Jay Doubleyou: vocabulary myth 2: "it is not good to use lists of words when learning vocabulary."

Continuing a look at Keith Folse's challenges to how we teach/learn vocabulary:

In the original shorter article

Folse argues that lists can be of use:

Using lists may be boring for some learners, but there is no evidence to show that

learners do not fare well with lists, nor is there empirical evidence that students

without lists fare better than those with lists. In fact, some learners prefer rote learning

to communicative methods. This preference could be due to their educational

background which relies heavily on rote learning, or it could also be due to individual

learner differences. Regardless of the reason, students can learn from lists.

He refers to some particular lists:

Looking at the most frequent words in English

it is interesting to note that:

1) the most frequent 50 words will make up almost 50% of any text; and

2) students will realise the importance of learning HOW TO USE the basics

>> ARTICLES

>> PREPOSITIONS

>> that funny verb 'HAVE' which can be used with everything...

Jay Doubleyou