📂 Downloadable Templates

✅ Storyspeaking Spreadsheet Template

✅ Vocab Mapping Spreadsheet Template

Vocab Mapping Instructions

AI Prompts for Vocab Mapping

🛠️ Tools & Apps

🔹 DeepL Translator

**🔹 LingoPie (Sponsor) –** Watch TV in your target language with built-in subtitles and flashcards.

**🔹 Otter.ai** (Transcription)

**🔹 Voyant Tools** (Word Analysis)

**🔹 Forvo** (Pronunciation)

🔹 Quizlet / Anki

**🔹 Clozemaster** (Cloze Deletion Exercises)

📂 Prompts to Get You Speaking

Storyspeaking Prompts.png

📖 Further Reading + Citations

  1. Zipf’s Law (1949) – A tiny fraction of words do the heavy lifting in language. The most common 1,000 words make up 80% of daily speech, and 2,000–3,000 words get you 90–95% coverage. The more frequent a word is, the more useful it is.
  2. Paul Nation (2001), Learning Vocabulary in Another Language – One of the best deep dives into how to build a useful vocabulary. Emphasizes frequency, context, and repetition over random word lists.
  3. Brysbaert, Mandera, & McCormick (2019), Practical Estimates of Vocabulary Size – If you’ve ever wondered, “How many words do I actually need to know?” this is the study for you. Short answer: You don’t need thousands to function. A strong foundation of a couple thousand words + real exposure beats brute-force memorization every time.
  4. Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve (1885) – The brain forgets 50% of what it learns within a day if it’s not reinforced. By spaced repetition, you reset the forgetting curve, which is why tools like Quizlet and Anki work so well.
  5. Roediger & Karpicke (2006), The Testing Effect – If you test yourself, you remember things way better than if you just review them passively. This is why flashcards beat rereading notes, and why cloze deletion exercises rock.
  6. Alexander Arguelles, The Shadowing Technique for Language Learning – The guy who popularized shadowing. His research (and personal results with 50+ languages 🤯) show that repeating speech in real time forces your brain to process language faster, improving fluency, pronunciation, and listening comprehension.
  7. Flege, Munro, & MacKay (1995), Foreign Accents in a Second Language – Shows that early exposure to real pronunciation matters. The sooner you train your brain to hear and mimic native sounds, the better your accent will be.

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Created by Ameer Corro

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