Often times we are asked, what was thought or reasoning behind the selection of words users learn in the app. So, we have put together a brief explanation that we hope will shed some light on the subject and reassure you that you are not learning just any words.
WORDS IN THE PRONUNCIATION SECTION:
The words in our pronunciation section were chosen for two very simple, but important reasons. Reason #1 is that every word is a clear example of the sound you need to pay attention to and Reason #2 is that each example is also visual. Visual words are easier to remember than abstract words, but rest assured that as you move into Basic Vocabulary, then onto Advanced, you will begin to see the high-frequency word lists. For pronunciation, though, it's really most important for you to just get yourself comfortable with hearing and speaking those sounds.
WORDS IN THE BASIC VOCABULARY SECTION:
Our basic vocabulary sections cover about 625 words broken up into 89 groups. We don't teach words in traditional "categories" and groupings that you may come to expect (ex, red, blue, green) because learning words in this fashion often involve lots of infrequently used words and it also affects your memory of those same words. Learning 10 words in traditional categories can actually take you twice as long to retain as 20 random words, and you'll retain them for only half as long. For example, if you are learning "colors" on a particular day, when you try to remember red, your brain is doing double-duty trying to recall that color and simultaneously differentiate it from other colors you've learned that day. So, in our app, instead of learning a group of fruits, or a group of colors, you'll learn words like "red, apple, delicious..." and high-frequency VISUAL words like "water", or "cellphone" so that you begin to think in your target language using these words. Approaching it this way speeds up learning and encourages overall retention. After you've successfully learned a good amount of simple words, we'll nudge you toward using them in the context of sentences where you will then begin to learn more abstract words like "and", while also retaining your previously learned visual words.