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Talking to yourself | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| slucido Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Spain https://goo.gl/126Yv Joined 6667 days ago 1296 posts - 1781 votes  4 sounds Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan* Studies: English | Message 1 of 10 05 December 2010 at 4:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
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It seems that talking to yourself is an activity that a lot of language learners and polyglots practice.
I would like to know how you practice this self talking. When do you recommend to start? From the very beginning or from an intermediate level? Do you have any specific time to do this? How much time do you recommend? Do you use something to help you find topics? For example, phrasebooks, news, books and so on. Do you practice vocabulary or grammar points using this "talking to yourself" technique? Do you use monologues or you fake a dialog? Do you pretend you are taking with an imaginary friend or you just talk to yourself? Do you murmur when doing this or you talk aloud like in a normal speech? Are you afraid to reinforce mistakes or this risk is lower than the benefit? Do you use anything to lower that risk? Edited by slucido on 05 December 2010 at 4:56pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sierra Diglot Senior Member Turkey livinginlights.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 7116 days ago 296 posts - 411 votes Speaks: English*, SwedishB1 Studies: Turkish | Message 2 of 10 05 December 2010 at 6:29pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I spend huge amounts of time just mumbling random phrases to myself- something will
come into my head and I'll try to work out how to say it in Turkish. If I have a longer period of time when I'm sure of being alone (I have six roommates, so this can be rare... and I haven't yet perfected the art of not caring when my monologues are overheard), I sometimes try to tell myself a story. Today's was the little mermaid. Personally, I don't really start this in earnest until I'm at a level where I have the grammar and vocabulary to express pretty much anything, preferably directly but at least through circumlocution. I would probably benefit from beginning earlier, though. I do think that starting when I do reduces the probability of internalizing my mistakes; I know enough to recognize when I'm probably not saying something correctly, or at least when I'm not totally sure of something- which I can then make a mental note of and look up later. As for favorite topics, sometimes I try to explain things about myself which I can see coming up in natural conversation (why I'm learning Turkish, things about my job, what I want to do in the future, particularly interesting anecdotes from my day, whatever), but I find it more interesting to go the story route. I can keep myself entertained and practice Turkish at the same time! Plus, there's a pretty much inexhaustible bank of stories to draw on- fairy tales, movies, books, you name it. I find this approach extra helpful because it means I don't have to be particularly creative with my subject matter once I've picked a topic. I already know how the story goes; I don't need to worry about thinking of things to say as I go along, and can therefore focus all my energy on the language itself. Your mileage may vary. I think speaking in a normal voice, as opposed to a whisper, is definitely better when you have the chance. I think accents tend to get neutralized when you whisper, so by doing so you're giving yourself an unfair break on pronunciation. Good luck! Edited by Sierra on 05 December 2010 at 6:30pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| slucido Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Spain https://goo.gl/126Yv Joined 6667 days ago 1296 posts - 1781 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan* Studies: English | Message 3 of 10 06 December 2010 at 12:03am | IP Logged | |||||
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Very useful ideas, Sierra.
Do you practice fake conversations with yourself, like talking with an imaginary friend? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| slucido Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Spain https://goo.gl/126Yv Joined 6667 days ago 1296 posts - 1781 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan* Studies: English | Message 4 of 10 06 December 2010 at 12:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I have found this website and they recommend "talking to yourself" as a way to study English.
http://englishconversations.org/lessons/english-conversation -course/talk-to-yourself/ If you talk to yourself, you will identify the areas where you have a vocabulary weakness. If you talk to yourself, you will practice your pronunciation. You will also relax and unwind. If you talk to yourself in another language, you will become more comfortable with that language. I talk to myself when I am in my room. I talk to myself when I am by myself You might think I am crazy. You might think I am mad. I talk to myself in my room And I speak pretty good English. If you want to learn English you will find that the greatest technique of all is waiting here for you inside yourself. If you could just talk to yourself alone in your room you will find the greatest technique of all; talking to yourself at home alone in your room will make your English … better. You will find that the greatest technique that you will ever find … The one that you can always use … The one that will never let you down … The one that will always stand by you … The one that will always be there for you … The greatest technique of all … learning to talk to yourself … alone in a room. Talk to yourself alone in a room! I am not crazy. I was just talking to myself. Do you talk to yourself? Do you sing to yourself? I like to talk to myself all night. Do you talk to yourself? 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5373 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 5 of 10 06 December 2010 at 5:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I talk to myself in the languages I learn as a way to establish fluency and as a way to gauge what I can and cannot say yet.
