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Number Listening Comprehension Training | ||
Tags: Number System | Listening | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6715 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes  5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 1 of 3 14 April 2013 at 3:22am | IP Logged | |||||
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Looking for a way to improve my comprehension of the tricky French numbers, I have come up with a very simple method that some of you might find useful, for French or other languages. It is time-consuming, pretty arduous and quite boring - be warned :). On the other hand, it's pretty effective and in limited amounts it might be actually fun.
Some of you might know the random number generator from french.about.com. I used it for listening comprehension practice before. I would keep opening and closing my eyes in order to prevent me from reading the number before I could hear it - not the most practical solution :). Therefore, I decided that what I really need are random lists of numbers, preferably both text and audio. I looked for something like that for quite a while and finally decided to make use of the benefits of technology. The idea is very simple: using spreadsheet software to generate list numbers (MS Excel in my case) and some decent text-to-speech software to make the audio (I chose Ivona). My lists of numbers have the following format:
This works with Ivona, and should work with other software of this kind (some tweaks might be needed to get the pauses right). Most importantly, you can listen to short text samples (up to 250 characters) for free at ivona.com, and 250 characters are a lot of numbers :). The following languages are available at the website: English, Spanish (European and American), Brazilian Portuguese, Welsh, German, French (French and Canadian), Italian, Dutch, Danish, Icelandic, Polish, Romanian. For German, Danish and Icelandic, you need to add extra empty lines to get the pauses right:
At the moment, I basically listen to the audio and write the numbers down. I usually listen twice and then compare my notes with the text. I am planning to visualize the numbers instead of writing as well, and to translate them orally (but this might not be desirable for those who prefer to think in TL only). I use Ivona Reader application on my computer, so I've got some additional options - I can speed up or slow down the audio, and make the pauses after each number shorter or longer to adjust the difficulty of the task. Furthermore, I decided to develop a systematic approach to various kinds of numbers. So far, I have come up with the following types of numbers (and stages of learning): - 2-digit numbers (or, to be more precise, 1- and 2-digit numbers), - 3-digit numbers (i.e. 1/2/3 digits), - dates (i.e. numbers between 1000 and 2015), - dates 1700-2015, - 4-digit numbers (see above), thousands and millions divided into groups of increasing difficulty (examples of prototypical numbers from every group below): - 542 000, - 645 300, - 734 000 000, - 774 400 000, - 118 110 1000. two groups specific for French and my struggles with this language: - numbers 60-99, - thousand (FR mille) vs. million, eg. 514 000 and 838 000 000. I'm thinking about adding new number types, e.g. numbers with decimal points. I wrote very simple Excel formulas to generate random numbers in the ranges needed, and made a couple of lists for each kind of numbers. Copying & pasting newly generated lists directly into Ivona would be easier but I have not come up with any simple solution to add dots after every number (a separate column with dots on the very right won't work, and macros are still quite a mystery to me). This is not a big problem, though, as lists can be re-used. I don't know if anyone is that desperate to quickly improve their comprehension of numbers :). In any case, you are more than welcome to use my lists. The file (.xlsx) includes: - separate sheets with numbers of each kind and one number-generating column (in yellow), - an additional sheet for 3-digit numbers with extra empty rows added. If you want to generate your own lists, you have to replace Polish-language formulas LOS and ZAOKR (English: RAND and ROUND). Here a website with the names of Excel formulas in a variety of languages. Edited by Julie on 14 April 2013 at 3:29am 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6409 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 2 of 3 14 April 2013 at 3:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Awesome!
Fortunately, football helps greatly with the numbers :) For Finnish, there's also the wonderful Suomi lukuina song by Ruoska, which is basically some stats read aloud. (okay... stats of deaths in Finland) If this wasn't a song, it would be insanely boring to listen to :) Any similar examples from other languages??? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4721 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 3 of 3 14 April 2013 at 9:36pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Pimsleur has a couple of lessons with some fantastic number drills in the final 5
minutes, in which they add two numbers together. For example: onze et quatre font combien? I think the first instance is at the end of lesson 14 or 15 in level 1. They do it again in level 2, and then do similar things with time. This is such a great difference to most audio programmes which just teach you how to count. You really have to think about your numbers. And you can do this for yourself, because if you pick two random numbers in your head, you probably don't already know what the answer will be. It also works very well with another person: you ask them one sum, and they ask you another (I sometimes do this with my son). EDIT: Another important type of number to be able to use is years, especially since they say them differently than we do in English. That is, instead of "nineteen eighty- six" you get "mil neuf cent quatre vingt six". If you use a random number generator, I would suggest giving a lot of time to numbers between 1000 and 2015 or so. Edited by Jeffers on 14 April 2013 at 9:41pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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