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Steve's YouTube Videos, Why extensive reading is so effective for language learning

Why extensive reading is so effective for language learning

Today, I want to talk about extensive reading, also known as free, voluntary

reading, because I think reading is such a powerful way to improve

your language skills, regardless of where you are in the language.

I'm going to refer you to a document that was shown to me from

Cambridge University, And also another one from Oxford University.

Before getting into the subject, it's interesting to note, because I got

curious doing research for this video, the market for language learning

worldwide in 2023 was over 60 billion U.

S.

dollars, and it's projected to reach 115 billion dollars in the year 2032.

So it's an enormous market.

Apparently, two thirds of that market, Is for learning English now,

given that it's not expensive to buy a book, we can buy books online.

There's an, a limitless amount of material available online that we

can read, that we can access, that we can read and look up words.

It is amazing that so much money is spent on the language learning industry,

on things, for example, like LingQ.

Reading is powerful, but maybe people are discouraged from reading or don't

think they can do it on their own, or they feel they need to have a teacher

to guide them or a system to guide them, but in fact, a lot can be achieved.

by a motivated learner who is willing to read.

But there are issues and problems, and I want to get into those.

First of all, if you refer to the link I left, you will see what extensive

reading or free voluntary reading is.

It's basically just reading, but it's reading material that's of

interest, that's not too difficult, reading on your own, reading at

a good speed, reading silently.

I would add, although they don't mention it, it's probably a good

idea to also have the audio for the material that you are reading.

Now, you'll see in this link that the Cambridge study points out certain

obvious benefits to extensive reading.

Should be obvious, but may not be obvious to every language learner.

And that is that reading improves our ability to read, obviously.

It improves our vocabulary.

We encounter words.

We encounter words in context with other words.

We get to see how they work with other words.

We get a better sense of grammar.

It's a massive exposure to the language.

It's easy to do.

You do it on your own.

When I was learning Chinese in Hong Kong, over 50 years ago,

my major activity was reading.

And I would scour the bookstores of Hong Kong to find readers with vocabulary lists

behind each chapter, which I would review before reading and then after reading.

There wasn't so much audio available in those days.

Reading is powerful.

I also consider that, especially if you listen to the same material

that you're reading, it upsets you.

Almost like speaking because when you are reading on your own in a foreign

language, you are sub vocalizing.

So therefore it helps you to get to where you can speak.

It helps you with your comprehension, grasp of grammar, seeing words in context.

All of these things are greatly, assisted by free voluntary reading.

Now the Cambridge study refers to what they call obstacles.

To free voluntary reading or extensive reading and most of those obstacles seem

to refer to the resistance from teachers who are Reluctant to see the learners go

off on their own ahead of what the teacher wants to teach or that the classroom You

know student will spend his or her time reading rather than Studying grammar or

doing the other things the activities that the teacher wants to do in other

words The teacher is reluctant to give up their time Teacher time, classroom time

to free voluntary reading, although it has been demonstrated that free voluntary

reading has all of these benefits.

So the resistance on the part of some teachers is considered the main obstacle,

but I don't see that as the main obstacle.

To me, the biggest problem or the biggest obstacle when it comes to

free voluntary reading is vocabulary.

Some of the proponents of free voluntary reading or extensive reading suggest that

free voluntary reading should be based on no more than four words per page of

unknown words or a couple of percent unknown words for it to be a pleasant

experience and that the student should be encouraged to guess or infer the

meaning of words that they don't know.

To me, that's wrong.

Actually, I shouldn't say it's wrong, but I should say that the strategy

when it comes to free voluntary reading depends on who you are

and where you are in the language.

Obviously, if you're a school child and you've got 10, 12 years or more to

improve your vocabulary and to develop that sense of joy of reading, then free

voluntary reading with a very small number of unknown words is a good thing.

Again, I would avoid the sort of.

Teaching reading strategies, inferring strategies, just let the child read, let

the words they don't understand go by.

They'll eventually figure them out one way or another.

So that's free voluntary reading in the sense that Krashen describes

it for people in school, probably a better use of the student's time than

listening to the teacher in many cases.

However, when we as adults, and I include say students at a university, say at

a foreign university where they're having to take courses in a foreign

language, adults wanting to learn a language, we are in a bigger hurry.

We don't have.

12 years to gradually, slowly increase our vocabulary.

