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Traditional Comprehension Exercises | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4799 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes  Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 25 of 26 01 May 2012 at 1:19am | IP Logged |
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There are general language skills and skills specific to your target language. General language skills are things like skimming and scanning texts, understanding the structure of paragraphs, summarising texts, finding the main arguments, using connectors... Skills specific to your target language are grammar, vocabulary, cultural knowledge...
The comprehension questions used in tests rely on your knowledge of both and both will influence your performance. If you have very strong general language skills you can be good at test-taking and get a score that reflects stronger target language skills than your knowledge of vocabulary and grammar might indicate. If you have weak general language skills, your performance will be lower than your level of vocabulary and grammar knowledge. In my opinion, comprehension questions make a lot of sense, because these are usually exactly the skills you need in real life. If you have an extensive vocabulary and good grammar knowledge, but don't know how to use it effectively it's of no use. I think many people lack good general language skills, because they are not always taught effectively in schools and that's the reason why advanced language courses focus on these. I took an advanced ESL course and the most important thing I gained from it were general language skills, which also benefited my German skills. Of course I was at the same time taught English vocabulary and grammar - I had to learn the connector words and summarising texts and finding specific information are good tools to focus on those parts of a text that are the most important for comprehension. These skills are different from casual reading and listening and naturally require a lot of focus - especially in a foreign language. In the end you can't divide general from specific language skills. You're as good at a language as your ability to utilize it for understanding information. If you're strong in one skill area you can compensate for some weaknesses in the other, but if either is too lacking your language skills as a whole break down. The exercises you mentioned may or may not be effective. Of course there are better and worse comprehension questions. The good ones ask you more for main arguments, whether you understand the context of an utterance, whether you understand the subtext. Anything that would be important in real life. However, you also sometimes need to be able to listen closely and if you have trouble with that you might benefit from practicing to focus on catching as much information - including minor stuff like hat colour - as possible. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6528 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 26 of 26 01 May 2012 at 5:25am | IP Logged |
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I wouldn't say these are general skills. They are language-specific. An obvious example is that it's more difficult to skim through a text in Japanese or even Russian. And in any new language it's more difficult initially, though obviously it helps if you're familiar with this skill even in your native language.
Skimming is neglected in class, btw. Seems to be considered a waste of the material if it's not studied intensively, in detail? As for application in real life... Imo, in real life if you understand the sentences = you understand the meaning. In tests, even if you understand everything you're still typically asked to identify the main idea/topic/reason/factor, explain a logical sequence or whatever. I'd not even necessarily do this in my native language the way I'm expected to! And the more advanced you get, the more artificial these exercises are, especially if we're dealing with economics, business, politics... A native speaker doesn't speak like a radio so why is a learner expected/encouraged to? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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