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June 24, 2010

Practice Exercise For Second Language Writing And Comprehension

Do you need a bit more practice for both writing and reading comprehension in your target language?  Try this as a regular activity, to go along with your software for language training.  Doing so will help you exercise both comprehension and writing “areas” of language acquisition.

  1. Pick a publication on a topic that you like in your target language, preferably one with varying lengths of features.
  2. Choose three articles from it: one short (300 to 500 words), one medium (around 800 words) and one long (1,500 words or more).
  3. Take those three articles and set a goal for rewriting them in your own words.  Give yourself a week (or two to three weeks, if you don’t have a lot of time to devote to it on a daily basis) to finish.
  4. Start by reading them and creating a clear outline of each article’s content.  Use the target language for the outline – this will help train you in developing thought processes in the foreign tongue.
  5. After the outlines are done, start converting each outline into a sentence outline.  That means expanding the brief phrases and clauses that stand for each idea into full-length sentences.
  6. Rewrite each article in your own words, basing your write-ups completely on each outline.
June 17, 2010

How To Improve Comprehension When Reading In A Foreign Language

One of the best ways to prepare yourself for a trip to a host country is to get acquainted with the language.  While there are limitations to how much you can learn from a language practice program given your schedule, you can complement that by doing foreign language readings in your spare time.

Here’s how you can make the most of it.

  1. Decide why you need to read a particular piece.  If you have no strong reason in mind, it’s so easy to get disheartened and give up.   Find a reason and remind yourself of it.
  2. Learn to skim.  Even with limited facility in the target language, you can skim through your readings using the few things that you know.  Read through all the headlines, stick to the topic sentences, look for emphasized sections and jump to useful summaries when they’re available.
  3. Use both top-down and bottom-up techniques.  It helps you get more familiar with the nuances of a language when you read the same text in varying ways.  They really do tend to highlight different things about your topic.
  4. Give the dictionary a rest.  You will be tempted throughout your reading to keep referring to the dictionary.  Resist it.  Instead, draw context clues and use them to guess meanings.  You’ll learn better that way.
  1. Learn to read context.  Being able to discern context in foreign reading materials helps clue you in on many cultures and behaviors in the host country.    You’ll be glad you did.
January 30, 2010

Reading In English? Here Are Five Things To Note

Are you trying to improve your English reading comprehension to supplement your software-based language learning?  While you can read anything you want and possibly gain some benefits, these tips should help you maximize the positive things you can draw from them.

1.  Read at a suitable level.  If you’re barely two weeks into your ESL studies, opening up a book written by academics will likely leave you with a headache.  As much as possible, try to read at a level that is right for you.  If a particular material is too difficult for you to comprehend, put it down and find something else.  It’s perfectly valid.

2. New words are awesome.  When you encounter new words, don’t let them intimidate you.  Just guess their meaning and continue reading.  I’d suggest marking them, though, as you go.  That way, you can go back after you’ve finished a piece to research the new vocabulary individually.

3. Read regularly.  Like all skills, reading requires consistent practice.  Save at least 10 or 20 minutes each day for reading, that way you’re able to maintain a regular, active pace.

4. Read with learning the language in mind.  Reading for leisure is very different when reading for learning.  With the latter, you need to come prepared – have your markers at hand, a dictionary (in case you really can’t understand the words) and other study materials while you read.

5. Choose interesting materials.  There are thousands, maybe millions, of reading materials available.  Why would you even pick up something you can hardly care about.

June 7, 2009

How Reading Silently Helps Your Language Learning

Once you’ve gained enough proficiency in a language to be able to read books and magazines printed in it, the next step is to try to keep yourself silent while you’re reading.  If you remember back in elementary school, the teachers made you do the same thing.  That’s because reading in silence can do plenty of things for your overall learning, aiding your regular classes and language learning software course.

1. You learn to read faster

When you read out loud, your brain has to keep pace with your voice.  As such, you read considerably slower.  Reading silently means going through written materials much, much faster.

2. You improve your comprehension skills

Reading silently frees you from the challenge of pronouncing the words, which can take away from your task of comprehending it.

3. You learn to ignore unimportant words

Reading faster means focusing on key words that allow you to gain full comprehension of the text.  This is possible in silent readings, but unattainable when enunciating out loud.

Reading Out Loud

Both reading silently and reading out loud bring their own virtues to the table.  However, if your focus is on being able to employ the language to pick up information, reading with your mouth working slows down the process considerably.  When practicing the language, always specify what your goal is for the day.  If it’s pronunciation and vocabulary mastery, then read with the loudest voice you can muster.  If it’s comprehension, go the other way around.

May 10, 2009

Reading Tips For Mastering A New Language

When learning a new language, reading as much material as you can in that vernacular is one of the most effective ways of integrating comprehension into your skillset, apart from arduous study using a language learning software. Here are some tips to help ensure that your reading work gets you closer to the results you’re looking for.

1. Keep a bilingual dictionary handy. Any time you encounter a sentence or a phrase you don’t understand, try and look up the unfamiliar words. Avoid referring to a dictionary every time you encounter a new word – it’s not an efficient way to learn. Most of the time, you can understand a word even without knowing its meaning just from the context of the material.

2. Read slowly. The slower you read, the more your brain will be able to process the material it’s going through. If you find a hard time slowing down, try reading aloud – your brain will be forced to read at the pace of your voice and won’t be able to speed through parts.

3. Summarize your readings. After you read a chapter a book, try and write down a summary of what happened. This forces you to think back to what you just read, improving your overall comprehension.

4. Read comics and cartoons. If the material is available to you, opt for cartoon strips and comic books for your reading practice. The pictures will help a lot in actual comprehension, giving you a clearer picture of even confounding statements.
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