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Some more on the chorus method | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| maxb Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 7174 days ago 536 posts - 589 votes  7 sounds Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 1 of 23 17 June 2007 at 5:49am | IP Logged | |||||
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I have looked through my old posts on the chorus method and see that I have left out some important information on why it is a good idea to use it. The idea of the chorus method is in principle to teach adult learners the prosody of a foreign language. Furthermore it is important that the prosody is learnt first. Even before the individual sounds are mastered.
Why? Because, according to research, this is the way small children learn their mother tongue and since the outcome of small childrens language learning is always successful (perfect pronounciation, grammar etc.) it would make sense to copy it. From what I have read, mastery of prosody is absolutely crucial for a childs language development. If the prosody isn't mastered the language will not develop normally. There is even evidence suggesting that the grammar of a language is connected to its prosody and that a mastery of prosody would make learning the grammar easier. So how does Olle Kjellin suggest you go about learning the prosody? He believes that the first month of language study should be devoted to pronounciation alone. He suggests selecting an A4-page of practice phrases and learning those perfectly. He believes that if these phrases are mastered to perfection you will have mastered most of what there is to learn when it comes to pronunciation in the language. Furthermore he believes that when you work on a phrase you should learn the prosody of it first. Primarily the rhythm. Skip any sounds that you can't pronounce for now. You can even resort to just humming along with the rhythm and melody of the sentence. Since the rhythm is very important he also suggest that you use material spoken at a natural speed since unnaturally slowed down "language learner speech" disorts the rhythm of the language. Once you have mastered the prosody of the phrase, you can start working on the individual sounds. When doing that you only need to focus on the syllables that are stressed in the sentence, since he claims that those are the only sounds that are noticed by the native speaker. For instance in Swedish you only need to focus on getting the long vowels right. Once the sounds and rhythm have been mastered and you are saying the sentence bascially identically to the model you should go repeating for a large number of times to fix the sentence in your auditory memory. He claims that if you practice like this for about a month you will have an almost native like command of the pronunciation of the language. Which means that you will have acquired a very important skill which the native speakers posses namely the ability to repeat perfectly a word you have only heard once. For instance if you are listening to someone speaking in your native language and you suddenly hear an unknown word, you would be able to repeat that word perfectly, if required to do so. You don't even have to repeat it. I find in Swedish that if I listen to someone speaking and hear a knew word I instantly remember how it is pronounced, I don't even have to say it out loud at the time I hear it to remember it. The chorus method lets you acquire this skill for foreign languages as well. Edited by maxb on 17 June 2007 at 6:01am 10 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6900 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 23 17 June 2007 at 6:42am | IP Logged | |||||
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Of all the methods available I haven't tried chorusing that much.
Does he say anything about what level you should be at when choosing the practice phrases? After all, one could end up choosing relatively similar phrases like "this is a blue car, this is a yellow car, this is a big car", or other phrases that share roughly the same prosody. Have you tried this method yourself, and if so, which phrases would you say "did the job"? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| OneEye Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6841 days ago 518 posts - 784 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, Taiwanese, German, French | Message 3 of 23 17 June 2007 at 6:55am | IP Logged | |||||
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I've been using the chorus method lately for Mandarin, and it is working very well for me. One of my Shanghainese friends tells me I sound like a native of Beijing, but with a more clear, standard pronunciation. I like to pick sentences with a good mix of tones and different initials and finals. Even better if some of the sound combinations are tricky (switching quickly between retroflex and palatal initials, for example).
I've written a good bit about how I approach chorusing and other aspects of learning on my blog (click the WWW tab below). 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
 Keith Diglot Moderator JapanRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6768 days ago 526 posts - 536 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 23 17 June 2007 at 7:57am | IP Logged | |||||
Well, what do your Beijing friends tell you? I wonder when we will get to hear a new conversation with Max? It's been over a year, so I would like to know how he has improved. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| MarcoDiAngelo Tetraglot Senior Member Yugoslavia Joined 6438 days ago 208 posts - 345 votes Speaks: Serbian*, English, Spanish, Russian Studies: Thai, Polish | Message 5 of 23 17 June 2007 at 9:08am | IP Logged | |||||
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That's my biggest problem with my English - rhythm, and pronounciation. Can I fix that using chorusing method and how? Or is it too late for me?
Edited by MarcoDiAngelo on 17 June 2007 at 3:29pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6430 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 6 of 23 17 June 2007 at 9:24am | IP Logged | |||||
You can definitely improve it; I've improved my Italian rhythm quite a bit via chorusing. That said, I've found it -harder- to get the Italian rhythm right than that of languages I have less experience with, and I lapse into my old ways, albeit hopefully not as strongly, fairly often. That said, my sense is that the way I speak Italian is noticeably improved, even if it's still far from native-like. Give chorusing a try; in the worst case, it shouldn't hurt. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7196 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 7 of 23 17 June 2007 at 10:10am | IP Logged | |||||
Are we using the definition that chorusing is repeating a phrase or sentence over and over in unison with a recording, and shadowing is speaking in unison with a longer body of material?
There's always room for improvement. I find both chorusing and shadowing helpful on an ongoing basis. Chorusing is helpful for getting your mouth to do something it hasn't been able to do before, such as make a certain sound, or speak very fast. I see shadowing as an advanced technique for when you can pronounce most of what you read, but need practice pronouncing some words at a normal pace, as well as cadence and rhythm. Shadowing is also helpful for keeping your pronunciation crisp. Edited by luke on 17 June 2007 at 10:12am 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 8 of 23 17 June 2007 at 10:28am | IP Logged | |||||
Here is a pretty recent sample which I posted on the www.chinese-forums.com http://www.chinese-forums.com/showpost.php?p=102747&postcoun t=16 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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