シャドーイング練習: Should you learn low-frequency words? My approach as a polyglot - 動画で英語スピーキングを学ぶ

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How hard should we try to learn low frequency vocabulary?

I think many of us are familiar with the idea that maybe 500, a thousand words will account for,

you know, 50 % or 70 % of any given context.

So very often the advice given is just learn those high frequency words and you'll be able to do very well.

That has not been my strategy and I'm going to explain to you why, but let me first of all say

that the most important thing is what do you want to

do what are your goals what gives you a sense of satisfaction

when you are engaged in learning the language do you feel

this is what I want to be doing I want to

be learning the language I want to be focusing in on high frequency words

or I want to be pushing myself to learn more low frequency words ultimately it's up to you the learner

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.

You have to be in some kind of a learning process that's likely to continue.

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,

you know, a lot of work.

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.

That means I have looked up 90 ,000 words.

and got some kind of a meaning uh of those the system tells me

that i know 36 000 of these words

simply because i don't look them up

when i see them i've converted them to known do i

really know these words i don't know i'm certainly not able to use them

and so when we contemplate you know to what extent do we pursue low frequency words part of

that uh you know discussion is do I want to focus in on words

that I can use

and there is a table from the common European framework of reference for languages which shows

that beginners people who have a small vocabulary who are early

on in the language actually are able to retrieve use a

higher percentage of their passive vocabulary than is the case later on

and it's not surprising but as we acquire more

and more words more and more passive words uh

which in my case in arabic is 35 000 words

which i don't believe i think i've forgotten most of those

but as we have more and more passive vocabulary apparently there's a certain plateau effect

which kicks in where the brain is is reluctant to try to retrieve these words uh new words

or to activate more of the new words that the brain has learned

because it's more comfortable to just use the words that it has already used before.

So that the percentage of words that we can activate from our passive vocabulary becomes less and less.

So then the question is, why do I pursue low frequency vocabulary?

First of all, I've mentioned this before, but frequency declines very, very quickly.

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.

And so at that point,

we have to adopt strategies that would create a greater likelihood that these low frequency words will show up.

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,

you know, political parties and those kinds of terms, which are in fact low frequency, will show up more often.

And there's even some theory of the island effect where, you know, if we can create sort of an island of familiar content,

then obviously we're going to do better at learning those words.

So those are things that we can do.

To what extent it helps, I don't know.

But the question then becomes, so why do I chase this high word count?

Why do I want to have a high number of known words, even if the value of that statistic is questionable?

Well, first of all, pursuing the high word count drives me to engage with more demanding content.

It's part of what I find satisfying, even though it's difficult.

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

that I've been listening to from MTV Lebanon and things of that nature.

And I find that when I speak with my tutor, even though I have trouble talking about daily things,

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,

we can talk about difficult subjects and i find that more interesting

so it gets back to my first point you have to do things

that you find genuinely satisfying because you know if you do things

that are satisfying you will continue doing it and the difficulty with pursuing

a limited range of vocabulary you will only cover a limited range of subject matter

you will limit yourself in what you're learning

and since whatever we learn in the language the chances are

we're going to forget it anyway we have to keep on seeing these words in different contexts

and again research shows

that the greater the variety of content where we encounter these

words the more likely we are going to remember them so

if you are pursuing a limited range of vocabulary you are limiting yourself whereas

when i pursue these content items

which have you know lower frequency vocabulary in them i'm also

coming across some high frequency vocabulary in a great variety of different contexts all of

that is helping me connect to the language

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,

we engage with them that activates things in our brain, a web of connectivity, which is related to that language.

So the key thing is to keep doing it and ultimately,

and having as wide a variety of engagement with the language as possible in order that you can learn the language.

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.

And you'll see that I struggle.

I struggle.

However, I feel the word count, which necessarily means, you know, low frequency words, is an indication of my potential in the language.

So if I were put in a situation where I had to speak a lot, I would very quickly improve.

If I only have a limited range of vocabulary, that's kind of my limit.

That's as much as I'm going to achieve.

So the word count is an indication of the potential in the language.

Now I need lots of opportunity to use the language to start to activate.

And even then, I'm sure that the amount of vocabulary

that I can activate out of my 35 ,000 theoretically known words is going to be, you know, 15, 20%, maybe.

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.

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,

their pronunciation, all of these things sometimes improve, sometimes don't, sometimes they're better than at other times.

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.

I have read that much.

I have listened that much.

I've listened so often

that at some point I came across one of these 35 ,000 words in a given text at link

and I moved it to known.

I figured I knew it well enough in that context

that I moved it to known or based on one of our algorithms it was moved to known.

100

So the known word total as is the case with the number of links I have created is an indication

101

that I have been very active and if you are active you will improve.

102

However as I've said before a specific skill like speaking you have to have a lot of opportunity to speak

103

but here again I believe

104

that a broader vocabulary including a lot of low frequency vocabulary

105

items gives you the potential to really progress in the language

106

when the opportunity arises

107

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.