We need to increase our vocabulary more quickly.

And therefore the strategy has to be different.

We can't be dealing with just 2 percent unknown words.

When we start in the language, of course, we have no known words

or depending on how different the language is to a language we know.

So typically my strategy is I go to the many stories and, or you go to

other easy content, lots of repetition.

So we are able to knock off the 500, most common words of the language.

We all know that.

Frequency declines very quickly.

And now we have to deal with chasing those low frequency words that are very

important and yet don't appear that often.

So then in my experience, we need to deal with a larger number of unknown words.

Either we say using LingQ, we look them up and we hope to acquire

these words by seeing them often enough, or we just let them go.

You can have free voluntary reading with a book where there's a lot of unknown words.

I never bother inferring or guessing.

I, it just flows by me.

But there is some benefit in encountering those words in this

free voluntary reading format.

However, it's frustrating if you forever don't know what the words mean.

And that's essentially.

What's at the origin of link typically early on when I'm starting in a language,

it might have 30 percent unknown words.

And I admit that's difficult.

And we track these statistics at link.

And of course, initially you may know a bunch of words that the system

doesn't yet know that, So that might also push the number up to 50%.

If I were to go into Dutch, for example, it'll show me a large

percentage of words that I don't know.

And in fact, in the case of Dutch, I can infer the meaning of those words.

But in Turkish, that's not the case.

Very difficult for me to infer the meaning of words unless they're

connected to words that I already know.

So in terms of the percentage that I can deal with.

15%, 15 to 20 percent is an acceptable level of unknown words for me.

And so I develop a strategy which says at an early stage, I want

material that's five minutes long.

I want maybe 15 to 20 percent unknown words.

I want that to be about 20 words that I'm trying to learn.

2025 words that I've never seen before.

And that is my strategy and it's an optimum position.

It's a sweet spot in terms of increasing my vocabulary so that I can eventually

reach the stage where I can read a paper book because I will have enough vocabulary

so that I won't be guessing at every second or third word, but at the same

time, it won't be, only three, four words per page that are unknown to me because

then I'm not increasing my vocabulary.

Make no mistake.

We need a lot of vocabulary.

Even low frequency vocabulary in order to enjoy free voluntary reading.

So we have to invest that time in getting our vocabulary level up.

But while we are doing that, we are increasing our familiarity with the

language again, the research has shown that people who read a lot, they write

better, they have better grammar.

They speak better.

There's tremendous benefits to this free voluntary reading, but

you have to be prepared for it.

You have to build yourself up to be able to do it.

If you try to do that from day one, I think it'll be quite difficult.

One other strategy I have is to stay in a limited range, a

limited content area for a while.

So that if I'm doing history of say in this case, the Ottoman

Empire, I will stay with that.

So the same vocabulary will repeat.

I have found that typically fiction is much more difficult.

There's a far broader range of words and given the tremendous Precipitous decline

of frequency of words in any language.

You want to, have a strategy where you have a greater likelihood of meeting

the same words or related words again.

So to summarize, many people like video.

I'm not a big fan.

I like video.

I like film, but for language learning, video is less effective.

There's a lot of dead time.

Sometimes it's difficult to catch what people are saying.

Whereas reading is pure words.

And to that extent, listening is pure words.

So that if we're talking not just about what's enjoyable, but how do

we improve our vocabulary, how do we improve our grasp of the language,

reading and it's associated activity of listening to my mind are the way to go.

And yes, you want to consume more and more of the language, more and more

extensive, more and more free, voluntary.

And above all, you don't.

want to have too much teacher intervention.

Teachers love to have pre reading questions and post reading questions and

comprehension questions and instructing you on how to infer and critical thinking.

I always quote Ruben Alves who says, nothing destroys the enjoyment

of reading as much as being asked questions about what you have read.

I may not understand it perfectly, but it's what I understood.

I'm happy with that.

I don't want to be challenged.

I just want to enjoy my reading.

The essence of free voluntary reading is to be free of those kinds of impositions

from the teacher and free to explore the language following a strategy where you're

gradually increasing your ability to take on more and more difficult, potentially

more and more interesting material, longer material, and that way you will eventually

achieve your language learning goal.

So with that, I wanted to leave you those references to people talking

about free voluntary reading and lend my support to free voluntary reading.

