Pratique du Shadowing: Should you learn low-frequency words? My approach as a polyglot - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo
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117 phrases
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How hard should we try to learn low frequency vocabulary?
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I think many of us are familiar with the idea that maybe 500, a thousand words will account for,
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you know, 50 % or 70 % of any given context.
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So very often the advice given is just learn those high frequency words and you'll be able to do very well.
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That has not been my strategy and I'm going to explain to you why, but let me first of all say
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that the most important thing is what do you want to
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do what are your goals what gives you a sense of satisfaction
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when you are engaged in learning the language do you feel
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this is what I want to be doing I want to
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be learning the language I want to be focusing in on high frequency words
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or I want to be pushing myself to learn more low frequency words ultimately it's up to you the learner
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because if you enjoy what you're doing you'll continue doing it and the whole thing is in language learning, it takes a long time.
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You have to be in some kind of a learning process that's likely to continue.
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But if I look at my statistics that link with Arabic, which is my most recent language, along with Persian, but a language that I have found,
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you know, a lot of work.
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If you look at my statistics, you'll see that I have read over a million words and I have saved, I'm going from memory here, but over 90 ,000 links.
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That means I have looked up 90 ,000 words.
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and got some kind of a meaning uh of those the system tells me
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that i know 36 000 of these words
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simply because i don't look them up
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when i see them i've converted them to known do i
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really know these words i don't know i'm certainly not able to use them
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and so when we contemplate you know to what extent do we pursue low frequency words part of
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that uh you know discussion is do I want to focus in on words
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that I can use
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and there is a table from the common European framework of reference for languages which shows
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that beginners people who have a small vocabulary who are early
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on in the language actually are able to retrieve use a
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higher percentage of their passive vocabulary than is the case later on
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and it's not surprising but as we acquire more
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and more words more and more passive words uh
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which in my case in arabic is 35 000 words
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which i don't believe i think i've forgotten most of those
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but as we have more and more passive vocabulary apparently there's a certain plateau effect
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which kicks in where the brain is is reluctant to try to retrieve these words uh new words
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or to activate more of the new words that the brain has learned
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because it's more comfortable to just use the words that it has already used before.
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So that the percentage of words that we can activate from our passive vocabulary becomes less and less.
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So then the question is, why do I pursue low frequency vocabulary?
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First of all, I've mentioned this before, but frequency declines very, very quickly.
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So once we've learned 500 ,000 most frequent words in a language, we are chasing words that generally don't show up that often.
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And so at that point,
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we have to adopt strategies that would create a greater likelihood that these low frequency words will show up.
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So in my case, I do a lot of listening to politics and history and things of that nature so that, you know, economics and politics and,
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you know, political parties and those kinds of terms, which are in fact low frequency, will show up more often.
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And there's even some theory of the island effect where, you know, if we can create sort of an island of familiar content,
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then obviously we're going to do better at learning those words.
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So those are things that we can do.
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To what extent it helps, I don't know.
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But the question then becomes, so why do I chase this high word count?
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Why do I want to have a high number of known words, even if the value of that statistic is questionable?
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Well, first of all, pursuing the high word count drives me to engage with more demanding content.
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It's part of what I find satisfying, even though it's difficult.
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It seems that there is an unending quantity of words that I have to learn, particularly in Arabic but it drives me into the things
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that I've been listening to from MTV Lebanon and things of that nature.
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And I find that when I speak with my tutor, even though I have trouble talking about daily things,
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I always surprise my tutor in terms of what I can use vocabulary and the extent to which we can talk, albeit with difficulty and albeit with mistakes,
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we can talk about difficult subjects and i find that more interesting
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so it gets back to my first point you have to do things
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that you find genuinely satisfying because you know if you do things
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that are satisfying you will continue doing it and the difficulty with pursuing
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a limited range of vocabulary you will only cover a limited range of subject matter
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you will limit yourself in what you're learning
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and since whatever we learn in the language the chances are
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we're going to forget it anyway we have to keep on seeing these words in different contexts
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and again research shows
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that the greater the variety of content where we encounter these
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words the more likely we are going to remember them so
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if you are pursuing a limited range of vocabulary you are limiting yourself whereas
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when i pursue these content items
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which have you know lower frequency vocabulary in them i'm also
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coming across some high frequency vocabulary in a great variety of different contexts all of
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that is helping me connect to the language
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because we don't learn the words as i've mentioned before and put them way in a filing cabinet, we learn words, we encounter words,
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we engage with them that activates things in our brain, a web of connectivity, which is related to that language.
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So the key thing is to keep doing it and ultimately,
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and having as wide a variety of engagement with the language as possible in order that you can learn the language.
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So the high word count in my case, for example, for Arabic, and I'm going to be, by the way, doing an interview with my Arabic tutor Hassan on Thursday.
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And you'll see that I struggle.
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I struggle.
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However, I feel the word count, which necessarily means, you know, low frequency words, is an indication of my potential in the language.
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So if I were put in a situation where I had to speak a lot, I would very quickly improve.
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If I only have a limited range of vocabulary, that's kind of my limit.
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That's as much as I'm going to achieve.
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So the word count is an indication of the potential in the language.
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Now I need lots of opportunity to use the language to start to activate.
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And even then, I'm sure that the amount of vocabulary
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that I can activate out of my 35 ,000 theoretically known words is going to be, you know, 15, 20%, maybe.
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The other thing about the word count, and in fact, with all of our statistics at LingQ, is that it is an indication of your level of activity.
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And I've always felt that in language learning, it's kind of difficult to evaluate people based on how well they speak, how well they use grammar,
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their pronunciation, all of these things sometimes improve, sometimes don't, sometimes they're better than at other times.
