What we need to know about the 80/20 rule in language learning.
We’ve all experienced false starts when learning a new language. It can often daunt us as a large task difficult to achieve, and we end up getting lost in the vast amounts of learning material that we forget where to start!
It is helpful to so many language learners as it enables you to take a moment to step back and see the learning process from a higher level. A large task is achieved step by step, so it is useful to break down the overall task into many smaller, focused parts that you can tackle one by one. This might sound obvious, but it is a simple hack often ignored.
De-construct your learning goals into simpler achievable steps and you’ll find yourself in a far less stressful learning experience, with a sense of direction and motivating results at hand. In prioritising the first steps, think about the reasons you’re learning the language and what each step requires. When implementing your learning, the 80/20 rule can be a great way to achieve your goals in an effective way.
The 80/20 Pareto Principle:
- Identify your short term goals:
Set clear what your key interests are and why you’re learning the language. This will guide your selection of vocabulary, verbs, phrases to learn, as well as help you choose the right learning materials and resources focused on the results you want to achieve. Essentially, establish your 20% effort zone.
2. Not all words are equal: Create lists of most frequent words
According to some reports, 2000 of the most popular words already account for nearly 80% of the vocabulary you’ll ever use in daily life. In order to learn a language, start with the small steps, like listing down all the most common words that majorly contribute to your area of focus.
3. Focus on reading, listening, speaking and practice, practice, practice!
Grammar is helpful but can stifle your learning and motivation if too much time is spent on it. Furthermore, in line with the Pareto Principle, 20% of most grammar rules save you in 80% of cases. Polyglot and linguist Steve Kaufmaan has described his use of 80/20 in terms of how he spends his time learning, being 80% of his time on interesting tasks such as reading, writing and listening and 20% on granular grammar.
Nowadays, the most commonly asked question is how many words do we need to learn?
There is no real rule of thumb. What is important is that you start by learning the most common words related to your key areas of interest. Once you’ve mastered those, you can expand to other areas.
There are over 170,000 words in the English language, according to the Oxford English dictionary. However, the most common 1,000 words make up 84% of all spoken dialogue. The next 1,000 words only add 6% in additional coverage (90% total). So by learning just 0.5% of the English language (1,000 out of 170,000 words), one will be able to speak and understand it in the vast majority of situations.
Most languages (Spanish, French, German etc.) follow the same pattern. Therefore, in most cases, focusing on a small portion of the language first can carry the highest value in terms of output.
