Is binge-reading of any value?

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s_allard
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Re: Is binge-reading of any value?

Postby s_allard » Mon May 22, 2017 4:00 pm

reineke wrote:...

I think that the majority of successful language learners eventually reach a point where they can knock off a book in a sitting or two. They can get there in a variety of ways (including through extensive, pleasurable activities).

...

I have to be in the minority here or maybe I'm not a successful language learner, but when it comes to reading in my target language I find it hard to "knock off a book in a sitting or two". As a matter of fact, right now I'm about to start a 442-page book in English which I consider one of my native languages. To read that in one sitting looks like binge-reading to me. And even two sittings would be pretty good.

As for reading a 200-page book in Spanish all in one or two sittings, we would have to talk about what reading means. But that's a whole other debate.
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Re: Is binge-reading of any value?

Postby Aozora » Mon May 22, 2017 4:13 pm

reineke wrote:I think that the majority of successful language learners eventually reach a point where they can knock off a book in a sitting or two. They can get there in a variety of ways (including through extensive, pleasurable activities).


To be honest I can't get through a book that fast in English let alone a target language. I'm just a slow reader.
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Re: Is binge-reading of any value?

Postby SophiaMerlin_II » Sun May 28, 2017 1:59 pm

s_allard wrote:I have to be in the minority here or maybe I'm not a successful language learner, but when it comes to reading in my target language I find it hard to "knock off a book in a sitting or two". As a matter of fact, right now I'm about to start a 442-page book in English which I consider one of my native languages. To read that in one sitting looks like binge-reading to me. And even two sittings would be pretty good.


Reading a 442 page book which is narrative should only take like 4-6 hours if you read at a native college pace. But some people read faster or slower than others. In recent years, my reading pace has gotten painfully slow :oops: I read at a rate of about 1 page per minute now. So that would take me 7 hours, give or take. I used to be able to read something like that very comfortably in the ~3 hour range.

So it maybe has more to do with your personal, comfortable reading speed than any type of fluency.

And type of book makes a difference. A non-fiction book will generally take twice as long as narrative, at least for me.
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Re: Is binge-reading of any value?

Postby reineke » Sun May 28, 2017 2:12 pm

HOW MUCH READING?
The short answer

"A book a week at their level.

The long answer

It’s very complex.

How much should they read?
As a low level graded reader has about 3000-4000 words they only need to read a book at week before forgetting takes hold.

An intermediate graded reader may have 12,000-15000 words and as most of the words will already be known, they won’t meet many new words often but as the book is longer, a book a week at their level is still fine.

Advanced learners need 2-3 books of longer length at their level because they have to read so much more to meet words they don’t know."

http://www.gradedreading.org/contributo ... h-reading/
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Re: Is binge-reading of any value?

Postby tarvos » Sun May 28, 2017 2:17 pm

I would be able to read books of fiction at 100 pages an hour more or less, if the language they are written in is native or close to that. No problem. More complex books such as Anna Karenina take longer, less complex books such as thrillers take less time.

A 440 page book in paperback format in English is a cinch and I'd do it over a long train ride. I've read entire books just on single two-hour flights, as long as the books were about 200 pages long, and those were books in French.

Binge-reading is doing 10 of those books in a month. Which I could do, if only I had the money to stock up on those books or get them somewhere for free... hmmm... that reminds me, we have something called the Internet these days.

I just finished 230 pages of Russian in a few days. It was 60s Soviet SF (or fantasy, depending on your point of view)... so it didn't take me too long. And yes, I can tell you what happened in the book.

In fact, that 100-pages-per-hour criterion is a measure to me of how good my reading skills are in that language. In any language I speak remotely well enough, I can manage figures similar or close to that, and sometimes even higher, depending on the level of the language used insie.
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Re: Is binge-reading of any value?

Postby zenmonkey » Sun May 28, 2017 3:18 pm

s_allard wrote:
reineke wrote:...

I think that the majority of successful language learners eventually reach a point where they can knock off a book in a sitting or two. They can get there in a variety of ways (including through extensive, pleasurable activities).

