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 #17 (permalink) Wed Aug 15, 2007 22:23 pm What do you read to learn languages? |
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| Quote: |
| I also like to watch the online TV program like FOX7, I think I really got some progress from this for my listening skills. |
Many years ago I had heard an opinion that listening to the radio is ten times
more effective than watching TV.
A reason for this was energy of our mind is wasted profoundly for the picture and
learning is only in progress when you are fresh to absorb new stuff, it means you are not overwhelmed distracted with any other task / activity except what you want to learn.
This is sometimes out of sense because to be under a charm of good scene - means also to have good reasons to remember words connected with.
But !! --- !!
if you are tired you would have understood but not have learned for long.
Regards
Jan |
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Jan
I'm here quite often ;-)
Joined: 01 Apr 2006
Posts: 318
Location: At sea
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 Ralf
Language Coach
Joined: 20 Apr 2006
Posts: 1485
Location: EU (Ireland and Germany)
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| #19 (permalink) Thu Aug 16, 2007 1:26 am What do you read to learn languages? |
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| Torsten wrote: |
| In addition to reading books you should also listen to audio books. This is very important if you want to increase your vocabulary, it's at least as important as reading. |
And even more helpful for making vocabulary stick is to read the book AND listen to the audio version.
A good site, if you want to read a text and also hear it is this one:
http://voanews.com/specialenglish/
There's also a good BBC page for that, but it takes a lot of searching their site to find it. If you do find it, however, it's quite worthwhile.
| Torsten wrote: |
| Also, when you look up a new word in your dictionary, do you use an English/English one or an English/Polish one? |
The folklore among language teachers is that it's better to use a monolingual dictionary, but modern research shows that using a bilingual dictionary is more efficient.
Also, according to the more recent research, you shouldn't try to guess the meanings of words from context too much. Teachers tell you to do this instead of using a dictionary, but research shows that when learners do it, they guess wrong at least 64% of the time. |
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Jamie (K)
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 5334
Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
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| #20 (permalink) Thu Aug 16, 2007 1:31 am What do you read to learn languages? |
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| Torsten wrote: |
| Remember that when it comes to listening, the "quantity of your input" is as important as the "quality". In other words: especially at the beginning it's not so important what exactly you listen to as long as it is authentic English. |
And if you don't understand a lot of what you're hearing, just relax and let it go by. With each relistening you'll pick up more. And much more of the language sticks in you head than you're initially aware. A lot of it gets in subliminally and stays there until it bursts out of your mouth a few months later. |
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Jamie (K)
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 5334
Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
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| #21 (permalink) Thu Aug 16, 2007 1:39 am What do you read to learn languages? |
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| Torsten wrote: |
| Yes The Teaching Company is an excellent resource for educational audio books and if you are interested in a particular science or subject you should get some products from them. In addition, you can listen to anything you are interested in. |
Don't forget that the iTunes store is a HUGE source of audio material on MP3, and a lot of it is absolutely FREE. Go to http://www.apple.com/itunes/ and download the iTunes program. After it's installed, you can go to the iTunes Store, and search for podcasts on whatever subject you want. (There are a LOT of ESL podcasts.) Pick the ones you like and subscribe to them. There are thousands of them that don't cost anything, and they're on business, science, language learning, or almost any subject you can imagine. Since these podcasts are just MP3 files, you can load them into whatever type of player you have (which doesn't have to be an iPod, if you do it right). |
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Jamie (K)
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 5334
Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
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| #22 (permalink) Thu Aug 16, 2007 1:43 am What do you read to learn languages? |
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| princess wrote: |
| Do you think the fiction comprised many fancy words for describing a special condition or state? I think if I learn this word at first, I will hardly to use them into my real life, am I right? |
It's easy to figure out which types of words you WILL use in your real life, but it's impossible to know which words you will NEVER need. In my foreign languages, I first learned a lot of words I thought I'd need, and later I found out I needed a lot of words I hadn't learned.
It's all good. Just take it all in. |
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Jamie (K)
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 5334
Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
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| #23 (permalink) Thu Aug 16, 2007 1:47 am What do you read to learn languages? |
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| Jan wrote: |
Many years ago I had heard an opinion that listening to the radio is ten times
more effective than watching TV.
A reason for this was energy of our mind is wasted profoundly for the picture and
learning is only in progress when you are fresh to absorb new stuff, it means you are not overwhelmed distracted with any other task / activity except what you want to learn. |
I don't agree with this. The more context you have -- verbal and visual -- the more easily you can understand the words that are being said. The radio offers the least context, and a talking head on TV the second least. Drama or comedy shows on TV offer the most context, and I find the learner picks up language more efficiently from them. |
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Jamie (K)
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 5334
Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
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| #24 (permalink) Thu Aug 16, 2007 2:17 am What do you read to learn languages? |
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| Jamie (K) wrote: |
| Torsten wrote: |
| Yes The Teaching Company is an excellent resource for educational audio books and if you are interested in a particular science or subject you should get some products from them. In addition, you can listen to anything you are interested in. |
Don't forget that the iTunes store is a HUGE source of audio material on MP3, and a lot of it is absolutely FREE. Go to http://www.apple.com/itunes/ and download the iTunes program. After it's installed, you can go to the iTunes Store, and search for podcasts on whatever subject you want. (There are a LOT of ESL podcasts.) Pick the ones you like and subscribe to them. There are thousands of them that don't cost anything, and they're on business, science, language learning, or almost any subject you can imagine. Since these podcasts are just MP3 files, you can load them into whatever type of player you have (which doesn't have to be an iPod, if you do it right). |
 J, I can't thank you any more. However, I havt to consider to buy one IPOD at first XD |
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Princess
You can meet me at english-test.net
Joined: 02 Aug 2007
Posts: 67
Location: Wonderland
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| #25 (permalink) Thu Aug 16, 2007 7:47 am What do you read to learn languages? |
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| Quote: |
| I don't agree with this. The more context you have -- verbal and visual -- the more easily you can understand the words that are being said. The radio offers the least context, and a talking head on TV the second least. Drama or comedy shows on TV offer the most context, and I find the learner picks up language more efficiently from them. |
That is true but my personal experience is work with radio let me concentrated
more easily and world of sounds are more alive than pictures from movie ??
Regards
Jan |
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Jan
I'm here quite often ;-)
Joined: 01 Apr 2006
Posts: 318
Location: At sea
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Michauek
I'm here quite often ;-)
Joined: 29 Apr 2007
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Location: Poland
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| Do you believe in astrology? What's your sign? | Have you ever heard of ICAS for English? |
