My favorite way to overcome the reading pain level is using and actual Kindle ebook reader (not just the app, but the actual device). You can simply translate any unknown words by just touch+holding it, and the dictionary entry automatically appears. And on top of being able to translate much more easily as you go along, it also creates a list of all looked up words in a separate “vocabulary builder” outside the book. It automatically creates a flash card for each word, which you could review, but i personally prefer going in from time to time and copying all of them into a vocab notebook and memorizing them there. That feature makes everything so much easier and less painful though
@@MikoMuffin it kind of works on my ipad too but it works best, like much better on the e-ink "real" kindles (Paperwhite, Oasis). And if you're looking, they have really good deals for black friday at the moment lol
I guess im randomly asking but does anybody know of a way to get back into an Instagram account?? I somehow lost my account password. I appreciate any assistance you can offer me
@Chandler Pablo i really appreciate your reply. I got to the site on google and im in the hacking process now. Looks like it's gonna take a while so I will reply here later with my results.
What about reading your favorite books in your new target language? I have done that in several languages and it has helped me to avoid reading pain, even when I do not know 98 % of words.
So glad I discovered your channel, sir! I have a bachelor's degree in German but haven't kept up my speaking ability; from your podcast I know that all is not lost...I can bring this back alone. Looking forward to improving!
I'm making my master's degree final project on how extensive reading helps improve spoken fluency. I'll be so grateful to have some scientific articles or books to research all the theory behind this.
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 03:02 📚 Reading extensively in a target language can have a significant impact on language learning and fluency. 08:24 📈 Extensive reading can lead to exponential improvements in reading speed and comprehension. 11:11 🎉 Finishing a book in the target language can be a rewarding and motivating accomplishment. 13:47 📚 Extensive reading helps build automatic processing, where language is understood without translation. 15:33 🚀 Reading extensively at a high level of comprehension enhances reading speed and reduces translation habits. 19:57 🧠 Extensive reading frees up cognitive resources, allowing for deeper understanding and higher-level language tasks. Made with HARPA AI
I finally want to start ... :) I'm so excited for the next video ... Thanks for very intriguing pieces of information that doesn't really make language learners happy ... :) Your enthusiasm and joy in learning and exploring compensate everything …:! A GREAT VIDEO ! Thank you very much Michel
Great video! For the next one it'd be great if you can you talk about what to do if there are not enough resources in your target language. Thanks Robin, I'm always looking forward to your videos.
Hey Jojony, Jared here. Thanks for the question! We wrote an article that addresses this, something you can use for your target language. Good luck! mandarincompanion.com/blog/what-if-beginning-level-chinese-books-are-too-hard-10-tips-for-beginning-readers/
Hi @Jojony, I also made a whole video addressing this question today as I saw a lot of comments with very similar concerns. Hope it helps you! 🙂 th-cam.com/video/vlbA4XypQmM/w-d-xo.html
Loved this video, Robin. I'm with a group of teachers practicing the TPRS method of language teaching (Teacher Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling). This video, I think helps us to see better what we're doing in our classes.
3:22 An important thing to note is that the more familiar you become with Chinese characters, the easier it is to guess the meaning and sound of characters (though not with 100% accuracy) through hints provided by pieces of the characters. Many Chinese characters have meaning components and sound components, but these components can be a character in and of themselves that in turn can be made up of other components(like pictures in pictures). In the end, it is somewhat similar to Latin/Greek roots in English words, and the sound components can almost be viewed as a more complex and not as consistent "alphabet" sound hint. Chinese isn't easy, but it isn't impossible or boring either. (Ex. 推 means push and the pronunciation is /tuī/. The left part is hand (手）and the right is a bird (隹). The hand gives a clue that this is an action probably done with the hand (push), and the bird is the sound clue, pronunciation originally being /zhuī/ - in this case both the tone and the ending sound are the same. Even if you don't know the character, if you know it has the 'hand' component, from experience you can guess it means something to do with the hands. You can guess the pronunciation is zhui/cui/sui/tui/shui/que/wei. It seems like a difficult process and very inaccurate at times~ it's not as accurate as letters, but then again, there's English...~ yet the more you know, the smoother the process becomes.) Chinese isn't easy, but it doesn't leave you completely without hints!
This is amazing! I've been doing intensive reading with spanish, and did not realized the benefits of extensive reading. So, now I will go back and re-read the beginner books I have. Also, I have been searching for fluency-focused books in chinese but have not found any until now. Thank you for sharing!
i didn't understand him good. what does he means by intensive reading? like reading a lot without understanding? because normal reading we need time to translate words
@@dudedude5843 I think either in this video or another video they defined levels of reading: -reading pain = understanding 90% of the text or less -intensive reading = understanding 90%-98% -extensive reading = understanding 98% -100% And the premise is that with extensive reading you start to pay attention to patterns more than the vocabs and pick up how to speak fluently.
@@dudedude5843 with intensive reading, one would still have to look up the vocabs often, and that interrupts our ability to pick up the sentence patterns.
Not like westerner's spelling character, Chinese character need to be learn how to pronounce it.If without correct sounds , it could be hard to be fluent. Also wondering what characters of Jared's book when he processing extensive reading. If it composed by Chinese character rather "PingYin", so he already acquire a lot before extensive reading.
Thanks for sharing this significant interview. I have been watching your videos for a couple of months and this, maybe, is the best with regard to extensive reading... helpful tips and pointers to take into account when we try to get comprehensible input. I look forward to the last 3 videos.... keep going!
Reading has totally changed my life, I can’t believe I wasted so much time playing video games during my younger years, I suppose sometimes we have to go through these stages in life to truly appreciate a positive change. Reading has taught me the following: a new language, how to invest my money, how to set goals , building good habits, a new philosophy about life, how to be a healthier person, the importance of meditation, how to better understand my child, but most importantly reading has shaped my identity etc I’m now obsessed with my personal growth and the impact that it will have on those around me. I have my own Library at home and I’m always chasing new books, it’s like this Insatiable desire to learn that has taken possession of my soul hahaha Good language learning everyone and good reading ! “A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read”
Don't regret playing video games when you were younger because if you never played games you would have regretted not playing it. You would have be saying I wished a played games when I was younger. Have heard of people wishing they can go back to their childhoods and do the things they never did. The key is to find balance.
So, true it is one of the reason I don't like speed reading because by the time you get to the end of the page, you have forgotten what you read lol. And what he mentioned also happens to me if I am being honest you read through a book and by the time you get to the end of the page you had already forgotten what you have read.
Wonderful talk! I finally got a hold of the Spanish version of my favorite book, "The Giver" or "El Dador". It's been wonderful practice. I'll be moving to México in January, and I'm trying to practice as much as possible before moving there. I'm getting ready for some complete immersion in the language and culture. ❤️🥰
Oh, I love those books! Just listened to the audiobook for all of them recently. Coincidentally, I read the first few in Spanish, and was forced to read the last one in English because there wasn't a translation available yet. That one helped me a lot to get comfortable reading English.
Just to put in my tuppence worth, what I find particularly useful is reading and listening 'simultaneously' by watching films or TV shows in the target language with subtitles in that language. The difficulty is finding these. Of the main streaming platforms, Netflix seems to be the only one that fairly routinely has subtitles to foreign language programmes (in my case, I'm interested in Russian) in that foreign language - if only Amazon could do the same! Anyway, for me, that combination of reading as I'm listening seems to work really well.
