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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4663 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 9 of 16 27 January 2015 at 12:12am | IP Logged | |||||
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Listening is my base. It's what I enjoy most and in many ways I find it the most versatile, since I can do it while I'm getting ready, driving, or working. I want to hear the "music" of the language and make it a permanent part of my mind. In the beginning I treat reading more or less as just an aid for checking and developing my listening comprehension.
Later, once I can understand a decent number of movies and radio shows, I dip into more advanced reading. I also start speaking, though I do practice pronunciation and "fluidity" from the beginning by trying to repeat after things I hear and reading aloud. Edited by tastyonions on 27 January 2015 at 12:14am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5379 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 10 of 16 27 January 2015 at 12:24am | IP Logged | |||||
Fair enough, but we are talking about acquiring the written code, which you could likely achieve with minimal effort. A very different kind of effort than what you'd need to suddenly start speaking. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4531 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 11 of 16 27 January 2015 at 9:40am | IP Logged | |||||
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My initial goal has always been to be able to easily read the newspaper equivalent of the New York Times in my target language. So reading is the most important skill of me, which I combine with lots of listening to make sure that my sense of the sound of the language is relatively accurate.
Once I achieve my initial goal, my speaking has already got to an OK level, and I can work on my writing and fill any holes I might have in my grammar. Of course, I could start working initially on speaking, but I think reading is the most effective way to expose yourself to lots of rich language, and so it doesn't seem so efficient in terms of time spent learning. Of course, if you need to communicate soon, working on reading might not be the most efficient way to spend your time. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5428 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 12 of 16 27 January 2015 at 2:25pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I cast one of the few votes for grammar as a bit of a protest vote because I think the poll is badly
constructed. What we are given is the set of four traditional skills and then something called grammar tacked on. But those four skills are goals as well as means of learning. If you want to write, you write. If you want to read, you read. Somebody will say that if you want to write, you first have to read. That's correct, but reading doesn't automatically make you a writer. The question is really what do you want to do. If speaking and listening are most important for you, that's what you concentrate on. I voted for grammar because I use the term here is a very broad sense of understanding how the language works. I'm not using it in the sense of formal study of written rules. I also throw in vocabulary because it is missing from the poll. Grammar is the glue that binds everything together. Grammar is everywhere. Grammar is what makes listening comprehensible. If you don't have grammar, everything is gibberish. 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6595 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 13 of 16 27 January 2015 at 3:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
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To me listening is the only component that can never be ignored in a living language.
7 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7203 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 14 of 16 22 February 2015 at 4:42am | IP Logged | |||||
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How to Be a More Successful Language Learner was the book that had the five categories in the poll. It wasn't trying to say one is more important than another. That was just a way to categorize the poll.
Note, the book was well laid out. The price I see on amazon is crazy. It's a relatively thin little paperback. Though well throught out, it's over twenty years old. I don't see that price being reasonable. $10-15 new might be expected. I also see that they grouped vocabulary and grammar together in one chapter. Sorry about that Mr. Poll. P.S. I found the book because it was referenced in Kató Lomb’s Strategies for Language Learning and SLA Theory, which may itself be a better resource than the one that inspired the poll. Edited by luke on 22 February 2015 at 4:54am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Rozzie Senior Member United States Joined 3410 days ago 136 posts - 149 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 15 of 16 27 July 2015 at 1:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
I totally agree with you 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| neovisualizm Diglot Newbie Korea, South Joined 4307 days ago 5 posts - 9 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English Studies: Korean | Message 16 of 16 11 August 2015 at 6:01pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I'd say listening. What use is speaking if you can't understand what people are saying
to you? I think listening is the most important part of communication; you need to understand what other people are saying to really have a conversation with them. Listening also helps you build your language skills in general - speaking skills especially. If you want to improve even more, then read. It really depends on your own interests and goals - if you are interesten in mainly reading and writing, then of course reading is the way to go, but if you are interested in having actual conversations, listening will get you far. I know people who speak a lot and always have a lot to say (in a foreign language) but they don't understand what people are saying and always keep on interrupting the conversation with their own nonsense that does not have anything to do with what people are talking about. I find that quite rude. Of course having the courage to speak is very very important too, but first of all, I think you have to be able to understand what the people you are talking with are saying. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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