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Reading without a dictionary | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading |  | |
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7006 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes  Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 25 of 36 09 September 2006 at 7:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
Through years of growing up and being told what things are and being corrected by adults when you get them wrong. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6759 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 26 of 36 09 September 2006 at 8:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Plus, as it's generally understood, children's brains are in a unique stage of development and assimilate new words more effortlessly.
Naturally, a child can only learn words he's been exposed to in context, so reading can play a large role. Anyone who's read a lot through one's childhood and teens will have a broader vocabulary. Things might be different in an oral society; I suppose in such a case, one's vocabulary would depend one how many stories one listened to and learned to repeat. The most accomplished storytellers would have the broadest vocabularies. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6934 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 27 of 36 10 September 2006 at 1:15am | IP Logged | |||||
I've read the Russian translation of an older edition of her book, which is available online, and there seems to be a certain disconnect between what she herself says about her methods and what other people say about her. In particular, she talks about reading a book once or twice without a dictionary, but then reading it again with a dictionary, recording the new words of interest to the learner. One of her arguments for why one needs to read without a dictionary is that an adult brain likes a challenge and is more likely to remember the word it figured out rather than merely looked up. This suggests more of an analytical approach to reading. She may have combined this approach with the more "cowboy" reading style, but I don't remember if she ever mentions it. She also suggests starting with simplified readers, if they are available. Overall, it looks like she wasn't quite as "wild" as people like to portray her, unless, of course, she held back a lot while writing her book or changed the presentation in the later editions of her book. One thing she does say is that she likes to start on reading almost as soon as she starts on a textbook (yes, she used textbooks), but that's likely not all that unusual either for an experienced learner. Edited by frenkeld on 10 September 2006 at 8:13am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kimsuhee Tetraglot Newbie Korea, South Joined 6937 days ago 27 posts - 28 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Korean*, Mandarin, EnglishC1, German | Message 28 of 36 10 September 2006 at 5:57am | IP Logged | |||||
On the contrary,it works with chinese but not with Romance languages for me.:-) Here,most of you seem to speak Romance language or English so it's much easier to read books in Romance languages without dictionary. For me as Korean I can read books in Chinese and Japanese easily,but for reading German books I have disadavantage for guessing meaning.When I took German course,our teacher let us to guess some complicated German words of Latin origin.Most of western students could guess it immediately,but for the Asian students including me,it was just more unfamiliar and harder than normal German words. Nevertheless,I'm slowly trying to read German books without dictionary.At the very beginning,I bought a novel written in easy German for foreigners.(From 'ER-Easy Readers').And then I bought just normal novels and I looked up words what I was curious to know and wrote down in my notebook. After finishing a few books in that way,I read books now almost without dictionarary,but at least I look up verbs for catching up the story more exactly.Sometimes I feel nervous because I wonder if it just wastes or not and how much it will help for my German ability. But my middle conclusion:It's worth it. Edited by Kimsuhee on 10 September 2006 at 6:00am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tuffy Triglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 7025 days ago 1394 posts - 1412 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German Studies: Spanish | Message 29 of 36 10 September 2006 at 8:47am | IP Logged | |||||
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Some people read with dictionaries, I have one question about that. For me, when I lookup a word, I forget it pretty quick again! I have to repeat a lot, preferably 2 days. So is it handy then to lookup words?
My guess is that when you continue reading you'll encounter it again and maybe after looking up twice or thrice :) you slowy learn it? Is that how you do it? Or are there people who lookup a word once and then remember it? 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 30 of 36 10 September 2006 at 8:54am | IP Logged | |||||
In your case, perhaps writing them down and making flashcards might be a good idea. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6759 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 31 of 36 10 September 2006 at 9:17am | IP Logged | |||||
With French, I usually remembered a new word after 2 or 3 trips to the dictionary. Japanese words usually require more encounters to sink in, for some reason. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| lengua Senior Member United States polyglottery.wordpre Joined 6675 days ago 549 posts - 595 votes Studies: French, Italian, Spanish, German | Message 32 of 36 10 September 2006 at 9:31am | IP Logged | |||||
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^ Same with me (for French and Spanish). It usually takes a couple of times. Generally, the more frustrated I am at my inability to use the word during s/t, the more likely I am to look it up, and to remember it.
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