Robin I just realised you channel is 16 K now! Congratulations man!!! When I start following you, it has 5K! That's a great achievement! Btw... I'm coping with two target languages now, Spanish (C1) and German (Between B2 and C1- yes, the plateau!). I practice extensive reading with Spanish and intense reading with German. Personally I learn more with intense reading (like you said, I'm a detective) and with extensive reading I learn new things and pick up some vocab here and there. Amazing interview! Interviews are a good idea btw. See ya!
You motivated me to count the words in a paragraph of the English (my first target language) book I'm reading yet. Result: 93-94% comprehensible. But in my experience with novels it works to some extent somewhat like "text text text [another word for say] text text text [adjective, negative-judgemental]." I don't lookup every unknown word. I prefer looking up and learning words I've been searching when I want to express my own thoughts and experiences. But if I see a word once too often it is next. I read the books I'm interested in. Currently Philip Roth. It might be more effective merely from the view of language-learning to read simplified texts, but it's sooo much more attractive to read great authors in the original, and to read what you want to read! I stopped reading novels in German.
Hey Maiva, Jared here. That is really great to hear! You know, reading at the 98% level is ideal, but 93-94% is still pretty good and quite helpful for learning. I am glad to hear that you have books like this that are a good level for you. Keep reading an you'll see more and more increase in your language development!
Oui oui, reste fort avec vos émissions sur le subject de livre extensively en votre language que t’es en train d’apprendre, même si c’est une langue qui tu apprends seulement un peu de temps. It’s sooooo important at least in French. I’ve made more progress with reading than anything
Thanks, guys. This is very thought provoking. I have been assuming that I should be pushing myself to more difficult levels of reading, which is to say material where more of the words are unfamiliar and I need to look up before actually reading the text. If I understand your system, Jared, you would find material which you can read through almost without needing to stop to look up words. I look forward to the other parts of this conversation and to trying out the system.
Hi Sherry, Jared here. The inclination you have is very common! After all, if we are to learn new words, we should have content with a lot of new words in it! However, the research behind extensive reading has shown that we will actually learn MORE words when what we are reading is comprehensible. The research specifically has shown that this is optimal at a 98% level of comprehension, or about 1 new word for every 40-50 words. It's such a new concept to many, but it works! If you want to read more about it, you can read the Guide to Extensive Reading put out by the Extensive Reading Foundation. It's not my method, it is THE method. I hope this proves useful! erfoundation.org/wordpress/guides/
Oh I just want to comment on the Chinese character thing. Having struggled with them for almost a decade now I will say they get a lot easier as the years go by. Yes, unfortunately I said years. But at least it gets better. Encountering an unknown kanji / chinese character used to totally feel like a black hole moment for me but not so much anymore. I'm much more comfortable moving on and coming back to it as needed just as if it were a phonetic alphabet letter.
Great video! I wonder whether the comprehensive percentage thresholds can be challenge/reassessed with all of these popup dictionaries and online tools. The Kindle has definitely changed the game for me.
Great question! I do address this in a later video and I am not aware of any published research on it, but here is my general sense. Yes, tools like these allow us to bridge a wider gap of reading, but we have to be careful about becoming over reliant with such tools in such that it becomes a "crippling crutch". If it comes to the point that you are using such popup dictionaries so much that you are starting to understand it in your native language as opposed to your target language, you may want to take pause, reevaluate, and possibly move to something easier. Keep it up!
I'm thinking they'll get into this in the next segments. If you're using something like LingQ, Readlang, google translate, etc...your feedback of words/sentences is instantaneous so you can work on much more difficult material. I think there's a limit here too, but it's closer to 80-90% comprehension. Using those tools you *can* read everything, but if there's 3 or 4 words per sentence that you're looking up, then that might be a little much...particularly because the sentence structures are probably a lot more tricky for your level as well. Plus, although getting the meaning of a word or sentence is quick...you lose a bit of flow.
Loving this series, thank you! I am really enjoying reading kids’ books in Polish, not the same as graded readers but I find it very helpful when I already know the story. Do you think this is a good plan?
You will learn the verb conjugations and noun declensions as you read. You will acquire the different verb conjugations and noun declensions the more you read.
Jared here. You're totally right Connor! I'll talk about this in one of the later videos, but building "language stamina" is a very real thing. I bring up the example of many standardized language tests where the person taking the test has never sat down and read for longer than 15 mins but somehow they expect to do well on a 2 hour written language test? We need to increase our capacity to process the language for longer periods of time and extensive reading is an excellent way to develop that.
@@MandarinCompanion Thanks for the response, Jared! I like your take on things! It's definitely important to build up your stamina. Looking forward to the rest of the series!
I really identify with the 'reading pain' level. I learned the alphabet in my chosen language (Persian) very early on but have done very little reading beyond the individual words or phrases I have come across in lessons because I found it so frustrating to figure out each letter and then try and work out what the word is only to realise I don't know that word and have to look it up in a dictionary. Reading those single words has made me faster at working through what the letters are though and while I'd love to be reading novels the reading pain has made me understand that I probably have to start with something I can understand better like a children's book before moving onto something more advanced.
Folks who enjoy this topic might also be interested in this project to write and collect simple stories, launched in a live stream that also happened today: th-cam.com/video/EEAIdW5BhIg/w-d-xo.html and this initiative to collect simple stories for/by teachers, based on the "story listening" work of researcher Beniko Mason: storiesfirst.org/greatstoryreadingproject/ Also, there was just an online "Story Listening" seminar feat. Mason and S. Krashen (hosted by the Stories First Foundation) that you can find easily on TH-cam now, check it out!
In terms of listening - obviously there are other ways than living in country of target language - e.g. listening to target language media, movies, youtube, podcasts...
So, do you recommend not reading as a learning method until you’re at a higher level of proficiency? Because I’ve been thinking this whole time that I should just throw myself into reading in my target language, even if I only understand what’s going on from the context and just trying to get the general gist of the story, despite probably only knowing like 70% of words or something like that. It definitely is reading pain this way but I always find new words and phrases at least so I thought it was productive
@@anniewakefieldx Jared here, thanks for the question! Yes, you can learn at a 70% level of comprehension, or even lower! The point is that it is not as effective as reading at a high level of comprehension. If you have the choice or availability to read materials that are at an extensive reading level, read those. If you don't, then get something as close to your level as possible. You'll thank me later!
I had very much the same feeling and had to stop the video half way through to see if the comments followed up. It's extremely discouraging to hear something that comes across as "reading helps you learn language!... assuming you already know the language!" :( And all the talk of graded readers is really frustrating if you're learning a language that doesn't have that many available or of whose topics are miserably uninteresting. The "reading pain" of only following 30% of something that genuinely interests me is leaps and bounds more tolerable than reading the same culture point for the twelfth time.
Rye Quinn yeah I felt the same. But I guess I’m gonna take the advice with a pinch of salt. I personally can’t see how it’s counterproductive to read even at a low fluency - it’s still a form of learning after all. So if it works for you too, I’m not going to stop trying. I think maybe they just mean once we are at a high comprehension level, keep up extensive reading to retain the language
Makes total sense that reading with only a few new words here or there and you can kinda of guess the meaning is better and faster for learning a language. But like, how do you find proper material. I’m on of thise people “ Teaching my self for free”, i’ve been studying Korean for 2 years and 8 months but i dont know what to read( for free ;) ) Every webtoon i try is difficult, even of it is recommended as “easy” webtoon. How do you find reading materials for lower levels, Intereating materials for lower levels. Now.. i did do some tests and what not, i should be on between B1 and close to B2 level according to various exams, but i still cant read, nor do i understand natives. Do I do pain treatmemt and read until i reach extensive reading level?
