= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
solipsist comments on Advice for a smart 8-year-old bored with school - Less Wrong Discussion
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (187)
That seems like it should be true, but personal anecdata make me unsure. I scored 800 on the SAT verbal section. When I sat down for the exam, I had voluntarily read four fiction books in my entire life. People assumed I was well-read because I spoke like a book. In reality, I was afraid of reading and just spoke like my parents.
ETA: Studying flashcards build vocabulary faster than reading fiction. However, I could be convinced that reading fiction better improves fluency and eloquence.
Hmm... my word choice of "excellent" was unintentionally misleading. I didn't want to imply that good fiction was a fast way of building vocabulary; you could be much more efficient with flashcards. But if a child's willpower isn't at the "happy to study flashcards in place of entertainment" point, then it's still worthwhile to find activities which are entertaining but also educational, then save the flash cards for subjects where you can't find such substitutes.
Agreed.
If fiction then vocabulary does not imply if not fiction then not vocabulary.
The truth value of the inverse doesn't follow the truth value of the original statement.
Right. My anecdote isn't directly contrary evidence, but it is a contrary hint. If reading fiction were an excellent way to build vocabulary, I'd expect to see acquaintances who avidly read fiction to have larger vocabularies than acquaintances who don't read fiction. This is not what I see.
It might be that my acquaintance sample is weird. It might be that avid fiction readers fluidly express themselves with simple words where the less well-read resort to obscure vocabulary. But (over)generalizing from my personal experience, I (somewhat) suspect that people's vocabulary has less to do with the fiction they read than is usually assumed.
I had a different model in mind. I think there's a satiation point on exposure. If you were raised by consummately literate native English speakers, then perhaps you acquired a choate vocabulary simply by immersion in that environment. Additional reading of fiction therefore, will offer you only the meagerest of marginal improvements. Many people weren't raised by excellent speakers of English though, and these individuals are the ones more likely to gain from increased exposure.
Would you make the same statement about the relationship between reading novels in Spanish or German and improving vocabulary in those languages?
I am not in a position to give even aniqudata on that.