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Can you learn a language only by reading? | ||
Tags: Reading | Learning Strategy | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6348 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 9 of 25 18 February 2013 at 4:23pm | IP Logged | ||
no 8 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 4928 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 10 of 25 18 February 2013 at 5:15pm | IP Logged | ||
Not a chance. Nobody acquires native fluency, then "starts speaking". The only thing you'll be good at by only reading and listening is reading and listening. There is no concept of fluency in listening or reading. If you want to become fluent you need to practice speaking. R. == 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6395 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 11 of 25 18 February 2013 at 7:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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There totally is a concept of fluent reading/listening. or proficient if you prefer this word.
I agree that you can't "start speaking" at a native level (even native speakers don't do that), but you can start at a pretty good level. But the listening part is crucial for that. When I first tried to speak Italian after a lot of listening, I was surprised just how much I knew actively. It does save time and effort if you read and listen first and start using the language actively when you're comfortable with it. By the time you understand everything (or just feel comfortable reading/listening even when you don't), you'll be able to say a lot too. 9 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 4928 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 12 of 25 18 February 2013 at 8:22pm | IP Logged | ||
I disagree. Fluency refers to production, not reception. One can certainly be proficient at reading and listening, but that's got nothing to do with fluency. R. == 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6395 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 25 18 February 2013 at 9:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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The way I see it, fluency can mean ease of reading (or listening). Anyway, the terms "passive fluency" or "reading fluency" are very common here.
6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| karpat Diglot Newbie Poland Joined 4113 days ago 24 posts - 28 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: German, Czech, Latin | Message 14 of 25 18 February 2013 at 10:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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No chance. Unless you're remarkably determined, you'll give up soon enough.
I did that with English, though not without any prior knowledge of the language (I was intermediate or so) and, even though we didn't speak much at school (meaning - hardly at all), when I enrolled at a college I could speak without many problems, but only after YEARS of reading (and it was at least 4 hours a day, in summer up to 12). Still, after all those years of reading (I hadn't been listening unless I started college), which is 9 or so now, I am nowhere near native fluency. Without speaking, there is no chance to reach that level, unless you are excepionally talented. I am not. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4807 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 15 of 25 18 February 2013 at 11:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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Tanya reminded me of a story I heard: decades ago, a chinese medicine professor was
corresponding with the americans and had a lot to say about his research and so on. So they managed to get him there for a visit. But there was a trouble. While his writen English was flawless, nobody could understand him speaking. He had never heard English so he had invented his own pronunciation of the written language. So, by reading only (as the title says), you can learn to perfectly read and write. By reading and listening (and listening before reading out loud or anything like that), you can learn a language without grammar books and similar things. the L-R method is based on it. But it may not be the most efficient way, as emk said. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| expatmaddy Diglot Newbie Korea, South Joined 4126 days ago 19 posts - 27 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Japanese, Korean, French, Mandarin | Message 16 of 25 19 February 2013 at 2:42am | IP Logged | ||
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I think it's important to physically make your mouth form the sounds and voice the words
you are reading. Language pronunciation is a large share muscle memory, and you would be doing yourself a disservice not to form those connections between the sounds and the way your mouth must most, since you will be spending all that time anyway. I know that there are languages that are harder to pronounce than others, and will leave you lisping or bumbling just from trying to position your mouth correctly. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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