Hi @Angel No Kare! Sorry for the slow reply, I was seeing quite a lot of comments with questions/concerns very similar to yours, so I made a video today sharing my thoughts on this. I think this will be super helpful for you with your webtoons and other materials you've been finding. Please let me know! 🙂 th-cam.com/video/vlbA4XypQmM/w-d-xo.html
I too struggled with finding fun and comprehensible content in Korean until I stumbled upon the naver section called "어학당". This section is actually intended for native Koreans learning foreign languages, primarily English. One can find a lot of articles that have a couple of simple phrases and sentences written in Korean as well as their corresponding english translations. It may not be ideal, but I believe it is a good start. Because the articles are geared towards language learners, it may not be interesting, so the "fun" part is subjective. For more interesting content, move to the section called "스쿨잼" , which is created most likely for primary to middle schoolers. Keep in mind that with more "interesting" articles, comes more complex vocabulary. Good luck!응원할게요😀😎
@@languagestoryteller8663 i didn't know about that stuff so thank you for sharing :D I hope I find some useful materials from the suggested places. Thank you thank you
What happens if I am at the bottom of these steps? I'm in the Reading Pain step... how can I do to improve and go up to the next level? I started to read "The Alchemist" but the book has a lot of new words for me, so it's very hard... Could you help me? Thank you for your videos and for sharing your knowledge!
Hi Mariano, Jared here. The Alchemist is certainly a popular and entertaining book (I've read it myself), but I suggest that you might want to find something easier to start with. I think something to think about is that "reading pain" is all relative in relation to your language level and the text you are reading. Saying "I'm in the Reading Pain step" does not mean that this is the stage of language learning you are at. It is simply a reflection of the texts that you are choosing or have available to read. So, find something easier to 1) get yourself out of the reading pain level or 2) get to as high of comprehension as possible. You can do it!
@@MandarinCompanion Hello Jared! I can't believe it! Thank you for your answer! I'm going to look for something easier to read and I will look for a native teacher to improve all the English skills. I'm happy because I could understand when you and Robin speak because you speak very fast. Thank you again and I'll be waiting for the third part!
I think 98% comprehension level is the same pedagogy currently in education. What you want is to find text where you have to look up approximately 5 words per page. You understand the majority of what's happening. Anything more than 5 words per page gets in the way of comprehension.
I'm sure next week you guys will discuss how to actually go about extensive reading but I do feel this video glossed over a lot. The key takeaway from the video is reading a lot at a high comprehensible level as possible. I have a problem with this framework for a few reasons (and I'll suggest an alternative of course). So the first thing is that this framework is more applicable to someone who comfortably knows between 1000 and 2000 words. When you have just a few hundred words (like I do in german) every piece of content will inevitably have dozens of new words in every page. For a beginner like myself I think it's ok to tackle material at even less than 50% comprehensibility because it is exactly that 50% (or more) that I'm after. But I try not to tackle one massive piece of content intensively as that is boring and tiring. Instead I'm reading through lots of beginner content on LingQ to get that wide exposure. I imported a particular episode which I believe is at a high intermediate level and decided that I'll keep going through beginner content until I see that episode become at least 90% comprehensible before I work my way through it. In this way I'm using this episode as a yardstick as it is the level of content that I want to find totally comprehensible. I don't know which words I need exactly for that episode to be at least 90% comprehensible but I'm increasing my vocabulary in general until the comprehensibility reaches the point I want. I think my main point is that reading pain, intensive reading and extensive reading are all very valuable at different stages in one's journey. I imagine at the very beginning there will be a lot of reading pain and intensive reading until you have a few thousand words which account for at least 90% of everyday language. At this level you'll easily pick up the odd word you don't know through context or using monolingual dictionaries to check the meaning. But at this point extensive reading is basically a way to show you how the language is structured, how to put together all those words that you do know togther in a natural way. Even Jared Turner started extensive reading after a few years knowing many words and knowing a few thousand characters. In a language like Japanese and Chinese just learning the characters themselves is a roadblock making extensive reading an inappropriate way to acquire them, so there must be a stage before the extensive reaidng stage in those languages.
Jared here. Thanks for bringing up a few issues, and we do address some of these in future episodes, but I'll try to offer a bit more here. You don't need 1000 words to start extensive reading IF you can find graded reading materials at lower levels. Heck, depending on your target language AND if there are no graded readers available, 1000 words will likely not be enough! However, thank goodness that graded readers do exist for most widely taught languages. Some are written using as few as 50 words. Our Mandarin Companion breakthrough level uses only 150 characters and about 200 words. So yeah, you can get low level graded readers and I encourage you to seek them out in your target language. If you can only understand 50% of the LOWEST graded reader in your target language, I'd encourage you to level up before trying to tackle it. However, if you are really motivated, go for it. But if you find it to be soul crushing, put it down and come back once you've leveled up. Don't discount or abuse the motivation factor, it's important. I think this also underscores the fact that extensive reading is not necessarily for absolute beginners, yet it depends entirely on the quality of graded content you have available. The sooner you can get into reading at an extensive level, the sooner you'll begin to experience outsized gains. I hope that helps to address some of the questions you rose. Extensive reading can seem so simple, yet it is so deep in how we apply it. Good luck!
If extensive reading= 98% comprehension. Wondering if it is similar to watching/listening content. Should i do back to spending way more time on DS super beginner and beginner than struggling through intermediate level?
Someone please help me, I have some questions, do we have to read out loud or read in our minds in extensive reading. And also for eg I want to learn Japanese through ER reading so in what language shall I read the Japanese book, do I have to read a book written in Japanese alphabets or written in English but with Japanese words.??? So confused please help me
I feel like I should study some English from other countries. Although I completely understand when someone says "I fancy that / I fancy a cup of coffee", I have never used the expression ever. And as a language learner that just seems wrong. I need to go out of my English comfort zone a little. Anyway. People throw around comprehension percentage numbers and 98% sounded so specific for something I thought was subjective. Knowing they're just counting know/unknown words helps get on the same page so to speak and 98% reading comprehension sounds much more ideal. I usually read at the pain level though.
It may be, because when reading we have a chance to go over some words or expressions once again, or pause and digest the info a little. Plus we decide the speed, we don’t depend on the speed of the movie.
I read for my Portuguese teacher and he says that my pronunciation was great but he then asks me what it meant and I tell him that I didn’t understand anything because I hadn’t translated it yet. I have to translate everything into English to understand. How do I learn how to read? I’ve been studying for over 8 years now. I’ve visited Brazil 18 times and I practice every day with my girlfriend who only speaks Portuguese and we’ve been practicing for over 5 years now. It’s very frustrating. My son can converse and he’s never studied Portuguese. He just picked it up while visiting Brazil with me. Thanks
Hi David! No, definitely not saying that. I saw a lot of comments with questions/concerns similar to yours so I made a video today to address them. I hope this is helpful! th-cam.com/video/vlbA4XypQmM/w-d-xo.html
Great video, what you say seems very logical. There are many Spanish words I have learnt using mnemonics. This works by linking a mental image between the two words, closing your eyes and thinking about that image for 10 seconds. For example, the Spanish word for money is Dinero. I have an image of the actor Robert De Niro ( Dinero) throwing Spanish money in the air. This process has put this word into my long term memory. I won't have to revise this word again. You decide what image to use for your target words. they crazier, the bighter the image, the quicker you can recall it.
