"Reading is easier than listening" (revised)

beneficii   Sun Aug 05, 2007 12:44 am GMT
Since the old thread here:

http://www.antimoon.com/forum/t7414-0.htm

Had been taken over by the "you f***" guy, I'm restarting.

Anyway, this is the article in question:

http://www.antimoon.com/how/readlisten.htm

This statement right here is the main topic:

"If your vocabulary is poor, you will never understand natural spoken English."

Hmm, I have a new perspective on this. It says if your vocabulary (which can probably also include knowledge of phrases) is poor, then you will never understand it. I agree, but I wonder if it's possible to improve your vocabulary and phrase knowledge just by listening, especially if you move to the country in question? What do y'all think?
Guest   Sun Aug 05, 2007 1:46 am GMT
"Reading is easier than listening." I have a new perspective on this as well. If I don't listen and spend most of my time on reading texts, won't I be able to reinforce wrong pronunciation of words into my head? What about listening 'n reading method? Combine both listening and reading activities together. Listen to a text while reading it that way we will not learn to reinforce the wrong pronunciation of words. And, we can improve our listening comprehension of the text to a great extent because we can see the text as well along the way of listening to it.


<<I agree, but I wonder if it's possible to improve your vocabulary and phrase knowledge just by listening, especially if you move to the country in question? What do y'all think? >>

Native speakers use tried and tested vocabulary. You can enrich your conversational word power but not your passive one if you intend to read books and novels. In addition, not everyone can afford to move to the country of the target language he or she is learning. I talk to a native speaker from New york in English(my target language) on the phone. I probably gain more words from reading newspaper articles rather than from talking to him. The most advanced vocabulary he has spoken so far is: "you are da man!". or "Gotta run". or " How is it going"? "Sounds good." They are not enough words for me to read a decent book.

LOL......
Guest   Sun Aug 05, 2007 2:26 am GMT
Further comments:
Tom is wrong when he says that you can not understand natural spoken English if your knowledge of vocabulary is poor. It is not like these actors and actresses speak in the movies with the vocabularies of Harward graduates. The same tried and tested platitudes and vocab are used.
You need massive exposure of movies and in no time you'll understand these natural spoken dalogues in them. This has been my experience after watching 120 or so movies.