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How to learn by listening to the radio | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| Jon1991 Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5357 days ago 98 posts - 126 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French, Russian | Message 1 of 25 01 February 2011 at 9:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I've heard many people on here saying that listening to the radio in their target language improved their skills by immersion. How is this possible? When I listen to the radio, it is often very difficult to understand due to the speed and manner in which they speak (especially in talk shows). I respect the fact that these talk shows incorporate the "real" language not just text book formal stuff.
Any advice on how to make listening to the radio (talking not music) more effective at boosting my skills? I'd appreciate any advice. Jon. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Andrew C Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom naturalarabic.com Joined 5182 days ago 205 posts - 350 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written) | Message 2 of 25 01 February 2011 at 9:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
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You need to have the transcript. Google translate this and create a parallel text.
Listen first without the transcript. Then with it. Then read the translation. Repeat as oten as you want until you get bored then start again with a new show. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| smallwhite Pentaglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5300 days ago 537 posts - 1045 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin, French, Spanish | Message 4 of 25 02 February 2011 at 12:49am | IP Logged | |||||
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I played it on the background all day, everyday. I don't usually pay attention to it. Then, every few days, I pay close attention to it, and work out what my greatest weakness is at that point, and work on that for several days.
I started doing that about 3 months into my French studies. At first, I could not even tell whether it was French they were speaking. Then I think I caught some "je" and "merci" and confirmed it was French. On the first or second day, I figured I could not tell where each sentence began. I believe there were pauses, but somehow I just couldn't tell. So I studied my subject pronouns and conjunctions, as they're what usually begin sentences. I went back to the radio, and viola! I could locate the beginning of sentences. A few days later, I figured I should familiarise myself better with the contractions like au, aux, j'ai. Forgot when, I figured I needed to work harder on qui, que, qu'il. And so on. After about a month, I'd know roughly what was going on in the show, and quite clearly if the vocabulary was familiar. I understood about 90% in 6 or 9 months, I forgot, definitely no more than 9 because I stopped French altogether after 9. Alongside this, I was studying grammar really hard, reading every textbook I could get my hands on, and surfing the net a lot. I had 2 CDs from a phrasebook and 1 Celine Dion CD that I also listened to, and that was all my listening material. Takes longer for Spanish, though. Good luck! Edited by smallwhite on 02 February 2011 at 12:50am 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| TerryW Senior Member United States Joined 6349 days ago 370 posts - 783 votes Speaks: English* | Message 5 of 25 02 February 2011 at 2:56am | IP Logged | |||||
I'm curious if you think playing a language in the background without actively listening to it helped you to learn. Because there are a lot of people here, including me, who don't think it does a thing (except maybe drown out some other noise). Actually, I doubt that there is any way for you to know whether it helped you or not, since that is how you did it, and you can't "go back" to do it over again and compare both ways. Edited by TerryW on 02 February 2011 at 2:59am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| TerryW Senior Member United States Joined 6349 days ago 370 posts - 783 votes Speaks: English* | Message 6 of 25 02 February 2011 at 3:16am | IP Logged | |||||
Have I got a site for you: News in Slow Spanish Between the half-hour weekly news podcasts and the corresponding "flashcards" (really just a list), this is a great resource. They have about 100 archived episodes, and you can download them and the flashcard lists all for free. (They have other things like full transcripts for a subscription fee) Listening to full-speed speech and not understanding it can be very frustrating. Using the slow speed speech with the flashcards, which give you a lot of vocab and idioms in the order spoken in the podcast is great for learning and for getting the "Eureka!" feeling of actually understanding full sentences without translating words in your head. A great stepping stone to get to understanding normal/fast speech. I thought they said there will soon be a News in Slow French site, but I don't find one. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| smallwhite Pentaglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5300 days ago 537 posts - 1045 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin, French, Spanish | Message 7 of 25 02 February 2011 at 10:36am | IP Logged | |||||
Exactly :) In the first couple of weeks I was all anxious and it didn't bother me, so I just let it play. Soon after that, I could hear words here and there even when I wasn't paying attention, and then gradually, sentences. Just like when you have your native-language radio on the background. And that, of course, didn't bother me either :D > Because there are a lot of people here, including me, who don't think it does a thing (except maybe drown out some other noise). Well, as I had described, I was actively working on my listening skills at the same time, specifically targeting the radio contents. So it did "a lot of things" for me listening like that. Edited by smallwhite on 02 February 2011 at 10:37am 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jon1991 Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5357 days ago 98 posts - 126 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French, Russian | Message 8 of 25 02 February 2011 at 4:38pm | IP Logged | |||||
1 person has voted this message useful |
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