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Best Method or More Time ?

 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies Post Reply
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zerothinking
Senior Member
Australia
Joined 6373 days ago

528 posts - 772 votes 
Speaks: English*

 
 Message 9 of 430
22 April 2008 at 10:26am | IP Logged 
ipanema wrote:
I think it was somewhere in this forum where a person sited an experiment by a guy that tried to see if he could
learn a language simply by "osmosis", if you will. Without actively studying the language--I believe it was Thai--
he listened to it for several hours per day, only. After several months of only listening, he learned 56 words. Lots
of time spent, but very ineffectively.

I think people tend to want to find that ultimate ONE WAY to learn a language. But I believe that's unrealistic. I feel
that each of us have to find the best way that suits us as individuals, but do it efficiently. The more efficiently we
use our time, the more we get out of it and the more we enjoy it. I'm also of the belief that a person's approach
should be varied: some time spent on reading, passive listening, writing, repeating, conversing, etc.

So, a combination of fun and enjoyment, time spent, consistency, variety of effective methods and approaches, etc.
is key. That's my opinion, anyway. ^^


Hey that's really interesting about the osmosis ! ^^
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ipanema
Newbie
United States
Joined 6529 days ago

37 posts - 38 votes
Studies: French

 
 Message 10 of 430
22 April 2008 at 11:15am | IP Logged 
zerothinking wrote:

Hey that's really interesting about the osmosis ! ^^

Yeah. It really made me realize how important it is to be an active participant in your language learning process.

Another interesting experiment I read about.
A guy wanted to see if it were possible to teach himself a language without ever translating it into his native
language or a language he was already familiar with. I think his target language was something like Finnish or
Icelandic. Anyway, he read books, studied native dictionaries, native grammar books, etc. Everything was
entirely in his target language with absolutely zero translation what-so-ever. He spent months doing this and
finally realized that while he did learn some, not nearly as much as he would have had he actually used the
language he already knew to help him learn his target language.

Its great for us that these people are willing to subject themselves to these experiments. We can learn a lot from
their time "wasted". ^^
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slucido
Bilingual Diglot
Senior Member
Spain
https://goo.gl/126Yv
Joined 6676 days ago

1296 posts - 1781 votes 
4 sounds
Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan*
Studies: English

 
 Message 11 of 430
22 April 2008 at 12:24pm | IP Logged 
What I am saying is that the most important factor is TIME and LOVE for the language you're studying. I am not saying it's the only factor. For example: if you are blind or deaf , it can hinder your studies.

I have been reading in this forum for two years. People were writing about Pimsleur, FSI, Michael Thomas, Assimil, Liguaphone, Tell me more, Rosetta stone,Teach your self, Vocabulearn, Learn in your car,Rocket Languages, FIA and so on.

I have been reading about more personal approaches like SRS methods, Shadowing, Scriptorium, Listening-Reading methods, Audiobook methods, Books methods, Skype methods, DVD movie methods, TV methods, alljpaneneseallthetime method,antimoon method, inmersion methods ....and endless different combinations between them.

It's interesting, because some people think some of this methods are the BEST and some of them think the same methods are useless, boring ...or the WORST.

Thinking about that, How is it possible such a level of contradictions between people who have succeed learning languages.Well, I ask you:

What's the COMMON denominator between them?

I can only think about one factor:

TIME spent WITH the target language.

They listen, read, write and speak in the target language A LOT OF TIME and every day.

Do you know any other common factor aside TIME devoted to their target/s language?









Edited by slucido on 22 April 2008 at 12:29pm

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TheElvenLord
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 6081 days ago

915 posts - 927 votes 
1 sounds
Speaks: Cornish, English*
Studies: Spanish, French, German
Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin

 
 Message 12 of 430
22 April 2008 at 12:37pm | IP Logged 
I think that its important for you to do what that guy did WHILE you do your studies.
I have learnt over 300 words (Maybe more) from about 100 hours of speaking and 200 hours of listening (i listen to alot of podcasts etc.) - only from inferring the meaning and/or being told the meaning and it sticks.

But, you wont be able to infer the meaning of the word unless you know the rest of the scentences meaning.

For example (___ is a word different from the language its written in)

The Cat was run over by a __

You infer that the meaning of the last word is Van or Car or somthing of the sort.
Now, iif i give you the same sort of thing in a language you dont know.

