Learn by listening or speaking

[qzchris]

Steve, do you much experience with downloading audio books from Livraphone? I'm considering using their site. Or do you prefer to buy a physical copy?

[YouStoleMyTube]

Is it better to subvocalize or just to speak out loud? I speak out loud when reading, is that detrimental to the learning process in some way?

[lingosteve]

@YouStoleMyTube I think it is better to sub-vocalize because it will enable you to read faster, and therefore to cover more material. you need to read a lot, to get a lot of exposure to the language, IMO.

[YouStoleMyTube]

@lingosteve Thanks for the reply! I will keep that in mind and hopefully it will turn into a habit :) Your advice is always appreciated!

[phonicsquest]

Come on, the reason why you are standing is your advanced hemorrhoid…we are not that stupid!!!!!!

[AlbertKrantz]

Was this Swedish audiobook by H. Lindqvist or you've listened another one?

[sk8tertater]

So our Japanese teacher tries to explain grammar patterns in Japanese. Sometimes we understand; sometimes we don't, but it helps us speak and explain Japanese problems to other Japanese so that we can move on! I have heard of people getting into car accidents and coming out speaking fluent (or at least decent, I can't really rely on hearsay) German, even though they have never studied it in their life, simply because they had a nanny or something that spoke it around them when they were younger.

[barkatthemoon6]

Steve, I have one tiny question. What recordings/MP3s do you recommend for a beginning learner of a new language? And where might one find these?

[daysin1234]

Steve, if you could post links where you get audio books in those languages about the history of countries that would be good.

[daglug1]

I'm sorry for posting something off topic but, will you be adding the ability to listen to individual words on link instead of having to find the part in the dialog over again? It would be very useful, especially in faster spoken languages

[lingosteve]

@daglug1 Yes this in on our list. We will probably add text to speech to the Flash Cards or something.

[LearningFrenchNow]

Steve, do you subvocalize when you encounter words in a foreign language that you are learning? You mentioned in this video that if you haven't heard the words it's more difficult to learn them when you read. I am wondering if this is because of subvocalization, which I find myself doing. Could you elaborate on this, or possibly do a video sometime about subvocalization of foreign language texts?

[lingosteve]

@LearningFrenchNow Yes I always subvocalize. If I have heard the text I get a little momentum , and I am already familiar with the subject. If I have only a few unknown words (highlighted in blue in LingQ) I can just skip forward to them.

[patrick2909]

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[patrick2909]

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[patrick2909]

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[patrick2909]

Thank you for your kind lectures. But I think most of native teachers miss a problem.

Those who can understand your lecture like above don't need to try to improve their English more. They are already advanced learners. And those who need to improve their English ASAP can't catch your fluent native English. It's a kind of dilemma. Native teachers teach and explain how to learn foreign language with their own very fluent language to beginners who can't get it.

[mednos]

I wish Steve would have mentioned the imitation technique, by using this method you're trying to simultaneously imitate a native speaker, this method is also known as "shadowing" as introduced by Professor Arguelles in his videos.

[lingosteve]

@mednos I do not use this technique. I find it interferes with my comprehension. I do not like doing it.

[zocurtis]

I'm trying to go to Costa Rica for 3 months for my Spanish.

[PolyglotNZ]

@zocurtis I am going to Costa Rica on holidays in July! (^_^)

[lingosteve]

@zocurtis Good luck and enjoy yourserlf!

[gp4nut]

This is why I recommend Michel Thomas. Sure, it's low on vocab, but it gives you the basic tools to make sentences with and so you can easily communicate, even if you get stuck on the vocab there's always a way around it.

Worked for me, I did the basic course and then came to The Netherlands. Now I listen a lot and also try to speak it wherever I go.

Only problem is, I've reached a limit now. Progress is now limited. I need to read more at this stage!

[lingosteve]

@gp4nut I found Michel Thomas, slow and listening to English on it annoying. Language learning to me is all about learning words.

[gp4nut]

@lingosteve Yes, different learning methods suit different people. What I found great about MT (and originally thought would suit everyone) is that the "sentence construction vocab" to "other vocab" ratio is much higher than anything else. Even if you ignore my time here, I learned a similar level of basic Dutch in about a quarter of the time it took to learn French and Spanish in a classroom setting.

