Context

I believe that students of language must learn words in context. I wrote about this in an essay called "How to Learn English." In particular, please read what I wrote in that essay under the following headings: "When you do look up a word think about the context," "Remember the context, not the dictionary definition," and "Words are like friends."

I also explained why just trying to memorize a Japanese translation for an English word is not a good idea. This explanation appears under the heading "Why memorizing Japanese equivalents does not work." I think my use of the word "equivalent" was confusing to many of you. I used the word "equivalent" to mean "a word that is thought to have the same meaning." For example, "inu" is thought to be the Japanese equivalent of "dog." But, as I explained in my essay, the usage and nuances of "dog" and "inu" are not the same. The best way to learn about the usages and nuances of the word "dog" (or any word, for that matter) is to pay attention to how it is actually used.

For these reasons, I am requiring you to always include the sentence you found a word in when you write about that word in your blog. I explained this requirement in my first post to this blog (look for the heading "What should you write in your blog?") and have repeated it since.

Finally, please place each word, that word's definition, and the sentence in which you found it close together. Here are two examples of good ways to show the context of the words you studied: Example 1, Example 2. On the other hand, I don't think it is a good idea to separate a long list of words and definitions from the text of a passage. Here are two examples of this problem: Example 1, Example 2. Notice that it is difficult to find the sentence in which each word was used in these examples. I want you to try to learn words in context so I think it is important to make the context in which you found each word clear. This will make it easier for me to read your blogs and I think it will help you review the words you have studied. When you review, always review each word in the context of a phrase or sentence.