Passive Vocabulary: Why it Matters in Language Learning
Today, I want to talk about passive vocabulary. At LingQ, for example, we say a word is known if you can recognize that word in a context. So if I’m working on LingQ, I see a word. I know what it means in the context. I can say I know that word. I can also say I don’t know that word. In other words, I decide if I know that word. But if I understand the word in that context, typically, I will say I know it. It may be that in a subsequent context I don’t know what it means. I may look it up again. I may move it back to Status 3, a word that I’m learning rather than known, but I control that.