One of Crouch's big bugbears, extensive reading.

As a relatively inexpensive and effective way to improve your

language skills in any language.

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Why extensive reading is so effective for language learning ||reading|||||| |extensiva||||||| |đọc rộng||||||| |umfangreiches Lesen||||||| |||||efficace||| |広範な||||||| Warum umfangreiches Lesen beim Sprachenlernen so effektiv ist 多読が語学学習に効果的な理由 Dlaczego obszerne czytanie jest tak skuteczne w nauce języków obcych? Porque é que a leitura extensiva é tão eficaz para a aprendizagem de línguas Почему экстенсивное чтение так эффективно для изучения языка Kapsamlı okuma dil öğrenimi için neden bu kadar etkilidir? Чому інтенсивне читання настільки ефективне для вивчення мови 为什么广泛阅读对语言学习如此有效

Today, I want to talk about extensive reading, also known as free, voluntary ||||||étendue||||||volontaire ||||||extensive|reading||||| ||||||||||||voluntária ||||||umfassendes||||||freiwillig ||||||kapsamlı||||||isteğe bağlı ||||||||||||volontaria 今天|||||||||||| ||||||||||||добровільне ||||||rozsáhlém||||||dobrovolné ||||||広範な||また||||自発的な

reading, because I think reading is such a powerful way to improve ||||||||puissant||| ||||||||powerful|||improve

your language skills, regardless of where you are in the language. |||peu importe||||||| |language||without considering||||||| |||independentemente||||||| |||unabhängig||||||| |||indipendentemente||||||| |||neatkarīgi||||||| |||bez ohledu na||||||| |||関係なく||||||| |||sin importar|||||||

I'm going to refer you to a document that was shown to me from |||||||document|||given||| |||referir|||||||||| |||verweisen auf|||||||||| |||||||documento|||||| es||||||||||||| |||odkázat|||||||||| |||||||文書||||||

Cambridge University, And also another one from Oxford University. Кембридж|||||||Оксфорд| Cambridge|University||||||| Cambridge Üniversitesi|||||||| ケンブリッジ|||||||| Cambridge|||||||Oxford|

Before getting into the subject, it's interesting to note, because I got |||||||||||jsem dostal ||||||||отметить||| ||||Thema||||anzumerken||| ||||||interesting|||that||

curious doing research for this video, the market for language learning zvědavý|||||||||| |||||||marché||| neugierig|||||||||| |||||||market||language|

worldwide in 2023 was over 60 billion U. celosvětově||||| mondial||||| 世界中の||||億| mundial||||| a livello mondiale|||||

S.

dollars, and it's projected to reach 115 billion dollars in the year 2032. |||previsto||alcançar||||| |||voraussichtlich||erreichen||||| |||tahmin ediliyor||||||| |||очікується||||||| |||očekává se||dosáhnout||||| |||予測されている||||||| ||||||mil millones|dólares|||

So it's an enormous market. |||obrovský| |||enormous|market |||devasa| |||巨大な|

Apparently, two thirds of that market, Is for learning English now, по-видимому|||||||||| ||||||||learning|English| ||dois terços|||||||| očigledno|||||||||| rõ ràng|||||||||| offenbar||drei|||||||| görünüşe göre|||||||||| apparentemente||terzi|||||||| |divas||||||||| Zřejmě||||||||||

given that it's not expensive to buy a book, we can buy books online. vzhledem k||||||||||||| ||||||||||||books|online

There's an, a limitless amount of material available online that we ||||||material|available||| |||ilimitada||||||| |||vô hạn||||||| |||unbegrenzte||||||| |||sınırsız||||||| |||illimitato||||||| |||neomezené||||||| |||無限の||||||| |||ilimitada|||||||

can read, that we can access, that we can read and look up words. |||||||||||tra|| |||||||||read||look||words