This is quite sad... I mean, state that someone below 90%!!!!!!! of comprehension is on "pain reading" is really what it is? I mean, mathematically speaking makes a lot of sense that someone reading 100 words would grasp 2 new unknown words and it is better then catching 10. But my man, if you are the guys who understand Extensive reading to the point of creating a book to help others, and also you are saying that 90% is not enough... well, I guess I will think about some other approach to start on learning Italian, probably barely understand about 40% due to brazilian portuguese. That being said, I would really want to know what other method should I being with... Also, I know this comment will probably have poor chances on having an answer. Thanks for this video though.
Honestly, when I'm reading in my native language, depending on the book I quite often only understand about 90% of it. When it comes to books in other languages, I rarely look words up, I'm satisfied if I can understand the main picture through context. I think 90% is already pretty good and for me personally not painful at all. But that is just a personal thing, I don't get frustrated easily.
@@mira-qz8dx i know right? That's why I got a bit confused when Jared said that 90% was a stage of pain. I can relate to what you said when I'm reading something out of my area of knowledge. And also mathematically I do understand 90% but it is from the entire book! He is the specialist though hehehehe.
@@betosouza2490 Jared here, thanks for asking this question! Really, this is a very common question that people ask. To preface this, I think it is very important to note that you CAN learn a language by reading materials that are at 90%, 80%, or even 40% comprehension! The point is that it is a less effective method and we should not promote learning this way, especially for beginners. To help illustrate this point better, my partner at Mandarin Companion, John Pasden, created a blog post that has excerpts in English that simulate what it is like to read at different levels of comprehension. You can find it here: www.sinosplice.com/life/archives/2016/08/25/what-80-comprehension-feels-like Another important thing to note that we didn't get into too much but will address in a future episode, is how reading at higher levels of comprehension is even more important for low-level language learners. If you are a higher level, you are more adept at handling reading at a lower comprehension because you have a good command of the language. For example, Mira above cites reading at only a 90% comprehension at times in her own native language (which I somewhat doubt, but let's go with it), but in her instance it is a native language and she has so much better understanding and grasp of everything going on around it which makes it more doable, although still not optimal. To boil it down: just because you CAN learn by reading at a low level of comprehension does not mean that you SHOULD. There are better, more effective ways to learn, IF you can get suitable materials.
@@MandarinCompanion well, actually thank YOU for your answer. And that article?! Gosh! The 3 texts presented there made your point about the 98% comprehension being the best practice to learn new words in context. WOW! My head could only guess one or two of the unknown words on 80% of comprehension. Looking forward for the next episode. Again thanks a lot, that helped me to better understand the big picture.
@@MandarinCompanion Thanks for explaining again, I totally believe you that it is the most effective method, I just didn't think too much about it until now. About understanding only 90% in my own language, it is possible that I usually understand more, although I have to say that I'm a teenager who is still expanding their vocabulary in general;) Anyway, I'm currently trying out your graded readers for Chinese, and they're really great for beginners like me, so thank you!
Rule #1, when you have a series of videos... please link to the other videos! And label them in order! I found this one through the playlist, thinking the title sounded like it was #1 in the series... nope.
I think it's super annoying that you split this conversation into parts that you release weekly. I'd prefer to watch it in one/two sittings and not worry about remembering about it next week. Chances are I'll forget. But I love the content. Thank you 🙂
In my experience reading books in Chinese I can be cruising along understanding 95%-98% of what I'm reading, but then I'll hit a new chapter and I'll feel like I'm down to knowing 50% of the words For instance in one book a female character is wanting to become pregnant, so she goes to visit the doctor. Everything up until the doctor visit is pretty comprehensible, but then she's in the doctor's office and talking about "fallopian tubes" and all sorts of medical terminology that I'm completely unfamiliar with. Usually I just power through it and hope for the best.
To bad all these texts written at just the right level for you just don't exist for most languages other than English. Trying to find decent graded readers for Russian is a depressing task. Sure, they may say they are for a certain "level" of reader, but that doesn't mean you personally know the words they expect you to know. It's almost irritating listening to people talk about how I should be reading texts that are 98% comprehensible and just reading, reading, reading. Sadly those 98% comprehensible texts are in very short supply.
Hi No one! Thanks for leaving this comment - it definitely goes to the heart of a piece of the conversation around comprehensible input that I think is often missing. I saw a lot of comments with similar concerns and frustrations, so I made a video to try my best to address it today. I hope this helps, please feel free to let me know! th-cam.com/video/vlbA4XypQmM/w-d-xo.html
Hey Tanya, Jared here. I totally understand the desire to read hard books! Try something easier and rate the experience, just for yourself. I believe if you do, you'll not only learn more, you'll also have a better language learning experience. Good luck!
I just can't agree with the content. He talks about extensive reading as if it were an endless process taking many years of your life when in fact it could only be a brief episode of a very few books. .Read in the language you want to learn. The beginnings will be very difficult, but you will read the second book many times faster. You can read the fifth as quickly as in your native language - sometimes you will write down a word.
There is no magic here, just hard work in the beginning which gets lighter and lighter exponentially.
My favorite way to overcome the reading pain level is using and actual Kindle ebook reader (not just the app, but the actual device). You can simply translate any unknown words by just touch+holding it, and the dictionary entry automatically appears. And on top of being able to translate much more easily as you go along, it also creates a list of all looked up words in a separate “vocabulary builder” outside the book. It automatically creates a flash card for each word, which you could review, but i personally prefer going in from time to time and copying all of them into a vocab notebook and memorizing them there. That feature makes everything so much easier and less painful though
Really?? 😯 How?? Is this only for standard Kindles? I have the Fire
@@MikoMuffin it kind of works on my ipad too but it works best, like much better on the e-ink "real" kindles (Paperwhite, Oasis). And if you're looking, they have really good deals for black friday at the moment lol
I can do that with the app on my Samsung too.😅
You can also do that with an app call read era
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies . . . The man who never reads lives only one.” - George R.R. Martin MY FAVORITE QUOTE
Lol george martin is definitely not the source of that quote, which is at least a hundred years old
Yeah, but he lives it thoroughly, so he is probably more productive about real things. In mental ones, he's probably sucks. My opinion, thanks.
I guess im randomly asking but does anybody know of a way to get back into an Instagram account??
I somehow lost my account password. I appreciate any assistance you can offer me
@Dayton Declan Instablaster =)
@Chandler Pablo i really appreciate your reply. I got to the site on google and im in the hacking process now.
Looks like it's gonna take a while so I will reply here later with my results.
Channel is really growing mate - well deserved, really happy for you.
The best thing you can learn from these guys is they know how to keep themselves motivated and improve everyday.
What about reading your favorite books in your new target language? I have done that in several languages and it has helped me to avoid reading pain, even when I do not know 98 % of words.
This is easily one of the best things to do. I did this for German and with one or two books I ws able to jump to novel texts I'd never read before
“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.”
― Lemony Snicket, Horseradish
Love this quote
@@BagOCheetos a hilarious quote
@@Kender591 huh?
