Daily Yamabushi

Japan is supposedly built by people who would rather run around the bush to get their way rather than simply demand their way. In Japanese companies if the subordinates notice that their boss is wrong, instead of confronting the boss with the facts, they would subtly hint that something is wrong until the boss realises, after which they would praise the boss for being the first to notice. Japan is supposedly built on people with the mindset that this is the way to do it, and it works, even though it may not be the easiest way to get things done, it works. If you understand Japan, you will understand that confrontation is the worst thing that can possibly happen, hence such a system exists. By those who cut right through, I mean those who get straight to the point and don’t mess around; the way in which you approach a situation could mean the difference between a superior saying yes, and a superior flatly saying ‘not on my watch’. 

The importance of learning vocabulary when studying another language is second to none. It simply must be done for there to be any possibility of success, and in this post I outline one very useful and very effective method for building your vocabulary quickly, but surely.

When learning a second language it is important to be able to read fast while still understanding the majority of the text. This means that reading practice is vital, but where do you start? How can you learn vocabulary from reading? What types of language should you be looking for? To get the most benefit from reading in an L2, you should be reading to your level, or slightly below. But what does this mean and why is it important? 

When you find yourself in a situation where it’s hard to follow what’s going on, most of the time you want to escape, and it’s the same for reading in a second language. If you can’t understand what has been written, you will get bored very quickly and may easily give up, but what’s more, you won’t be able to make the most of all the effort you put into learning.

Reading to build your vocabulary

Without fail, you should be understanding more than 95% of the words in the text. So for a paragraph of about 100 words, possibly half the page of a novel, there should be a maximum of five unknown words. The logic behind this is that with 95% coverage, you should be able to guess the remaining 5% of unknown words through context. The more you read, the higher your chances of coming across these unknown words again, which means that the words will start to become more and more familiar to you as you see them again and again in context. 

It has been found that this is the most effective way to learn vocabulary, simply due to the fact that the words are in context. By gradually building your understanding of a word by guessing its meaning through context, you can understand more about the word than you could through intensive study of the vocabulary. However, it is also important to combine these two methods of learning vocabulary in order to combat the lexical paradox: you need to use words to learn words but in order to be able to use words you first need to have learnt them. It also helps to follow this up by double-checking the words in the dictionary, but don’t do this while you are reading or else you will lose your flow and reading will become both time-consuming and tedious. Only check the word in the dictionary if you feel it is important enough to need it, i.e. it appears a lot in a range of texts and when it is necessary to do so to understand the text (see learning burden). 

The only thing is that this takes a large amount of effort to do so in the first place. In fact Nation (2009) found that you need to be reading at least one graded reader every two weeks to be able to gain from this method. Graded readers　(such as these Japanese ones) are specially designed books where the vocabulary (and to a certain degree grammar) has been graded, i.e. it appears in the books in different levels that are based on studies into word frequency. For example, a beginner’s book would only contain words  that are within the 100 most common words in the English language (excluding pronouns and other important content words). Admittedly there aren’t that many graded readers for learning Japanese available, but with this knowledge it shouldn’t be too hard to go to the library/ bookstore and find a book, open up one page, and try reading it using the 95% rule. 

It is really important that you get a large variety of input so that you can see how words are used in different contexts. This means that  while you are reading a novel or something similar, it helps to also read things like newspaper or magazine articles. I recommend choosing something that you like and if you read multiple things on the same topic, usually the same words are used so you can gain that all-important exposure needed to add words to your vocabulary. 

Reading to build reading speed

Lastly, this is all fine and dandy if you want to learn vocabulary, but what if you are feeling the need for speed…er… reading? Well, the logic on choosing a text is the same, except this time you want to be able to understand more than 99% of the text. That’s right, in order to develop your speed at reading, you should understand pretty much every word you are reading. Fortunately you don’t actually have to go out and buy/ borrow new books; this can easily be achieved by re-reading things that you have already read. Another way to achieve this is by purposely reading anything below your level.

The N1 is the highest level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT). In my opinion the test is a waste of time because there is no assessment of productive skills, so you can’t really call it a ‘proficiency’ test, however passing it looks really good on your CV and can help you get a job using Japanese. For this reason I recommend getting it out of the way as soon as possible, as well as making sure you pass it on the first go so your time doesn’t go to waste.

As with a lot of exams in Japan, if you study the exam, you pass. If you study general Japanese, you don’t (unless of course you are really, really good, like native-speaker level, which means you won’t need to spend any time studying anyway). This means taking a strategic approach to passing the exam is necessary, but in order to do this you need to know what you need to know.

Vocabulary

A list of the required vocabulary can be found here, however I went out and bought this book, which ranks the words in order of frequency, the most efficient way to learn vocabulary in a second language. Now that I knew the vocabulary I needed to know, I had to devise a system to put it all in my long term memory. The reason why I wanted to remember words for the long term rather than cramming was because I didn’t want to have to re-learn the words at a later date. There are many, many ways to do this however the most efficient way is to use spaced repetition (intensive study), which is actually the most efficient way to learn anything (see Kornell, 2009), coupled with extensive reading (extensive study). 

