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Memorizing a 400-500 word passage | ||
Tags: Memory | Learning Technique/Method | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Kugel Senior Member United States Joined 6544 days ago 497 posts - 555 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 12 02 October 2008 at 1:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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Would it be worthwhile to memorize a passage in the target language that covers all the fundamental grammar points in 400-500 words? I remember how relatively easy it was when I had to memorize prayers in catechism class, which I received extra credit for doing them in Latin. This leaves me to wonder if I should incorporate rote memorization on a large scale in language learning, so that before I would even approach a particular grammar subject, I would already have in place its uses, which would be imprinted in my mind.
One can't just memorize any random passage, so how does one find a passage which incorporates all the basic grammar points when he doesn't even have a rudimentary basis in the target language to start from? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Autarkis Triglot Groupie Switzerland twitter.com/Autarkis Joined 5958 days ago 95 posts - 106 votes 4 sounds Speaks: German*, English, French Studies: Italian | Message 2 of 12 02 October 2008 at 1:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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Have one suggested to you, preferably one you can relate to.
Rote learning is not really a cornerstone of didactics nowadays, but many people including me feel it to be helpful. I always use music, this has the advantage that you can use it both actively (singing) and passively (listening to nice music). I know a lot of English lyrics by heart and I feel it's been a tremendous help. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JW Hexaglot Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/egw Joined 6128 days ago 1802 posts - 2011 votes 22 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Ancient Greek, French, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Luxembourgish, Dutch, Greek, Italian | Message 4 of 12 02 October 2008 at 5:22pm | IP Logged | ||
Exactly. I memorize poetry and lyrics and have also found it incredibly helpful. It’s not only helpful for learning vocabulary and grammar points, but also for getting the rhythm and pronunciation of the language. Here is how I do it. I find a poem I like that also has sound file where it is being recited by a native speaker (youtube is great for this). I then memorize the poem over several days and listen to it being recited by the native speaker. When I have it memorized, I then make a sound recording. I keep re-recording until I am happy with the result. Then, when I have dead time (e.g., waiting in a line somewhere), I run the poems through my mind, or if alone, recite them aloud. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hamba Diglot Newbie Australia Joined 6737 days ago 22 posts - 32 votes Speaks: English*, Indonesian Studies: Arabic (classical), Urdu | Message 5 of 12 02 October 2008 at 9:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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One can't just memorize any random passage, so how does one find a passage which incorporates all the basic
grammar points when he doesn't even have a rudimentary basis in the target language to start from? It has always been a cornerstone in traditional Arabic language learning to use this method precisely as you have outlined. Traditional arabic grammars are memorised and serve as the basic "skeleton" on which one is later able to hang increasingly larger amounts of "flesh" as you deepen your vocabulary. So the crux is finding a text which outlines the grammar in a condensed and hopefully conducive form for easy memorisation. As I mentioned above there are some brilliant memorisation texts in Arabic for Arabic as there is I'm sure for most classical/religious languages. Perhaps take a basic primer in Latin which emphasises declensions, syntax etc and work through it applying it to the language you want to learn. Good luck. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6709 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 6 of 12 03 October 2008 at 4:20am | IP Logged | ||
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I fail to see why it should be beneficial to memorize one chunk of 400 words. I suspect that the reason for the popularity of the method among Arab learners is the practice of memorizing the Quraan, which has religious rather than linguistic reasons. However there is no doubt that memorizing shorter chunks for certain grammatical problems is useful. The borderline between learning grammatical 'type sentences' and fixed expressions is somewhat fuzzy - you could say that finding sentences that illustrates for instance a way of constructing questions in language X is something you do because you haven't yet found a memorable 'bon mot' that might do the same trick. With even shorter chunks - 2,3 words - the borderline is even more fuzzy. You have to learn which prepositions goes with which verbs in English - OK, then you memorize (or suck up) those short chunks as units. This is all part of normal language learning. You may also benefit from learning certain lists of words by heart, such as "aus bei mit nach von zu" (and others) in German. But I have yet to see a rationale behind the idea of learning large portions of any text by heart, unless it is a sacred book in your religion or a work of art which you can recite to improve your pronunciation. Edited by Iversen on 03 October 2008 at 4:26am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Alkeides Senior Member Bhutan Joined 6154 days ago 636 posts - 644 votes | Message 7 of 12 03 October 2008 at 5:19am | IP Logged | ||
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Heinrich Schliemann claimed to have memorized numerous books in the various languages he learnt.
One advantage I think memorizing long chunks has over memorizing phrases is that it provides context. Check the Personal Logs section for a user named ryuukohito; I think he did fairly well based on a combination of listening-reading, memorization of short stories using mnemonics and SRS use. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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