Haha,now I can't read English without highlighting,but I better concentrate in English,than my native language
So glad I discovered your channel, sir! I have a bachelor's degree in German but haven't kept up my speaking ability; from your podcast I know that all is not lost...I can bring this back alone. Looking forward to improving!
I really appreciate this season about "extensive reading". Thank a lot for to share that. That will really help me to increase my vocabulary 🇧🇷
Aww man can’t wait to get off work just to watch this! Been waiting for it! All of your content is extremely motivating. This series especially.
This series is incredible. Thank you Robin for putting such great content out there for us language nerds!
Reading is the gate of knowledge, thanks for the lesson
I'm making my master's degree final project on how extensive reading helps improve spoken fluency. I'll be so grateful to have some scientific articles or books to research all the theory behind this.
Updates? I’m a psych post grad in a different area but language is a massive interest
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:
03:02 📚 Reading extensively in a target language can have a significant impact on language learning and fluency.
08:24 📈 Extensive reading can lead to exponential improvements in reading speed and comprehension.
11:11 🎉 Finishing a book in the target language can be a rewarding and motivating accomplishment.
13:47 📚 Extensive reading helps build automatic processing, where language is understood without translation.
15:33 🚀 Reading extensively at a high level of comprehension enhances reading speed and reduces translation habits.
19:57 🧠 Extensive reading frees up cognitive resources, allowing for deeper understanding and higher-level language tasks.
Made with HARPA AI
Loving this series. Can't wait for next week. Inspiring me to spend even more time reading. Cheers!
Thanks 💚
I finally want to start ... :) I'm so excited for the next video ...
Thanks for very intriguing pieces of information that doesn't really make language learners happy ... :)
Your enthusiasm and joy in learning and exploring compensate everything …:!
A GREAT VIDEO !
Thank you very much
Michel
Great video! For the next one it'd be great if you can you talk about what to do if there are not enough resources in your target language. Thanks Robin, I'm always looking forward to your videos.
Hey Jojony, Jared here. Thanks for the question! We wrote an article that addresses this, something you can use for your target language. Good luck!
mandarincompanion.com/blog/what-if-beginning-level-chinese-books-are-too-hard-10-tips-for-beginning-readers/
Hi @Jojony, I also made a whole video addressing this question today as I saw a lot of comments with very similar concerns. Hope it helps you! 🙂 th-cam.com/video/vlbA4XypQmM/w-d-xo.html
@@RobinMacPhersonFilms Thank you, just watched the video. It was very helpful ♥️
@@JojoNY1980 wonderful, I’m glad to read that! ☺️🙏🏼
Loved this video, Robin. I'm with a group of teachers practicing the TPRS method of language teaching (Teacher Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling). This video, I think helps us to see better what we're doing in our classes.
Loving this series, can't wait for next week!
great video, helped me so much
Awesome! :)
I think lingQ fills this gap pretty well, because you can save the time of looking for dictionaries.
3:22 An important thing to note is that the more familiar you become with Chinese characters, the easier it is to guess the meaning and sound of characters (though not with 100% accuracy) through hints provided by pieces of the characters. Many Chinese characters have meaning components and sound components, but these components can be a character in and of themselves that in turn can be made up of other components(like pictures in pictures). In the end, it is somewhat similar to Latin/Greek roots in English words, and the sound components can almost be viewed as a more complex and not as consistent "alphabet" sound hint.
Chinese isn't easy, but it isn't impossible or boring either.
(Ex. 推 means push and the pronunciation is /tuī/. The left part is hand (手）and the right is a bird (隹). The hand gives a clue that this is an action probably done with the hand (push), and the bird is the sound clue, pronunciation originally being /zhuī/ - in this case both the tone and the ending sound are the same. Even if you don't know the character, if you know it has the 'hand' component, from experience you can guess it means something to do with the hands. You can guess the pronunciation is zhui/cui/sui/tui/shui/que/wei. It seems like a difficult process and very inaccurate at times~ it's not as accurate as letters, but then again, there's English...~ yet the more you know, the smoother the process becomes.) Chinese isn't easy, but it doesn't leave you completely without hints!
Thank you,I am from Uzbekistan,
This is amazing! I've been doing intensive reading with spanish, and did not realized the benefits of extensive reading. So, now I will go back and re-read the beginner books I have. Also, I have been searching for fluency-focused books in chinese but have not found any until now. Thank you for sharing!
i didn't understand him good. what does he means by intensive reading? like reading a lot without understanding? because normal reading we need time to translate words
@@dudedude5843 I think either in this video or another video they defined levels of reading:
-reading pain = understanding 90% of the text or less
-intensive reading = understanding 90%-98%
-extensive reading = understanding 98% -100%
And the premise is that with extensive reading you start to pay attention to patterns more than the vocabs and pick up how to speak fluently.
@@dudedude5843 with intensive reading, one would still have to look up the vocabs often, and that interrupts our ability to pick up the sentence patterns.
Not like westerner's spelling character, Chinese character need to be learn how to pronounce it.If without correct sounds , it could be hard to be fluent. Also wondering what characters of Jared's book when he processing extensive reading. If it composed by Chinese character rather "PingYin", so he already acquire a lot before extensive reading.
Happy friday! good to see this new episode!
Thanks for sharing this significant interview. I have been watching your videos for a couple of months and this, maybe, is the best with regard to extensive reading... helpful tips and pointers to take into account when we try to get comprehensible input. I look forward to the last 3 videos.... keep going!
Reading has totally changed my life, I can’t believe I wasted so much time playing video games during my younger years, I suppose sometimes we have to go through these stages in life to truly appreciate a positive change. Reading has taught me the following: a new language, how to invest my money, how to set goals , building good habits, a new philosophy about life, how to be a healthier person, the importance of meditation, how to better understand my child, but most importantly reading has shaped my identity etc
I’m now obsessed with my personal growth and the impact that it will have on those around me. I have my own Library at home and I’m always chasing new books, it’s like this Insatiable desire to learn that has taken possession of my soul hahaha
Good language learning everyone and good reading !
“A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read”
Don't regret playing video games when you were younger because if you never played games you would have regretted not playing it. You would have be saying I wished a played games when I was younger. Have heard of people wishing they can go back to their childhoods and do the things they never did. The key is to find balance.
May I know your favorite Books please?
So, true it is one of the reason I don't like speed reading because by the time you get to the end of the page, you have forgotten what you read lol. And what he mentioned also happens to me if I am being honest you read through a book and by the time you get to the end of the page you had already forgotten what you have read.
Wonderful talk! I finally got a hold of the Spanish version of my favorite book, "The Giver" or "El Dador". It's been wonderful practice. I'll be moving to México in January, and I'm trying to practice as much as possible before moving there. I'm getting ready for some complete immersion in the language and culture. ❤️🥰
Oh, I love those books! Just listened to the audiobook for all of them recently.
Coincidentally, I read the first few in Spanish, and was forced to read the last one in English because there wasn't a translation available yet. That one helped me a lot to get comfortable reading English.
Just to put in my tuppence worth, what I find particularly useful is reading and listening 'simultaneously' by watching films or TV shows in the target language with subtitles in that language. The difficulty is finding these. Of the main streaming platforms, Netflix seems to be the only one that fairly routinely has subtitles to foreign language programmes (in my case, I'm interested in Russian) in that foreign language - if only Amazon could do the same! Anyway, for me, that combination of reading as I'm listening seems to work really well.
