|
 |
Reading Aloud Technique | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5316 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes  Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 57 of 70 14 December 2011 at 3:49pm | IP Logged | |||||
Either that or 6 weeks of immersion with a family did wonders. How long had you been with then at the beginning of this 6-week period? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| sfuqua Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4700 days ago 581 posts - 977 votes Speaks: English*, Hawaiian, Tagalog Studies: Spanish | Message 58 of 70 14 December 2011 at 4:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
Of course it is impossible to say whether the reading aloud was the factor; I was using Samoan much of the day. I had been working on Samoan for about 6 months when the "radio deprivation, reading aloud" started. During this period I also experienced an explosive growth in fluency and listening comprehension. I have to admit that the reading aloud may not have had any effect; it may have been the immersion.
My language learning goes at an uneven pace, with sudden spurts, and occasional setbacks. I know that the reading aloud increased my vocabulary. I would always go over my reading with a native speaker, who would help me with the meaning and pronunciation of words I did not know. Many times I had the common experience many language learners have of learning a new word, that they would say they had never heard before, and then hear the word in conversation 5 times before the day was out. At a slightly later stage, native speakers who were friends would say that I sounded like a radio announcer when I read, which may have been something I picked up reading the newspaper aloud. They meant the "radio announcer" thing as a compliment, but I had a lot to learn at that point about informal registers for hanging out with friends drinking beer or flirting with girls :) steve 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5316 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 59 of 70 14 December 2011 at 4:47pm | IP Logged | |||||
Thanks for clearing that up. That sounds very different from:
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| sfuqua Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4700 days ago 581 posts - 977 votes Speaks: English*, Hawaiian, Tagalog Studies: Spanish | Message 60 of 70 14 December 2011 at 5:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
Using the CEFR to describe what happened during the 6 weeks of reading aloud 2 hours a day, I would say I went from B1 to C1. I happened to have FSI (ILR) language tests just before and just after this period, so translating from the FSI (ILR) scores using Wikipedia, B1 to C1 is about what happened.
My early language learning a Peace Corps volunteer was slow and frustrating. I learned little from 6 weeks of instruction; by the end of this time I was in the "slow" class, and I about all I could do was ask where the bathroom was and say that I was hungry (hopefully not in that order :). Memorizing the "phrasebook" that Peace Corps gave us and living in a place where almost no one spoke English moved me to B1. I really think I didn't study well in this time even though I worked at it; I think I should have been further along at that point. There were plenty of helpful native speakers, but no other materials to work with. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6532 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 61 of 70 14 December 2011 at 5:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
I'm tempted to try to learn the phonetics properly and read aloud in Danish :)
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Hendrek Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4817 days ago 152 posts - 210 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Persian | Message 62 of 70 14 December 2011 at 9:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
I'd be thrilled to go from a B1 to a C1 using ANY method in just 6 weeks. Even while immersed, that seems to be a great deal of progress. Good job! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| sfuqua Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4700 days ago 581 posts - 977 votes Speaks: English*, Hawaiian, Tagalog Studies: Spanish | Message 63 of 70 15 December 2011 at 6:09am | IP Logged | |||||
|
My experience must be viewed as anecdotal, but it is difficult to imagine exactly how you would change it into a valid scientific experiment. When I was in grad school for applied linguistics, I talked with my thesis committee about trying to duplicate the experience with another language. It was difficult to figure out how we could get the thing to work. We could do a case study, but a case study is not an experiment. Anything we came up with either had poor external validity or poor internal validity. I eventually decided to do something simpler for my thesis, so I could get my degree finished.
It "felt" like I was getting better at reading aloud each day I practiced it. Reading aloud is a cognitively complex task. I never read anything that I didn't understand at least the gist of, so reading aloud for two hours involved complex processing of the target language for two hours. Gaining at least passive knowledge of 50 to 100 new words a day should have some effect on comprehension. Pronouncing hundreds of grammatical sentences that the reader comprehends should have some sort of practice effect. I realize that correlation does not equal causation, and I realize that introspection can mislead one, but I used the method and I had good results. I also ate a lot of taro during this time; maybe it was the taro :) steve 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6532 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 64 of 70 15 December 2011 at 11:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
I've just realized that reading aloud in Ukrainian (a whole book!) helped me more than I thought it did. I always focused on the benefit of reading, I picked up a lot and it's natural that it helped me understand Ukrainian better - but also spoken Ukrainian!
Also, reading aloud is a skill in itself. I recorded a sound of myself reading a passage and my Ukrainian friend said few people from her school (where most/all subjects were taught in Russian) could read so fast and smoothly in Ukrainian. 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