109

You have more limited objectives.

110

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,

111

eventually to have more authentic conversations, to follow podcasts, which I'm able to do in Persian,

112

Arabic, and a lot of other languages, read up on history.

113

I think it's worthwhile putting that extra effort.

114

You can still work on your high frequency words at times if you're getting ready for a conversation.

115

However, I think it's worth it, despite the fact that it's a long road to keep on pushing that low -frequency vocabulary.

116

Thank you for listening.

117

Bye for now.

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このレッスンの語彙とスピーキングのポイント

この動画には、シャドーイング用の文が117文、単語が1639語あります。音声の長さは9:18です。話す速さは1分あたり約176語で、日常会話に近い自然なペースです。単語の84%は英語の頻出3,000語に含まれます。残りは練習の前に確認しておきましょう。

この動画の重要語彙

動画に出てくる覚えておきたい単語15語を、発音と意味つきで紹介します。

単語	発音	意味
vocabulary 名詞	/vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/	語彙, 語彙力
frequency 名詞	/ˈfɹiːkwənsi/	頻度
pursue 動詞	/pɚˈsu/	追跡する
indication 名詞	/ɪndɪˈkeɪʃən/	記号, 符号
passive 形容詞	/ˈpæs.ɪv/	受動態
extent 名詞	/ɪkˈstɛnt/	程度
satisfy 動詞	/ˈsætɪsfaɪ/	満たす
tutor 名詞	/ˈtjuːtəː/	家庭教師
percentage 名詞	/pə(ɹ)ˈsɛntɪd͡ʒ/	百分率, 百分比
chase 動詞	/t͡ʃeɪs/	追いかける, 追跡する
difficulty 名詞	/ˈdɪfɪkəlti/	難しさ
encounter 動詞	/ɪnˈkaʊntɚ/	出会う, 遭遇する
albeit	/ɔlˈbi.ɪt/	とはいえ, ではあるが
retrieve 動詞	/ɹɪˈtɹiːv/	取り戻す
economics 名詞	/ˌiːkəˈnɒmɪks/	経済学

動画に出てくる句動詞

単語	発音	意味
show up 動詞		現れる
look up 動詞	/ˌlʊk ˈʌp/	見上げる

この動画の文法

話し手がよく使っている文型を、動画の実際の表現とともに紹介します。

文型	動画での表現
条件文 if + 節, will/would + 動詞 — 条件とその結果	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
現在完了形 have/has + 過去分詞 — 過去の出来事が今も関係している	has not been · have found · have read
関係詞節 who / which + 節 — 人や物について情報を加える	Arabic, which is · people who have · terms, which are
受動態 be + 過去分詞 — 誰がするかより、何が起きるかに焦点を当てる	were put · was moved

注意したい発音

話し手はI'm, I've, don'tなど、短縮形や弱形を35回使っています。聞こえたとおりの短い形で発音しましょう。

「th」の音: authentic /ɔˈθɛn.tɪk/, algorithm /ˈælɡəɹɪðm̩/, worthwhile /ˌwɜː(ɹ)θˈwaɪl/
「sh」と「zh」の音: indication /ɪndɪˈkeɪʃən/, satisfaction /sætɪsˈfækʃən/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/
長い単語（アクセントの位置に注意）: vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, indication /ɪndɪˈkeɪʃən/, difficulty /ˈdɪfɪkəlti/, necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, economics /ˌiːkəˈnɒmɪks/

この動画での練習方法

まず声を出さずに動画を最後まで聞き、知らない単語をメモします。
まず0.75倍速で一文ずつシャドーイングし、慣れてきたら通常の速度に戻します。
自分の声を録音して元の音声と比べます。vocabulary, frequency, pursueなどの単語に特に注意しましょう。

シャドーイングとは？英語上達に効果的な理由

シャドーイング（Shadowing）は、もともとプロの通訳者養成プログラムで開発された言語学習法で、多言語習得者として知られるDr. Alexander Arguelles によって広く普及されました。方法はシンプルですが非常に効果的：ネイティブスピーカーの英語を聞きながら、1〜2秒の遅延で声に出してすぐに繰り返す——まるで「影（shadow）」のように話者を追いかけます。文法ドリルや受動的なリスニングと異なり、シャドーイングは脳と口の筋肉が同時にリアルタイムで英語を処理・再現することを強制します。研究により、発音精度、抑揚、リズム、連音、リスニング力、そして会話の流暢さが大幅に向上することが確認されています。IELTSスピーキング対策や自然な英語コミュニケーションを目指す方に特におすすめです。

シャドーイングのやり方: ステップ別の完全ガイドを読む →

シャドーイング練習: Should you learn low-frequency words? My approach as a polyglot - 動画で英語スピーキングを学ぶ

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