Yma'n gath ow ___ war an fos

Because 99.9% of you dont understand that language (there may be some, i dont know), you have no idea of the meaning of the missing word.

TEL
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leosmith
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6551 days ago

2365 posts - 3804 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Tagalog

 
 Message 13 of 430
22 April 2008 at 12:48pm | IP Logged 
slucido wrote:
I have been reading in this forum for two years. People were writing about Pimsleur, FSI, Michael Thomas, Assimil, Liguaphone, Tell me more, Rosetta stone,Teach your self, Vocabulearn, Learn in your car,Rocket Languages, FIA and so on.

I have been reading about more personal approaches like SRS methods, Shadowing, Scriptorium, Listening-Reading methods, Audiobook methods, Books methods, Skype methods, DVD movie methods, TV methods, alljpaneneseallthetime method,antimoon method, inmersion methods ....and endless different combinations between them.

Very cool to see all these methods listed in one place. I agree that time is extreemly important, but I also agree that one needs comprehensible input to be able to learn. So I think it's impossible to say one is more important than the other.

If you rephrased the question a little, for example "If you choose from several dozen established methods that utilize comprehensible input (i+1), which is more important - time on task, or method?" I would say time on task.
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Volte
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Switzerland
Joined 6440 days ago

4474 posts - 6726 votes 
Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian
Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese

 
 Message 14 of 430
22 April 2008 at 1:09pm | IP Logged 
leosmith wrote:
slucido wrote:
I have been reading in this forum for two years. People were writing about Pimsleur, FSI, Michael Thomas, Assimil, Liguaphone, Tell me more, Rosetta stone,Teach your self, Vocabulearn, Learn in your car,Rocket Languages, FIA and so on.

I have been reading about more personal approaches like SRS methods, Shadowing, Scriptorium, Listening-Reading methods, Audiobook methods, Books methods, Skype methods, DVD movie methods, TV methods, alljpaneneseallthetime method,antimoon method, inmersion methods ....and endless different combinations between them.

Very cool to see all these methods listed in one place. I agree that time is extreemly important, but I also agree that one needs comprehensible input to be able to learn. So I think it's impossible to say one is more important than the other.

If you rephrased the question a little, for example "If you choose from several dozen established methods that utilize comprehensible input (i+1), which is more important - time on task, or method?" I would say time on task.


Well-said, leosmith. I agree.

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kealist
Senior Member
United States
kealist.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6237 days ago

111 posts - 124 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Uyghur, Mandarin, Shanghainese

 
 Message 16 of 430
22 April 2008 at 1:43pm | IP Logged 
ipanema wrote:

Yeah. It really made me realize how important it is to be an active participant in your language learning process.

Another interesting experiment I read about.
A guy wanted to see if it were possible to teach himself a language without ever translating it into his native language or a language he was already familiar with. I think his target language was something like Finnish or Icelandic. Anyway, he read books, studied native dictionaries, native grammar books, etc. Everything was entirely in his target language with absolutely zero translation what-so-ever. He spent months doing this and finally realized that while he did learn some, not nearly as much as he would have had he actually used the language he already knew to help him learn his target language.

Its great for us that these people are willing to subject themselves to these experiments. We can learn a lot from their time "wasted". ^^


I want to post a counter example to this: The Norsk Experiment

He seems to have learned Norwegian in a reasonable time (~3 months) using only Norwegian materials.   He also seems motivated by a strong love for the language. It may be possible to learn a language using nothing but the language itself, as seen from this site. But it may rest on how related the language is to what one knows beforehand. He did mostly active work, but the number of hours he spent seems to be uncounted. He was a big SRS supporter when he started. He said that the experiment changed how he view language, but is not certain how generalized the results can be to an entirely foreign language.   His friend tried to do the same with Finnish (may be the example from the quote above, but said it is of little importance to a practical language learner.)

I was considering trying this with German, but it has not been planned as of yet.   Reading through it is worthwhile, if nothing else.       

A major part of it may have more to do with the comprehensibility of the input. Listening to a radio stream you can't understand is different than looking at a picture (or a catalog) with text. Over time using some simple sources, I think it is possible to build up an understanding.

I also think this would be much more difficult using a language with a non-latin script.



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