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Children’s books - a valuable resource? | ||
Tags: Book | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading |  | |
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6002 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes  Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 17 of 23 25 October 2009 at 1:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
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John has a cat. It is a nice cat. John likes his cat.
That's why I wouldn't go anywhere near books for pre-school kids (kindergardeners). Dull, boring, pointless, unnatural language. It's got to be a proper story to be worth reading, in my opinion. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| nadia Triglot Groupie Russian Federation Joined 5505 days ago 50 posts - 98 votes Speaks: Russian*, English, French Studies: Hindi | Message 18 of 23 26 October 2009 at 1:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
We lu-u-u-rve Lindgren here in Russia. My favourite books by her are about Karlsson and Emil of Lonneberga. We've got a cartoon about Karlsson which is also everyone's fave. Another favourite children's author is Tove Jansson, who wrote the Moomin-troll books. I especially love Trollvinter. As I live in Siberia and can't imagine my life without snow and frost, there's something about that book that speaks to my heart.
Oh yes, children's books are very helpful to understand where you are. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sennin Senior Member Bulgaria Joined 6025 days ago 1457 posts - 1759 votes 5 sounds | Message 20 of 23 26 October 2009 at 5:00pm | IP Logged | |||||
... The cat is fat. John thinks it looks tasty. He boils it in oil. The cat smells delicious. John eats his cat. There are small bones in the cat meat. John chokes on a bone. He dies. John goes to heaven. The cat is waiting in heaven. John and the cat are reunited in heaven. Amen. Sorry, I couldn't resist adding a dark twist to the story :). I agree that books written for kindergarten-aged children are not of much use. On the other hand, books for adolescents are a very good aid at an intermediate level of the language. They are not over-complicated the way grown up literature is but demonstrate the functional core of the language. Edited by Sennin on 26 October 2009 at 5:17pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| CanEsc Newbie United States CanEsc.com/ Joined 5283 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 21 of 23 30 May 2010 at 3:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
That part of the thread is from years ago but I think it's an interesting topic and I happen to have some more examples: pasture, pail, rag, sled, nibble, puff. Those are on 2 lists of children's words (and none of the 4 lists of general words that I reference), but are relatively infrequent otherwise (between 20,000 and 35,000). Above 10,000: scare, nod, jar, wagon, bark, barn, poke, hop, clown, circus, crawl, splash, bump, peek. Above 5,000: twin, picnic, doll, cabin, princess, pond, ranch, skip, leap, dash, snap, bang, yell. Of course there's no harm in learning these words, but since most of us have a very limited vocabulary, it's best to learn more common/important words first. Perhaps most people on this forum seek to master the language; many of us only have time to get to Intermediate (if that). In any case, I happen to agree that children's literature (spanning all of elementary school and perhaps beyond) can be useful as a source of simplified text. "Comprehensible input" seems to be proven important in research, and I for one certainly don't have the patience for the massive dictionary lookup required on most "authentic" text for grown-ups. I find "controlled vocabulary" text best of all, but that costs money to produce and has a smaller market, which leads to fewer options and/or higher prices. Scott 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| dolly Senior Member United States Joined 5781 days ago 191 posts - 376 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Latin | Message 22 of 23 30 May 2010 at 4:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
My first book in French was the Bible in français fondemental, Parole de vie, with a vocabulary of ~ 3,000 words and fairly simple grammar. It was created for children, language learners or anyone with deficiencies in French. It was the perfect first book. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ladanoise Groupie United States Joined 5284 days ago 45 posts - 46 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Danish | Message 23 of 23 30 May 2010 at 5:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I think that another reason for reading children's books is to acquire an insight into the culture. Someone mentioned reading Tom Sawyer and Wind in the Willows in English - those books are occasionally referenced in adult conversation, so it is convenient to understand the references.
My library has a French children's section that includes a children's version of Proust. That is not something I would have thought of for children but is an insight into the French. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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