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How do I stop tuning out the language? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| culebrilla Senior Member United States Joined 3943 days ago 246 posts - 436 votes  Speaks: Spanish | Message 9 of 15 21 December 2013 at 9:00pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I don't think you really "learn" by having a transcript. Your listening comprehension really doesn't get improved if you just read off the transcript while the audio plays.
I guess I could see its utility for a beginner but not for a B1+ speaker. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6649 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 10 of 15 21 December 2013 at 10:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
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It could be a question of simple boredom - and then something more interesting to listen to might solve the problem. However there is the risk that you get so interested in the meaning that you forget about listening to the language in which it is expressed.
The 'bloodhound technique' which Serpent mentioned above is one I have used at an early stage in languages where the speech I heard just seemed like an amorphous and totally opaque stream of sounds. So the first step was to learn to isolate the individual words, including words whose meaning I didn't know yet. Of course there are cases where unstressed pronouns, negations and other elements merge with 'meaning words' - but luckily the number of such elements is limited so it is possible to learn to recognize them. If I listen to slurry speech in languages which I don't listen to very often I may still use this technique to get a hold on the speaker's way of speaking, but if I already know a lot of words, but not enough to understand a simple news report or weather report the next step is to listen for 'understandable words' - and again the point is not to stop listening just because you don't get the complete meaning at once. Maybe you get the meaning if you listen to a certain recording several times, but first you must be able to catch and identify the things you hear. And then you can try to combine them, bridging the inevitable holes as best you can. Trying to do get the whole meaning too early trains a totally different kind of skill, namely guessing - and being able to make good guesses is also useful, but you need to care about the details in a language if you want to learn it properly. Edited by Iversen on 21 December 2013 at 10:40pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Enki Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5779 days ago 54 posts - 133 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written), English*, French, Korean Studies: Japanese | Message 11 of 15 21 December 2013 at 11:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
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There are many reasons for tuning out. If you've jumped too early into the deep end of
the immersion pool, you've probably associated the language with "not understanding" and so you tune things out. That's what happened to me with Korean. I was so used to listening and not understanding that even when I did understand the content, my brain would just naturally tune the content out as "incomprehensible". Another thing is some people are just naturally better at listening, while others have a harder time focusing. But fortunately there are a few techniques to help you focus, assuming that it's not because the content is way above your level. For example: Ask yourself questions as you listen. It could be questions about grammar (What tense was the verb in? What preposition did they use?) or content (5 wh questions). The best way to remedy tuning out is to listen with more intensity, and the best way to listen with more intensity is to ask a lot of questions. Just be careful about doing this while walking, cause you will bump into things or ignore people who are calling you ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6855 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 12 of 15 22 December 2013 at 12:28am | IP Logged | |||||
Some various opinions here: Three rules for improving listening 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4774 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 13 of 15 22 December 2013 at 6:34pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I think that one benefit of having a transcript is that it can help you to focus on the
content of the podcast, if not the actual process of listening itself (to which it could be potentially detrimental). I think transcripts are great tools, but like all tools, need to be used wisely. The ultimate in transcripts is of course the book on which an unabridged audiobook is based, and many here (including myself) have talked about the usefulness and pleasure of listening while reading in that context. But ultimately, the best way of listening is to concentrate on listening and on nothing else, and it is perhaps a skill that, if it does not come naturally, has to be learned and practiced. Assuming that one has freedom of choice in one's materials, then obviously having interesting subject matter helps, but equally important in my opinion is the voice of the person or persons recording the podcast (or audiobook). So in addition to active, focused listening, subject matter and the selection of voice are the areas I would concentrate on. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| culebrilla Senior Member United States Joined 3943 days ago 246 posts - 436 votes Speaks: Spanish | Message 14 of 15 22 December 2013 at 6:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
Unfortunately this sort of thing isn't really objective. There are really no wrongs or rights. Opinions differ and a one size fits all philosophy won't work. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6543 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 15 of 15 22 December 2013 at 7:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Exactly. Same is true about what you say :-)
3 persons have voted this message useful |
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