Now that MT has given me what I need, I'll now hit the textbooks and other methods :)

[LearningFrenchNow]

@lingosteve The Michel Thomas method has the same drawback as a classroom, which you've mentioned before, in that the learner is listening to other learners. In the case of Michel Thomas French, Spanish, and German, there are no native speakers in the recording. Michel Thomas has a heavy Polish accent in his French, Spanish, and English.

[LearningFrenchNow]

@lingosteve I used the Michel Thomas method and was able to remember a lot of the grammatical concepts from his recording because of his mnemonic aids. I don't like his accent or use of language learners in the recording. I think this causes the listener to retain errors made by the other learners. However, his memory association techniques, I think are very good.

[OscarP282]

That's funny the moment when you get a call. Currently I am in the stage that if someone calls me while I am recording a youtube video, I loose my concentration and then I have to start again!

[AbcSchoolOfPolish]

Great video! I couldn't agree more.

[Kouziren]

Steve I'm just curious, after 3 years of studying Russian, how good would you say your comprehension is?

[lingosteve]

@Kouziren I understand everything I hear on Echo Moskvi, and when reading Tolstoi or listening to audio books, except for words that I do not know. The same is true in conversations.

[vicarious8989]

great video! I notice some people are able to express themselves quite well in a foreign language, but their ability to understand is at a much lower level. It seems like they have read a lot and know the words to use, but they don't know how they sound in speech. I am also in agreement with listening > talking. But, and this is a big but, you should also try to talk as much as possible. Whenever I read something in Spanish, I always read it aloud.

[jmichaelrout]

larger vocabulary one uses with a child, the more advanced the child's vocabulary will become (in other words, don't use baby talk). I do think that we should try to listen to as much native content as possible (get out of the language courses as soon as you can get by). This is all an untested hypothesis, but perhaps this is the reason one of the reasons why input works so well, particularly lots of auding.

[jmichaelrout]

Great video. The phone call part made my day. =P I haven't confirmed it yet, but my ASL teacher told me that pre-lingual deaf people on average read and write on a 2-3 grade level. This leads me to believe that the more one listens to a language (foreign or other), the better he'd be able to read in that language. And perhaps the more academic and sophisticated the content that one listens to is, the better he'd be at tackling advanced literature. I have seen studies suggesting that the

[charmides1]

i believe listening is more important at first then speaking. you can learn alot by speaking however, you will not learn as much as you would if you understood everything that is being said to you first. listening teaches you everything from grammar to pronunciation. i believe bad accents come from inability to listen.

[coolsteven2]

MY FRIEND IS SWEDISH!!! I LEARN SOME SWEDISH FROM HER SPEAKING WITH HER FRIEND!!! I think speaking is the top most important. It really allows you to make sense of the words you've heard and the order in which they go in. Writing is an added tool of understanding, because if you are able to write it correctly, you can somewhat speak it correctly.

[OscarP282]

@coolsteven2 When you have a conversation with someone, approximately 50% of time you are listening! So even when you are speaking, you are also listening.

[coolsteven2]

@OscarP282 yea :D I'm trying to fin da french partner xD Its hard to speak with French people, maybe French Canadian? Anyone want to help?

[YouStoleMyTube]

@coolsteven2 Je peux parler le français avec vous :) Je parle un peu, et vous?

How far along are you? I'm at about the high - intermediate level. I would love to find a French partner :D

[coolsteven2]

@YouStoleMyTube un peu aussi :/

Im like beginner-low intermediate. :D

[YouStoleMyTube]

@coolsteven2 Okay I'll message you now :P

[Codylangaugesblog]

Listening to content, in which you understand most of, is the most important thing in my opinion.

I also make videos in foreign languages and it does wonders for me!!

I have an input based method of learning, but I love to speak as early as I can even if I know only words and phrases.

HaHa! at the phone call!!

[bluzytrix]

You speak your way to fluency in the sense that your mouth needs to go through many different combinations of sounds to make it automatic when you speak. To me, speaking is true confirmation of how much of a handle you have on a language.