I have finished two one-month challenges in different languages since joining LingQ and want to share my experiences because I think they bear upon issues frequently raised in this forum.
Challenge #1: Russian I originally joined LingQ in order to access to a variety of graded materials that I could read and listen to in Russian away from my computer (e.g., on my phone). I have found this feature enormously helpful.
Last year I did a one month challenge as an experiment to see how effective just reading and listening would be. After two weeks it was clear that making lingQs was insufficient to fix Russian words and grammatical patterns in my head. While I learned a few words along the way, in order to turn passive knowledge into active use, I had to do more. I resumed the method that I had developed on my own (i.e., writing sentences with words and patterns that I wanted to use and incorporating them into Skype conversations) while continuing to read/listen for additional exposure and review. This was and still is effective.
The challenge also made clear that the number of lingQs that I created was irrelevant as an indication of what I knew or had learned. A lingq is a word or phrase that I don’t know. Unless it is a cognate of something I know in another language or a conjugation or declension of a word I already know (which I generally do not lingQ), I will not know it by making a single click. A lingQ is only important when I retain its meaning. This generally occurs in steps: (1) when I see/hear it in the same context when I redo the lesson; (2) when I see/hear it in a similar context in new material; and (3) when I use it in writing or conversation. For all basic vocabulary and grammar patterns, my goal was and is #3. As my knowledge increases, vocabulary/patterns that were once in #2, are moved to #3: i.e., my passive knowledge becomes active usage.
A lingQ only indicates what I have learned when it becomes a known word/phrase. Doing this requires effort on my part: repeated exposure and active use. My active knowledge does not “just happen.” The number of lingqs I make says nothing about my knowledge of grammar and my ability to understand native speakers and to speak coherently.
Moreover, I learned that how I make lingQs affects how quickly I learn them if at all. If I read/listened to material in which there are 30%+ unknown words/patterns, I do not remember the meanings of most of them and I certainly cannot understand the lesson by listening alone. By contrast, if I read a longer article in which there are only a few unknown words or phrases on each page, I can use the context to help remember the meanings. The number of new words could be the same in a given lesson (e.g., 50 or even 100) but their distribution [percentage] within the whole lesson is key. I retain the most when the number of new words remains under 20%. If an article is very short and I am very interested in it, I can push myself to lingQ 25-30% new words but this does not increase my retention unless I do additional work to use the new material and turn the lingQs to “known.”
In another post, I noted that I had discovered by accident that significantly increasing my listening by binge watching a Russian TV series had a great impact on my speaking ability and of course upon my listening comprehension. I subsequently tried to increase the time I spend listening on LingQ, starting with things that were easier than those I had been reading. This helped but finding material that was easy to understand without reading it yet was still interesting, was a struggle since I had become used to reading more complex (interesting) lessons.
In retrospect, I had made the common mistake of allowing my reading ability to outstrip my listening comprehension. Yet expecting listening comprehension to magically catch up to that of reading is unrealistic since one’s ability to recognize letter combinations on a page has little to do with recognizing sound patterns uttered out loud at different speeds in authentic speech. Listening and reading are separate skills. Falling into this trap is insidious since it leads one to think that one “knows” a language better than in fact is the case. It can also lead to frustration, “I know tens of thousands of words, why can’t I understand native speakers better? Why can I only talk about only a small fraction of what I can read?” Sound familiar?
Challenge #2: Spanish.
I know Spanish well, having pursued it in college, studied in Madrid for a summer, and used the language afterwards when travelling as well as on occasion professionally. However, since I started learning Russian on my own, I have spent most of my time on it. While I occasionally read in Spanish, I rarely spoke it at length. Indeed, in November when I tried to speak in Spanish, the words that most readily came out were Russian. While this signaled how far I had progressed in the latter, I still didn’t want to lose my speaking ability in Spanish. I thus signed up for a one-month Spanish challenge in December to address the problem. During the challenge, I decided to focus on listening to lessons. I chose intermediate level material at random that I thought I could readily understand without reading. I read through a lesson afterwards to see if there was anything I didn’t know precisely.
I was able to zip through the first lessons at normal speed (Spain Spanish) and moved on to longer podcasts on various topics (15-30 minutes). I was struck by how easy and enjoyable this was compared with my Russian lessons. I understood 90% or more of what I heard in Spanish, rarely repeating the lessons because I didn’t need to. I made lingQs if I did not know a word or phrase ahead of time, primarily to flag it so I could use it actively, regardless of whether I had understood it in context. (I don’t lingQ cognates.) I didn’t write sentences with the new vocabulary/expressions because in Spanish how something is spelled is for the most part exactly how it is pronounced (unlike in Russian) and I didn’t need to practice Spanish grammatical patterns. I was listening about two hours per day. In one month I had accumulated Advanced 1 level in known words. This number did not represent the number of new words I had learned in a month but rather the ones I understood in when listening to a native speaker talk at normal speed. The number of lingQs was irrelevant.
My ability to speak fluently in Spanish returned in a week. Moreover, because the lessons were so easy and interesting, I learned – remembered --additional expressions effortlessly. I also found that my speaking improved since the last time I had spoken extensively in Spanish at the professional level. Of course my listening comprehension of authentic Spanish improved. The speed and extent of the transformation astounded me. By week two it was apparent that the improvement was not just the result of listening, but reflected what I was listening to and HOW as well as what I did after listening.
By chance I had happened on two sterling podcast series on LingQ that specifically addressed the issue of listening comprehension and speaking ability. Both underscored that just reading does nothing for listening comprehension and that listening to the target language in the “background” where one doesn’t understand completely what is being said is not a productive use of a learner’s time (something that I had learned from experience as well). Rather, listening to comprehensible input is critical not only to learn proper pronunciation and intonation, but also to fix grammatical patterns and new vocabulary in one’s brain. Listening is of course key to speaking fluently. (Both series include practice sections at the end in which the student is to speak out loud regarding the content.) The teachers also note how common it is for intermediate students who spend a lot of time just reading a foreign language then struggle when understanding speech of native speakers and when having to speak themselves.
Focused listening, the teachers say, is critical so that you in fact understand what is being said and can repeat it or at least paraphrase it in your own words. (BTW, the latter is not easy. Adjust the settings of LingQ on your phone so that only one sentence at a time appears on the screen. Listen to any sentence of a lesson and repeat it out loud, first reading it, then do so without reading it. Can you repeat a sentence with more than six words? How about those with more than one clause? Can you summarize out loud the lesson that you just heard?) These exercises require a closer attention to listening than just quickly reading through content with the definitions of new words on the sidebar. They also require an active use of new vocabulary and a command of grammar. Which is precisely the point.
BTW, some of the Russian teachers have similar advice but in the Spanish podcasts this advice is discussed at length and repeatedly in several lessons.
In short, I found the experience and advice of the Spanish podcast teachers to be spot on regarding the importance of active listening and speaking about what you have heard. If you’ve been chasing a large number of lingQs but find yourself struggling to understand the spoken target language at normal speed and/or are at pains to speak coherently yourself, stop. Back up. Focus on the quality of listening comprehension and your ability to talk about what you just heard and read, rather than on the number of words you don’t know. Listen to lessons where you know most of the words (80%+), slowing the speed a bit if necessary at first. Can you eventually listen to them at normal speed and understand them (the vocabulary and the grammar) without reading? If you just read an article, can you summarize it out loud? How much detail can you include?
Needless to say, my experiences during the Spanish challenge have changed my approach to learning both Spanish and Russian. I encourage others to try your own challenge regarding active listening and speaking and evaluate their effect upon your ability to use the language.
