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Reading without a dictionary | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading |  | |
| 1_2_3_4 Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6895 days ago 17 posts - 18 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: French, Italian | Message 1 of 36 12 April 2006 at 6:45pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Does anyone read a book without going for a dictionary? I try to use the dictionary as little as possible. I find it more interesting than rote vocabulary memorization.
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| morprussell Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7154 days ago 272 posts - 285 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 2 of 36 12 April 2006 at 11:34pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I just finished reading "Retrato en Sepia" by Isabel Allende. I didn't really use a dictionary to read it, although I did look things up if I really got stuck. It wouldn't have been fun to look up every work that I didn't know (because there were a lot of them).
I was constantly debating weather or not to make a long vocabulary list of all the words I didn't know, or to simply enjoy the book and pick up whatever vocabulary came naturally. I think I made the right choice to simply read the book and enjoy it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7367 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 36 13 April 2006 at 12:00am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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You can do it and it's often the only way to actually be able to finish a book in a foreign language you master imperfectly. However, you have to realize that the knowledge of new words you can acquire that way is very imprecise. Context is a slow and highly fuzzy way of determining what a word means for most words.
I would recommend you alternate no-dictionary reading with some look-up-every-single-unknown-word reading to increase efficiency. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| maxb Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 7174 days ago 536 posts - 589 votes 7 sounds Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 4 of 36 13 April 2006 at 12:05am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I read with a dictionary, however I use an electronic mouse over dictionary which speeds up things considerably. The disadvantage is that you have to read at the computer. But that is a minor problem compared to having to look up every unknown word in a paper dictionary. This is especially the case with mandarin where you may have to do two lookups (one for the character, and one for the word) if you come across an unfamiliar character.
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| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 7094 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 5 of 36 13 April 2006 at 2:58am | IP Logged | ||||||||
While I dislike making vocabulary lists when reading fiction or indeed looking up every single word - preferring to enjoy the book, I also agree that guessing from context can also make for an imprecise understanding. My approach is to begin by not continually looking things up, but to start by guessing from context. However, if I come across the same word multiple times, then I do look it up - in this way I am attempting to focus on what I hope are higher frequency words. What I also do when looking up words, is look at cognates within the target language. That is, if I'm looking up an adjective, I check to see if there's a related noun or verb etc. Andy. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| winters Trilingual Heptaglot Senior Member Italy Joined 7035 days ago 199 posts - 218 votes Speaks: Croatian*, Serbian*, Russian*, English, Italian, Latin, Ancient Greek Studies: Greek, French, Hungarian | Message 6 of 36 13 April 2006 at 9:53am | IP Logged | ||||||||
That is what I do, and so far I have been satisfied with those alternations. Many times I really wish to concentrate also on improving my knowledge of the language, and then write down unknown words or expressions I found particulary interesting (most of them I remember later when I re-encounter them). In the other hand, sometimes I just wish to enjoy the book without pondering too much about every single word I do not know, and then I read without a dictionary, but I do it for the languages I know enough to do it, otherwise I could not follow what the book is about. By altering those two approaches, I can both simply enjoy reading and increase my knowledge of the language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| CaitO'Ceallaigh Triglot Senior Member United States katiekelly.wordpress Joined 6848 days ago 795 posts - 829 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Russian Studies: Czech, German | Message 7 of 36 13 April 2006 at 3:24pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
This is what I do myself. I also found that once I started using a dictionary, I was using it as a crutch. I resolved to only use it when absolutely necessary, if I couldn't deduce the meaning any other way. I also go back and forth with vocabulary lists. It makes logical sense to do that, but I've had rotten luck memorizing words in that way. It seems to make no difference, in my case. I have notebooks of Russian words that I should know, but I don't. I've underlined words in the dictionary, just to keep tabs of how often I've looked them up. I only learn words by repetition in a variety of contexts, which is simply why I try to read and listen and use the words as often as I can. I also accept that there are probably a lot more words that I know passively than actively, and that's normal. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7006 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 36 13 April 2006 at 5:05pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
That's what I do but...
...not this, although I will as from now on!
That's what I find myself doing sometimes and, unfortunately, it can be hard to wean yourself off this habit. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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