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Using Transcripts for Listening | ||
Tags: Transcripts | Listening | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| BobbyE Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5043 days ago 226 posts - 331 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin | Message 1 of 10 20 September 2014 at 7:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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The three major problems in listening seem to be: 1) Lacking vocabulary 2) Your ear not hearing words you already know 3) Inherent discrepancy in the way a word is written and the way it is spoken by a particular speaker.
So far this is the best way I've come to use audio and transcripts to address these problems:
After you look up a word and return to the audio, do not let yourself move on from the word until you can really hear the word and it's usage clearly in that context. It's easy to trick yourself into thinking you understand what's being said once you already know from the transcript what the meaning is, but this is just cheating your ear out of an opportunity to notice the way people on the ground actually speak. If the speaker is slurring the word and you can't make it out clearly, mentally note exactly how it is being slurred, what part of the word is still there, and in what sentence and situation it is being slurred. By doing this you'll start to be able to infer when slurred speech is the same word you've heard slurred many times before. You'll also notice regional speech patterns if you listen to people from a particular area consistently. You'll also notice your ability to identify pronunciation and spelling improves, even if you don't know the word. I think something overlooked is that we seem to have two different known vocabularies. The vocabulary your eye knows, and the vocabulary your ear knows. It's important to improve both. I've tried listening without a transcript, or with a transcript but no rewinding. I think both of these have value too, but what I described above has resulted in the best trend in my learning so far. What is your approach to listening comprehension? Edited by BobbyE on 20 September 2014 at 7:52pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7001 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 2 of 10 21 September 2014 at 1:52am | IP Logged | ||
Doing a lot of listening is the key for me. I use a variety of approaches and they all help. Listening plus reading the translation are one of the keys. This can often be done simultaneously. As I begin to understand what I'm hearing, I start to pay more attention to the transcript, rather than the translation. The translation is a key though that allows me to comprehend far more interesting things that I would normally be able to understand. I find listening to things repeatedly over time is also helpful. My corpus of comprehensible material deepens with repeated exposure. Another key is to move on when something gets to dull or is too hard. I circle back later and pick up more. Some satisfaction comes from listening to stuff that is not to difficult to understand without a transcript. I listen every day. It's one of my primary activities. I listen on the go, in the car, when I have a couple spare minutes as well as at my computer. I use some video, but tend to work more with texts. One useful tactic for listening on the to is to have a variety of material. I've found it very helpful to have audiobooks as well as shorter segments such as Assimil lessons. If I only have 90 seconds, it's likely I have an Assimil track that will fit that slot. If I'll be in the gym for 30 minutes, I have an audiobook that has a chapter or two that will fit right in. It's also helpful to listen to a variety of things. Since about half of my study is done on the go, I have several tracks that can go in parallel. E.G., audiobooks, Learn in your Car lessons, FSI lessons, Assimil lessons, etc. Smartphones and memory sticks make it easy to track what I've accomplished. I just delete the track when I'm done. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| BobbyE Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5043 days ago 226 posts - 331 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin | Message 3 of 10 21 September 2014 at 4:05am | IP Logged | ||
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Nice Luke, it sounds like you've figured out how to maximize your time with listening. When school is in, I'm also mostly listening on the go. When school is out, I have so much time at home that I can more easily use the computer to pause-rewind.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| smallwhite Pentaglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5104 days ago 537 posts - 1045 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin, French, Spanish | Message 4 of 10 21 September 2014 at 9:39am | IP Logged | ||
I do the same except that I don't "Listen without transcript". I find it unnecessary - it may be productive, but I don't need what it produces, so it's unnecessary. It's like doing a mock exam before learning course contents. I prefer learning first, after which I know I will be able to do the exam (ie. understand the recording). Maybe after 3 months of learning, I will test myself by "Listening without transcript" in order to locate weak areas. Maybe my approach leans more towards "learning to listen" while your's "bringing your listening ability up to par with your reading ability". I must quote Ari's excellent post: Ari’s Chinesepod method Re-listen to recordings that you've worked out! - Edited by smallwhite on 21 September 2014 at 10:19am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4705 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 5 of 10 21 September 2014 at 5:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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Funny, I take the opposite approach to smallwhite and BobbyE. Since for me listening is the hardest skill, I practice audio first. I usually do this with shorter audiobooks, or readers that come with a CD. I first listen to the story 2-4 times without looking at the book. The first time I'm just trying to get the gist of the story, while I pick up more of the details with subsequent listening. After several listenings, I read the book (although I don't bother to look up every unknown word on the first reading).
The audio first method allows you to approach the written text with questions in your mind, and gives you a chance to develop your listening skills. As others have said, periodic re-listening to books you've already worked on is a really good idea. Edited by Jeffers on 21 September 2014 at 5:17pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| BobbyE Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5043 days ago 226 posts - 331 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin | Message 6 of 10 22 September 2014 at 12:27am | IP Logged | ||
I agree 100% actually, and actually I forgot to mention I do both and usually start off with same-time reading and listening because it's the fastest way to hit words I don't know. Script seems like a prototype that is brought to life when spoken. The living breathing thing is what sticks in my mind the most, but the script really sets the stage for this to happen. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| BobbyE Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5043 days ago 226 posts - 331 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin | Message 7 of 10 22 September 2014 at 12:28am | IP Logged | ||
That's really cool man, that sounds like a fun way to go about it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| smallwhite Pentaglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5104 days ago 537 posts - 1045 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin, French, Spanish | Message 8 of 10 22 September 2014 at 9:07am | IP Logged | ||
Listening used to be the hardest for me, until I started doing what I wrote above, and now it's 2nd hardest; speaking became hardest instead. I actually believe that it would be better to learn to listen before learning to read. But it's much more convenient for me to read first, with listening following shortly after, so. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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