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Passive Listening | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| fsc Senior Member United States Joined 6321 days ago 100 posts - 117 votes  Studies: French | Message 25 of 32 21 November 2010 at 8:09am | IP Logged | |||||
I could never understand what people mean by "pick up the rhythm". I always thought it was something people who have no experience in learning a foreign language say. Has anyone ever been told that they speak the language well but their rhythm is off? I have seen language courses mention vocabulary, grammar, reading, writing, speaking, and understanding, but I have never seen one teach or even mention rhythm. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| jazzboy.bebop Senior Member Norway norwegianthroughnove Joined 5410 days ago 439 posts - 800 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Norwegian | Message 26 of 32 21 November 2010 at 5:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
I have the exact opposite problem, in Norwegian I apparently have a very good accent, intonation and rhythm but still speak the language with a lot of mistakes and it confuses most people I speak to as I sound like I must know far more than what I actually do. This is what can happen when you get brought to a country for over a month out of every year since you were born but don't properly get taught the language and never speak it when not visiting the country. It's only been recently that I started making an effort to learn Norwegian. I met a Chinese girl once whose English was very good in that she used completely correct vocabulary and grammar and evidently spoke and understood at an advanced level but her rhythm and intonation was not what most English speaking people would be used to so you found you really had to listen closely to understand, despite the fact that if you were to have transcribed what she said you would have no indication she was not a native English speaker. Rhythm is a useful thing to learn as it means that those you speak to will have a better time understanding you, having strange stresses in places can throw people off a little, as well as strange intonation. I think it might depend on the language for the level of importance rhythm can be ascribed and I would think of it as a lesser concern for non-advanced learners overall, however, getting used to the rhythm will have its benefits, both in listening comprehension for recognising the borders between words and in speaking. If you know how the rhythm and intonation can be manipulated to add different layers of meaning to the words you say like you can do in your native language, that could only be a good thing. I would expect that teaching it would be very difficult without having one-to-one tuition from a good teacher giving constant feedback and correction, so it doesn't surprise me that rhythm is not covered in most language courses, plus it is a relatively minor thing to learn compared to vocabulary, grammar and general pronunciation. You can certainly learn it by training your ear and by trying to imitate but I doubt it would be easy or cost efficient to provide much training of that type in a language course. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Laole Tetraglot Newbie Portugal Joined 5100 days ago 9 posts - 18 votes Speaks: Ukrainian, Russian*, Polish, English Studies: Portuguese | Message 27 of 32 10 December 2010 at 2:23am | IP Logged | |||||
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I think passive listening is very useful when compared to doing nothing. Here is my experience: 3 years ago I didn't understand a word of Portuguese, and now I understand 90% of radio programmes. Aside from my very "unperfect" speaking skills, it makes a conversation possible.
Maybe, passive listening is not that passive: some tasks do not involve brain :) so it is possible to concentrate on listening. This is how I did - with absolutely no time for learning, I just used to work with radio in my headphones. I remember my feeling of "enlightment" when I understood some part of weather forecast :D Honestly, I didn't try to learn the language this way, it was just to enjoy its beauty. I was so crazy in love with it, that even Parliament sessions sounded like a song to me! Now I'm learning seriously, focusing on grammar, vocabulary etc, and the fact that I can HEAR it already makes my life much easier. To sum up: passive listening is effective, like sports - when being practiced a lot (couple of hours everyday), and combined with other learning activities. At the same time, it's passive, which means you're busy with sth else, so you don't really spend any time on listening. So, it's result that costs you nothing. Is it worth to wait 2-3 years? For me, yes! 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| justberta Diglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5577 days ago 140 posts - 170 votes Speaks: English, Norwegian* Studies: Indonesian, German, Spanish, Russian | Message 28 of 32 10 December 2010 at 2:56am | IP Logged | |||||
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It's great for picking up a good level of pronunciation and prosody.
I'm in Russia so I the TV doesn't have any English channels or programs at all, it's all dubbed. I usually have it on in the background. Great for learning new words or getting the pronunciation - specially the stress right. Good for learning some ads by heart and repeating them to locals... If you want to be laughed at;) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Rmss Triglot Senior Member Spain spanish-only.coRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6556 days ago 234 posts - 248 votes 3 sounds Speaks: Dutch*, English, Spanish Studies: Portuguese | Message 29 of 32 10 December 2010 at 8:51am | IP Logged | |||||
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Why would you only want to do passive listening? Throw some active listening in man!
From my own experience I noticed that passive listening HELPS, because there's alsways a moment that you're actively paying attention. I've used music to do passive listening, and believe it or not: I learned many new words from the songs I used to listen to. Still, you don't want to discount watching television. Passive listening can only get you so far, but you should consider watching tv for extended periods. Even though you won't understand a thing, you still know what's going on (more or less). People may talk crap about my method or other people that watch tv, but it helps. Just read message 15 of this thread and you'll know I'm not the only one. Having said that, I currently learn Portuguese and just leave my tv on, playing Brazilian television all day long. I work on college papers, update my blog, surf the web, all while (passively) listening to my tv. However, I do pay attention from time to time, or simply stop working for five minutes to watch some television. When my brain catches that something funny is going on, I turn my head to see what all the fuss is about. Last but not least, read this article: http://www.victoria.ac.nz/home/about/newspubs/news/ViewNews. aspx?id=2458&newslabel=hn That article exactly points out what I thought: it doesn't matter what you think works, just listening to your target language DOES work! No matter what one's method is, they became better at their target language by listening a lot. Let is be Benny, let it be Khatzumoto, let it be me. Although the initial method may differ, the road to fluency is "walked" by listening a lot. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Laole Tetraglot Newbie Portugal Joined 5100 days ago 9 posts - 18 votes Speaks: Ukrainian, Russian*, Polish, English Studies: Portuguese | Message 30 of 32 10 December 2010 at 11:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
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referring to the article linked above:
""Language is a skill, it's not like learning a fact. If you want to be a weight lifter, you’ve got to develop the muscle - you can't learn weightlifting from a book". Now I discovered also iTunes, and I found it more useful than TV series. It is possible to find there sth that presents differenciate vocabulary, unlike very "common" series language. Ohh but... it is already active listening :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Rmss Triglot Senior Member Spain spanish-only.coRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6556 days ago 234 posts - 248 votes 3 sounds Speaks: Dutch*, English, Spanish Studies: Portuguese | Message 31 of 32 11 December 2010 at 1:01pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Err, what are referring to? Podcasts for learners? How is that better than real language? Do you have proof that it's better than television?
I learned Spanish and English by getting an amazing amount of input, using flashcards, and then putting what I had learned into practice. I never did a course to English, nor did I really study to learn Spanish. Yet, I speak both languages with great fluency. Weird huh, if television and passive listening doesn't work? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| vickyyuchi Newbie Taiwan Joined 5110 days ago 14 posts - 17 votes Speaks: English | Message 32 of 32 13 December 2010 at 10:50am | IP Logged | |||||
I would stand in the same position. It seems passive listening is useless, however, it's not totally true. Just like what Halcyon said, by doing so, learner could get the sense of intonation and flow of the language. Only when learners know what's the "melody of the language" can he or she really master the language. Therefore, I think to get the sense of intonation and flow of the language could also be important in language learning.Moreover, it's possibe for learners to pick up expressions or vocabulary through passive listening. Through passive listening, learners could be more understand what context would the expression be used and also the usage of the vocabulary. Learners can acuire more authentic language. Personally, I think it would be one the good ways to language learning. However, just like what Halcyon said, the point is it would be impossible to see the progress only do it once or twice. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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