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Three rules for improving listening | ||
Tags: Listening | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| osoymar Tetraglot Pro Member United States Joined 4736 days ago 190 posts - 344 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Portuguese, Japanese Studies: Spanish, French Personal Language Map | Message 33 of 105 26 March 2013 at 11:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I can confidently say that I find it easier to understand an audiobook in German than
to read the same book, assuming that I'm not looking up any words. Moreover, I can listen to the audiobook while driving or walking, although occasionally I'll have to skip back a minute or two if my focus shifts. The main advantage of an audiobook over a book is that the reader is providing emotional context through the intonation. I might mix up Verwalter and Vergewaltiger on the page, but I doubt that would happen in an audiobook. I don't know how to measure the impact of this study method, assuming I consider it to be a study method. I definitely learn a few words, but I could probably learn more with the equivalent of audio flashcards. The problem being, of course, that I would soon fall asleep and crash into a telephone pole. I suspect the real value of extensive reading or listening is in solidifying and enriching understanding of vocabulary that I have learned formally, and priming the pump for vocabulary that I have yet to learn- thus those wonderful "aha" moments when I come across a word and I already have some weird, subconscious associations with it. This is all specific to a language similar to my native language, that I'm reactivating at a medium level. Changing any of those variables could completely change the outcome. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6582 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 34 of 105 27 March 2013 at 6:59am | IP Logged | |||||
This is a very good point. Thanks for that. As tavos says, it does require enough understanding to "decode" most of what you're hearing, though. And I want to point out that I explicitly said you don't need to know every single word, but enough to be able to understand what's going on (were it presented in written form). 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6582 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 35 of 105 27 March 2013 at 7:01am | IP Logged | |||||
Makes sense to me, though I don't think it's very relevant to this discussion. The advantage I cited for reading as a tool for expanding your vocabulary was precisely the fact that it's a lot easier to look things up. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5982 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 36 of 105 27 March 2013 at 11:39am | IP Logged | |||||
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I may be just imagining it, but I think that if I spend a lot of time listening to stuff that is mostly comprehensible it gives a huge boost to my listening ability and a slight boost to my speaking ability, especially pronunciation. However, if I spend a lot of time listening to stuff that is mostly incomprehensible, it seems to have a negative impact on my ability overall. It's as if my brain automatically tunes out of the language altogether if I get too much information I can't make sense of.
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| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4847 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 37 of 105 27 March 2013 at 1:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
g-bod, I think you summed up exactly how I feel, and that is the reason why I'm thinking of not listening to incomprehensible audio when I could be listening to comprehensive audio. Did I mention that this thread is awesomeness on toast? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| osoymar Tetraglot Pro Member United States Joined 4736 days ago 190 posts - 344 votes Speaks: English*, German, Portuguese, Japanese Studies: Spanish, French Personal Language Map | Message 38 of 105 27 March 2013 at 9:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
I'm really comparing extensive reading with extensive listening- looking words up inherently makes it intensive reading or intensive listening. In that case I definitely agree that intensive reading is preferable. Anyway, apologies for the tangent. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Gala Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4550 days ago 229 posts - 421 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 39 of 105 27 March 2013 at 11:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
I may not have explicitly stated it, but I think that it was implicit in what I wrote that I did NOT have the knowledge of the language to have understood most of what was going on in telenovelas when I first (and for several months, at least) began watching them, if I had been reading the scripts. It was the visual cues that enabled me to actually learn many words and phrases in context before I ever came across them in written form. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| sillygoose1 Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 4636 days ago 566 posts - 814 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: German, Latin | Message 40 of 105 28 March 2013 at 1:24am | IP Logged | |||||
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What are you guys' thoughts on languages closely related also? For instance, let's say I have a C1 level in Swedish and I want to learn Norwegian. How much studying do you think would be needed for Norwegian before I should start watching tv and listening to the radio. Couldn't one hypothetically start a bit earlier in the "listening to the unknown" stage, to the contrary of a C1 in German and learning Mandarin, and still get good results?
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