...

I have to be in the minority here or maybe I'm not a successful language learner, but when it comes to reading in my target language I find it hard to "knock off a book in a sitting or two". As a matter of fact, right now I'm about to start a 442-page book in English which I consider one of my native languages. To read that in one sitting looks like binge-reading to me. And even two sittings would be pretty good.

As for reading a 200-page book in Spanish all in one or two sittings, we would have to talk about what reading means. But that's a whole other debate.


I read apparently at a rate a bit slower than has been posted above - my own tests place me at the 70-90 minutes for 100 pages of native material (not reading for speed). So a 250 page book - I can expect about 3.5 hours, and yes, I'll do that in one or two sittings. A 450 page book would like be more than 2 sittings. Life is busy. Could I do it? Sure, but that is going to be the very rare book or day.

So, after all this math - have we determined that there is more learning going on if I read that book in one sitting vs. four?

I still think this is majoring in the minors. Read 100 books. Whether you read them in 1 sitting or 4 matters a lot less than getting them done.
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Re: Is binge-reading of any value?

Postby aaleks » Sun May 28, 2017 3:34 pm

I’ve never been able to read 100 pages per hour even in my native tongue (I don't know the precise number but I’m sure it couldn’t be so big). 100 pages per day is a more real number for me (at least I can read that amount of pages in English, so I definitely must be able to do it in Russian too :) )
Besides, I don’t see any point to read too fast a fiction book if it’s really interesting one... But it might be just envy :D
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Re: Is binge-reading of any value?

Postby reineke » Sun May 28, 2017 3:43 pm

101 IDEAS FOR ER/EL

Try re-reading 10% faster.

Read against the clock.

Race read your partner to a certain part of the book (make sure they understand it)

Read for 10 minutes, then re-read the same section and try to go 20% further

Use the CD with graded readers as Extensive Listening (listen 2 levels lower than their reading level).

Listen and repeat (shadowing). Gradually increase the speed if possible.

Study the intonation and pronunciation on the CD especially spoken dialogs and plays.

Etc.

http://www.er-central.com/contributors/ ... -for-erel/
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Re: Is binge-reading of any value?

Postby tarvos » Sun May 28, 2017 6:27 pm

zenmonkey wrote:
s_allard wrote:
reineke wrote:...

I think that the majority of successful language learners eventually reach a point where they can knock off a book in a sitting or two. They can get there in a variety of ways (including through extensive, pleasurable activities).

...

I have to be in the minority here or maybe I'm not a successful language learner, but when it comes to reading in my target language I find it hard to "knock off a book in a sitting or two". As a matter of fact, right now I'm about to start a 442-page book in English which I consider one of my native languages. To read that in one sitting looks like binge-reading to me. And even two sittings would be pretty good.

As for reading a 200-page book in Spanish all in one or two sittings, we would have to talk about what reading means. But that's a whole other debate.


I read apparently at a rate a bit slower than has been posted above - my own tests place me at the 70-90 minutes for 100 pages of native material (not reading for speed). So a 250 page book - I can expect about 3.5 hours, and yes, I'll do that in one or two sittings. A 450 page book would like be more than 2 sittings. Life is busy. Could I do it? Sure, but that is going to be the very rare book or day.

So, after all this math - have we determined that there is more learning going on if I read that book in one sitting vs. four?

I still think this is majoring in the minors. Read 100 books. Whether you read them in 1 sitting or 4 matters a lot less than getting them done.



I would agree with you there - I read notoriously fast.
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Re: Is binge-reading of any value?

Postby reineke » Sun May 28, 2017 6:55 pm

"Optimal rates for processing prose are around 300 words per minute; and for fluent adult readers this is constant, regardless of the difficulty of the text (Carver, 1982, 1983, 1990). Even advanced bilinguals (see Segalowitz, Poulsen & Komoda 1991) read as much as 30% slower than this in L2, employing cognitive resources that would otherwise be used for higher-level processes."

Good silent reading rate for L2
https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... ding+speed
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