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The key thing is maintaining a level of activity and the statistics that link, and in particular, the number of words that I know is an indication of how active I have been.
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I have read that much.
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I have listened that much.
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I've listened so often
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that at some point I came across one of these 35 ,000 words in a given text at link
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and I moved it to known.
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I figured I knew it well enough in that context
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that I moved it to known or based on one of our algorithms it was moved to known.
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So the known word total as is the case with the number of links I have created is an indication
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that I have been very active and if you are active you will improve.
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However as I've said before a specific skill like speaking you have to have a lot of opportunity to speak
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but here again I believe
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that a broader vocabulary including a lot of low frequency vocabulary
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items gives you the potential to really progress in the language
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when the opportunity arises
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so my feeling is do what you want to do uh
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you different people have different motives maybe you're going to Spain or Mexico for two weeks.
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You have more limited objectives.
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However, in my case, and I think for a lot of people who want to engage with the language in order to understand the history,
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eventually to have more authentic conversations, to follow podcasts, which I'm able to do in Persian,
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Arabic, and a lot of other languages, read up on history.
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I think it's worthwhile putting that extra effort.
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You can still work on your high frequency words at times if you're getting ready for a conversation.
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However, I think it's worth it, despite the fact that it's a long road to keep on pushing that low -frequency vocabulary.
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Thank you for listening.
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Bye for now.
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Vocabulaire et conseils d’expression pour cette leçon
Cette vidéo contient 117 phrases et 1639 mots à répéter en shadowing. La partie parlée dure 9:18. Le locuteur parle à un rythme naturel d’environ 176 mots par minute, proche d’une conversation courante. 84 % des mots font partie des 3 000 mots les plus courants en anglais ; le reste mérite d’être vu avant de commencer.
Vocabulaire clé de cette vidéo
15 mots de la vidéo à retenir, avec leur prononciation et leur sens :
| Mot | Prononciation | Sens |
|---|---|---|
| vocabulary nom | /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/ | vocabulaire, lexique |
| frequency nom | /ˈfɹiːkwənsi/ | fréquence |
| pursue verbe | /pɚˈsu/ | poursuivre |
| indication nom | /ɪndɪˈkeɪʃən/ | indication |
| activate verbe | /ˈæktɪˌveɪt/ | actionner, activer |
| engage verbe | /ɪnˈɡeɪd͡ʒ/ | attirer l'attention |
| passive adjectif | /ˈpæs.ɪv/ | passif |
| extent nom | /ɪkˈstɛnt/ | mesure |
| satisfy verbe | /ˈsætɪsfaɪ/ | satisfaire |
| tutor nom | /ˈtjuːtəː/ | tuteur |
| percentage nom | /pə(ɹ)ˈsɛntɪd͡ʒ/ | pourcentage |
| chase verbe | /t͡ʃeɪs/ | poursuivre, chasser |
| difficulty nom | /ˈdɪfɪkəlti/ | difficulté |
| encounter verbe | /ɪnˈkaʊntɚ/ | rencontrer |
| albeit | /ɔlˈbi.ɪt/ | bien que, quoique |
Les verbes à particule que vous entendrez
| Mot | Sens |
|---|---|
| show up verbe | apparaître, se montrer se pointer |
| come across verbe | avoir l'air de |
La grammaire de cette vidéo
Les structures que le locuteur utilise le plus, avec les mots exacts de la vidéo :
| Structure | Dans la vidéo |
|---|---|
| Phrases conditionnelles if + proposition, will/would + verbe — une condition et son résultat | if you enjoy what you're doing you'll continue · If you look at my statistics, you'll see · if you are active you will improve |
| Present perfect have/has + participe passé — une action passée qui compte encore maintenant | has not been · have found · have read |
| Propositions relatives who / which + proposition — une précision sur une personne ou une chose | Arabic, which is · people who have · terms, which are |
| Voix passive be + participe passé — l’accent est mis sur ce qui arrive, pas sur qui le fait | are engaged · were put · was moved |
Prononciation à surveiller
Le locuteur utilise 35 contractions et formes réduites, comme I'm, I've, don't. Prononcez-les sous leur forme courte, telles que vous les entendez.
- Les sons « th »: authentic /ɔˈθɛn.tɪk/, algorithm /ˈælɡəɹɪðm̩/, worthwhile /ˌwɜː(ɹ)θˈwaɪl/
- Les sons « sh » et « zh »: indication /ɪndɪˈkeɪʃən/, satisfaction /sætɪsˈfækʃən/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/
- Mots longs — placez bien l’accent: vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, indication /ɪndɪˈkeɪʃən/, difficulty /ˈdɪfɪkəlti/, necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, economics /ˌiːkəˈnɒmɪks/
Comment s’entraîner avec cette vidéo
- Écoutez la vidéo en entier une fois sans parler et notez les mots que vous ne connaissez pas.
- Commencez à la vitesse 0,75×, répétez phrase par phrase, puis revenez à la vitesse normale quand cela devient facile.
- Enregistrez-vous et comparez avec l’original, en faisant attention à des mots comme vocabulary, frequency, pursue.
Qu'est-ce que la technique du Shadowing ?
Le Shadowing est une technique d'apprentissage des langues fondée sur la science, développée à l'origine pour la formation des interprètes professionnels. Le principe est simple mais puissant : vous écoutez de l'anglais natif et le répétez immédiatement à voix haute — comme une ombre suivant le locuteur avec un décalage de 1 à 2 secondes. Les recherches montrent une amélioration significative de la précision de la prononciation, de l'intonation, du rythme, des liaisons, de la compréhension orale et de la fluidité.