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Reading TL May Delay Fluency | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| tanya b Senior Member United States Joined 4783 days ago 159 posts - 518 votes  Speaks: Russian | Message 1 of 73 19 January 2012 at 7:28am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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For those learners who have spent long hours struggling with books or novels in their target language instead of speaking and/or listening, may find that that was not time well spent, and fluency is still far away.
Reading in your target language, I feel, is highly overrated, and in the final analysis, not that useful. I taught myself both the Armenian and Russian alphabets, but that was only useful for associating a specific letter with a specific sound, and did not help me at all on my road to fluency. In terms of fluency, reading does not compare with being able to express your thoughts in your target language. If you study a language every day for a year or so, if you are making progress, you should be able to hear yourself thinking in your target language, even if you are operating a jackhammer. You should also be able to begin to translate mentally every activity you do or see, and when you come to a word you don't know, no matter how useless it is, you make a mental note of it, and write it down later in both your native language and your target language. Studies prove that those who write something down are 3 times more likely to remember it. It doesn't matter if you have never in your whole life used the word "dragonfly" or "daffodil", you still want to understand what they mean when others use them. I feel that your curiosity and imagination determine the size of your vocabulary and level of fluency much more than the number of books you have read in your target language. Edited by tanya b on 19 January 2012 at 7:49am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| atama warui Triglot Senior Member Japan Joined 4706 days ago 594 posts - 985 votes Speaks: German*, English, Japanese | Message 2 of 73 19 January 2012 at 7:31am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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You've been able to think in your target language after just one year? What kind of magic did you use? I'm learning Japanese, kind of far, far away from how German works, and having a hard time thinking in it. Do you have any advice?
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| tanya b Senior Member United States Joined 4783 days ago 159 posts - 518 votes Speaks: Russian | Message 3 of 73 19 January 2012 at 7:44am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Hi Atama, my advice is studying 20 minutes in the morning, 20 minutes at noon, mostly review, and 20 minutes of new stuff in the evening. Therefore at every hour of the dat you won't be that far removed from your most recent study. Believe it or not thinking in your target language comes rather naturally. I love Japanese but am kind of intimidated by it. You must be very ambitious.
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 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6384 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 73 19 January 2012 at 7:47am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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I have just gotten over the flu so I was hoping this thread would give me some advice on how to avoid it in the future. I am sadly disappointed.
EDIT: Not so funny now that the title's been changed. Edited by newyorkeric on 19 January 2012 at 9:15am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| tanya b Senior Member United States Joined 4783 days ago 159 posts - 518 votes Speaks: Russian | Message 5 of 73 19 January 2012 at 7:57am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Hot mustard prevents headaches, don't have any advice for the flu, however. I'm sure there is a flu forum somewhere...
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| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6442 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 6 of 73 19 January 2012 at 8:16am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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@tanya b - Interesting. Little kids are fluent before they can read. You may be onto something.
@atama warui - Pimsleur Japanese I had me thinking in Japanese before the end of the first 30 lessons. Granted, I was thinking with a very limited vocabulary, but still. For as much hate as Pimsleur seems to get, it does seem to "flip the switch" in my brain to the target language, which is invaluable. I know this is happening because I start messing up my English sometimes. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6555 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 7 of 73 19 January 2012 at 8:51am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
Thanks for posting this - it should be interesting to debate.
I think it depends on the learner's goals. Some people only want to learn to read, for example. But I agree that if someone wants to learn all 4 skills, and they spend most of their time reading, they are taking a slow path.
This seems extreme. If someone wants to learn to read, they need to read, right?
This makes no sense to me. You say it was useful, but that it didn't help. Is it possible that to you fluency pertains only to conversation?
These are specific techniques that you have used and found helpful. I really liked your other posts on the matter, btw. I just wanted to say that many successful language learners don't do these things.
Could you please cite this? 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| clumsy Octoglot Senior Member Poland lang-8.com/6715Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5183 days ago 1116 posts - 1367 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese, Korean, French, Mandarin, Italian, Vietnamese Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swedish Studies: Danish, Dari, Kirundi | Message 8 of 73 19 January 2012 at 11:17am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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I disagree.
yesterday I realized that my comprehension of spoken Korean is better, after I spent some time reading. Reading forces your brain to think in th target language, I believe. 7 persons have voted this message useful |
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