Learning new languages: Speaking vs Writing vs Reading

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SM11
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Real Name:Simon Marion
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Re: Learning new languages: Speaking vs Writing vs Reading

Postby SM11 » 2018-09-01, 8:43

IpseDixit wrote:
But you're still reviving a thread with stuff in it that was written years ago, I still find that problematic, but of course it depends on the specific thread too. For example I think there's nothing wrong with reviving a thread in the translations forum (maybe except for the fact that you take visibility away from newer threads).


Hi,

I think it's cool to revive old threads, especially if the topic was interesting. Like this one MillMaths posted 2011 "Learning new languages: Speaking vs Writing vs Reading", I think it's still very relevant for people who wants to learn languages nowadays.

By the way, he said that:

MillMaths wrote:Any comments on this are welcome. 8-)


In fact, I'd like to comment his post ^^

I think Speaking, Writing, Reading AND Listening, are 4 conditions that must be fulfilled to learn a language.

You might notice that it’s possible to classify these 4 abilities into two categories:

- Written: Reading and Writing
These two abilities belong to the domain of reflection. It requires a lot of focus in order to write down your ideas, or understand a text in front of you. Also, writing requires to learn grammar or revise vocabulary. The written language is the domain of the translator par excellence.

- Oral: Speaking and Listening
The oral language involves the voice and the audition; it’s more about immediate language. You must be able to understand what you hear, and to be understood when you speak. The oral language is the domain of the interpreter.

It’s also possible to divide these 4 abilities in another way:

- Transmitting: Speaking and Writing
You are able to articulate ideas and make them comprehensible to your interlocutor, both by writing and speaking. In addition, you know how to adapt to your environment: you won’t use the same level of spoken or written language in front of a child or an elderly person.

- Receiving: Reading and Listening
This is obviously about understanding what you read and hear. At the beginning of your learning process, the language just sounds like some cryptic gibberish. Gradually, you begin to perceive information, and then increasingly sophisticated nuances.

(By the way, don't think that Transmitting is the active part of the learning, and Receiving is the passive part. Rest assured that reading and listening are anything but passive moments in your learning process)

Now why do I say all this?

Because I think it's super important to give the 4 abilities equal importance. If you neglect one, it’s all your learning process that you endanger.

For example, if you neglect to speak, you won’t be able to write fluently. Yep, because speaking requires you to quickly articulate your ideas, to decline your nouns or conjugate your verbs rapidly and naturally, which is a very good exercise. You therefore become more efficient in writing.

Another example: if you don’t take time to write words and sentences (whether through exercises or not), you will probably struggle to memorize them, and hence not recognize them when you read a text (This is all the more true with languages with a fairly complex writing, such as Chinese (which I am currently learning…)).

However, it’s true that usually when people want to learn a language, they want to become expert at speaking it, but not necessarily writing it. If that’s your objective, then I would say it’s fine to give more importance to the Speaking and Listening abilities than the Writing and Reading ones. But you can be sure that you won’t be as good as someone who worked equally on the 4 abilities, because Writing and Reading help a lot to visualize concretely the grammar and the structure of the language.

Anyway, sorry it's quite long, but I think it's a very interesting topic, and I can feel it every day when I learn Chinese mandarin. I don't know if this will revive the thread but yeah, hopefully this message can be useful for some people ^^
articles about French and language learning on my blog (https://blogfrench.com/blog/)


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