It is amazing that so much money is spent on the language learning industry, ||úžasné|||||||||||odvětví jazyk |||||||||||||Industrie ||amazing||||money|||||language|learning|industry |||||||||||||industria

on things, for example, like LingQ. |||for instance||

Reading is powerful, but maybe people are discouraged from reading or don't |||||||разочарованы|||| |||||||découragés|||| |||||||discouraged||reading|| |||||||entmutigt|||| ||güçlü|||||cesaret kırıcı|||| ||potente|||||scoraggiati|||| |||||cilvēki|||||| |||||||odrazováni||||

think they can do it on their own, or they feel they need to have a teacher ||||||||||||||have||teacher

to guide them or a system to guide them, but in fact, a lot can be achieved. ||||||||||||||||dosáhnout ||||||||||||||||достигнуто |führen|||||||||||||||erreicht ||||||||||||||||raggiunto

by a motivated learner who is willing to read. ||motivated|learner||||| ||||||disposto|| |||Lernenden||||| ||||||istekli|| ||||||disposto|| ||||kurš|||| ||||||ochotný||

But there are issues and problems, and I want to get into those. |||questions||||||||| |||Themen|||||||||diese |||concerns||problems||||||| |||questioni|||||||entrare|| |||questões|||||||||

First of all, if you refer to the link I left, you will see what extensive |||ja|||||||||||| |||||tham khảo|||||||||| |||||||||||||||étendu |||||başvurursanız||||||||||

reading or free voluntary reading is. ||brīvs||| ||freies||| reading|||optional|| |||volontaire|| |||добровільне||

It's basically just reading, but it's reading material that's of |||||||matériel|| ||||||reading|material||

interest, that's not too difficult, reading on your own, reading at ||||difficult|reading|||||

a good speed, reading silently. ||||silencieusement |||reading|silently ||||silenciosamente ||||leise ||||sessizce ||||silenziosamente ||||klusā balsī ||dobrá rychlost||tiše ||||静かに

I would add, although they don't mention it, it's probably a good ||||viņi||||||| |||bien que|||||||| ||||||erwähnen||||| |||||||||probably||good

idea to also have the audio for the material that you are reading. ||||||||material||||reading

Now, you'll see in this link that the Cambridge study points out certain ||||||||||||určité ||||||||Cambridge||points|| ||||||||||indica|evidenzia| ||||||||||indica|indica|

obvious benefits to extensive reading. zřejmé|||| |||umfassendes| |||extensive|reading

Should be obvious, but may not be obvious to every language learner. ||zřejmé||||||||| ||очевидно||||||||| ||offensichtlich||||||||| it should||||||||||language|learner ||óbvio|||||||||

And that is that reading improves our ability to read, obviously. |||||улучшает||||| |||||verbessert||||| ||||reading|improves||||read|obviously

It improves our vocabulary. |improves||vocabulary

We encounter words. |встречаем| |rencontrons| |encontramos| |susrećemo| |gặp| |begegnen| |incontriamo| mēs|| |setkáváme se|

We encounter words in context with other words. |encontramos||||||

We get to see how they work with other words. nós|||ver||||||

We get a better sense of grammar. wir||||||

It's a massive exposure to the language. |||expozice||| es ist||massive|Aussetzung|||

It's easy to do.

You do it on your own.

When I was learning Chinese in Hong Kong, over 50 years ago, ||||||香港|||| ||||||Kong|Kong|||

my major activity was reading. |Haupt-|||

And I would scour the bookstores of Hong Kong to find readers with vocabulary lists |||обыскать||||||||||| |||parcourir||||||||||| |||search thoroughly||||||||||| |||vasculharia||||||||||| |||pretraživati||||||||||| |||搜尋||||||||||| |||durchsuchen||||||||Leser||| |||dolaşmak||||||||okuyucular||| |||setacciare|||||Kong|||||| |es||izpētītu||||||||||vārdu| |||搜遍||||||||||| |||обшукувати||||||||читачі||| |||lùng sục||||||||||| |||prohledávat||knihkupectví||||||||| |||探し回る||||||||||| |||revisaría|||||||||||

behind each chapter, which I would review before reading and then after reading. derrière|||||||||||| ||Kapitel||||überprüfen|||||| her birinin arkasında|||||||||||| dietro|||||||||||| aiz|||||||||||| ||kapitola||||přezkoum||||||

There wasn't so much audio available in those days.

Reading is powerful.

