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Passive Listening | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| jody Senior Member United States Joined 6027 days ago 242 posts - 252 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Bulgarian | Message 1 of 32 20 March 2008 at 9:28am | IP Logged |
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I have read a lot on this forum about passive listening. For example, listening to music, watching a movie, or listening to an audio book in a passive manner. In other words, not for understanding but only for "noise". I cannot understand this idea.
As an example, my wife bought me a tape with Bulgarian stories. I listen to it in my car, and when i have spare time. It doesn't help me at all. My thought is, what does it matter if I don't understand one word of it? Sure, I understand a "dobre" here or a "znaesh" there, but mostly I can't tell when one word ends and the next one begins. I could listen to it a million times and never understand a word of it. Am I doing something wrong? Or am I simply expecting too much from this passive approach. I do realize that I can't learn a language just by listening, but I have read so much about people improving in this way. Thanks for your input. Jody 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6557 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 2 of 32 20 March 2008 at 9:44am | IP Logged |
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I agree, I don't think passive listening accomplishes anything, other than perhaps helping you recognize a language.
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| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5940 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 4 of 32 20 March 2008 at 9:59am | IP Logged |
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I don't think passive listening in just the target language can be beneficial, unless you're at an advanced stage, or you simply just want to pick up the rhythm. I've mentioned it before, but passive listening with either "Learn in your car" or "Vocabulearn" can be helpful. You aren't completely passive, but it's not stressful, and you end up learning more than you'd imagine.
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| jody Senior Member United States Joined 6027 days ago 242 posts - 252 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Bulgarian | Message 5 of 32 20 March 2008 at 10:22am | IP Logged |
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Okay, maybe I was reading too much into it. Not very helpful.
I'm starting the listening-reading approach that siometterio (or however you spell her name) outlined. I have some text in English and Russian, and the audio in Russian. So far I can follow along as they read in russian, but if I lose my place then it is really hard to find it again. I can see how this would be helpful, but I realize I will have to use my grammar books. I so hate these grammar books. I wish there was an easy way...(i'm so lazy) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| rob Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5954 days ago 287 posts - 288 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Norwegian, Mandarin | Message 6 of 32 20 March 2008 at 11:26am | IP Logged |
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If you're listening to something purely for background noise, then I wouldn't expect too much of it. I think the point of passive listening is to be able to pick out a certain number of words at given stages of learning. For example, when you start, you may listen to the radio and only be able to understand that it is Bulgarian, but not understand a single word. You might not even know it's Bulgarian to start with. After a couple of months, you'll pick out a number of words but not really understand anything. After perhaps half a year to a year you'll start to get a general picture of the meaning, etc.
The point is, if you listen to something you're not familiar with, and something which doesn't explain itself (as language courses do), then your understanding will start at nothing and gradually improve as your studies progress. It's also beneficial to listen to the language in lots of different contexts, and especially to listen to it being used naturally. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| vanityx3 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6250 days ago 331 posts - 326 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 7 of 32 20 March 2008 at 11:40am | IP Logged |
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I'm not sure if you can learn a language only by listening to it, except your native one.
But, if you are at an intermediate level with a language, listening to your target language hours a day will help you greatly. The language will start sounding less fast and each word will sound more and more clear. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Hollow Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States luelinks.netRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6328 days ago 179 posts - 186 votes Speaks: French*, English*, SpanishB2 Studies: Korean | Message 8 of 32 20 March 2008 at 11:58am | IP Logged |
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I don't know to what extent this is valid in Bulgarian, but passive learning helps me for Korean because I get a better idea of cadence, accent and tone used. Pausing in korean doesn't always follow English or french pauses in a sentence, and so listening helps me to gauge the rythm of the language in a way that staring at text cannot.
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