Intensive vocabulary study

Intensive vocabulary study is when you purposely set out to learn vocabulary, as opposed to extensive study where you learn vocabulary through comprehensible input (see here). Studies into intensive vocabulary study have shown that people can learn up to 35 words an hour, which is pretty quick if you think about it (not sure how well the words were remembered though). I used spaced repetition software called Anki, which lets you customise the cards a lot, unlike memrise where the cards are already made for you, and there is a severe lack of context.

Severe lack of context? What does this mean and why does this matter? I hear you ask. Well, it is much more efficient to learn words in context because it makes them much easier to remember. Ever had a word that you can remember exactly where and when you learnt it? For me I remember learning 大丈夫 in Japan back in 2005 on a school trip. I remember the person who taught me, and who else was there at the time too. Granted this is a very common word, but at the time I didn’t know it.

This means that when using wordcards or wordcard software (i.e. Anki), it helps to have the word in a sentence or two. One other really big advantage of this is that you can also see the word in use, which helps let you know its part of speech, as well as when and where you can use the word; very useful for words with similar sounds and similar meanings (which shouldn’t be learnt together by the way, even things like body parts or days of the week).

There are many reasons why you should make your own cards rather than downloading a deck someone else has made, or using memrise which is essentially the same thing. Firstly, writing these cards one by one gives you exposure to the word; you aren’t relying on the software to learn the words initially. Secondly, you have complete control over the words you choose. There may be some words that you already know, which isn’t so much of a problem on Anki, but is a bit annoying if you use memrise because they come up multiple times in quick succession. There may also be words that you don’t know but you want to know, which you will have to add and modify manually, checking whether or not it is in the list in the first place; a very time-consuming process. 

So to make my word cards, I used to look in the book for the word and then search for a Japanese definition (in order to be able to use L2* definitions you need to know about 2000 L2 words). Then I would look for example sentences using the words where I would choose one or two sentences to add to the card. On the front of the card I would have the Japanese definition. On the back I would have the target vocabulary and example sentences. Then I would let the software work its magic by keeping up to date with reviews, and constantly adding new vocabulary until I had gone through the book.

This however wasn’t enough, and I will tell you why on my next post on extensive learning of vocabulary.

*I use L2 to mean any language but your mother tongue learnt after the age of four

On a side note, I was rather surprised when on the new Anki (Anki 2 I believe) they limited the number of reviews you could do in a day. This is plain stupid because everyone is different, and also because each word has a different learning burden (see Nation, 2009). A learning burden is how difficult it is for a specific learner to learn a specific word in an L2. For whatever reason, some words are much easier to learn than others, and therefore this limit shouldn’t have been set in the first place. 

Ok, so we’ve established that the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is the difference between what a learner already knows (their actual development level, developed “retrospectively”(Aljaafreh & Lantolf, 1994, p. 468)) and what they can do when assisted (the ZPD, developed prospectively (ibid)), and it is virtually impossible to discover the novice’s ZPD without dialogic negotiation. But why is it important to know the ZPD? After reading Aljaafreh and Lantolf’s (1994, 1995) articles I have a greater understanding of its importance. 

We talked about how learners with different distances (in terms of years) between their actual development level and ZPD have different developmental ages, and now there is another way to look at it in regards to giving feedback. Aljaafreh and Lantolf (1995, p. 622) provide a 12 step framework for feedback that goes from implicit to explicit feedback. If a learner shows that they are able to correct their errors by themselves, then this would be level 0, or implicit feedback. However if the expert gives examples of the correct pattern because other forms of feedback have failed, then this is considered level 12, or explicit feedback. When the negotiated feedback moves up the scale towards more implicit means, this is called microgenetic development. 

As language teachers, we have to try and get our learners to the more implicit levels of feedback for them to show their true development levels. We have to “lure” them into “functioning in an appropriate way without making the task frustrating” (Wertsch, 42). The earlier in the list the learner can provide correct language performance, the more developmentally advanced they are. This means that “Development in the L2 is therefore not only reflected in the learner’s ability to generalise what had been appropriated, but is also revealed through the kind of help that is jointly negotiated between experts and novices” (Aljaafreh & Lantolf, 1994, p. 480). 

The responsibility of the novice’s linguistic performance is firstly distributed between the novice and the expert, with the expert having more control. Following this the control is “gradually appropriated” by the novice, they move away from reliance on the expert towards reliance on the “self”. I feel that this part here may be one major difference between the East and West in terms of expectations of the novice and the expert. Those in Eastern contexts may find it more difficult to break away from the teacher here due to being accustomed to teacher-centred learning. Likewise, the teacher may feel uncomfortable breaking away here, but it is important because without the teacher (expert) breaking away, there can be no real development (Aljaafreh & Lantolf, 1994, p. 480). 