I also consider that, especially if you listen to the same material ||považuji|||||||||

that you're reading, it upsets you. ||||te dérange| ||||te perturba| ||||uzrujava| ||||ärgert| ||||rahatsız eder| ||||ti disturba| |||tas|| ||||rozrušuje| ||||怒らせる| ||||te molesta|

Almost like speaking because when you are reading on your own in a foreign |||||||||||||иностранном |||||du||||deiner||||

language, you are sub vocalizing. ||||vocalizando |||phụ đề|hát thành tiếng |||unter|vocalisieren ||||sesli okuma ||||vocalizzando ||||发声 ||||вокалізуючи

So therefore it helps you to get to where you can speak. |takže|||||||||| ||||||||wo||| |bu nedenle|||||||||| |quindi||||||||||

It helps you with your comprehension, grasp of grammar, seeing words in context. ||||||compréhension|||||| ||||||entendimento|||||| ||||||razumijevanje|||||| |||||sự hiểu biết|nắm vững|||||| ||||||Verständnis|||||| ||||||comprensione|||||| |||||porozumění|porozumění||||||

All of these things are greatly, assisted by free voluntary reading. ||||||помогает|||| |||||grandement||||volontaire| |||||muito|auxiliadas|||| |||||||||tự nguyện| |||||sehr|unterstützt|||| |||||büyük ölçüde|desteklenir|||| |||||molto|aiutati|||| |||||výrazně|podporovány|||| |||||大いに|助けられた||||

Now the Cambridge study refers to what they call obstacles. ||||относится||||| |||||||||barriers challenges ||||bezieht|||||Hindernisse ||||atıfta bulunuyor||||| |||||||||ostacoli |||pētījums|||||| |||||||||障碍 ||||посилається на|||||перешкоди |||||||||překážky |||||||||障害

To free voluntary reading or extensive reading and most of those obstacles seem |||||||||||překážky| ||||||||大多數|||| |||||||||||障害| |livre|||||||||||

to refer to the resistance from teachers who are Reluctant to see the learners go |||||||||неохотные||||| |||||||||réticents||||| ||||opposition|||||||||| |||||||||nevoljni||||| |||||||||不情願||||| ||||Widerstand|||||bereitwillig||||| |||||||||riluttanti||||| ||||||skolotājiem|||||||| |||||||||неохочі||||| ||||odpor|||||neochotní||||| |||||の|||||||||

off on their own ahead of what the teacher wants to teach or that the classroom You ||||devant|||||||||||| ||||vor|||||||lehren||||| ||||avanti|||||||||||| ||||à frente|||||||||||a sala de aula| |||||||||||||||教室|

know student will spend his or her time reading rather than Studying grammar or |||||||||||étudier|| der|||||||||||||

doing the other things the activities that the teacher wants to do in other ||||||||||faire|||

words The teacher is reluctant to give up their time Teacher time, classroom time ||||réticent||||||||| ||||unwilling||||||||| ||||bereitwillig||||||||| ||||isteksiz||||||||| ||||неохочий||||||||| ||||neochotný||||||||| ||||reacia|||||||||

to free voluntary reading, although it has been demonstrated that free voluntary ||volontaire||||||démontré|||volontaire ||||||||demonstriert||| ||||||||gösterilmiştir||| ||||||||示されている|||

reading has all of these benefits.

So the resistance on the part of some teachers is considered the main obstacle, |||||||||||||obstacle |||||||||||||障礙 ||||||||||gilt|||Hindernis |||||||||||||ostacolo ||||||||skolotājiem||||| ||odpor||||||||považována|||překážka |||||||||||||障害

but I don't see that as the main obstacle. bet|||||||| ||ne|||||| ||||||||障害

To me, the biggest problem or the biggest obstacle when it comes to ||||||||překážka||||

free voluntary reading is vocabulary. |volontaire|||

Some of the proponents of free voluntary reading or extensive reading suggest that |||сторонники||||||||| |||partisans||||||||| |||supporters||||||||| |||os defensores||||||||| |||zagovornici||||||||| |||支持者||||||||| |||Befürworter||||||||schlagen| |||savunucuları||||||||öneriyorlar| |||sostenitori||||||||| |||прихильники||||||||| |||người ủng hộ||||||||| |||příznivci||||||||navrhují že| |||支持者|||||||||

free voluntary reading should be based on no more than four words per page of |||||basieren|||||||||

unknown words or a couple of percent unknown words for it to be a pleasant ||||||||||||||agradável ||||||||||||||angenehm ||||||||||||||piacevole ||||pāris|||||||||| neznámé|||||||||||||| ||||||||||||||快適な

experience and that the student should be encouraged to guess or infer the |||||||поощрён||||делать выводы| |||||||||deviner||inférer| |||||||||||deduce| |||||||||||inferir| |||||||||||zaključiti| |||||||||||suy ra| |||||||ermutigt||||schließen| |||||||||||inferire| ||||students|||||||| |||||||||||висновок| |||||||||||推斷| |||||||podporován||||usuzovat| ||||estudiante||||||||

meaning of words that they don't know.

