Listening vs Reading

[Bex]

Strange because I find reading much, much harder than listening...why would that be?

What are you reading and what are you listening to?

Harry Potter but I have noticed that I have a weird problem with reading, I cannot read extensively without audio.

I can't ignore the unknown when just reading and I end up looking up every word...I loose the books plot and sometimes even the sentence meaning because I'm looking up every word but with audio I seem to be happy with just understanding the gist of it.

[Iversen]

First kudos to Reineke for that monumental message above. Whauw!

My own minimalistic contribution for the time being would be to mention that I sometimes have used speech synthethizers and other tools to experiment with very short phrases so that I really could study the exact way different voices pronounced certain phonemes - like for instance the Dutch diphtongs or nasal vowels in French. I would typically enter a phrase, hear it spoken by different voices and then note down in my own homebrewed rendering system as exactly as possible what I heard - and that did not always match the claims in my scholarly books! In principle I should have done this with real voices from the real world, but then I would have to find people who said exactly the same thing in more or less the same grey and neutral way ... and then it was easier just to use synthethized voices (but only if they sounded realistic enough to my ears, of course).

Some sites like A capella and the Irish Abair have got a selection of several different voices per language, and these voices are generally fairly nice to listen to. Even Google translate is slowly becoming better, though not yet for all languages - in some languages the artificial voice will still make your ears bleed.

The point in this exercise is to discover how wide a span there really is between the allophones represented by a certain phoneme and to become better at hearing the differences when I'm listening to actual human speech - and maybe also to become more forgiving when it comes to listening to native speakers who represent different ways of speaking their language. Whether the exercise has had an impact on my own pronunciation patterns is less certain, but at least I have a better sense of what I can get away with.

[Dragon27]

I can't ignore the unknown when just reading and I end up looking up every word...

It's just a habit (it may be a strong one). I myself find it hard to switch myself into "extensive" mode (that is, reading massive amounts of text at a fairly comfortable speed without checking and rechecking every questionable word in a dictionary) after I've been doing some intensive reading for, like, couple of months (and starting to feel sickened by it). You probably need to put some conscious effort into it, make yourself read extensively and stop worrying about not understanding everything with 100% certainty, until you've developed a new habit.

[smallwhite]

... but I have noticed that I have a weird problem with reading, I cannot read extensively without audio.

I can't ignore the unknown when just reading and I end up looking up every word...

LLorg thread Seeking advice

"... my compulsion to look up every uncertain word in the dictionary, ...
... it just plain bothers to let it go..."

[Bex]

... but I have noticed that I have a weird problem with reading, I cannot read extensively without audio.

I can't ignore the unknown when just reading and I end up looking up every word...

LLorg thread Seeking advice

"... my compulsion to look up every uncertain word in the dictionary, ...
... it just plain bothers to let it go..."

Thanks smallwhite...nice to know it's not unusual. Some great tips in there too.

I've started using audio with my book and reading each chapter first in English...this seems to be helping me to read extensively... I've managed 4 chapters and not 1 word lookup

[lichtrausch]

I've started using audio with my book and reading each chapter first in English...this seems to be helping me to read extensively... I've managed 4 chapters and not 1 word lookup

I don't understand the point of such pure extensive reading. Surely any learner would benefit from looking up at least the occasional word.

[Mooby]

I've started using audio with my book and reading each chapter first in English...this seems to be helping me to read extensively... I've managed 4 chapters and not 1 word lookup

I don't understand the point of such pure extensive reading. Surely any learner would benefit from looking up at least the occasional word.

When I'm extensively reading I don't usually look up even the occasional word as this tends to interrupt my state of 'flow'. For this to work though I need the text to be at least 95% comprehensible. The longer I can stay in uninterrupted flow the better; I gradually go from 'translation mode' to direct and effortless comprehension, until it seems like I'm flying. If I was reading on Kindle though, I might be tempted to look up a word as it's just a fingertouch away.
Sometimes I read intensively and will examine syntax and other grammatical constructs, as well as look up every unknown word. Flow is not important here, accuracy is. Dividing reading into these approaches is perhaps unnecessarily strict, but I enjoy the unique satisfaction each gives.

[jaeger]

I lean on reading quite heavily as it seems easier for me to do that to start with. When the words are on the page, particularly if a sentence or phrase is longer, I can look at it and digest it, maybe work out what something means that would have otherwise passed me by if heard once. E.g. unpacking a verb form I'm less familiar with but can walk through the steps to understand it on inspection.

When listening to a language I'm not skilled at yet, I don't have any idea what comes next and am always reacting; "What was that thing I just heard?" By which time it's too late. As I get better I can feel myself anticipating the next move and can limit the range of possible things I'll hear next, and at this point I'll also understand enough to learn some new words in context.

That works for me, but I'm sure everyone has their own preferred way (and therefore, the de facto best way ever) of doing things. I don't have any studies to back this up, but I'd hazard if you're taking in a high volume of n+1 in whatever format, you'll be fine.

[Bex]

I've started using audio with my book and reading each chapter first in English...this seems to be helping me to read extensively... I've managed 4 chapters and not 1 word lookup

I don't understand the point of such pure extensive reading. Surely any learner would benefit from looking up at least the occasional word.

This is why I read each chapter in English first whilst listening in Spanish. I can pair up words and learn their meaning in context. On the second run of the chapter completely in Spanish I remember words, even whole sentences, and so again I can learn in context.