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Listening before speaking

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maxb
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 Message 1 of 83
30 January 2006 at 6:32am | IP Logged 
Here are some links to a couple of articles about a language learning method which seems to prioritize listening before speaking. The goal is to simulate the language aquisition of a child by exposing pupils to a large amount of input, under the theory that having been exposed to input during a relatively long time (the article says that students are not allowed to speak for 6 months!) the speaking will occur naturally when the student is ready. Maybe we are all doing the wrong thing with Pimsleur and FSI :-).


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Farley
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 Message 2 of 83
30 January 2006 at 8:57am | IP Logged 
Excellent link! Thanks!

The next time I learn a new language I’m going to delay speaking by at least two months if not more.

By the way, even thought they did not mention them by name, that was the best defense of Assimil I have read.

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braveb
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 Message 3 of 83
30 January 2006 at 12:35pm | IP Logged 
Who doesn't speak during the first two months of Assimil? I only scanned some of the website's articles so I couldn't find any credible evidence that speaking actually slows down the learning process.

From what I gathered the theory says this: understand at least 80 percent of the dialogue, and do this for about 600 hours, then speak?

An interesting link.
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Farley
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 Message 4 of 83
30 January 2006 at 1:28pm | IP Logged 
braveb wrote:
Who doesn't speak during the first two months of Assimil?


I didn’t. Or at least I tried and stopped and listened to all of New French with Ease first before saying a word. It seemed like the ultimate way to cheat at learning a language. So far the results have been encouraging.
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maxb
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 Message 5 of 83
30 January 2006 at 2:41pm | IP Logged 
braveb wrote:
Who doesn't speak during the first two months of Assimil? I only scanned some of the website's articles so I couldn't find any credible evidence that speaking actually slows down the learning process.


From what I gathered their theory is that you should not attempt to speak before you have firm mental image of how the language sounds and in their view this can only by achieved by only listening and not speaking for longer period of time. Since as soon as you speak you will be listening to your own imperfect rendition of the language instead of getting the right input from native speakers.
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fanatic
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 Message 6 of 83
30 January 2006 at 3:57pm | IP Logged 
I just checked out the site and all of the links and downloaded the documents.

I found it very interesting. We were staying with friends in Poland and had only been there about a week. The family said, come and see this. My daughter and their son were playing outside and my daughter was calling to him in Polish. She had never had a lesson or done any drills in Polish. She had just listened to what everyone said and, as far as I knew, understood nothing.

So much for the argument that you can't learn a language without hard work and drills. Wendy also learnt to speak German without an accent and the local dialect as well. No courses. No cassettes or CDs. No drills.

Their findings certainly do endorse the Assimil approach. You assimilate the language first and then you speak it. Their method is not exactly the same but the principle is.

I will be taking time to carefully read all of their material.
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fanatic
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 Message 7 of 83
30 January 2006 at 4:06pm | IP Logged 
Maybe this endorses what I have been doing with a number of languages I have just been playing with.

There are a number of languages I have just read the grammar so I understand a bit about how the language works and read some introductions to the language. Because their is some similarity between the languages and languages I already know I find I can recognize a lot without work. I listen to radio programs in the language, watch movies and read the newspapers on the Internet. I regard this as playing with the language.

Later I expect that I will do a formal course as I get the opportunity. The Scandinavian languages would come under this category.
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Farley
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 Message 8 of 83
30 January 2006 at 4:16pm | IP Logged 
fanatic wrote:
Maybe this endorses what I have been doing with a number of languages I have just been playing with.

I read through each of the documents, and it reminded me of your posts in the Assimil threads. Tell us what you think when you have a chance to study them in detail!


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