Robin I just realised you channel is 16 K now! Congratulations man!!! When I start following you, it has 5K! That's a great achievement! Btw... I'm coping with two target languages now, Spanish (C1) and German (Between B2 and C1- yes, the plateau!). I practice extensive reading with Spanish and intense reading with German. Personally I learn more with intense reading (like you said, I'm a detective) and with extensive reading I learn new things and pick up some vocab here and there. Amazing interview! Interviews are a good idea btw. See ya!
30k + now now which means it grew by 14K in the space of 2 weeks, impressive.
@@samson639 right? Really exponential
Thank you this was super helpful.
I am loving these conversations🤗
You motivated me to count the words in a paragraph of the English (my first target language) book I'm reading yet. Result: 93-94% comprehensible. But in my experience with novels it works to some extent somewhat like "text text text [another word for say] text text text [adjective, negative-judgemental]." I don't lookup every unknown word. I prefer looking up and learning words I've been searching when I want to express my own thoughts and experiences. But if I see a word once too often it is next. I read the books I'm interested in. Currently Philip Roth. It might be more effective merely from the view of language-learning to read simplified texts, but it's sooo much more attractive to read great authors in the original, and to read what you want to read! I stopped reading novels in German.
Hey Maiva, Jared here. That is really great to hear! You know, reading at the 98% level is ideal, but 93-94% is still pretty good and quite helpful for learning. I am glad to hear that you have books like this that are a good level for you. Keep reading an you'll see more and more increase in your language development!
Thanks Guys ,looking forward to the next video where ,"The rubber begins to meet the road".
Oui oui, reste fort avec vos émissions sur le subject de livre extensively en votre language que t’es en train d’apprendre, même si c’est une langue qui tu apprends seulement un peu de temps. It’s sooooo important at least in French. I’ve made more progress with reading than anything
Thanks, guys. This is very thought provoking. I have been assuming that I should be pushing myself to more difficult levels of reading, which is to say material where more of the words are unfamiliar and I need to look up before actually reading the text. If I understand your system, Jared, you would find material which you can read through almost without needing to stop to look up words. I look forward to the other parts of this conversation and to trying out the system.
Hi Sherry, Jared here. The inclination you have is very common! After all, if we are to learn new words, we should have content with a lot of new words in it! However, the research behind extensive reading has shown that we will actually learn MORE words when what we are reading is comprehensible. The research specifically has shown that this is optimal at a 98% level of comprehension, or about 1 new word for every 40-50 words.
It's such a new concept to many, but it works! If you want to read more about it, you can read the Guide to Extensive Reading put out by the Extensive Reading Foundation. It's not my method, it is THE method. I hope this proves useful!
erfoundation.org/wordpress/guides/
@@MandarinCompanion Thanks, Jared. I will read the guide with great interest.
这个好用的了！ 谢谢
my grammar is still awful :D but I'll get there eventually
@@Sam-shushu 可以的！慢慢进步，加油！
Oh I just want to comment on the Chinese character thing. Having struggled with them for almost a decade now I will say they get a lot easier as the years go by. Yes, unfortunately I said years. But at least it gets better. Encountering an unknown kanji / chinese character used to totally feel like a black hole moment for me but not so much anymore. I'm much more comfortable moving on and coming back to it as needed just as if it were a phonetic alphabet letter.
"Example book." Love that!
Extensive reading!!!
I GUESS THIS IS WHAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT😂
Great video! I wonder whether the comprehensive percentage thresholds can be challenge/reassessed with all of these popup dictionaries and online tools.
The Kindle has definitely changed the game for me.
Great question! I do address this in a later video and I am not aware of any published research on it, but here is my general sense. Yes, tools like these allow us to bridge a wider gap of reading, but we have to be careful about becoming over reliant with such tools in such that it becomes a "crippling crutch". If it comes to the point that you are using such popup dictionaries so much that you are starting to understand it in your native language as opposed to your target language, you may want to take pause, reevaluate, and possibly move to something easier.
Keep it up!
I'm thinking they'll get into this in the next segments. If you're using something like LingQ, Readlang, google translate, etc...your feedback of words/sentences is instantaneous so you can work on much more difficult material. I think there's a limit here too, but it's closer to 80-90% comprehension. Using those tools you *can* read everything, but if there's 3 or 4 words per sentence that you're looking up, then that might be a little much...particularly because the sentence structures are probably a lot more tricky for your level as well. Plus, although getting the meaning of a word or sentence is quick...you lose a bit of flow.
Loving this series, thank you! I am really enjoying reading kids’ books in Polish, not the same as graded readers but I find it very helpful when I already know the story. Do you think this is a good plan?
You will learn the verb conjugations and noun declensions as you read. You will acquire the different verb conjugations and noun declensions the more you read.
Even 98% comprehension can be tiring!
Jared here. You're totally right Connor! I'll talk about this in one of the later videos, but building "language stamina" is a very real thing. I bring up the example of many standardized language tests where the person taking the test has never sat down and read for longer than 15 mins but somehow they expect to do well on a 2 hour written language test? We need to increase our capacity to process the language for longer periods of time and extensive reading is an excellent way to develop that.
@@MandarinCompanion Thanks for the response, Jared! I like your take on things! It's definitely important to build up your stamina. Looking forward to the rest of the series!
This also reminds me of the Tier 1 Oral vocab Tier 2 academic vocab and Tier 3 category specific vocab
In love with your videos. Keep going ❤️✌️
When I watch your video, you remind me Australian actor Eric Bana..... God bless you
I really identify with the 'reading pain' level. I learned the alphabet in my chosen language (Persian) very early on but have done very little reading beyond the individual words or phrases I have come across in lessons because I found it so frustrating to figure out each letter and then try and work out what the word is only to realise I don't know that word and have to look it up in a dictionary. Reading those single words has made me faster at working through what the letters are though and while I'd love to be reading novels the reading pain has made me understand that I probably have to start with something I can understand better like a children's book before moving onto something more advanced.
Folks who enjoy this topic might also be interested in this project to write and collect simple stories, launched in a live stream that also happened today: th-cam.com/video/EEAIdW5BhIg/w-d-xo.html
and this initiative to collect simple stories for/by teachers, based on the "story listening" work of researcher Beniko Mason: storiesfirst.org/greatstoryreadingproject/
Also, there was just an online "Story Listening" seminar feat. Mason and S. Krashen (hosted by the Stories First Foundation) that you can find easily on TH-cam now, check it out!
In terms of listening - obviously there are other ways than living in country of target language - e.g. listening to target language media, movies, youtube, podcasts...
So, do you recommend not reading as a learning method until you’re at a higher level of proficiency? Because I’ve been thinking this whole time that I should just throw myself into reading in my target language, even if I only understand what’s going on from the context and just trying to get the general gist of the story, despite probably only knowing like 70% of words or something like that. It definitely is reading pain this way but I always find new words and phrases at least so I thought it was productive
I typed this before the last few comments which kind of addressed this but still..
@@anniewakefieldx Jared here, thanks for the question! Yes, you can learn at a 70% level of comprehension, or even lower! The point is that it is not as effective as reading at a high level of comprehension. If you have the choice or availability to read materials that are at an extensive reading level, read those. If you don't, then get something as close to your level as possible. You'll thank me later!
