|
 |
Watching TV | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4328 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes  Studies: German | Message 17 of 21 28 September 2014 at 8:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
Sure. I thought by immersion you were referring to my living in Berlin. But I do use bilingual dictionaries. Most of the books I read are on the Kindle and I use a pop-up dictionary for words I don't know. So I don't do very much pure extensive reading; at the same time I don't really dwell on the text very much either. I simply try to understand each sentence quickly and move on. You are right, in a way this is similar to using L1 subtitles with L2 spoken text, but the difference is that I am only looking up individual words (half the time the dictionary fails anyway) and I make an effort to understand the text before using the dictionary. And of course I don't need to look up a word every sentence. With movies if I personally find it very difficult to ignore the L1, so generally I have the complete English text in my head and then hear German, but the subtitles often are only an approximate match to what I am hearing, and it's also difficult to immediately match up components of the L1 sentence with the L2 sentence in real time. Movies are not my main way of getting language input. Books are a far richer. I use movies almost exclusively to train my ear to speech in real time. I don't want L1 subtitles to interfere with this. But this is just my preference. Edited by patrickwilken on 28 September 2014 at 9:00pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6392 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 18 of 21 29 September 2014 at 2:40am | IP Logged | |||||
|
I was referring to living in Berlin as well. Even if it's not true immersion, this still affects your learning.
This might even have to do with personality types/thinking patterns. I don't even spend all that much time explicitly thinking when I watch a movie (or a match). In terms of MBTI I 'feel' rather than 'think'. I'd also think that those who don't live in L2 country are less likely to think (again, explicitly) in L2 at such a level, but maybe that's just my assumption. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4328 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 19 of 21 29 September 2014 at 9:03am | IP Logged | |||||
I think it's an interesting question what benefits I get for my German learning living in Berlin. There are undoubtedly some, but I think less then many on this board assume. But that's worth discussing at some point on it's own thread. But you are probably correct that because I live in a German-speaking environment that I am sort of encouraged to go the full German speaking route more often.
I think you are correct that my dislike of L1 subtitles probably comes down to some sort of personality trait. One thing that does bug me about using L1 subtitles is that I am never sure how much I have understood of the spoken content of the film in my L2. It's a big boost to my feelings of progress knowing that I understanding the speech around me. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 4961 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 20 of 21 29 September 2014 at 11:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
Sometimes you don't have much choice. I've watched TED Talks with subtitles in Georgian - actually with double subtitles, Georgian followed by Portuguese. It turned out to be more of a reading exercise, but extremely helpful, because it forced me into reading and comparing. I saw an improvement within my attemps. At first I'd have to pause sentence by sentence, and at one given moment I could listen to the audio in English and read both subtitled while getting the meaning, at least for shorter periods.
Now I try to always use double subtitles when watching a film. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| victorhart Bilingual Tetraglot Groupie United States mandarinexperiment.o Joined 3502 days ago 66 posts - 155 votes Speaks: English*, Portuguese*, Spanish, French Studies: Mandarin | Message 21 of 21 05 October 2014 at 5:05am | IP Logged | |||||
|
I've thought about this issue extensively, and I would recommend, in descending order:
1) Spanish audio with no subtitles: as long as you can stand it, this is the best, even when you are not understanding much. Include shows with simple language, such as programs for toddlers and small children. 2) Spanish audio with Spanish subtitles: when the subtitles match closely this is as good as the above option--possibly even better at lower levels. 3) Spanish audio with English subtitles: if you need them sometimes in order to stay engaged and motivated. However, you're not truly training your ear this way, at least not efficiently. You also risk reinforcing a mental translation habit, which can be pernicious. In other words, this is a significantly inferior approach (that said, I'm "cheating" in this way in my Mandarin acquisition experiment) 4) English audio with Spanish subtitles: I would never do this, except maybe for kicks once in a blue moon. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
