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Which skill/s do you practice more? | ||
Tags: Study Plan | Learning Strategy | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6501 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 9 of 17 30 March 2011 at 12:55pm | IP Logged |
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For me reading is by far the easiest exercise and also the one I spend most time doing - both as an intensive and an extensive activity. It is consequently also the one which I can perform fluently in most languages - I can't quote an exact number because reading dialects and old language forms and related languages can be done more or less well. However I have had 'epiphany moments' where I suddenly understood some spoken language, but with writing it has always been a gradual process.
The thing after reading I spend most time on is certainly listening (if I include the things I can hear on TV) - but I have a problem finding relevant materials in some of my 'smaller' languages, and even Italian can be a problem because Raiuno is such a lousy channel that I mostly don't want to watch it. It is debatable whether I'm better at listening or writing - because of the problem I just mentioned I might actually be relatively better at writing certain languages than at understanding speech. And speaking is at the bottom of my list, because I practically only speak in foreign languages when I'm travelling - and then it is English that dominates. I have made some videos to force me to speak some more, but this hasn't changed the situation - I still prefer to think in my languages instead of speaking them. And thinking will in my case more often lead to writing than to speaking. I respect dr. Pimsleur's opinion, but it refers to another set of goals and another learning situation than mine. I can only follow him so far as to acknowledge that 'hearing' a language in your head is necessary even if you are reading, whereas you rarely see written text passing through your mind while listening. In this sense the spoken/heard word is obviously more fundamental than the written one. Edited by Iversen on 30 March 2011 at 1:08pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5809 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 10 of 17 30 March 2011 at 12:58pm | IP Logged |
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I do things as active as I can. Note that I don't consider "speaking" as a useful label -- it's conversation I do.
With Gaelic, I spend: Conversation: 70% TV & Radio: 15% Internet forums: 10% Reading: 5% This is more to do with where I am in my learning and how much I'm "learning" as opposed to "using". I've barely looked at grammar books recently, because I'm focusing on other languages for the moment. My most productive learning period was while I was studying Spanish for my degree, and here's my estimate for how that went: Conversation: 60% TV, Radio and Films: 25% Study: 10％ Reading: 5% But that also added up to a lot more time in total than I've ever spent on any other language in a year. For me conversation is very important, as it is the only activity that really constitutes an all-round workout. Learning to speak helps you learn to write, because speaking builds the reflex for putting words in the right order spontaneously. Writing doesn't build that reflex, because you have extra time and can think several words ahead and then rearrange them. Only speaking forces you to process the language in the correct order and punishes you for doing it wrong. Listening practice can be too easy or too difficult, and a radio program doesn't tune itself to your level. In a conversation, you can choose (or at least influence) the topic, which means you're going to have a better chance of knowing the words you're going to need. You can ask for clarification or just to say something again, which means you have the chance to learn new things. Reading is great for learning new vocabulary and phrases, because you've got time to stop and look things up, and you don't have problems of accent or speed obscuring your understanding. But that's always going to be a fairly small part of your learning. It's a nice leisure activity though. Radio and TV are only for when you're getting good, and the main benefit of it is that it forces you to stop analysing the language -- you've got to let it flow through you and trust yourself to understand. If you stick to the same programmes and presenters, you'll get accustomed to their accent and you'll understand them a lot better by the end of the series. Start listening to a new programme and you'll find that you tune into each new accent easier than the last. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5132 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 12 of 17 30 March 2011 at 5:00pm | IP Logged |
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Depends wildly on which language we are talking about.
