for productive skills would probably not be very informative. It's an interesting question, and one that would be useful to investigate! I'm not aware of anyone who has looked at this thus far, however (which is not to say there isn't a study out there). Thanks for your question! Jeff

[@konstantinosstavropoulos3605]

good

[@cmur078]

So many cited kiwis lol

[@alyssonpereira898]

Harry potter to no language native with a low level of English it's a waste of time, many words that you never will use

[@redstorm474]

I think Jeffrey exaggerates the possibilities of reading. We learn English for communicating. I doubt that reading can help people speak a second language. You need to take vocabulary and use it in speaking.

[@jeffmcquillan]

My views are based on the available scientific evidence. I'm not sure what you think I'm exaggerating. Of course we learn English for communicating. Reading improves vocabulary, which improves communication. That's what the studies I review have found.

[@verovskiconcepts]

To communicate you need a vocabulary with which you can communicate.