How many words do I need to know to speak a foreign language?

When you know and understand the logic of the language, you know how to articulate a sentence. Without said logic, words are just separate entities floating aimlessly in the air.

What's more, you cannot retain vocabulary without a context attached to it. You learn new words as and when you practise a new language point, but also when reading simplified texts, listening to recordings, and watching videos in the language you're learning.

You learn vocabulary by engaging with the language in a natural way, with examples, which are not set sentences you learn by heart, as some of us did at school, but illustrations of the language point in use, which you can then adapt to your own needs.

Now let's imagine I'm teaching you how to ask a question in English.

I would tell you that one of the possibilities, is to make a sentence with 'could', following this model:

'Could I have a glass of water, please?'

This is how the sentence is organised:

could + subject + verb + object

This is what every word in the sentence does:

'Could' is used here for a polite request

"I" is the subject doing the action of asking

"have" is the verb conveying the action

"a glass of water" is the object linked to the action

I would then show you how to do a version of "Could I have a glass of water, please?", with a different object, as in:

"Could I have a glass of orange juice, please?"

then with a different verb:

"Could I get a glass of orange juice, please?"

then with a different subject:

"Could she get a glass of orange juice, please?"

Then I would ask you to come up with an entirely different version, either using a verb you already know or by giving you one. For example:

"Could we watch a movie tonight? I want to see the new Mission Impossible."

If you didn't know the words 'to watch' and 'a movie' before, you would remember them, after using them in an example with a proper context

If all you had to begin with, were the words 'a movie', 'to see', 'could', and 'we' without any idea how to put them together, would you be able to speak? 

And what matters the most: the number of words you know or communicating an idea clearly?

More about my teaching approach 

Don't hesitate to send me your questions.

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