The one I am studying now, Russian would probably have Reading 10% Listening 80% Writing 5% Speaking 5% I find myself unable to speak Russian. I struggle to read and write Russian. I can however listen, which I do, a lot. In the 5% speaking I include repeating after the tapes.If we are talking about speaking, as in a conversation with another human being, we are down to 0.0001 percent. In Spanish we would be looking at Reading 1-5% Listening 45-9% Writing 1-5% Speaking 45-49% I read and write Spanish very seldom, but I talk a lot with my Spanish speaking friends, and neccesarily listen to what they have to say as well. French and Italian - what little I do of them - would until this year have been along similar lines, but this year I have actually read a couple of French and Italian books, so I guess a more correct estimate would be: Reading 9-10% Listening 45% Writing 0-1% Speaking 45% German is a bit difficult, because I have done precious little of any of it. I guess the closest I could get to an estimate, judging from this year where I have not spoken much, and read a couple of books would be: Reading 80% Listening 10% Writing 0% Speaking 10% The trickiest one of all, though, is English. I speak English quite often, and I read and write it all the time. I guess the closest I could come to an estimate would be: Reading 30% Listening 20% Writing 20% Speaking 30% 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Shenandoah Newbie United States Joined 4825 days ago 30 posts - 59 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 13 of 17 30 March 2011 at 5:20pm | IP Logged |
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I mostly read and listen, but I try to force myself to spend some time speaking and writing. For speaking, it really helps that I'm taking a class with few students, so we're often forced to speak.
Sometimes I try to talk to myself/my cats, but the biggest problem with that is simply that there's no feedback. With reading and listening, the feedback is comprehension. With writing, I can at least send it off to someone or run, compare it against other material, or even run it through a translator to get a rough idea if I was close. With speaking, I could say something completely wrong, but never know it. As they say, practice makes perfect - and if you practice incorrectly, you'll be perfect at doing it incorrectly. But I also just dislike speaking. I hardly speak in English (my native language) except when absolutely necessary. Sometimes I feel like even that is a foreign language to me - it seems like what comes out of my mouth is rarely what I intended. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5179 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 14 of 17 30 March 2011 at 5:46pm | IP Logged |
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I'm surprised people can give a percentage of how much speaking or listening they do. I personally have no idea! But I do know that to me, the oral language is the real language of which the written language is but an approximate representation.
Right from the start, I try to speak. I do self-talk all the time, I jump at every opportunity to speak, I try to make the most of the words I know. I also read, and I also write, but it's a side dish. I explain what I do here. As a result, I sometimes find people with better reading comprehension than me since they have a larger vocabulary, but I'm usually fluent far ealier than they are. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Phantom Kat Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4861 days ago 160 posts - 253 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Finnish | Message 15 of 17 31 March 2011 at 2:24am | IP Logged |
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Well seeing as I've only beeing studying Finnish since late August of 2010 (and it was more of dabbling until about November), I can give a rough estimate about what I do with what little I know so far:
Reading: 60% Listening: 30% Writing: 5% Speaking: 5% I can read just about anywhere, so for the most part I read my "Finnish for Foreigners I". I read about the grammar. I read the L-R dialogue they have, and I read the Reader excercises that provide no translation. I also read the Finnish subtitles of Disney songs and other songs I find on Youtube. Listening I mostly listen to songs I have Favorited on Youtube and the ones I downloaded on my I-pod. I also listen to clips of skits and Disney movies to see what words I can pick up. I haven't done much in writing, but I plan to spend a lot of time on that once Summer comes and I'm free until January. For now I'm doing too many things in and out of school to really concentrate on writing. I feel confident that if I get most of the grammar rules down and understood the writing aspect will go more smoothly. Speaking I do zilch if you don't count what I read/try to sing aloud. I have never heard Finnish spoken outside of the internet nor have I ever encountered someone who could be Finnish or with Finnish blood. Maybe this will change once I move into a white-dominant community again. I heard one language I couldn't identify and one Asian language I couldn't indentify, and I was only there for a week. I can't wait to live there this summer and see for myself what languages are spoken there. The thought of chatting with someone on a mic scares me to death, so I'll save that for when I'm much more confident in my Finnish. :3 - Kat 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| CheeseInsider Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4920 days ago 193 posts - 238 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin* Studies: French, German | Message 16 of 17 03 April 2011 at 12:22pm | IP Logged |
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French:
Reading ~ 70% Listening ~ 10% Writing ~ 15% Speaking ~ 5% (Used to be a lot more when I spoke French regularly with my dad, but we don't anymore) I find myself reading stories out loud most of the time, so I don't know if that also counts as speaking... Probably not. Right now I'm just focusing on building up my vocabulary. German: Reading ~ 60% Writing ~ 40% I read tons everyday :) and I also have a journal that I write German in. Unfortunately there are hundreds of words that are only part of my passive vocabulary, so I usually have to write those words in English XD 1 person has voted this message useful |
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