I've just started to learn Spanish, and I am following the approach advocated by Antimoon. In other words, I am trying to "acquire" Spanish rather than to learn any grammar explicitly.
I've been reading the book "Easy Spanish Reader". Since I've learnt French before, I find it quite to understand the book. I am proceeding slowly to ensure that I can memorise the vocabulary I learn every day.
My question is this: Should I proceed at a slow pace to ensure that I can remember the things I've learnt? Or should I move at a faster pace?
I feel that if I want to, I can finish reading the book quite quickly, at the cost of not being able to remember a lot of the vocabulary.
According to Input Theory, we need to get a lot of input. If I proceed slowly, I am not going to get a lot of input. So which is a better approach: read a lot of stuff quickly to ensure a lot of input (provided comprehension is not a problem), or slowly to ensure better retention of vocabulary learnt?
hello, shatin welcome to the forum, if you're a newbie here.
My advice here as a learner of English as a second language is to go on at pace that you understand what is being read, never mind if you do not remember all the words at a certain point. Keep reading and you'll see that those words will come up over and over so you will have plenty of oportunities to grasp their significance.
By the way, I'm a native spanish speaker, I might be of help later on. what level of the language do you have right now?
Many thanks for your welcome, rich7!
I've learnt Spanish for only about a month, so I am still at a very basic level. However, I am really enjoying my studies because, even though I've barely started to learn the language, when I visit a Spanish site, I can understand a fair amount of the materials already. For example, I just read this headline from El Pais:
"Los islamistas chiíes buscan un pacto con otras comunidades para gobernar Irak"
I know it means something like "The Shiite muslims are searching for a pact with other communities to govern Iraq". So if I don't care much about if I can remember the vocabulary correctly, I am sure I can read quite a lot of Spanish stuff rather quickly. My concern is that in that case I won't be able to speak the language correctly.
Btw, I am really grateful for the fact that Spanish is a phonetic language. It really makes it much easier for us foreigners to learn. In contrast, when I first learnt French, I had a headache almost every day.
Si te refieres a que español se habla como se escribe estas en lo cierto.
Lo unico del español que yo encuentro dificil para uds. los Americanos es las conjugaciones.
But it just a matter of lot of practice, stick around for a while I'm sure that many of us here on the forum are willing to help you.
rich7,
I look forward to getting help from you in my studies. Btw, I am a Chinese from Hong Kong, not American.
Unbelievable¡¡¡ You wanna be trilingual, I've got hand it to you my pal.
Hi Shatin. To your question I can quote Michael Lewis's words: "don't worry if you don't understand everything when listening or reading; a lot of listening and reading partially understood, will help you much more than a small quantity where you have understood every word"
I believe the good balance between extensive reading (i.e. reading for message and not concentrating on language) and intensive reading (i.e. reading and analyzing the language that you meet) is the key. As to what proportion these two types of reading should constitute, i have no idea. For some people maybe extensive reading is all they need in order to acquire a language, while the others may be more inclined to consciously analize and memorize the grammar.
I agree with Vytenis. Perhaps you can use the following rule of thumb: Start with the "pause and think" method. When you get bored, increase your pace.
