Aedificium potentum verbarum symbolorumque creare:

[arcacaerula]

When developing an understanding of a new language, it helps for a speaker to associate objects(as symbols) with new vocabulary in a given lexicon. In my own endeavors, I have utilized methods as traditional as objective-based vocabulary studying, taking x amount of words from Cassell's dictionary or Bill Whitaker's online index per diem and putting them to use in categorical propositions both on paper and verbally while en route to school; I've also used less conventional methods, such as labelling objects/places/colors/etc around the apartment with sticky notes. I attempt to recreate to the best of my ability the conditions of L1 learning experienced in childhood, starting with the sounds, attaching them to their respective objects, and then attaching some qualitative aspect to that object via proposition. So far this has worked decently for me, but there may be some better way out there- and if it exists I had best find it before my intensive Greek course begins this Fall!

What are some of the other tools and methods used for building a strong vocabulary foundation? I want to hear what methodologies are used by my fellow Textkittens.

-C

[adrianus]

Salve arcacaerula
On my methods, if you can and it's no bother, see the following. However, I believe you won't find anything immediately useful to you. (What you are doing I am doing on the computer, but building a 3D virtual world that has synthetic latin speech.)
De rationibus meis, si potes et tibi non molestum est, vide ità. Eâ causâ autem cuius statim requiris, utilia non invenies, ut credo. (Quod facis computatri viâ facio, ubi mundum trium dimensionum virtualem cum vocibus syntheticis et latinis constituo.)

Mallon, Adrian, "eLingua Latina: Designing a Classical-language E-learning Resource," Computer Assisted Language Learning, Vol. 19, Nos. 4 & 5, October 2006: 373-388, et "eLingua Latina and immersive CALL tool design", Computer Assisted Language Learning, Volume 20, Issue 4 October 2007: 345-363.

[thesaurus]

I honestly have a hard time learning vocabulary any other way than through my reading and occasional writing. As you've probably noticed, vocabulary lists can be a real bore, and it never clear what words you should start with. Whenever I see an unknown word in my reading I look it up, and if it seems like it might be useful I try to commit it to memory. Sometimes I'll let words slip until I notice them a second time, then I look it up (sometimes it's a drag to take the time to reference a word to find out that it's almost never used, maybe just in that one author). The downside to this is that you end up with a lop-sided vocabulary, not resembling a native language; I can read some orator like Cicero without trouble, but when I read something referring to everyday life I run into lots of words I've never seen before (simple things like foods and household items... Cicero had need to refer to kitchen wares and the market in his speeches). One possible corrective is writing, which forces me to figure out the words to express modern/common notions, and after writing the same word in a few contexts I usually remember it.

Again, I'm not sure this is revolutionary or what you were looking for, but at the least I suggest Latin composition as an aide.

Valde doleo verba nova discens quacumque ratione quam saepe legendo et nonnunquam scribendo. Ut fortasse animadvertisti, subodiosus est novi tabulas verbi scribere consultareque atque ita agens numquam certus sum quae verba praeferenda sint. Quandocumque verbum ignotum lego id consector atque si mihi videtur utile fore, menti commendo. Nonnumquam verba quadam praetereo donec idem etiam invenio. Tum consector sed insulsus est tempus ita degere si verbum admodum rarum est, fortasse semel adhibitum. Huius via defectus est vocabularium fit inpar, haud in modo linguae maternae. Quae cum ita sint, oratores tamquam Ciceronem legere sine molestiâ possum, cum autem litteras aliquas ad vitam quotidianam spectandas legam mihi multùm deest, inassueta in verba offendendo saepe de rebus simplicissimis, ut domi vel mercatûs (Ciceroni rarò necesse erat has in res referre pangendo orationes). Una via fortasse rectior est Latinè scribere, qui mos mihi oportet novas circumlocutiones verbaque invenire in res modernas communicandum apta, atque postquam aliquid verbum hîc et illîc scripsi generaliter eius memini.

[arcacaerula]

Adriano: I entered the information at the end of your post into a search engine, and was led to a pdf abstract for your undertaking, concerning which I can say little else but 'wow!' You are recreating the conditions of natural initial language acquisition within a synthetic environment of your own design...very cool! I would love the opportunity to toy around with the program when it is available for public use.

Thesauro: It is agreed that there is little better for vocab development than scaffolding one's personal vocabulary alongside a standing example of literature in a given language. I tend to write notable words in my margins, transcribing them later to a notebook of mine, and then using them in a way that makes te words my own. For verbs, propositional sentences in the first and third person are the first order (aequora transno, nunc somnere temptabo, senex cadit). That way the language is a direct part of my experience. Categorical propositions are the best practice I have for habituating new objects and qualities, rendered either with adjectives or ppp-s (arca aperta est, felina in arca sit, pedes laeta sunt). Sometimes I write freely in Latin, but not as regularly as I'd like...I'll endeavor to do that more often.

Thanks for your replies. Language is meant to be a community thing, and I think it's incredibly novel that I can contact other speakers in order to compare methods. This has been very helpful.

Vobis gratias ago,

Corey