Moving beyond translations
At the moment, my reading ability is such that I cannot read by myself, that is, without an English translation.
So I am restricted in what I can read. I have to read only books that have English translations. That means reading books from the learning foreign language books section of a bookstore. I have to rely on subtitles for most dramas though I am doing OK with "Winter Bird".
So my current aim is to keep finding these books with translations and finding books that I can read without straining myself too much. So I will probably do this for a while. After my reading ability improves and my vocabulary grows, I will reach a stage where I can start reading without translations. They will still be easy readers, probably children's stuff like fairytales and simple short stories however. But at least I will be able to understand the stories without needing a translation. I will probably need a dictionary though.
This is the next stage of my learning - being able to read without translations. If I can read most sentences in a paragraph without reaching for a dictionary then I will have reached that stage.
I will then rely on a dictionary as my main reading aid. That's OK. I will be still enlargening my vocabulary. Even young Koreans need to do this - increase their vocabulary. I will then be spending most of my learning time reading and looking up dictionaries - online mostly. I did this when I learned English. I hope I can reach this stage (soon).
Then I will be learning to increase my vocabulary, not for understanding grammar. This will be very good. I will be motivated to read harder and harder stuff. I will try and build up my vocabulary. I will create word lists. I will try and become a sophisticated reader. Reading speed will be moderately fast, just pausing to look up a word I don't understand.
I will be trying to increase my vocabulary to 10,000 words. So I will have to read a lot of different things. It will be like when I studied English. I didn't NEED to study English for ordinary functioning as a person in society, but I needed to do so to excel in English as a school subject.
So if I can do it for English, I can do the same for Korean. As I have said, I hope I keep up my Korean studying so I reach this level. It will be cool. I don't want to rely on English translations forever.
So the key is mastering grammar and then increasing vocabulary to the point where I know at least 10,000 words.
Once I master grammar, I don't have to parse a sentence to work out what the author is trying to say. And once I have learned sufficient vocabulary, I can understand most easy readers without looking at translations.
So my goal after this stage is to move beyond English translations.
I think though I have to read A LOT. I might have to join a library as reading from books I have bought is getting expensive and also the books are crowding my space.
I think once I have passed the stage where I am relying on English translations, I will borrow all the material I want to read, or get it off the net. I can't afford to buy books forever for my language learning. And I have to get rid of some of the books. I will give away or sell some of the children's books with translations.
I do get a kick out of reading though. It's still amazing to me that I can read some sentences quickly without struggling. I really must have changed. The studying must have paid off. I think my reading ability improved exponentially after I spent a few days learning basic vocab. I had never done this before - learning basic every day vocab words. The phrase books aren't really good for the beginner. You need to learn words for rock, tree, lake, sky and so on before you learn words for bank account, accident and so on. Of course you need the latter words eventually but I think kids have an advantage in learning because adults naturally teach them basic words when they are learning a language. With adults, instructors for some reason see no reason to teach them basic vocab. The adult learner might be good at knowing words for holiday, moving house, finishing work but have no idea how to say stone, leaf, moon, snake. I feel more confident now that I have these basic words under my belt. I was floundering a bit before this.
I think the way kids learn a language is the best way. Teachers just teach them basic vocabulary words, often singly, not in a sentence. Then they learn simple two-word sentences, then three-word sentences and so on. They teach words that they can feel, see or hear - words for tangible things. Then they widen the circle of words gradually to include more complex concepts. And the teachers have a goal of teaching say 500 most commonly used words by the end of the year and so on.
Adults first encounter the language through grammar books and are taught conversational phrases off the bat like greetings, eating in a restaurant, catching the bus and so on. I think this is the wrong way. I think teaching basic words is the best way to teach a real beginner and doing so in a systematic way, say teaching 500 words in a book and having exercises in the book for the student to practise writing the words over and over again. I don't think the adult learner should jump into sentences at this stage. I think that's why many adults feel confused and think learning a foreign language is hard. They are absolute beginners but in the first chapter, they encounter a paragraph in Korean with no English translation and just a vocab list with the English translation beside them. It is like expecting a five year old child to learn their native language by throwing a book at them with a paragraph in the native language.
