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In This Episode

In this episode of Fluent•ish the Podcast, Rebecca and Lisa explore the role vocabulary plays in reaching fluency - and why vocabulary is essential in immersion-limited environments.

Key insights in this episode

 

• Why "How much vocab is enough?" is both a simple and trick question
• How vocabulary levels are measured
• Why learning words in context matters
• How different memory routes (mnemonics, stories, etc.) help words stick
• The challenge of being “part-way” to knowing a word
• Why vocabulary is essential in immersion-limited environments
• Introduction to the Tortoise Tile Method — a customizable, visual approach to learning

Your Joy Builder: the takeaway

Words stick in our brains by taking all kinds of routes to get locked in. It’s okay if you don’t know the same words as someone who has started before you, or the same time as you, or even after you. It’s possible to know a more advanced word than someone else even if your 6 other of the Seven Language Skills are worse. It’s possible to find yourself in a conversation in your second language with another learner and find yourself being the vocabulary teacher to someone else for once, even if they are a more advanced learner than you. Textbooks give the illusion of vocabulary being something you can and should absorb in complete blocks, once you have passed through one, you have all the words in that block and move on to learn all the words in the next set. But in reality, that’s not how words always come to us, and that’s OK. Now get out there and talk to someone new!

Links

• Episode 7 is brought to you by Flodesk
• Episode 7 is brought to you by Shopify
• Theme music is provided by Milk Fangs
• Rebecca shares an “Oh La La!” shoutout to @jamesvukelich known for his powerful and insightful Indigenous language content
• Share your thoughts and language-learning journey with us on social media: continue the conversation by connecting on LinkedIn, BlueSky, Instagram, or Pinterest
• Watch the vlog on YouTube
• Sign up for materials and resources we've created just for you!

Reminders and acknowledgements

If you're found value in this episode and you haven't already subscribed make sure you tap that button to keep on breaking new ground in your language learning. Please take a moment to review the show on your podcast app, or to send this episode to someone you think could use it: It all helps us continue to build a safe-space for the fluent and Fluent•ish that is free of snobbery and filled with joy!

Fluent•ish the Podcast is brought to you by Little Crab Educational Press. Thank you to the language learning communities on BlueSky, Reddit, and Instagram for sharing openly about the struggles that people have to overcome to persevere in the pursuit of becoming fluent (or fluentish) in an additional language. Remember to Subscribe, Rate, Review, and Share from wherever you get this podcast.

Fluent•ish the Podcast is recorded remotely (most of the time) between Victoria and Vancouver which sit in the unceded traditional territories of several Coast Salish nations, across which we are grateful to live and work.