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Using children’s material | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| misslanguages Diglot Senior Member France fluent-language.blog Joined 4781 days ago 190 posts - 217 votes  Speaks: French*, English Studies: German | Message 9 of 46 24 August 2011 at 7:48pm | IP Logged |
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Of course.
I watched Teletubbies and other children's shows for ages in English. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| prz_ Tetraglot Senior Member Poland last.fm/user/prz_rul Joined 4794 days ago 890 posts - 1190 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Bulgarian, Croatian Studies: Slovenian, Macedonian, Persian, Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Dutch, Swedish, German, Italian, Armenian, Kurdish | Message 10 of 46 24 August 2011 at 8:38pm | IP Logged |
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I think that Cartoon Network has helped me a bit in my early childhood.
Well, I think it depends on the book. Everything what can be helpful is useful. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4844 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 11 of 46 26 August 2011 at 12:29am | IP Logged |
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When I was learning Hindi, I bought children's books as often as I could. I had a
shelf where I arranged them by difficulty, and worked through most of them. I found it to be both helpful and interesting. Even better is when you can find a book with audio. I listened to a few Hindi books dozens of times. Possibly more helpful is learning material for young teens. Most tenses would be used, and a more adult vocabulary, but the language is still simpler than fully adult writing. Langenscheidt publishes a good series of booklets of detective stories, called Klara & Theo. They come in three levels, and many of them come with a mini CD. Kid's materials may be too simple at times, and they may have odd vocabulary, but they can be a good way to ramp yourself up to adult materials. I would suggest using simple kid's books once you have a grasp of basic grammar--perhaps halfway through a beginner's book. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5500 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 12 of 46 26 August 2011 at 12:45am | IP Logged |
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If you want 'useful' vocabulary get a phrasebook. If you want to read/hear in your target language from the beginning read childrens' books or watch children's videos.
Babar, Tin Tin, Asterix and the French version of the Mr Men and Little Miss series gave me a ton of essential French vocabulary early on, gave me painless experience with the passe simple and the literary uses of the subjunctive and were, well, fun and quick. Babar films gave me listening experience later on. Likewise, in German kiddies programs like Trotro and Jim Knopf and Lukas were immeasurable help (although my 2 1/2 year bilingual son gave me a running commentary in English as to what was being said in German on that one). I personally have got a great deal out of reading children's books in my target language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4844 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 13 of 46 26 August 2011 at 10:00pm | IP Logged |
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I forgot to mention Lyric Language, which I used a long time ago for German, and now have started using for French. They are a set of songs sung bilinguaglly; a line is sung in French, then repeated in English. The music is a bit naff, and the children who are singing are often a bit off, but it is very effective. I put the German lyrics into my vocab software and the total vocabulary is about 450 words, if I remember correctly. Since it is for learning, many of the songs are on topics like "At the Zoo", "At the Supermarket", "The Days of the Week", etc. After listening a couple of times, you begin to sing along with L2, and the words really do stick. A useful supplement in your first few months of study.
I can't believe I didn't mention it before, but I guess I was thinking of native children's material only. Unfortunately, I think it is currently out of print. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| LatinoBoy84 Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5510 days ago 443 posts - 603 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish*, French Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Latvian | Message 14 of 46 27 August 2011 at 8:06pm | IP Logged |
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I think that children's books are useful in that they provide one with culture. By
watching Soviet-era cartoons, I am learning what all the kids who grew up in the Soviet Union and are in their 20's & 30's (my age) grew up with. I can better understand any odd cultural reference that make. When looking for children's materials with French/Russian I look for books or cartoons that I would have grown up with had I lived in a country where my target language is/was spoken. However, I only look at "older" books/cartoons(I love youtube)for Indo-European languages as they are closer to my native languages. The reason is that comprehension is relatively easier and the cultural framework will be relatively closer. For languages like Mandarin or Turkish I tend to stick to adult materials as I feel that the time I would invest acquiring the a cultural reference could be better invested in expanding my vocabulary (including idioms), as with these languages I am starting from scratch. English/Spanish/French/Russian: My/Mi/Mon/Мой Turkish/Mandarin...Cognate? Not so much: Benim/ 我的(Wǒ de) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Michel1020 Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4952 days ago 365 posts - 559 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Dutch | Message 15 of 46 02 September 2011 at 11:27pm | IP Logged |
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I hope we all agree we do not learn language from one source only. Children books are one source among many.
I intend to try to read one or two or more children books from http://www.childrenslibrary.org/ - since they are published there in a not editable format - I will have to retype the texts which will be a good training. I do not know yet about the quality but when you read adult books you do not know about the quality either. One very positive point of children books is they are shorter. Other advantage there is no sex, well when the prince kiss the Sleeping Beauty this is sex. I am not very interested in understanding sex dialogues in my target language. Sex is something to be done - not something to talk about. I would love to talk to my sexual partners but not about sex. Since those women could be divorced and have childrens - to have read children books could help me - well if the woman is an intellectual one - because if she is not - I am better to watch tv and play video games. When children books are not short - at least they need to be very attractive to keep childrens interest. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| misslanguages Diglot Senior Member France fluent-language.blog Joined 4781 days ago 190 posts - 217 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: German | Message 16 of 46 03 September 2011 at 1:50pm | IP Logged |
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Children's books as varied enough so that if you want to learn only from them you'll still end up knowing most important words.
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