Of course adults know another language so things can be explained in that native language but still I think that the step by step method beginning with basics is the best way to learn. Greetings are easy so I don't think they need to be stressed so much. They can be learned any time. Language learners want to know the word for cup, tea, jump, and so on. And it's much easier to learn them first making learning stress-free. Then after the basic vocab is learned, moving onto learning how to decipher sentences. Because you already have learned many basic vocab words, learning the grammar of sentences is less stressful. You aren't trying to learn the GRAMMAR and the VOCABULARY of the sentences at the same time. You can just concentrate on the grammar. Why the words whose meaning you know are put together the way they are.
When you are trying to understand the MEANING of the words in a sentence and also trying to understand the underlying grammar of a sentence, it becomes too much for the poor old brain. Your brain finds it hard to cope. It's overloaded and learning becomes unpleasant.
And you can't go through life WITHOUT knowing these basic words. But language teachers assume you are going to just learn these words through osmosis, without making a conscious effort to learn these basic words.
So I think the conversational approach is wrong for most learners. And these books and courses concentrate on the conversational approach for beginners.
But the grammar behind conversations is quite complex. The grammar behind simple prose in children's books is rather simple in contrast. So you will be learning basic grammar if you learn the way children are taught. In the other way, you are introduced to complex grammar off the bat.
Of course the basic stage doesn't have to last very long. You might spent one-fifth/one-tenth/one-twentieth of the time that a child does in this stage. But it can't be skipped, not if learning is to be done in a systematic, orderly and as pain-free way as possible.
Therefore, my theory of how foreign languages are taught to adults being less effective than they could be taught is based on my experiences and my own observations.
And vocabulary learning doesn't really require a lot of teaching input in the native language. You see a picture and you choose the correct Korean word for example. No need to read paragraphs of explanations in English to know what to do.
So I think the focus should be on learning basic vocab in the first stage of language learning. And the basic vocab should be the same sort of words that a child learns, not the vocab found in adult language learning books.
Then basic grammar should be taught. Here copious explanations in English are OK. Because the student has all the useful basic vocabulary they need under their belt, they can just focus on the grammar. They are not learning grammar AND vocab at the same time, something which can be very stressful to the learner.
Then after that, some reading. By then, the vocab that the learner learned in the beginning stage will help. The learner is concentrating on reading and making sense of the grammar of the sentences, not learning vocab AND making sense of the grammar at the same time.
Of course there will be words the learner doesn't understand, but they will be a lot fewer than if the learner had not learned any basic vocab.
Then the learner can learn harder vocab and then harder grammar and then attempt to read harder material.
So this is how learning should go.
Unfortunately, the books out there are teaching all sorts of high level vocab and high level grammar to a BEGINNER. They call it a beginner's book but the beginner is expected to know how to say "When do you want to get married by, Carol-ssi?" when they don't even know the word for tiger, table, kitchen.
I don't think children know how to say, "There was only milk in the refrigerator" before they learn the words for spoon, chair, grape etc.
So I think that the learner should know that they need to take the initiative to learn these basic words themselves because the adult language books aren't going to teach them these words. And it doesn't take long to learn 600 basic Korean words - maybe three days if you study intensively. And this bank of basic words will really be useful to them. They will come across them in the future all the time. Then after these words are mastered, the learner can move onto more sophisticated words like trading company, exchange bank and so on.
So learn vocab and just concentrate on vocab when learning. Then learn grammar and concentrate on grammar when learning. Then read and just concentrate on reading when reading.
Conversation then can be taught through the immersion method or by listening to tapes. It can also be learned by reading if the reading contains dialog. Conversation can also be taught by showing movies.
So once again, I find the method they teach adults a foreign language quite counterproductive and far different to the method instructors in general use when teaching a child a foreign language/native language.
I think the method they use to teach young children is the best way, with a few modifications of course. They can make the material less childish in theme but still keep the simple format and the easy exercises and the repetitious nature of the teaching.
I am finding the method I am using now of reading fairytales and manwha for children much better than jumping into essential phrases for business. Remember, I am still trying to master basic grammar.
Once the basics are mastered then more sophisticated words and more difficult grammar can be taught.
Posted by honeybearsmom
at 7:11 AM EDT
Updated: Tuesday, 20 September 2011 8:24 AM EDT
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