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LR method?

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12 messages over 2 pages: 1
EnglishEagle
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4334 days ago

140 posts - 157 votes 
Studies: English*, German

 
 Message 9 of 12
24 July 2015 at 1:25pm | IP Logged 
I haven't done any more L-R today, I only did about 90 minutes yesterday in total which I know is not much. I
will being completing my 2 Assimil lessons for today and then I'm going out with my family for a meal. After
that, I will continue with Der Kleine Prinz and hopefully finish chapter 1 and 2.

Current stats:
84% --> 54% --> 38% unknown words - Chapter 1 of Der Kleine Prinz
Chapter 2: 69% of unknowns
Chapter 3: 71% of unknowns

Harry Potter: 85% --> 74% --> 73% (this is just for reference).

Edit: won't be completing my Assimil lessons, my family and I went out for the day. I will be doing L-R instead
because I want to test the effectiveness of this method.

Edited by EnglishEagle on 24 July 2015 at 10:39pm

1 person has voted this message useful



EnglishEagle
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4334 days ago

140 posts - 157 votes 
Studies: English*, German

 
 Message 10 of 12
25 July 2015 at 1:27am | IP Logged 
I have done almost 2 hours (UPDATE: almost reached my goal of 3 hours, so I'm stopping) of L-R today, but
I'm only going to do an hour more because I'm getting tired.

Current stats:
84% --> 54% --> 38% --> 24% --> 17% unknown words - Chapter 1 of Der Kleine Prinz
I want to finish chapter 1 on Saturday, making sure that I fully understand the whole chapter. I can imagine
this will involved 4-5 hours of work.

Chapter 2: 69% --> 61% --> 59% of unknowns
Chapter 3: 71% --> 67% --> 64% of unknowns

Harry Potter: 85% --> 74% --> 73% --> 69% (this is just for reference). Total decrease: 16%
I do hope that after I go through the Der Kleine Prinz that my total unknown words for 'Harry Potter und der
Stein der Weisen' is around the 30-40% range. Considering that after only going through 1 chapter (almost)
the amount of unknown words has decreased by a staggering 16%!

Note: it's taking me a lot longer to go through the text that I had anticipated. I think it may because
because
I'm getting a bit tired and I keep replaying the audio to ensure my 'inner voice' pronounces the words
correctly.


Edited by EnglishEagle on 25 July 2015 at 2:46am

1 person has voted this message useful



Falkner
Diglot
Newbie
Germany
Joined 4111 days ago

1 posts - 5 votes
Speaks: German*, English
Studies: Italian, Icelandic

 
 Message 11 of 12
02 August 2015 at 2:02pm | IP Logged 
The point of LR is not to repeat a chapter until you understand it completely, but to accept that you don't know everything and pick up words through constant repetition in different contexts throughout the book.
Right now it seems like you're sort of memorizing the first chapter. I'm not sure how much that will help you in the long run and could imagine that you will have problems with many of the words you think you already know in later chapters.
That combined with the rather slow pace of this approach might really damage your motivation, which I believe to be the most important factor in language learning.

I'm not saying you're wrong, maybe your method works for you. However, there is another way to do LR: extensive reading and listening to a story you love (instead of the intensive approach you have now), slowly building up a framework through repetition in different contexts that allows you to understand more and more as you go along.
5 persons have voted this message useful



syrichw
Diglot
Newbie
Taiwan
syricfreising.blogsp
Joined 4026 days ago

6 posts - 10 votes
Speaks: Mandarin*, English

 
 Message 12 of 12
02 August 2015 at 6:37pm | IP Logged 
I'd like to share my experience with L-R.

Some of my thoughts:
1. L-R works for 0 beginners.
2. L-R works if you only invest a small amount of time. I do L-R 1-1.5 hours a day.
3. Remember Krashen i-1 hypothesis: If you cannot follow the plot or understand every single word, you can pause and read the translation first. Also avoid materials that make you feel bored. Comprehension makes progress.
4. Do not be worried about translation errors. You will be able to notice it by yourself soon. (It happens in Harry Potter and Brave New World)
5. The longer you listen, the more you get.

I've tried it on two languages: Korean and Danish. Here is what I've done:

Korean: After watching nearly 200 hours of Korean drama, I tried L-R with the Korean New Testament. I listen to the Korean audio and read the Chinese version. I did not use parallel text. I found that the Korean sentence structure has seemed more natural to me and I picked up some words as well. However, I did not reach the natural listening stage after L-Red the Book of Relevation and I felt dissappointed. Then I got an opportunity to study in Denmark this September and I decided to switch my target language. I stopped L-R Korean.

Danish: From April, I made nearly 100 hours of L-R. Not sure if I reached natural listening, but now with translation I can understand Harry Potter and Brave New World in Danish easily.

What I've L-Red:
April:
1. Jehovah's Witness My Bible Stories: At first, I listened to each chapter three times. The first time L2-R1, then L2-R2 and the third L2-R1. The book is easy. The audio is slow and clear. Great source for the most basic vocabulary learning, but no more.
2. Harry Potter 1: (L2-R1, L2-R2, L2-R1) I can hardly understand anything at first and it made me frustrated. So after a few chapters I gave up.

May:
3. Genesis & Exodus: (L2-R1) I started to feel that if I read Danish while listening to the Danish audio, I tend to recognize words by the shape of the words instead of the sound. So I stopped L2-R2. The bible was much more easier than HP since certain words repeat a lot. I stopped to listen to the bible after the Exodus because I felt bored and ready to face HP again.
4. Harry Potter 1-2: I can easily follow the plot after L-Red the first book.

Then I stopped L-R for nealy a month due to the final exam.

July:
5. Harry Potter 1 (the second time)
6. The old man and the sea: Much harder than HP. Noticed that not all the narrator speak as clear as Jesper Christense, the man who read HP in Danish.
7. Harry Potter 2 (the second time)
8. Lolita: The story was great, but it was definitely super hard for L-R. My understanding fell below 50%. I guessed perhaps the narration style is too abstract for me and I am not familiar with the story lines. I decided to change my strategy for the next book: Pause. Read a sentence or two in L1. Then play the audio and be concentrated to the sounds and meaning.   
9. Brave new world: Easy as Harry Potter.
And now I am current working on Harry Potter 3.

It feels really good to understand a foreign language without studying at all. I borrowed a Teach Yourself Danish from the University's library and the content is easy to understand. Written Danish is not hard at all. I cannot fully understand news and radio now, but I think it would be easier after listening to more books and moving to Denmark a few weeks later.

Edited by syrichw on 02 August 2015 at 6:50pm



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