Reading

[jesolis]

Hello everyone. I think that when learning a new language, reading books is a great way to increase your vocabulary. What are your thoughts on this? Do you think that reading is better than watching movies or listening to music to expand vocabulary? Leave your comments below!

[宇崎ちゃん]

I'm more of a listening-type of person, but it's ideal to do both listening and reading practises.
Focussing on just reading will make you not understand spoken languages.
Focussing on just listening will make you not understand written languages.
So it's best to utilise both.

[blikkael]

I also prefer reading than watching movies, but only for leisure time. When it comes to learning new languages for myself, I'd prefer to watch something then that's the point that I'll be needing some reading materials as well. When time comes that I'm familiar with the basics, then that's the right time for me to read books and magazines as well. It would be a really big help, in my opinion.

[jamesbonner]

well reading books may get you lost, because they use some hard words in them, you'll need to use the dictionary a lot to understand eveything, but with movies you can understand the words from watching  

[Wanda Kaishin]

All skills reinforce each other, so they should all be practiced. 

[hungary93]

Yes, reading really can help you at not just after intermediate level. I suggest everyone to try reading at the very begginig too. Even if you only know a handful of words, try with children's books and newspaper. It can really help your brain to add one and two together later on.

[Lingua Franca]

I personally think it's a great idea. It's not uncommon to get certain sounds confused if you only learn a language phonetically. A m can easily be confused for a n, and a d for a b. If you read in that language you can see what the word looks like and not run that risk. 

[foolsgold]

I think you'll have to identify what kind of learner you are. I'm a visual learner so I like seeing things. It could be flash cards, books, anything that involve visuals. The thing about reading is that when you run into an unfamiliar word, you can easily look at the word and look it up. So this will help you remember the meaning but also the spelling of the word which are some of the things you could miss when only listening to a song/watching a movie. They are good supplementary sources of learning though.

[kurdapia]

If you read a book, blog or online articles, I think you have more vocabularies to encounter than listening to music or anything that does not have a written text. That is how I learn I got to have something to read or some texts to rely on so that I can go back to them later for my review. I think that would depend on what kind of a learner are you.

[sillylucy]

I try it all with easy books. I go to the library and check out the international section for books for kids. That helps me the most because I can count on the picture books to teach me a few things here and there! 

[lingualbabe]

I love reading books but I also love watching series. So for me, it's a mixture of both. I learn a lot of words by reading, that's for sure. But I learn about proper pronunciation when I'm listening or watching certain programs. There really is a benefit to both. So by combining them, you get the best of both worlds. And I think that is why I resort to both when I'm learning a new language.

[EsperantoOnline]

Definitely reading books gives you the edge on the vocabulary for most languages. Sometimes though, you might have a specific goal or reason to learn a new language. Perhaps you want to expand your customer base for a product that you are selling, so in this particular case, it would be better to learn how people interact with each other. This would be more closely related to how people talk in a movie or a tv show.  For deep mastery of any language though, understanding it's written structure is the way to go.

[Chris_A]

I think both movies and books are a great way to learn a new language. Books can be a little trickier, though, because you are required to actually have a pretty firm grasp on a language, before you start reading books. With movies it is easier, because you can watch them with subtitles, and thus associating each word you hear with a translation.

[anna3101]

I think both movies and books are a great way to learn a new language. Books can be a little trickier, though, because you are required to actually have a pretty firm grasp on a language, before you start reading books. With movies it is easier, because you can watch them with subtitles, and thus associating each word you hear with a translation.

I think it depends on the kind of book you choose for your reading When my knowledge of the language is basic, I go for children's books or my guilty pleasure - primitive romance novels. You really don't need a lot of vocabulary for either of those but whatever you encounter will often be of the useful, basic vocabulary range. I also enjoy rereading my favourite books translated into the target language. If it's Harry Potter or Shopaholic series, I know perfectly well what I'm reading about, so it's easier to get hang of new words.

But, of course, films are also useful, and while you are reading, you won't know how to pronounce words correctly (when you are still at the beginner level). It's just that I enjoy books more than films, so when I study a language, I start with what's more natural for me: reading.

[Chris_A]

I think it depends on the kind of book you choose for your reading When my knowledge of the language is basic, I go for children's books or my guilty pleasure - primitive romance novels. You really don't need a lot of vocabulary for either of those but whatever you encounter will often be of the useful, basic vocabulary range. I also enjoy rereading my favourite books translated into the target language. If it's Harry Potter or Shopaholic series, I know perfectly well what I'm reading about, so it's easier to get hang of new words.

But, of course, films are also useful, and while you are reading, you won't know how to pronounce words correctly (when you are still at the beginner level). It's just that I enjoy books more than films, so when I study a language, I start with what's more natural for me: reading.

Using children`s books as a way to start learning a new language is actually a really good idea. I have never thought about this before, but I might try this method for sure. Thanks for the suggestion.

[agentzero]

I think I've mentioned this in another thread and while I do agree that reading can be useful, it can also be discouraging. I tried to read my first book in English when I was 15 and it wasn't even that hard of a book (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows), but I was stumped most of the time and had to pull things out of context or just simply read in front of the computer and google things I don't understand. This turned me off from reading in English for a while (~10 years) and I started to watch movies and TV shows with English subtitles instead. Only after so much later, I have finally decided to go back and try to read another book in English and this time it was incredibly easy (the book was Gunslinger, by Stephen King, first part of Dark Tower series) and I have actually felt a little silly for not trying again sooner.

[Wanda Kaishin]

You might be interested in this famous language learning theory when select ing material to study:

The Input hypothesis is Krashen's attempt to explain how the learner acquires a second language – how second language acquisition takes place. The Input hypothesis is only concerned with 'acquisition', not 'learning'. According to this hypothesis, the learner improves and progresses when he/she receives second language 'input' that is one step beyond his/her current stage of linguistic competence. For example, if a learner is at a stage 'i', then acquisition takes place when he/she is exposed to 'Comprehensible Input' that belongs to level 'i + 1'. We can then define 'Comprehensible Input' as the target language that the learner would not be able to produce but can still understand. It goes beyond the choice of words and involves presentation of context, explanation, rewording of unclear parts, the use of visual cues and meaning negotiation. The meaning successfully conveyed constitutes the learning experience.