In Japan they certainly have an odd way of selling things at schools. The guy in this photo comes to this school nearly everyday trying to sell educational resources to the teachers. He comes in, goes to each row of teachers’ desks, says his hellos and then proceeds to sit down at this desk (it’s like a communal desk for visitors) looking around and standing up to look around every couple of moments. I never used to like this guy because he would never acknowledge my existence, but now I actually feel kind of sorry for him. Today he did his usual waiting at the desk and then he suddenly got up, walked over to one of my fellow teacher’s desks and handed out a brochure. First I thought it would be like some resource for a textbook or something but it wasn’t, he was trying to sell watches. I’m not really sure why this guy is allowed in the school, but I suppose its like the 回覧（かいらん kairan) that they pass around; big clipboards with junk mail trying to sell various household goods, which do a good job at reinforcing the stereotype that women belong in the house too. As long as they think they are making a difference, and they don’t bother us too much, I don’t really mind.

Weird Japan.

The 2000 most common English words cover around 75-78% of modern English used today and therefore vocabulary should be prioritised by frequency or by importance to your own needs. Knowing this much vocabulary will allow you to function in English, however what does it mean to know a word? Knowing a word means you understand deeply its form, meaning and use. This means you need to know which form of the word family to use in different situations, what the word itself means in different situations, and in what situations you can or can’t use the word in. 

If this vocabulary test shows that you have not mastered the high frequency vocabulary (roughly 2,000 words), then this will be your first step. Following this it would be a good idea to move on to learning the academic vocabulary of which there are around 500-600 word families that are very useful for academic use (i.e. for university study). 

In this post I will give some tips on learning vocabulary in a second language that have been proven to be effective through empirical studies. 

Firstly you need to know what vocabulary you should learn, which means you should have a good idea of your current level. For anyone learning English as a Second language it is very easy to find this out; you can do a simple test of around 140 questions here, which has both monolingual and bilingual tests. English vocabulary can be separated into High Frequency (HF), Academic, Technical and Low Frequency (LF) word families. Knowing a word family means you know the different forms of the root forms of the word. For example, the word family for nation would include nations, nationalist, nationalistic and so on. For learners of other languages it would be a good idea to see lists of the frequencies of words in the target languages before continuing. This will save you both time and effort in the long run. 

Most of this information comes from this book by Paul Nation.

Finding the vocabulary you should learn is the easy part, actually learning it is much more difficult. There are two main ways vocabulary can be learnt and there are a few terms for each way; intensive/ explicit learning is when you purposefully study words through lists or word cards etc. Extensive or implicit learning is when you come across vocabulary in daily use, such as through reading books or talking with someone who doesn’t have to be a native speaker.

Because extensive learning of vocabulary is for the most part done through context, this way is thought to be the most effective, however it is much more time consuming. They say that to be able to learn through context, at least 95% of words in a text need to be known. This leads me to the lexical paradox as highlighted by Tom Cobb; in order to be able to learn vocabulary extensively, we need vocabulary. This means that during the beginning stages, intensive vocabulary study is paramount, and as the number of vocabulary acquired increases, learning through context becomes much easier. 

If you want a quick way to vastly improve your vocabulary, do a lot of extensive reading in the target language, but make sure that you do it at the right level; more than 95% of words known. In order to become a quicker reader, this number needs to be higher than 98%. 

In my Sociocultural Theory classes the focus recently has been on Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The ZPD is the difference between what someone can learn by themselves, known as the Actual Development Level (ADL), and what they can learn with assistance.

Say for example you have two 10 year old students who when working by themselves show the mental age of an 8 year-old, meaning they can successfully work out problems that have been standardised to the 8 year-old level. It is important to note that the ADL has the prerequisites of no assistance (i.e through leading-questions, or showing the problem being solved); the students need to prove that they can do it by themselves. You don’t stop there however. Following this, you give the students help in various ways to help answer a problem. It may then turn out that child A’s mental age with assistance is 12, whereas child B’s may be 9.  Does this mean that they are at the same mental level? The difference between 12 and 8, and 9 and 8 respectively is what is known as the Zone of Proximal Development. 

“The zone of proximal development defines those functions that have not yet matured but are in the process of maturation, functions that will mature tomorrow but are currently in an embryonic state” (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 86).

Therefore to truly know the mental age of a student we have to find out the ADL and ZPD. It is also important to add that what is in the ZPD today will be in the ADL tomorrow.

My life may be a little bit different to yours. I live in Yamagata Prefecture on the north-west coast of the northern part of Honshu in Japan, have done so since 2010. This place has everything you need; beaches for the summer and ski fields for the winter. This blog talks about what life is like here so that people can get an understanding of the real Japan, not just what goes on in Tokyo and Kyoto. But more importantly, this blog is about me.

俺の生活はおそらくあなたのと全然違います。２０１０年以降東北に位置する山形県の西海岸に在住中。ここって人生にすべての必要なのがある。夏は海で冬はスキー所。このブロッグは東京と京都意外の本当の日本を分かってくれるために書きます。でも最も大事なのは、このブロッグは俺についてです。