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Reading in a FL: Build vocabulary first | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| LinguaMan Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5009 days ago 20 posts - 34 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 1 of 31 20 December 2011 at 1:44am | IP Logged | ||
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Hello, everyone. I had something on my mind. Actually this has always been sitting in
the back of my mind. I've read countless times that when you're beginning a new language you should read as much as you can. How is that possible? Without a solid understanding of grammar and a limited vocabulary how can you read books, comics, articles, newspapers, etc.? I hear Steve Kaufmann say this. Now, in my own personal experience I didn't do that. I built up my vocabulary for about 3 years before I felt linguistically comfortable to read a book. In my opinion, I would say build your vocabulary first. Learn to speak and understand the language then try reading. You need a lot of words and grammar to read comfortably. What's your take on this? Did anyone do what I did or just dive in without too much time learning words and grammar? I'm curious to hear. Happy language learning 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| rivere123 Senior Member United States Joined 4764 days ago 129 posts - 182 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 2 of 31 20 December 2011 at 1:58am | IP Logged | ||
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Never heard of reading a lot at first, I've heard more along the lines of pronunciation and the like.
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| NickJS Senior Member United Kingdom flickr.com/photos/sg Joined 4893 days ago 264 posts - 334 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese | Message 3 of 31 20 December 2011 at 3:57am | IP Logged | ||
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Steve Kaufman might mean by reading, he is actually translating whilst reading, therefore
he is exposing himself to the language and picking up new words as he reads along. Although I think he uses his LingQ application for reading, which essentially provides the translation for you as you read - although I'm not too sure about that as I've only seen videos on it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5196 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 4 of 31 20 December 2011 at 4:39am | IP Logged | ||
I started off with Portuguese by reading and listening to novels from Mozambique and Brazil. Granted I have a huge advantage with Spanish, but knowing Spanish only takes you so far with Portuguese. I incorporated reading into my first language, Spanish, quite early, back before the internet, I had a free subscription to "Americas" from the OAS, la Biblia and whatever else I could get my hands on. There are many people here on the forum who start a language by listening/reading to "The Little Prince" and/or "Harry Potter" in their TLs, and it works fine for them. Reading helps me to build my vocabulary and grammar which I can then incorporate into my speaking and writing. I'm not saying that after someone has just learned the basics of grammar that they should start off by reading the most advanced literature, but reading should start off simply and progress to more advanced levels to be most efficient. Just because one lacks vocabulary/grammar mastery doesn't mean that one has to know or have all the vocabulary/grammar in order to deduce unknown vocabulary and grammar through context. In fact, I find that words and grammatical concepts most often "stick" better for me when I have discovered their meaning on my own through the TL rather than by rote memorization. I've never used flashcards and have no intention of ever starting. I believe in speaking before I'm "ready" and reading before I'm "ready". I listen early, I read and write early. Some people wouldn't dream of doing what I do. Perfection can be the undoing of many a language learner. Sadly, many people never feel that they are "ready". I say, "jump in and swim even if you don't know how"- (Mark Burnett)- anathema and heresy to many Still, there are quite a few ways to incorporate reading into language learning without jumping into the deep end of the pool without a flotation device- bilingual texts, graded and annotated readers, listening/reading, LR with bilingual texts. E-readers with integrated dictionaries are a huge help today for language learners. In language learning there are many different paths that can lead to the destination. There are as many different methods used and advocated here on the forum as there are members. Someday, someone will come up with the perfect method to learn a language. Until that day, everyone has to find their own way. If that's "the three years building vocabulary until I read a novel" method- whatever works best for you, mate. Edited by iguanamon on 20 December 2011 at 5:03am 11 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| allen Newbie United States Joined 5018 days ago 23 posts - 73 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean, Thai | Message 5 of 31 20 December 2011 at 5:01am | IP Logged | ||
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Iguanamon, great post. I think our thinking is very similar because I swear I could have
written that post myself. OP, maybe you're expecting that people start reading and immediately understand most of what they're reading. But if you learned through speaking, surely you didn't understand most words and grammar either. If what you're reading is too difficult just pick up a kids book or something. If you learned your vocabulary through a list, it's not all that different from just picking up a book and looking up words you don't know. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| fiziwig Senior Member United States Joined 4799 days ago 297 posts - 618 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 6 of 31 20 December 2011 at 5:33am | IP Logged | ||
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I started with Spanish by listening to some podcasts called "Coffee Break Spanish". That gave me some basic grammar and a small start at a vocabulary. This was my very first exposure to Spanish except for the menu at Taco Bell. I started those podcasts about 10-11 months ago.
Then I started reading the first Harry Potter book in Spanish. It took literally a couple weeks to work through the very first page. The second page went a little quicker, and the third, quicker still. One day, a few months into it, I realized that I had just turned to page 64 and I was starting to get more focused on the story and less focused on the language. I was still looking up somewhere around 6 to 12 words on every page, and it still took me about an hour per page. Then, another month later, I reached page 166 and suddenly realized that I had only looked up two words in the last 44 pages. (sabihonda mandona; "bossy know-it-all") And those 44 pages had only taken me a couple hours (stretched out over two days) to read. By that time I was just reading for the enjoyment of the story. Every page or two I would have to read a particular sentence twice to grasp it, but mostly it was smooth going. While this reading was going on, however, I was also working my way through a couple of Spanish textbooks I picked up used at Goodwill. I figured out the past imperfect, preterite and future tenses from my reading before I got to them in the textbooks, however, so the texts were of limited use except as reference, and to "solidify" what I'd already figured out by reading. Plus, I was listening to more podcasts (Show Time Spanish; Notes in Spanish) and the 52-episode video series "Destinos" at learner.org, and some audio books from Albalearning, and from Amazon (Johnathan Livingston Seagull from Alba and Peter Pan on CD from Amazon.com) and watching loads of movies, both dubbed, and Spanish originals from YouTube, and Netflix, and Telenovelas from Caracol in Colombia. Through all this I honestly think that most valuable activity for me has been reading aloud, followed by Spanish audio books, podcasts and videos,with grammar study is in third place behind reading and listening/watching. In January I am signed up for an intensive conversation course at the local community college. We'll see how that stacks up to what I've been doing so far. Edited by fiziwig on 20 December 2011 at 5:36am 8 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| hypersport Senior Member United States Joined 5815 days ago 216 posts - 307 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 7 of 31 20 December 2011 at 2:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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Very well done fiziwig. Keep it up.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| WentworthsGal Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4822 days ago 191 posts - 246 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Swedish, Spanish | Message 8 of 31 20 December 2011 at 2:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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I started reading a novel aimed at teenagers after a couple of months of learning my TL. I didn't understand it all but I found myself understanding more and more the further I went in the book. Seeing phrases over and over again, even if I wasn't 100% sure what they meant, started to look familiar. Words that kept being repeated I would eventually look up in the dictionary, and as they had already become familiar to me the meaning would stay in my head longer. Seeing words that look similar to my native language but which wouldn't necessarily come up in a text book mean that I can add them to my mental vault of vocabulary even if only for recognition until I come accross them more times and then I can recall them for production. I love the insight you get into the other culture and way of life too; the book I'm reading at the moment is set in England and written by an English author but translated into my TL. It's nice to see familiarity with shop names etc but I miss the "exoticness" I had in my last novel which was written in my TL to start with (and will probably never be translated into English so I just love that I was able to read a book which I would probably never have been able to had I not decided to learn Swedish).
However... I have found that my understanding of the written language is hugely more advanced than my understanding through hearing it. I would imagine the best way (at least for me) would have been to jump into reading, watching films etc and speaking to as many people in my TL as possible right from the start. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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