The Value of Passive Listening (General discussion) Language Learning Forum

The Value of Passive Listening
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24 messages over 3 pages: 1 2 3

Arekkusu
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Message 17 of 24

27 April 2011 at 9:45pm | IP Logged

szastprast wrote:

For me it was useful twice.
I couldn't pronounce Japanese pitch accent, because I just couldn't hear it. So I decided to just listen in the background, as it were, I used headphones, but I didn't pay any conscious attention to what I was hearing, I was doing other things, reading or writing. And after a while I just could hear it and pronounce properly, or at least much, much better.

I can't help but feel slightly skeptical, especially since the cause and effect here are very loosely linked. Just to be clear, from "just not being able to hear pitch" to "hearing it and pronouncing it properly", how much passive listening did you do? Hours, days, weeks, months?
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Bao
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Message 19 of 24

28 April 2011 at 2:29am | IP Logged

Iversen wrote:

Who said men can't multitask?

And who said women can? ;)

Arekkusu wrote:

In the situation you describe, I find it useless, other than to motivate you and keep your interest active. To me, it's like watching someone run and pretend your exercising. Unless you are actively listening and paying attention, you will not be able to learn much of anything.

That's an interesting analogy - I personally cannot watch somebody run without feeling the urge to jump up and run along. I need to focus on something else or actively suppress the urge in many occasions. Do other people catch themselves repeating interesting words without having intended to?
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Keilan
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Message 20 of 24

28 April 2011 at 9:02am | IP Logged

Hmm... interesting discussion. For me I feel that it does help in terms of getting a feel for the language. I definitely do not believe I pick up any vocabulary or grammatical knowledge from it. Mostly it gives me a sense that when I learn a new word, it doesn't have a quite as intimidating feeling of "newness". Like it's familiar but from a time long ago.

The idea of it being harmful due to tuning out the language is a new one to me, and I'll have to consider it further and/or watch out for it's effects.
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zerothinking
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Australia
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Message 21 of 24

28 April 2011 at 4:22pm | IP Logged

Arekkusu wrote:

zerothinking wrote:

How will you ever know how to speak if you've
never heard anyone speaking? How will your
brain ever get used to rapid speech if it's never heard rapid speech? Yes, it's useful.

By listening actively. Not passively.

The brain processes everything even if you aren't consciously focused on it. Active
listening is definitely also very useful but it's quite difficult to listen actively for
ten hours each day.
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Matheus
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Message 22 of 24

28 April 2011 at 4:56pm | IP Logged

Listening in an unconcentrated way to something you don't understand would be even less valuable.

Checkmate. Best answer I've ever read.
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Cavesa
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Czech Republic
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Message 23 of 24

28 April 2011 at 6:34pm | IP Logged

I have tried to "passively listen" when doing something else. I was listening to french radio, while studying french vocabulary. The result would have been disappointing had I expected much of it. I need to focus on what I listen to if I want to learn from it.

And there's difference between music and talking. I think music works better for me, I tend to lose concentration when listening to talking (unless the subject is really interesting)

Passive listening didn't work for me and it wasn't fun either. Doesn't mean it can't work for anyone else, but I wouldn't overestimate it.

However there are a few things I can do while listening actively. Ironing is the best. Cooking (especially the most boring parts such as peeling the potatoes) is not bad as well. Perhaps I should do these things more often to improve my listening comprehension :-) (don't tell my mother I've ever said that :-D)
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