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The Value of Passive Listening | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Keilan Senior Member Canada Joined 5087 days ago 125 posts - 241 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 1 of 24 27 April 2011 at 7:48am | IP Logged | ||
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Hey all,
I often listen to German radio in the background. It's on right now. However, I am not focusing on it. So I am aware that words are being said, but I am not comprehending anything, it's just sounds. Here and there something will catch my ear (Japan, Tsunami, etc.) but I am not following what's being talked about. So my question is this: Do you think such passive listening has any value? Or is it useless unless I take time to figure out what is being said? -Keilan 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5670 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 2 of 24 27 April 2011 at 7:54am | IP Logged | ||
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This is a topic that comes up a lot. The answer is: some people reckon it is extremely
helpful, whereas others find it close to useless. There are arguments for both sides. In the end, though, it comes down to whether or not YOU find it useful. Stick with it, but if after a while you find it isn't helping, try something else (e.g. 30 minutes of active listening, in place of hours of passive). 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 6106 days ago 707 posts - 1220 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 3 of 24 27 April 2011 at 8:08am | IP Logged | ||
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In the initial stages of my language learning I needed to actively listen. I found
it quite tiring to concentrate for long. To be honest I'm only a little better at listening as it a skill I don't practice as much as I should. Perhaps 'passive' listening will be of more benefit later on in my studies. Right now though, it still takes a lot of effort to get my ear tuned. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6583 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 4 of 24 27 April 2011 at 8:13am | IP Logged | ||
And some others find it actively harmful. I remember Prof. Arguelles arguing this in a thread at some point. The idea is that if you get your brain used to considering the language "background noise" it'll be easier to just phase it out even in later learning. I've certainly experienced situations where I'm listening to a language I sort of know and feel like I'm getting most of it, just to think back and realize I didn't understand it at all. Not sure if this is affected by passive listening, though. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6704 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 24 27 April 2011 at 10:13am | IP Logged | ||
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I often watch TV while surfing on the internet or doing wordlists or whatever. But only in languages which I can understand without much effort, otherwise I would find it distracting. And I seriously doubt that I learn any words from this activity - I may learn something about the subjects they show, but I would have to concentrate to let new words stick in my memory.
Listening in an unconcentrated way to something you don't understand would be even less valuable. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5767 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 6 of 24 27 April 2011 at 12:47pm | IP Logged | ||
I'm still amazed how people find it possible to concentrate in such a setting. On the other hand, I can happily listen to content just a bit too much above my scope of comprehension repeatedly while concentrating on non-language tasks or another language, and after about the fourth repetition or when I've grown accustomed to the language used I suddenly understand most of it when I start concentrating on it. With ease. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5131 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 7 of 24 27 April 2011 at 1:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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Like Iversen, I usually have something going in the background while I'm surfing, doing stuff around the house. I don't when I need to concentrate on work though.
There are times when I'll hear a news story and stop what I'm doing and listen more closely, because I either partially recognize what's being said, or can get most of it and will actually learn new vocabulary. That's pretty easy to to in my case for Norwegian and even to a certain extent Polish. Turkish, however, needs my full attention, unless I'm listening to music. Pop music especially, tends to get repeated often enough on the radio that I can listen without fully understanding. Because of the repetitiveness of the music and lyrics, I'll get an unknown word stuck in my head that I can later go back and look up. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6704 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 24 27 April 2011 at 1:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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I can't concentrate if I'm doing something easy unless I have something to distract me. Otherwise I get bored. Besides it has to be something that doesn't irritate me. Noise from my neighbours definitely irritates me, so if there isn't silent around me I prefer making/choosing some noise myself.
Who said men can't multitask? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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