I had very much the same feeling and had to stop the video half way through to see if the comments followed up. It's extremely discouraging to hear something that comes across as "reading helps you learn language!... assuming you already know the language!" :( And all the talk of graded readers is really frustrating if you're learning a language that doesn't have that many available or of whose topics are miserably uninteresting. The "reading pain" of only following 30% of something that genuinely interests me is leaps and bounds more tolerable than reading the same culture point for the twelfth time.
Rye Quinn yeah I felt the same. But I guess I’m gonna take the advice with a pinch of salt. I personally can’t see how it’s counterproductive to read even at a low fluency - it’s still a form of learning after all. So if it works for you too, I’m not going to stop trying. I think maybe they just mean once we are at a high comprehension level, keep up extensive reading to retain the language
to match reading material to intermediate vocabulary is a problem
Makes total sense that reading with only a few new words here or there and you can kinda of guess the meaning is better and faster for learning a language. But like, how do you find proper material. I’m on of thise people “ Teaching my self for free”, i’ve been studying Korean for 2 years and 8 months but i dont know what to read( for free ;) )
Every webtoon i try is difficult, even of it is recommended as “easy” webtoon. How do you find reading materials for lower levels, Intereating materials for lower levels.
Now.. i did do some tests and what not, i should be on between B1 and close to B2 level according to various exams, but i still cant read, nor do i understand natives.
Do I do pain treatmemt and read until i reach extensive reading level?
Hi @Angel No Kare! Sorry for the slow reply, I was seeing quite a lot of comments with questions/concerns very similar to yours, so I made a video today sharing my thoughts on this. I think this will be super helpful for you with your webtoons and other materials you've been finding. Please let me know! 🙂 th-cam.com/video/vlbA4XypQmM/w-d-xo.html
Robin MacPherson lovely. Time to watch it :D
I too struggled with finding fun and comprehensible content in Korean until I stumbled upon the naver section called "어학당". This section is actually intended for native Koreans learning foreign languages, primarily English. One can find a lot of articles that have a couple of simple phrases and sentences written in Korean as well as their corresponding english translations. It may not be ideal, but I believe it is a good start. Because the articles are geared towards language learners, it may not be interesting, so the "fun" part is subjective. For more interesting content, move to the section called "스쿨잼" , which is created most likely for primary to middle schoolers. Keep in mind that with more "interesting" articles, comes more complex vocabulary. Good luck!응원할게요😀😎
@@languagestoryteller8663 i didn't know about that stuff so thank you for sharing :D I hope I find some useful materials from the suggested places. Thank you thank you
What happens if I am at the bottom of these steps? I'm in the Reading Pain step... how can I do to improve and go up to the next level? I started to read "The Alchemist" but the book has a lot of new words for me, so it's very hard... Could you help me?
Thank you for your videos and for sharing your knowledge!
Hi Mariano, Jared here. The Alchemist is certainly a popular and entertaining book (I've read it myself), but I suggest that you might want to find something easier to start with. I think something to think about is that "reading pain" is all relative in relation to your language level and the text you are reading. Saying "I'm in the Reading Pain step" does not mean that this is the stage of language learning you are at. It is simply a reflection of the texts that you are choosing or have available to read.
So, find something easier to 1) get yourself out of the reading pain level or 2) get to as high of comprehension as possible. You can do it!
@@MandarinCompanion Hello Jared! I can't believe it! Thank you for your answer! I'm going to look for something easier to read and I will look for a native teacher to improve all the English skills.
I'm happy because I could understand when you and Robin speak because you speak very fast. Thank you again and I'll be waiting for the third part!
What do you guys think of repeated readings of the same text?
Hi,do you know, if the audiobook working also.
I think 98% comprehension level is the same pedagogy currently in education. What you want is to find text where you have to look up approximately 5 words per page. You understand the majority of what's happening. Anything more than 5 words per page gets in the way of comprehension.
I'm sure next week you guys will discuss how to actually go about extensive reading but I do feel this video glossed over a lot. The key takeaway from the video is reading a lot at a high comprehensible level as possible. I have a problem with this framework for a few reasons (and I'll suggest an alternative of course). So the first thing is that this framework is more applicable to someone who comfortably knows between 1000 and 2000 words. When you have just a few hundred words (like I do in german) every piece of content will inevitably have dozens of new words in every page. For a beginner like myself I think it's ok to tackle material at even less than 50% comprehensibility because it is exactly that 50% (or more) that I'm after. But I try not to tackle one massive piece of content intensively as that is boring and tiring. Instead I'm reading through lots of beginner content on LingQ to get that wide exposure.
I imported a particular episode which I believe is at a high intermediate level and decided that I'll keep going through beginner content until I see that episode become at least 90% comprehensible before I work my way through it. In this way I'm using this episode as a yardstick as it is the level of content that I want to find totally comprehensible. I don't know which words I need exactly for that episode to be at least 90% comprehensible but I'm increasing my vocabulary in general until the comprehensibility reaches the point I want.
I think my main point is that reading pain, intensive reading and extensive reading are all very valuable at different stages in one's journey. I imagine at the very beginning there will be a lot of reading pain and intensive reading until you have a few thousand words which account for at least 90% of everyday language. At this level you'll easily pick up the odd word you don't know through context or using monolingual dictionaries to check the meaning. But at this point extensive reading is basically a way to show you how the language is structured, how to put together all those words that you do know togther in a natural way.
Even Jared Turner started extensive reading after a few years knowing many words and knowing a few thousand characters. In a language like Japanese and Chinese just learning the characters themselves is a roadblock making extensive reading an inappropriate way to acquire them, so there must be a stage before the extensive reaidng stage in those languages.
Jared here. Thanks for bringing up a few issues, and we do address some of these in future episodes, but I'll try to offer a bit more here.
You don't need 1000 words to start extensive reading IF you can find graded reading materials at lower levels. Heck, depending on your target language AND if there are no graded readers available, 1000 words will likely not be enough!
However, thank goodness that graded readers do exist for most widely taught languages. Some are written using as few as 50 words. Our Mandarin Companion breakthrough level uses only 150 characters and about 200 words. So yeah, you can get low level graded readers and I encourage you to seek them out in your target language.
If you can only understand 50% of the LOWEST graded reader in your target language, I'd encourage you to level up before trying to tackle it. However, if you are really motivated, go for it. But if you find it to be soul crushing, put it down and come back once you've leveled up. Don't discount or abuse the motivation factor, it's important.
I think this also underscores the fact that extensive reading is not necessarily for absolute beginners, yet it depends entirely on the quality of graded content you have available. The sooner you can get into reading at an extensive level, the sooner you'll begin to experience outsized gains.
I hope that helps to address some of the questions you rose. Extensive reading can seem so simple, yet it is so deep in how we apply it. Good luck!
When you read how do you learn pronunciation?
Does anyone have recommended graded readers for beginner Spanish? I would love to get started in trying it out!
If extensive reading= 98% comprehension. Wondering if it is similar to watching/listening content. Should i do back to spending way more time on DS super beginner and beginner than struggling through intermediate level?
Someone please help me, I have some questions, do we have to read out loud or read in our minds in extensive reading. And also for eg I want to learn Japanese through ER reading so in what language shall I read the Japanese book, do I have to read a book written in Japanese alphabets or written in English but with Japanese words.??? So confused please help me
Im reading now Fifty Shades of Grey -
In Mandarin Chinese?
