Extending your vocabulary

Themes and List Files

There are several ways to add words to your Cerebware vocabulary. The simplest method is to use pre-prepared lists. Select 'Import/Export ... Import List' under the 'File' menu heading, and choose one of the list ('.lst') files. These can be located in your main Vocab Trainer folder, or one of the language-specific subfolders such as SpanishThemes or SpanishGrammar. Words already contained in your vocabulary will not be imported if they have the same translation as existing items. If the new items have the same text on the foreign side, but differing English definitions, the opportunity to merge the matching items will be offered later. Another user's vocab ('.voc') file can also be imported.

A range of themed lists are also provided in the Cerebware, and are available under the 'Themes' menu. Currently, themes for languages other than German are limited, but more will be added soon. Choose a theme like 'Animals' and the program will import the relevant word list (if necessary) and commence testing you on it. At any time, you can return to this part of your vocab list by selecting the theme again. This way, you can extend your vocabulary by small, controllable increments, and study the material you are in the mood for. You can also add your own lists. See 'Creating vocab lists'.

Once you have found or created a suitable list file, you might want to make it available under the 'Themes' menu. This is like a collection of favourite shortcuts to list files. The theme names must match the filenames of the relevant list files, but without the '.lst' suffix. Edit the file 'Theme Topics.txt', putting one theme name per line, like this:
Animals
School
Spanish for Today Chp 1
Lesson 5

As soon as you save the 'Theme Topics.txt' file (leaving it in the appropriate Themes subfolder - SpanishThemes, in this case), the Themes menu for that language will be updated.

Choosing an item from the list of themes will launch a test session restricted to that theme. If the theme has not already been imported to your vocabulary, the Trainer will offer to import it for you. For instance, clicking on School under the Themes menu will prompt the Trainer to look for vocab items tagged with the School category. If it finds none, it will look for an item with a 'School' footnote tag. If it still find none, it will try to import the file SpanishThemes\School.lst , and then start the testing session. (You will be offered a chance to take part in a learning experiment - choosing 'Yes' will split every tenth item into separate one-way flashcards. Note that no information is ever sent to Cerebware by the Trainer, but you might choose to send us your vocab file later, by email.)

Mining the Internet

The internet is full of free vocabulary resources. Under the Text menu, you will find a tool that allows you to mine existing web pages for vocabulary content. Create a new, blank text file in the Trainer, and then open the mining tool.


When you choose this option, a window pops up with instructions for mining a web page. Find your list in Firefox or another browser, and then copy the address into the address field of the mining tool. When you press 'Sample', you will get a preview of what the imported list will look like:

You are likely to get a few lines of unwanted material at the start of the list (as in the 'Facebook' references in the above example). These can be deleted later, before you save the result as a list file. If the format is not appropriate, you might need to change the default values for the English column number and foreign column number - just tell the mining tool which column is which, and allow for the possibility that additional columns might exist in the web page that lack any visible text. Rarely, if the whole webpage is formatted using a table, the table you want will actually be a table-within-a-table, and you might have to indicate to the mining tool that you want the table at nest level '2'. For some sites, like Flashcard Exchange, you will find that the vocab list spans multiple web pages. Just leave out the page number from the address, and all pages will be imported.

When you are happy with the format, choose 'Import'. This button will extract the text and put it into the mini-Text-Editor-pane of the mining tool's window. You can edit the text there, or just click Okay to transfer the text to the main window of the Trainer. Tidy up the list, then save it with an appropriate name and the suffix '.lst'. You can add it to your Themes menu by editing the 'Themes Topic.txt' file.

The Word Extraction Utility

Words can also be extracted from slabs of foreign text, whether it has been scanned from paper sources or pasted in from the internet. To extract new words, open up an existing text file ('.txt'), or create a new one, using the options listed under the 'Text' menu. Paste the relevant text into the newly opened file, and then choose 'Extract words...' from the advanced options in the 'Text' menu. (You will have to have 'View Advanced Features' turned on under the File menu). A list of unique words will be created, with the '#' character in place of English definitions. Look the words up in your favourite dictionary, type the English definitions, and then save the result as a '.lst' file. We recommend the online 'LEO' dictionary, for German, and have incorporated a LEO-lookup facility straight into the Cerebware interface. If you know of suitable online dictionaries for other languages, please let us know.

If you are learning German, and have a database attached, such as the one available at dict.cc, there is an even easier way. You can simply click the 'Wizard' button and Cerebware will look up all the words for you. This can be slow, so leave the program running in the background while you go and read a book. You will be given a chance to review the definitions at the end of the extraction-and-look-up process. Click the preferred definitions to add them to your vocabulary.

Extend as you read

We strongly recommend that you extend your vocabulary every time you look up an individual word. If you don't have your computer with you, write the new word in a small notebook, and add it later. If you have a German database attached to Cerebware, such as the one available at dict.cc, you can type a word in the answer window, and then click 'Dictionary' to look it up. The resulting definitions can then be added to your personal vocab list with a single button click. If you think you already know the word, claim it as known at the time of look-up, and it will go straight into the second phase of learning, with revisions scheduled over the coming weeks and months. This way, none of the time you spend looking up words will ever be wasted. Soon, the idea of looking up a word in a paper dictionary - and then just hoping that the knowledge sticks - will come to seem like a waste of time. Even if you use a paper dictionary, take the time to add the words to your vocab list, and then you will know that the word is yours forevermore.