Orality and Literacy: Why reading isn't enough
Hit befel in the dayes of Vther Pendragon when he was kynge of all Englond...
- Opening to Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory.
Those with a little Middle English know that this says, "It befell (came to pass) in the days of Uther Pendragon, when he was king of all England..." A native speaker of English, reading aloud, could figure it out. A new student of English, dictionary in hand, would be up the proverbial creek. For modern English, this isn't that big a deal. Nor French, nor Spanish, nor Italian. These languages all have pretty standardized spelling and grammar rules. (Except that the English learner still needs to figure out things like buy/bought, swim/swam/swum etc.)
Unfortunately, not all languages are quite so simple. Even working with relatively recent materials, one finds multiple ways of writing the multiple dialects of Breton. With languages like Arabic, you have to know the words because the vowels aren't indicated. And in Japanese, when you encounter a kanji, you have to know the word to know which reading to use. Which points to a problem we run into in teaching: Writing isn't actually language. It's a way of recording a close enough approximation to what is said that a native speaker can reproduce it in his or her own mind.
When I first started learning Breton, I was continually baffled. Every time I looked at a new text or textbook, I was at a loss. When I looked up words in the dictionary, they weren't there. And then I got a little bit of vocabulary - just enough to be dangerous - and listened to some recordings at kervarker.org and all of a sudden I had a sense of what was going on and under what other headings to look things up if my first dictionary searches came up empty.
As you learn your new language, enjoy your reading, of course. But be sure to get some audio content as well, so that you can be sure to truly get the language going in your brain.
- Opening to Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory.
Those with a little Middle English know that this says, "It befell (came to pass) in the days of Uther Pendragon, when he was king of all England..." A native speaker of English, reading aloud, could figure it out. A new student of English, dictionary in hand, would be up the proverbial creek. For modern English, this isn't that big a deal. Nor French, nor Spanish, nor Italian. These languages all have pretty standardized spelling and grammar rules. (Except that the English learner still needs to figure out things like buy/bought, swim/swam/swum etc.)
Unfortunately, not all languages are quite so simple. Even working with relatively recent materials, one finds multiple ways of writing the multiple dialects of Breton. With languages like Arabic, you have to know the words because the vowels aren't indicated. And in Japanese, when you encounter a kanji, you have to know the word to know which reading to use. Which points to a problem we run into in teaching: Writing isn't actually language. It's a way of recording a close enough approximation to what is said that a native speaker can reproduce it in his or her own mind.
When I first started learning Breton, I was continually baffled. Every time I looked at a new text or textbook, I was at a loss. When I looked up words in the dictionary, they weren't there. And then I got a little bit of vocabulary - just enough to be dangerous - and listened to some recordings at kervarker.org and all of a sudden I had a sense of what was going on and under what other headings to look things up if my first dictionary searches came up empty.
As you learn your new language, enjoy your reading, of course. But be sure to get some audio content as well, so that you can be sure to truly get the language going in your brain.
Labels: learning
1 Comments:
I think that it's always good to be sure of what one's goals are. I have friends who have to read English in order to take certain classes (which are not taught in English speaking countries). After a few of these classes, they feel pretty confident reading in English but would NEVER speak to me in the language. For them, their language ability meets their needs.
Personally, I would hate to do that. The most enjoyable part of language learning, to me, is to interact with people in their language. Just reading the language would never be enough. I'm not everybody though.
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