I start right from the beginning. I don't see the point in waiting, though some people do argue that waiting works for them. I don't usually do it out loud, unless I know no one's home. I do sometimes say it in a low voice, though, like in a park or walking alone on a sidewalk. Most of time, I imagine real life situations or discussions I'd have with a native speaker. It can be based on things that happened to me and that I spin into other stories, or things that never did or never will happen. Sometimes, I imagine the meetings I have planned, and I get ready for them that way. I notice that it's been harder for me to do this with Japanese than it was with other languages. This is either because it took me longer to be able to do it satisfactorily, what with Japanese taking much longer to acquire, or it's simply that don't recall it being hard in the past (I stopped studying languages for about 10 years). Either way, if you find yourself switching back all the time, then designate specific times for that task (on the bus, while cooking, etc.). I certainly recommend doing it as much as possible throughout the day. I don't usually practice new words deliberately, but since I need to express myself, I will naturally use any new tool available to me. When I can't say something or if I doubt a structure I used, I write it down and look it up later. I don't think I'm reinforcing mistakes because what I say changes all the time. It constantly evolves based on what I've learned. Besides, I make mistakes while talking to natives too and they don't always correct me, so I don't know either way. However, most people have a difficult time reaching fluency -- I don't. I'm certain it's because I constantly practice the language in my head. Whenever I can't get something to flow, I repeat it over and over until I get it right. You can't do that with other people. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| slucido Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Spain https://goo.gl/126Yv Joined 6667 days ago 1296 posts - 1781 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan* Studies: English | Message 6 of 10 06 December 2010 at 7:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
Thank you. I think your experience is very informative. It is interesting to know that you have reached fluency faster because of this "talking or thinking to yourself" approach. Maybe it is a good idea to have a little dictionary in the pocket. Edited by slucido on 06 December 2010 at 7:32pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| slymie Tetraglot Groupie China Joined 5220 days ago 81 posts - 154 votes Speaks: English, Macedonian Studies: French, Mandarin, Greek Studies: Shanghainese, Uyghur, Russian | Message 7 of 10 06 December 2010 at 8:19pm | IP Logged | |||||
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It for sure sounds strange to say you talk to yourself but I do it all the time. Like sometimes I do a running commentary on what I'm doing in x language. "now we open the fridge and see what is inside, take out the eggs, make a sandwich." I'm most guilty of yelling out lines from a movie I'm watching, trying to imitate the accent and then repeating them later. I also have a 'conversation' with myself, and then if I get stuck on vocab I write down the word I was looking for and look it up later.
2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5327 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 8 of 10 07 December 2010 at 3:19pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I talk to myself all the time and I’ve done it for as long as I can remember. I learnt a lot of my English by watching films and I would often pretend I was acting out a scene from a film or a story I made up myself. I also sometimes narrate for myself what I’m doing or I pretend I’m being interviewed. I’ve started doing it for French as well, just random phrases or a tiny conversation. I hardly ever talk to myself in Dutch, so it has developed as a habit because of my language learning.
I think talking to yourself is a great way of starting speaking in a foreign language. There’s no pressure to say something funny, useful or correct or to keep a conversation going. Nobody minds if I say the same sentence five times to get the pronunciation right, or if I go on and on about the same topic, wanting to explain everything just right with the best vocabulary and grammar. I’ve never had much opportunity to practice speaking English so I think that all the time I’ve spent practicing for myself is the reason why I can now hold a conversation anyway. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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