IWTYAL 147: Are word frequency lists useful?

Dave asks: “How useful are word frequency lists?”

In this episode:

• A small number of words account for a disproportionate amount of use in spoken language
• But does it make sense to memorise the most frequent words?
• What about nuance, or context?
• Why a holistic approach is best – you'll learn those words naturally anyway
• Frequency dictionaries can be useful for filling in gaps

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

The Science Of Successful Blogging – My talk from the Montreal Language Festival in Summer 2016.

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Olly Richards

Creator of the StoryLearning® Method

Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.

Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.

When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.