IronMike's 2023 log: Fewer means better, right? (EO & RUS)

[IronMike]

I've decided to approach GLOSS listening exercises a bit differently. Instead of starting out with 1 like a normal person, I'm listening to the source first. Get my ears warmed up. Get an idea of what the lesson is about. Then I'll hit Begin Lesson. I've found that do the lesson in the way it is presented is becoming too easy. Too many hints and too many little bits taken from the source and given to me in little bite-sized pieces. I'd rather listen to the whole thing first then break it into parts. The great part about GLOSS is you can start the audio then click back on the main page to ensure you don't read along with the audio (unless that's your point). Normally after the lesson is done, I re-listen to the whole thing again but this time while reading the source.

Did this first with Istraživanje o hrvatskom školstvu / Research about the Croatian Education System. I like this method and will continue to use it till i don't.

[Ani]

Can ELI5 me GLOSS? I seriously can't understand what the benefits are and the best way to use it. Is there any amount of comprehensive-ness within a certain amount of exercises or is it as random as it looks and better for knowledge expansion?

[IronMike]

Can ELI5 me GLOSS? I seriously can't understand what the benefits are and the best way to use it. Is there any amount of comprehensive-ness within a certain amount of exercises or is it as random as it looks and better for knowledge expansion?

I don't actually understand what you're asking in that first sentence. Is it 'cause I'm old(er)?

Better for knowledge expansion, certainly. At least for Russian, Croatian & Serbian. Can't speak for any of the other of the languages.

[Ani]

Can ELI5 me GLOSS? I seriously can't understand what the benefits are and the best way to use it. Is there any amount of comprehensive-ness within a certain amount of exercises or is it as random as it looks and better for knowledge expansion?

I don't actually understand what you're asking in that first sentence. Is it 'cause I'm old(er)?

Better for knowledge expansion, certainly. At least for Russian, Croatian & Serbian. Can't speak for any of the other of the languages.

Haha it's because you don't spend enough time on Reddit.

ELI5 = Explain it like I'm 5 ... As in.. as clearly as you can. Of course you're not obligated to if you don't have time or interest but so many people talk highly of GLOSS yet the times I've tried it have mostly left me feeling lost.

[garyb]

I've tried to use GLOSS but always felt lost too. There's probably great stuff in there if you can figure out how to use it, but to me it feels like some artifact from the Web's early days. There's one member who speaks highly of it and recommends it continuously, but overall I don't get the feeling that it's a very popular resource here, at least not for more "mainstream" languages that have a huge number of other options available.

[IronMike]

Ah, now I understand. OK, here goes. With pictures!



So this first screenshot is the main page at gloss.dliflc.edu. You can pick your language at the top. For you, Ani, I chose French. Next you need to pick the level. If you don't understand the ILR levels but understand the CEFR levels, go to this wiki which is pretty close in its equivalency between the two proficiency standards. I chose 2 for you (~B2). Next choose modality. You can pick Listening or Reading.



You have some choices for Competence as you can see. Also note in the first screenshot and this one the blue button. That changes as you choose more options. There are 34 French level 2 listening lessons available. Once I choose a Competence, that number will go down. I chose discourse, and as you won't see in the next shot, there are now 17 lessons available. (I normally don't even go beyond Modality as there aren't many lessons available for BCS.)



You can see all the Topics available. Since there are only 17 lessons available without a topic being chosen, I didn't choose one. But I wanted you to see what's there.



Here's the first page of the 17 lessons. On the left, you can see the ILR level and the modality (with the headphones...guess what modality!). A small description of the lesson and the topic, e.g. Airbus 380 Technology. The Competence over on the right and then you can download the entire lesson...but I've never done that, so unsure how that goes. For you, Ani, I chose "An Islamic Group in Paris."



And here's the start page for that lesson. Important here: Across the top you see 1 through 6. Those are the parts of the lesson you go through, in order. They build on each other. Over on the right at the top: Glossary, Lesson Info, Source, Resources. I'll screen shot 3 of those.



This is the Glossary. For Listening, you can click the volume icon and hear the word, from the actual audio the lesson is made from. You see the bottom right of that little Glossary window? You can print up this vocab list, which is nice.



This is the Source, the actual audio cut you'll be working with. This is what I spoke about earlier that I'm now going to listen to first (but not read). This is also nice to L+R at the end of the lesson to cement it in your brain-pan. Notice top left "Enable Alternate Audio." Some listening lessons have a recording of the audio that is slower. Most all of these GLOSS listening lessons use native audio, from radio or TV broadcasts. I've listened to alternate audio once and I believe it was a native speaker reading the text of the "real" audio just a bit slower than the actual broadcast. But YMMV.



And these are the sources for the lesson. I've never gone to any of them, so can't be sure if you'll even get anything at the URLs. My guess is some of these links are old.



And here is the first sub-lesson of this particular lesson. Each time you click on a number in the upper left (this is, of course "1"), you'll get instructions pop up. Starting at level 2, all instructions and teacher's notes are in the language. You can, at any level, click the text to switch it to English/TL. Notice the bottom, it says step 1 of 2. When you're done with this first page, you'll click that arrow to go to part 2 of "1". You go through all of these, 1 through 6 in this case, and then, if you want, you take the quiz. I say "if you want," because I found, at least for Serbian and Croatian, the quiz is just a reiteration of some of the questions and cuts from the previous sub-lessons. So I skip the quiz nowadays. Now what I do is go to Source and L+R (or just R if it is a Reading modality lesson).

OK, questions? I think GLOSS really is worth some of your time. The native audio and reading selections really are great. And the explanations they give you for your correct or incorrect answers are wonderful.

[Lawyer&Mom]

GLOSS feels to me a lot like advanced intermediate language courses in college. Lots of reading comprehension with a little hand holding. It’s sort of an awkward stage of learning, when you know all the grammar but still need additional practice and vocabulary. It’s more about exposure than actually learning anything concrete. So if GLOSS feels disjointed that’s just the nature of that stage, when you want to fly but you are still on the ground with training wheels.

[Ani]

That was super helpful. Thanks for taking the time to do that for me. I had never noticed especially the ways to hear the audio up front & printing the vocab list, which really changes it.

1) I'm sure it's variable at different levels & lessons, but roughly how much time do you spend per lesson?
2) Do you use any kind of system to track which lessons you've done, or any order you plan to go through them?

[IronMike]

That was super helpful. Thanks for taking the time to do that for me. I had never noticed especially the ways to hear the audio up front & printing the vocab list, which really changes it.

1) I'm sure it's variable at different levels & lessons, but roughly how much time do you spend per lesson?
2) Do you use any kind of system to track which lessons you've done, or any order you plan to go through them?

1) About 15-25 minutes, depending if I can go through it straight or I get bugged. I do some of these at work and am always interrupted.
2) No system. No order. I started BCS this time in the 1+ range, and when I ran out of lessons or they got too easy, I went up to level 2. Closest I get to tracking is when I mention the lessons in here. If I did Russian, I'd probably have to track closer as there are way more lessons available in that language (123 lessons, reading and listening, at level 2 alone).

[IronMike]

Wow, on the 4th page of the logs now? Dang, how long's it been since I posted?

Been busy few weeks. Did some travel for work and lots of reading, in English. Finished the Esperanto Sumoo successfully, and still reading Ĝambo Rafiki every morning. About halfway done with it. What to read after? Hmm...

I've decided to postpone Middle Egyptian and German so I can concentrate on reviving my BCS. I will probably take a DLPT before Christmas and I'd like to not embarrass myself too much!