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Reading as a method | ||
Tags: Reading | Learning Technique/Method | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6513 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 17 of 68 14 February 2011 at 10:17am | IP Logged | |||||
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I understand Microsnouts's problem, but there is another side to it. Most of what I read in my 'smaller' languages is either texts on the internet or magazines which I have brought home from travels. The internet pages include forums likes this one and popular science, Wikipedia and travel oriented homepages ... in short anything between informal and well groomed, but not excessively artsy written language. Actually this covers fairly well those registers which I need in practice, both as a traveller and as someone who writes his own small essays etc. for fun. The things that are lacking are the very familiar and the very 'literary' registers (plus juridical language), and frankly I'm not very concerned with this. I'm not going to live in a family setting abroad, I hope I'll never have to deal with the juridical system there and I'm not going to write hermetic poetry or sermons. Edited by Iversen on 14 February 2011 at 10:18am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Darklight1216 Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4910 days ago 411 posts - 639 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German | Message 18 of 68 14 February 2011 at 3:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I guess I'm in the minority here because I don't feel like reading has helped my speech very much at all. When I first started trying to read Bible verses in French, I was intimidated and I could only pick out words like "he, and, the" etc so I kind of gave up on it for a while.
Now I've read more, but I can't really see a noticeable difference in my spoken French and it certainly hasn't helped me in my weekest area (listening comprehension). I've read around 80 pages so maybe I just need to read more... or something. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| numerodix Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6593 days ago 856 posts - 1226 votes Speaks: EnglishC2*, Norwegian*, Polish*, Italian, Dutch, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 19 of 68 14 February 2011 at 3:54pm | IP Logged | |||||
Uh yes. 80 pages is actually not that much reading. We're talking more like thousands of pages that really make a difference. 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5240 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 20 of 68 14 February 2011 at 4:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I wonder where this debate is going. Can one seriously call reading a learning method? I suggest we call it an input method. Our goals and learning strategy will determine what we read. As I and others have pointed out, it's all a matter of how you intend to use the language. Frankly, reading the bible to improve your spoken French strikes me as not being the best way to go about it. Would anybody recommend studying the bible to a person trying to improve their spoken English? Unless they were studying to be a minister.
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| microsnout TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member Canada microsnout.wordpress Joined 5281 days ago 277 posts - 553 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 21 of 68 14 February 2011 at 6:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
Exactly and I don't think reading more of it will help. I am trying to imagine a conversation on the street between someone who learned English from the Bible and someone who learned it from Shakespeare. Kind gentleman, Vexed I am of late with passions. It is a wine store I seek. I pr'ythee tell me where it lies Thats all I seek for I had rather heat my liver with drinking. Look now toward the north and the wine store will appear unto thee. And thou shalt bestow thy money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, and ye shall drink in plenty. Edited by microsnout on 14 February 2011 at 6:30pm 15 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5144 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 22 of 68 14 February 2011 at 10:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
Since there seems to be some confusion over this, I should perhaps specify that I did not mean to suggest to limit yourself to reading only, merely to put a lot more emphasis on reading than what is usually done, in order to give your brain input which will come in handy when you attempt to speak. I am not pretending to have invented a new learning method like the L-R, a method where you exclude all other ways of learning. I also see no reason why one should pick out the least suitable reading material. No, I would not sit down and read the Bible, or Shakespeare to learn spoken English. I might pick out Agatha Christie, Twilight, Jane Austen, Dan Brown, or any text that you fancy, and read. A lot. And then I would of course go out and try to speak, and get feed back, like I did in Italian. I am however certain that I could not have learned to speak Italian in three weeks had I not read 3000 pages before I went to Italy. Am I trying to convince everyone that this is the only possible method? No. But it has given me great results, which was why I wondered whether others had the same experiences. Edited by Solfrid Cristin on 14 February 2011 at 10:56pm 11 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Lightning Groupie United Kingdom livelanguagelove.bloRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5148 days ago 58 posts - 70 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 23 of 68 14 February 2011 at 11:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I spent a lot of time reading Norwegian before I started actually learning it, and I managed to fly through the first 3-4 chapters of my textbook since I recognised so much. I like to read in another language and take extra notice of how a native would construct a sentence or their word choice, it really helps speed up my learning :)
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| Felipe Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5840 days ago 451 posts - 501 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Italian, Dutch, Catalan | Message 24 of 68 15 February 2011 at 12:29am | IP Logged | |||||
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In my own experience reading helps a ton. It cannot be the only way to go about learning a language, there must be other kinds of input, but for me reading has been the best way to really increase vocabulary. However, reading only starts giving me meaningful input after I have a decent grasp on a language.
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