german2k01 wrote:Let me share a real example and please tell me whether I have reached "natural listening" in German.
I have been listening to German every single day for the last 16 months. 6-12 hours every day. As a part of total immersion. Listened to 70 audio dramas, a dozen of audiobooks, and watched hundreds of dubbed TV seasons. Of course, I have done L-R 8 books spanning over a couple of months, hundreds of hours. Done 50 hours of listening in 5 days etc
Does it feel like your comprehension is quite high? I'm guessing "yes" and if that's so, it sounds like you've achieved "natural listening".
german2k01 wrote:I reached 2000h mark in listening.
How many hours do you think you've listened with "decent or good comprehension"? (even if assisted with subtitles, L-R, transcripts, etc. Here I mean the "listening" part, even if using other things to help your understanding. I'm sure that's a big number and maybe it's 2000. Just trying to understand. (I sometimes focus on subtitles and tune out the sound - if I've "tuned out the sound" mentally, that's different than L-R).
german2k01 wrote:I am more interested in the speaking part of the method
In addition to other good advice here, wonder what you've done around German Phonology. Maybe it's easy with your background. To me, German has a lot of "foreign" sounds. Part of L-R is to build up the speaking side of the equation from the smallest part on up. The smallest parts are individual sounds. Phonemes. Things like that.
From sounds, she moves the student to words, then phrases, then sentences, then structured phrases, shadowing, reading aloud, answering questions like, "tell me about that story you've been reading", and finally to more free-style conversation.
To me, one of the standout aspects of L-R is that Listening, the first skill starts globally, with long novels that you work to understand.
Speaking, works the opposite direction. It starts with the smallest components, (sounds, words) and gradually gets bigger and bigger (phrases, sentences, conversations).
Have you done shadowing? Do you think you can do it fairly well with books you've used for L-R? (even if you slow the audio a bit)
Can you read a book you've done L-R in a way that a listener who didn't have the book could follow the story? (not as fast as a German, but at a pace they could listen for a couple minutes and then tell you what the bit you read was about?)
I'm not suggesting you need to change something, just trying to understanding what parts of the Listen-Reading system you're using, since that's the thread topic here.