I am at an intermediate level in Spanish, and I have a question about learning new vocabulary. At 74 my memory is not what it use to be and to learn new words requires concentrated effort therefore I need to be efficient in choosing which words I add to my "active" vocabulary. Up to this point I have been guided by a word frequency list and vocabulary specifically related to my areas of interest such as travel and outdoor activities.
I am comfortable with my tools for acquiring new vocabulary - I have an Anki deck with over 3,000 words learned and on a regular review schedule. I write, speak, listen and "shadow" every day. My issue is now that I have a good basic vocabulary which of the 10 to 20 new words that I encounter on a daily basis do I pick to really study and learn.
It is not realistic for me to add every new word I encounter to my vocabulary learning list, I need some method to filter these words to focus on the words that will most contribute to improving my fluency.
I am interested in the strategies used by other intermediate (and beyond) language learners to decide which of the new words they encounter will be add to their vocabulary learning list. Right now I'm considering creating an "active" list for words I think really worth learning and a "passive" list for words that I only need to recognize.T the problem is I have no idea what criteria to use to decide the appropriate list for a new word.
Thoughts from others.
