How to create a word document table to enhance foreign language learning with vocabulary and aid comprehension

[mentecuerpo]

Microsoft Word Document can be a valuable aid in learning new words and clarifying the meaning of text. I describe a technique I employ for this purpose using a two-column table. A complete book can be broken down small chunks of text to aid word list creation and facilitate word learning.

https://youtu.be/LHBQvFpkd5o

ADMIN EDIT: I embedded the link below:

[Adrianslont]

I’m getting a playback error on the video. Is it my end or the video?

[mentecuerpo]

I’m getting a playback error on the video. Is it my end or the video?

I was not working, I posted the link.
Thanks.

[MorkTheFiddle]

I can vouch for the effectiveness of this method of learning. The downside of the method has been the tedium of looking up the words and writing up the translations. This method of Mentecuerpo goes a long way to solve this.
When I studied Old Norse and Old English, I used this method a lot. In retrospect, it was more effective for me than even LWT (which I did know about at the time), because the definitions of the words are always there in view once you look them up and write them down.
The idea for this came to me from (I think) Michael Alexander's edition of Beowulf, which glossed the head word form of the Old English on the right-hand page.
You can even add a full translation in your native language in a third column, though this entails using the landscape orientation and fiddling with the width of the columns.
Nowadays I prefer ereaders, provided the language dictionary has sufficient entries (the Kindle, for example, does not ), and provided the word list can be printed out (which you can do on the Kindle) (I single out Kindle only because it is the ereader that I own) .
Even with ereaders, though, I still see solid value in Mentecuerpo's method. Thanks for showing it.

[mentecuerpo]

I can vouch for the effectiveness of this method of learning. The downside of the method has been the tedium of looking up the words and writing up the translations. This method of Mentecuerpo goes a long way to solve this.
When I studied Old Norse and Old English, I used this method a lot. In retrospect, it was more effective for me than even LWT (which I did know about at the time), because the definitions of the words are always there in view once you look them up and write them down.
The idea for this came to me from (I think) Michael Alexander's edition of Beowulf, which glossed the head word form of the Old English on the right-hand page.
You can even add a full translation in your native language in a third column, though this entails using the landscape orientation and fiddling with the width of the columns.
Nowadays I prefer ereaders, provided the language dictionary has sufficient entries (the Kindle, for example, does not ), and provided the word list can be printed out (which you can do on the Kindle) (I single out Kindle only because it is the ereader that I own) .
Even with ereaders, though, I still see solid value in Mentecuerpo's method. Thanks for showing it.

Thank you for watching the video and for your comments, MorkTheFiddle.
I agree with your observation about the Kindle dictionary.
I also have a variation, with a three-column table, new words on the first column, the text on the second column, and the translation on the third column. I can then practice word recall by covering the left column with a floating yellow sticky note, then read the translation, on the third column and try to remember the word on the covered columned. Then I can do it the other way around, just like a flashcard.

[mentecuerpo]

I can cover one of the columns to practice memory recall.
I use sticky notes that comes with windows, if I have printed the page, I can use my left or right hand to cover the desired column.

[MorkTheFiddle]

As a follow-up to my remarks about an edition of Beowulf earlier that lists vocabulary on the right-hand page, here is a picture of two of the pages. The source is pages 146-147 of the text editied by Michael Alexander for Penguin Books apparently in 1995 and apparently printed in London.
Alexander for the gloss uses the headword, not the token, which is why the first word on the page, niða (I see no way to insert the macron), is matched on the right by nið. The next word on the left is genægdan, on the right genægan, the infinitive. And so on. Alexander may have had a pedagogical purpose for doing it this way, but the OP's method is more elegant IMHO by using the actual word itself. The notes at the bottom of the pages allow for further explanation.

beowulf146-147.jpg