A key to understanding anything in a second language is being familiar with the context.
There are many ways to become more familiar with context. Actual y living the experience is the best but is not always possible. That is why extensive reading and listening is the best alternative to actual y living the experience.
When I lived in Hong Kong and studied Mandarin, I built up a vast library of content on different subjects of interest that I would read and listen to often. Each time I listened I would focus on different words and phrases until they became natural to me.
Even when I lived in Japan, I still had my own language world of reading and listening because it was too difficult to get it all from real life until my Japanese was good enough.
Experiments have shown that if you give language learners a glossary or vocabulary list of new words for a text they have not seen, it will not help them understand the new text. They simply wil not remember these words, which they have tried to learn out of context. If they are already familiar with the subject of a text, they will understand better, but the vocabulary list will not help.
So the lesson is that attempts to memorize isolated vocabulary lists, TOEFL vocabulary lists, technical vocabulary lists, antonyms and synonyms, or memorizing the dictionary which Chinese learners sometimes try to do, are usual y ineffective ways to learn.
Bored with Korean
I was asked how I find the time to learn languages. Let's look at my recent efforts to learn Korean. I believe that you need to go at language learning in concentrated periods of relatively intense effort. These can be two or three months long. Each one of these periods wil bring you a breakthrough to a new level.
During my first spurt of Korean learning I would make sure that I always had audio content in my car CD player, or in my MP3 player. I would get in 15 minutes here and 30 minutes there.
I would try to get in a minimum of 60 minutes every day. In the evenings I would spend 30
minutes reading and reviewing the new words. I think you need to work 90 minutes a day almost every day for a period of 3 months to achieve a breakthrough.
Unfortunately the Korean learning content was very boring. If I had had interesting and authentic real Korean content (as opposed to textbook content) I would have done better. I would have done a second and third spurt. I did not, because I kind of lost interest in the same old boring Korean content.
I feel that in learning a language it is very important to have as much contact as possible with the new language. Ideal y you should try to listen or read or review or write or speak every day. The more you enjoy what you are doing, the more likely you are to do it regularly. Rule number one is: do what you like to do.
When you start out in a language, it is beneficial to listen to the same content many times.
The first time you may be trying hard to understand the content. You wil probably save some words and phrases. The second and third time you are better able to focus on these new words and phrases. Hopeful y you have reviewed these words and phrases and said them out loud a few times. When you hear them again, in context, this helps to reinforce your memory of them.
You are also participating in a familiar environment in another language. This helps train your ability in the language. But if you find it boring or annoying to listen to an item, by al means move on to the next item. I certainly do. I do not like listening to boring content.
When I am better at the language I may listen as little as twice or three times and then move on. If you real y do not like a content item, do not listen again. Find something you like.
In any case, you can always go back to earlier items to review and reinforce.
You will find it easier to listen again if the voice is pleasant to your ears. Spend more time on content that you like. There are some content items in various foreign languages that I have listened to 20 or more times. I always enjoy them. Some items I can only listen to once or twice.
So there are no hard and fast rules. Repetition is important. Enjoying yourself is important.
Being in daily contact with the language is important. The decision is up to you. See what works best for you.
I have often stated that repetitive listening is a powerful language learning activity. This is especial y true in the early stages of learning a language. As you progress you tend to listen less often to the same content. I am often asked, by learners, how to decide when to move on to new content. Here is what I had to say on this subject on our LingQ Forum.
In my experience it does not really matter when you move forward to the next item. You move on when you feel like it. Certainly you do not need to 'master' anything since it is not the sheer repetition of anything that will guarantee that you learn it. You need exposure, pleasant and yet challenging exposure. When an assignment is no longer pleasant nor challenging to listen to, you just move on.
Yes you should go back to old material again, especial y if you feel like doing so.
As you continue your listening, and reading and word review, and your writing and speaking activity, the bits and pieces of the language will slowly fall into place, not on some timetable dictated by anything you deliberately do, but according to some timetable that only the brain controls. Just keep feeding the brain with enough stimulus, and keep wanting to learn, and enjoying your learning, and you wil be surprised at the results.
It is often said that in language learning, you either use it or lose it. H ere 'use it' usual y refers to speaking in the language.
I do not find this to be the case. Since I speak and understand 11 languages, I real y do not have enough time to use them all in speaking to people.
I find that if the learning process is largely based on input, and not dependent on speaking to people, it is not so easy to lose languages and it is easier to maintain them. I have CDs in different languages, books, and of course today there are podcasts. So maintenance is easy. I listen and read.
I usual y find that when I leave a language for a long period of time, and then go back to it, I am quickly at my previous level. In fact, because I have been acquiring other languages, I find that I have actual y improved in the languages that I have neglected.
Maybe people who learn based on remembering grammar rules, or based on speaking the language, are more likely to lose a language they do not use. I do not know for sure.
Podcasts are going to assume increasing importance in language learning. There is a vast and growing wealth of podcasts on the Internet. They may be language teaching podcasts intended for language learners, or podcasts on everything from IT to politics, economics, food or travel. A google search will quickly bring up lists of podcasts to choose from. These are some of my favourite learning materials.
I real y only want the podcasts for content. I do not like to hear my own language, English , trying to explain things to me. However, many other learners like to hear their own language, and also like to study grammar. If that makes them enjoy their studies and study more, good.
Go for it! I disliked it when a language teacher would use English in a classroom environment.
