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Kindle Reading (PatrickWilken or others)

  Tags: Gadget | Reading
 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies Post Reply
16 messages over 2 pages: 1 2  Next >>
soclydeza85
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 Message 1 of 16
28 June 2015 at 10:56pm | IP Logged 
This is directed toward PatrickWilken, since I know he's an extensive reader and he introduced me using the Kindle with dictionaries, but others are welcome to chime in with some insight.

I'm long overdue to start working on reading novels; I've tried before but got too involved in studying the unknown vocab of what I was reading, which killed the enjoyment and I ultimately kept giving up. Since I'd like to start reading in a more enjoyable way, I figure I would just move through the text, quickly look up any unknown vocab to understand the story and just move on (unless I come across something that I feel would be very beneficial to look further into, but I'm trying to minimize that to make the process less laborious).

What are your thoughts on doing something like this? What is your "strategy" when you sit down to read, with a balance of enjoyment and learning in mind?

Also, do you know if there is a way to "capture" the words that you look up on the Kindle? It'd be nice to make a list of what I looked up that I could refer to later if I wanted to without having to deviate from the story to write it down every time.



Edited by soclydeza85 on 28 June 2015 at 10:59pm

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Serpent
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 Message 2 of 16
29 June 2015 at 12:35am | IP Logged 
You might be interested in this thread about the mindset. At least for me it's less about a balance of learning and enjoyment, and more about the two parts of my enjoyment: the content/story/information and the form/language/style.

I generally don't bother to look up even on my e-reader. I don't even have all the dictionaries for my languages. For me the main benefits are simply the portability and the ease of switching between books. The opportunity to read something that fits my mood and energy levels.
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James29
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 Message 3 of 16
29 June 2015 at 1:40am | IP Logged 
The Kindle has a tool that saves every word you look up (I believe they call it "vocabulary builder") and turns them into flashcards. The flashcards have the words in both languages and they have the sentence/phrase from the book where you pulled the word. It is a wonderful tool. Reading with a Kindle is awesome.
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soclydeza85
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 Message 4 of 16
29 June 2015 at 2:23am | IP Logged 
Thanks for the replies. James29, I assume that tool is only for the Kindle tablet? I'm using the Kindle app on a Samsung tablet; I'll see if there is something similar for it.
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Mork the Fiddle
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 Message 5 of 16
29 June 2015 at 2:32am | IP Logged 
soclydeza85 wrote:

Also, do you know if there is a way to "capture" the words that you look up on the Kindle? It'd be nice to make a list of what I looked up that I could refer to later if I wanted to without having to deviate from the story to write it down every time.



I suppose the Kindle version you have might make a difference, but with a Kindle Touch you can write the definition as a note: press the word in question to bring up the dictionary, press More, press Add Note, type the definiton, press Save.

This site tells how to access all your notes. Look under "2. Use Kindle Notes To Help You Learn a Language."

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Mork the Fiddle
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 Message 6 of 16
29 June 2015 at 2:46am | IP Logged 
James29 wrote:
The Kindle has a tool that saves every word you look up (I believe they call it "vocabulary builder") and turns them into flashcards. The flashcards have the words in both languages and they have the sentence/phrase from the book where you pulled the word. It is a wonderful tool. Reading with a Kindle is awesome.


Your post came while I was writing mine. Alas, my Kindle Touch does not have the Vocabulary Builder feature.
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James29
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 Message 7 of 16
29 June 2015 at 3:02am | IP Logged 
I'm not a computer guy. I got the most basic $51 new Kindle for Christmas this year and it has the vocabulary builder. It is the absolute bottom of the line Kindle. It was not hard for me to figure out. I think the vocabulary builder works automatically. I did require a bit of time figuring out how to set the default dictionary. The dictionary can only go one way. You need to set it to go L2->L1 and not the other way around.

   
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Ogrim
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 Message 8 of 16
29 June 2015 at 9:41am | IP Logged 
soclydeza85 wrote:
What is your "strategy" when you sit down to read, with a balance of enjoyment and learning in mind?


I use Kindle a lot for reading, but my "strategy" depends on the language and how advanced I am. When I read e.g. German books on my Kindle, I use the pop-up monolingual dictionary when I come across an unknown word if it hinders my global understanding of the text, but I don't write it down or create flashcards - if the word repeats itself throughout the text I will learn it by coming across it several times.

In a "weaker" language it depends. One problem I have is that I am starting to read Russian books on Kindle, and I have not found a good dictionary that I can use as pop-up for this language. Also, my level in Russian is not that advanced, so I often need to look up various words per page. I switch between using a paper-based dictionary and an online dictionary, depedning on the situation. And I switch between totally intensive reading, where I make wordlists of all the new words in the text, and extensive reading, where I just try to follow the flow of the text and the meaning without trying to learn the new vocabulary as such. I do find that even the extensive reading helps my progress in Russian, at least in building a "passive" vocabulary.


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