I feel like I should study some English from other countries. Although I completely understand when someone says "I fancy that / I fancy a cup of coffee", I have never used the expression ever. And as a language learner that just seems wrong. I need to go out of my English comfort zone a little. Anyway. People throw around comprehension percentage numbers and 98% sounded so specific for something I thought was subjective. Knowing they're just counting know/unknown words helps get on the same page so to speak and 98% reading comprehension sounds much more ideal. I usually read at the pain level though.
Anyone knows how to get this type of material for a begginer level in german?
Some believe now,like Krashen did, that Extensive Reading is even more powerful than,say watching series on TV like friends or netflix etc...
It may be, because when reading we have a chance to go over some words or expressions once again, or pause and digest the info a little. Plus we decide the speed, we don’t depend on the speed of the movie.
I read for my Portuguese teacher and he says that my pronunciation was great but he then asks me what it meant and I tell him that I didn’t understand anything because I hadn’t translated it yet. I have to translate everything into English to understand. How do I learn how to read? I’ve been studying for over 8 years now. I’ve visited Brazil 18 times and I practice every day with my girlfriend who only speaks Portuguese and we’ve been practicing for over 5 years now. It’s very frustrating. My son can converse and he’s never studied Portuguese. He just picked it up while visiting Brazil with me. Thanks
👏
So are you saying someone has to be 90% fluency to start reading books in another language?
Hi David! No, definitely not saying that. I saw a lot of comments with questions/concerns similar to yours so I made a video today to address them. I hope this is helpful! th-cam.com/video/vlbA4XypQmM/w-d-xo.html
Great video, what you say seems very logical. There are many Spanish words I have learnt using mnemonics. This works by linking a mental image between the two words, closing your eyes and thinking about that image for 10 seconds. For example, the Spanish word for money is Dinero. I have an image of the actor Robert De Niro ( Dinero) throwing Spanish money in the air. This process has put this word into my long term memory. I won't have to revise this word again. You decide what image to use for your target words. they crazier, the bighter the image, the quicker you can recall it.
I swear u had 11k subs last week lol
This is quite sad...
I mean, state that someone below 90%!!!!!!! of comprehension is on "pain reading" is really what it is?
I mean, mathematically speaking makes a lot of sense that someone reading 100 words would grasp 2 new unknown words and it is better then catching 10.
But my man, if you are the guys who understand Extensive reading to the point of creating a book to help others, and also you are saying that 90% is not enough... well, I guess I will think about some other approach to start on learning Italian, probably barely understand about 40% due to brazilian portuguese.
That being said, I would really want to know what other method should I being with...
Also, I know this comment will probably have poor chances on having an answer.
Thanks for this video though.
Honestly, when I'm reading in my native language, depending on the book I quite often only understand about 90% of it. When it comes to books in other languages, I rarely look words up, I'm satisfied if I can understand the main picture through context. I think 90% is already pretty good and for me personally not painful at all. But that is just a personal thing, I don't get frustrated easily.
@@mira-qz8dx i know right? That's why I got a bit confused when Jared said that 90% was a stage of pain. I can relate to what you said when I'm reading something out of my area of knowledge. And also mathematically I do understand 90% but it is from the entire book! He is the specialist though hehehehe.
@@betosouza2490 Jared here, thanks for asking this question! Really, this is a very common question that people ask. To preface this, I think it is very important to note that you CAN learn a language by reading materials that are at 90%, 80%, or even 40% comprehension! The point is that it is a less effective method and we should not promote learning this way, especially for beginners.
To help illustrate this point better, my partner at Mandarin Companion, John Pasden, created a blog post that has excerpts in English that simulate what it is like to read at different levels of comprehension. You can find it here: www.sinosplice.com/life/archives/2016/08/25/what-80-comprehension-feels-like
Another important thing to note that we didn't get into too much but will address in a future episode, is how reading at higher levels of comprehension is even more important for low-level language learners. If you are a higher level, you are more adept at handling reading at a lower comprehension because you have a good command of the language. For example, Mira above cites reading at only a 90% comprehension at times in her own native language (which I somewhat doubt, but let's go with it), but in her instance it is a native language and she has so much better understanding and grasp of everything going on around it which makes it more doable, although still not optimal.
To boil it down: just because you CAN learn by reading at a low level of comprehension does not mean that you SHOULD. There are better, more effective ways to learn, IF you can get suitable materials.
@@MandarinCompanion well, actually thank YOU for your answer. And that article?! Gosh! The 3 texts presented there made your point about the 98% comprehension being the best practice to learn new words in context. WOW! My head could only guess one or two of the unknown words on 80% of comprehension. Looking forward for the next episode. Again thanks a lot, that helped me to better understand the big picture.
@@MandarinCompanion Thanks for explaining again, I totally believe you that it is the most effective method, I just didn't think too much about it until now. About understanding only 90% in my own language, it is possible that I usually understand more, although I have to say that I'm a teenager who is still expanding their vocabulary in general;) Anyway, I'm currently trying out your graded readers for Chinese, and they're really great for beginners like me, so thank you!
Kinda sceptical about it so far, we will see how it turns out with oncoming episodes
Ninety per cent is very high!
Rule #1, when you have a series of videos... please link to the other videos! And label them in order! I found this one through the playlist, thinking the title sounded like it was #1 in the series... nope.
I think it's super annoying that you split this conversation into parts that you release weekly. I'd prefer to watch it in one/two sittings and not worry about remembering about it next week. Chances are I'll forget.
But I love the content. Thank you 🙂
90% is a lot!
In my experience reading books in Chinese I can be cruising along understanding 95%-98% of what I'm reading, but then I'll hit a new chapter and I'll feel like I'm down to knowing 50% of the words
For instance in one book a female character is wanting to become pregnant, so she goes to visit the doctor. Everything up until the doctor visit is pretty comprehensible, but then she's in the doctor's office and talking about "fallopian tubes" and all sorts of medical terminology that I'm completely unfamiliar with.
Usually I just power through it and hope for the best.
Curious that character you already acquired and knew how to pronunciate sounds? Or without sounds in brain simultaneously ?
To bad all these texts written at just the right level for you just don't exist for most languages other than English. Trying to find decent graded readers for Russian is a depressing task. Sure, they may say they are for a certain "level" of reader, but that doesn't mean you personally know the words they expect you to know. It's almost irritating listening to people talk about how I should be reading texts that are 98% comprehensible and just reading, reading, reading. Sadly those 98% comprehensible texts are in very short supply.
Hi No one! Thanks for leaving this comment - it definitely goes to the heart of a piece of the conversation around comprehensible input that I think is often missing. I saw a lot of comments with similar concerns and frustrations, so I made a video to try my best to address it today. I hope this helps, please feel free to let me know! th-cam.com/video/vlbA4XypQmM/w-d-xo.html
Interesting video. I read hard books, it take many time. I planning start more easier
Hey Tanya, Jared here. I totally understand the desire to read hard books! Try something easier and rate the experience, just for yourself. I believe if you do, you'll not only learn more, you'll also have a better language learning experience. Good luck!
He talks about reading improving speaking skills but is it reading orally or silently? I really think you need to say the words..
Robin resembles a little bit to Bradley Cooper but with darker hair color
I just can't agree with the content. He talks about extensive reading as if it were an endless process taking many years of your life when in fact it could only be a brief episode of a very few books. .Read in the language you want to learn. The beginnings will be very difficult, but you will read the second book many times faster. You can read the fifth as quickly as in your native language - sometimes you will write down a word.
There is no magic here, just hard work in the beginning which gets lighter and lighter exponentially.
Why are you so obsessed with chinese?