| Methodology | |
| UP THE LANGUAGE LEARNING LADDER | |
| AudioBooks and Advanced Language Learning | |
| Successful learners reach and keep a useful command of their target language. They approach language with many different study techniques. Their efforts reflect their personal habits, circumstances, and learning opportunities. Rarely do they have available native speakers or tutors; most are in classes, some are on their own. The successful few have in common long-term self-motivation. They take charge and keep control of their own efforts and know where they want to go. If they have teachers they think of them not as taskmasters but as resources. For this self-directed minority, AudioBooks serve as an effective and certain ladder to success. AudioBooks present a broad range of benefits: vocabulary building, oral and written comprehension, increased feeling for literary style in the native and target language. They can serve as a tool for progress in pronunciation and diction. They lay the groundwork for literacy; they are a powerful, efficient, flexible system based on repetitive, controlled exposure to the spoken language with written texts/ transcriptions as keys to rapid comprehension. Each AudioBook mastered is a step up your personal language learning ladder; a giant step toward fluency and solid literacy. The spoken word clarifies and re-enforces the written word; the written word clarifies and re-enforces the spoken word. Comprehension and enjoyment of literary works in foreign languages is one of the major achievements and rewards of foreign language study. For those not able to attend schools in the target language AudioBooks are an alternative that will help your efforts to achieve this level. The methodology described below will pay off when used over the needed period of time. Keep in mind that literacy in your native language took years of study at progressively advanced levels. As an adult learner you can expect to go much faster in a second or third language but literacy is a lifetime goal and commitment. Concentrate first on complete comprehension of the spoken text or a selected portion so that you are repeating thoroughly understood material. Listen to the exact pronunciation of each word. If you do not understand the spoken text mere repetition is a waste of time. To aid focus and concentration break the recording into manageable small segments. Better a little thoroughly than a lot superficially. Once you understand the spoken text continue with repetitions of the soundtrack; one hour's recording requires five to ten hours of concentrated, active listening. When the spoken text sounds and feels as clear, natural, and understandable as your native language shift to more passive listening, for example: listen while driving, working, lying in bed. The more your repetitions and the greater the time over which they are spread the deeper and more lasting your learning. To move vocabulary and syntax from passive to active try: reading and reciting aloud, memorizing sentences, recording and comparing your pronunciation with the recorded text. INTERLINGUA AudioBooks offer the hard climb - not an easy fix; they lead to a deeply rewarding vista from the top rungs of the language learning ladder. | |
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