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Annotations or interline translations | ||
Tags: Transcripts | Audio-lingual | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| wojtasskorcz Diglot Newbie Poland Joined 4562 days ago 6 posts - 6 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: German, Spanish | Message 1 of 7 17 August 2013 at 3:27pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I've been trying all the various methods for language learning, but the most enjoyable
one for me is to listen to audiobooks while reading the corresponding text at the same time. Usually I've read the book previously in a language I know, so it's not a problem to follow the plot even if I'm not so good at the language I'm learning. The problem is, this method is more of a "reinforcing" what I already know than learning new words, as when a new word comes up I usually gloss over it. I'd like to change this method a bit and add more focus on new words/expressions. I thought about somehow annotating the words I don't know, so when I would listen to the audio, I could instantly check the meaning of the new words instead of just ignoring them. My question here is, what would be the best way to add such annotations? Is it a good idea anyway? I have the texts in pdf, but can easily convert them to plain text. I'd like to stay compliant to standard file formats, so that I can be sure that after some time my texts with annotations will still be readable with modern software. I think pdf doesn't support annotations natively and they can only be implemented as software-specific, so I'm not too convinced to them. A neutral way would be to prepare the text as an interlined L2/L1, something like: language2language2language2language2language2 translationL1 ; translationL1 language2language2language2language2language2 tran slationL 1 This idea appeals much more to me, but I can't find a way to do this in any standard text editor (I'd prefer open formats like .odt). I mean, it's possible to manually split the lines this way, but it's very closed to changes (you can't change font size, margins width, etc.), which may cause future problems in portability. Do you perhaps know how to do such trick in a text editor, to have linebreaks automatically inserted while treating two lines as one line? Or maybe some other idea? The advantage of doing it with a standard text editor is that I can change font color of translations, so I could grey them out later when re-reading the book. It could also be very motivating, as it's a good indicator of the progress in learning. Edited by wojtasskorcz on 17 August 2013 at 3:28pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5765 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes  Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 2 of 7 17 August 2013 at 3:52pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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As I have to work through the text myself to find out what I know or don't know, why don't I do it thoroughly. So, when I want to work with a text extensively, I might:
- Gloss over a paragraph for comprehension - Mark/jot down all words, forms and sentence patterns I don't understand on the spot (or when I want to put in extra effort, translate on the spot or am unsure how to use) - Look them up, review the next day - Do a chapter that way - Read the chapter and be amazed by how easy it seems to me Edited by Bao on 17 August 2013 at 3:53pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| wojtasskorcz Diglot Newbie Poland Joined 4562 days ago 6 posts - 6 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: German, Spanish | Message 3 of 7 17 August 2013 at 4:42pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I've been doing something similar once (two years ago, when starting to learn German)
and quite liked it. At that time I employed this technique for listening to podcasts with transcript. Maybe I should really try it once again. Anyway, would be great if somebody knew the answer to my question, so I could try both methods. Below are my further ruminations regarding your method, Bao. The main difference here is that your method is more volatile. Reviewing the jotted down expressions will probably only work well when you do it quite soon after first reading the text (up to two days, I think). Later on you forget the context you found them in and it becomes a bit harder (especially, if the word has many different meanings). If you'd like to come back to the book in a year or two, you'd have to repeat the process (this time jotting down a lot less word, for sure). The aforementioned annotation-method seems to me more persistent. In the way, that once I prepare the text for reading (annotate it), when I go through it the next time, it will only require from me to remove the translations I already know. Everything else stays the same and is already prepared for me. But it's very likely that I'm wrong and after a year I'll know so many words, that re- reading a book will require almost no effort and all the annotations will be rendered useless. It's hard for me to asses the profits of using one or the other method. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| schoenewaelder Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5559 days ago 759 posts - 1197 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 4 of 7 17 August 2013 at 5:26pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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If you already understand most of it, interlinear notations seems a bit excessive.
Read text and listen to audio together. Read text, make a manual vocab list of new words (and tanslations). Possible do some sort of studying with this list. Listen to the audio alone, listening out for the new words, and tick them off on your list. [That's sort of what I would do, if I wasn't so lazy and disorganised] 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| umiak Groupie Poland Joined 4511 days ago 51 posts - 77 votes Speaks: Polish* | Message 5 of 7 17 August 2013 at 11:06pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I don't use Open Office, so I don't know if it's possible to do this in it, but in MS Word 2003, you can convert a table into text. So if you have a table composed of two columns, L1 and L2, and convert it into text, each text of L2 will be placed under the L1 text from the corresponding cell.
It is feasible, again in Word, but it actually should be done before creating the table. You divide your L1 text into parts each of which you want to place into a separate cell so that technically each part constitutes a separate paragraph*. Click Ctrl+H. A window will pop-up. In the field "Znajdź:" (Find) type: ^p, in the filed "Zamień na:" (Change into) type: ^p^p. Click enter. You will have each paragraph separated by a new one (which is a blank line). Convert the text into a table (each paragraph should be separated by a separate blank cell) and paste the L2 translation (you can do the same with L2 text if it's divided it before). *I'd recommend that the parts not be too long. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| wojtasskorcz Diglot Newbie Poland Joined 4562 days ago 6 posts - 6 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: German, Spanish | Message 6 of 7 18 August 2013 at 12:14am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Still I think they are not portable between different readers, except for when hardcoded (e.g. as an image) into the pdf document.
I think the method you describe is for creating interlined L2/L1 texts when you have both the L2 and L1 whole texts. It's not what I aim for, as I'd like only some scarce translation (I know most of the words used in the text). Anyway, I think I'm best off mixing Bao's method (jotting down unknown words and learning them before reading the chapter) with long term guarantee, that I'll remember most of them (Anki with L2->L1 cards should come in handy here). We'll see how it works, but I can't wait to start tomorrow :) Edited by wojtasskorcz on 18 August 2013 at 12:17am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5765 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 7 of 7 18 August 2013 at 2:34am | IP Logged | ||||||||
You should know your own habits best, and so figure out what might work for you. The main reason why I do *not* include the additional information I collect in the original text, why I also tend to not highlight passages in a text but rather write my own excerpts is that I prefer having the original text as a test for my memory. My reasoning is: Explicit memory, like facts you've learned, can be accessible by recognition and by recall. When you can recall a fact, you will in almost all instances also recognize it, which is not true the other way around. Also, when you recall a fact as opposed to merely recognizing it, you encourage the brain to react with a physical change to the way the fact is stored, which protects it from deteriorating as quickly as mere 'recognition' reviewed memories do. So pre-learning the words/structures from a text, I then see them used in context - and let my brain forget them. If they are low frequency, that is. As an intermediate learner in most of my languages, I will encounter many of those words again until finishing the book, or in other contexts. If I then realize I've forgotten what they mean I take that as an encouragement to look into it more closely, figure out their etymology and contemporary usage. If, however, I do not encounter one of those words again until I've completely forgotten what it means, so it be. It's very low frequency and I don't need to clutter my mind by memorizing it. But, I remember words easily. They just stick, most of the time. And I know I don't learn the content of an annotation when I am presented with one, I just remember that the word was explained. So I actually find it more frustrating to read annotated readers, because I find myself having to look up the same words time and again, only remembering that I indeed have looked them up before. Edited by Bao on 18 August 2013 at 2:37am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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