To me, that's wrong. ||tas|

Actually, I shouldn't say it's wrong, but I should say that the strategy

when it comes to free voluntary reading depends on who you are |||||||abhängt||||

and where you are in the language.

Obviously, if you're a school child and you've got 10, 12 years or more to Očividně||||||||||||

improve your vocabulary and to develop that sense of joy of reading, then free

voluntary reading with a very small number of unknown words is a good thing. |||||mazs|||||||| ||||||||neznámých||||| ||||||||||||gute|

Again, I would avoid the sort of. |es||||| |||vyhnul bych se||| |||vermeiden||| |||evitaria|||

Teaching reading strategies, inferring strategies, just let the child read, let |||inférence||||||| |||inferring||||||| |||inferência||||||| |||inferiranje||||||| |||推斷||||||| |||Schlussfolgern||||||| |||inferenza||||||| |||推断||||||| |||vyvozování||||||| |||推測|||||||

the words they don't understand go by.

They'll eventually figure them out one way or another. ||vymyslí|||||| ||理解する||||||

So that's free voluntary reading in the sense that Krashen describes |||||||||克拉申| |||||||||Krashen|beschreibt ||||||||||述べている

it for people in school, probably a better use of the student's time than |||||||||||學生的|| |||||||||||do aluno|| |||||||||||studente|| |||||||||||del estudiante|| |||||||||||学生の||

listening to the teacher in many cases. ||||||場合

However, when we as adults, and I include say students at a university, say at |||||||zahrnu||||||| ||||Erwachsene|||einbeziehen||Studierende||||| ||||||I|include|||||||

a foreign university where they're having to take courses in a foreign |||||müssen|||Kurse|||

language, adults wanting to learn a language, we are in a bigger hurry. ||||||||||||pressa ||wollende|||||||||| |||||||mēs||||| ||||||||||||větším spěchu ||||||言語||||||急いでいる |adultos|||||||||||

We don't have.

12 years to gradually, slowly increase our vocabulary. ||postupně||zvyšovat|| ||graduellement|||| ||allmählich||||

We need to increase our vocabulary more quickly.

And therefore the strategy has to be different. |proto|||||| |portanto||||||

We can't be dealing with just 2 percent unknown words. mēs|||||||| |||zabývat se||||| ||||||pourcent|| noi|||||||| |||lidando com|||||

When we start in the language, of course, we have no known words

or depending on how different the language is to a language we know.

So typically my strategy is I go to the many stories and, or you go to ||||||||die|||||||

other easy content, lots of repetition. ||obsah|||

So we are able to knock off the 500, most common words of the language. |||||éliminer|||||||| |||||abgehakt|||||||| ||||to||||||||| |||||togliere|||||||| |||||вибрати||||||||

We all know that.

Frequency declines very quickly. |declina|| |opada|| Die Frequenz|sinkt|| |azalır|| |diminuisce|| Частота(1)|знижується|| |klesá|| 頻率下降得很快。

And now we have to deal with chasing those low frequency words that are very |||||||perseguir||||||| |||||||lovom||||||| |||||||jagen||niedrigen||||| |||||||peşinde koşma||||||| |||||||inseguire||||||| |||||||переслідування||||||| |||||||sledováním|||||||

important and yet don't appear that often. ||||se objevují|| ||||apparaître|| ||||erscheinen|| ||||aparecem||

So then in my experience, we need to deal with a larger number of unknown words. |||||||||||větším|||neznámých| also||||||||umgehen|||||||

Either we say using LingQ, we look them up and we hope to acquire buď|||||||||||||získat |||||||||||||erwerben ou|||||||as|||||| Або|||||||||||||

these words by seeing them often enough, or we just let them go. šos||||||||mēs||||

You can have free voluntary reading with a book where there's a lot of unknown words. ||||voluntária|leitura||||||||||

I never bother inferring or guessing. ||me dérange|à inférer|| ||me dou ao trabalho de|inferir||adivinhando |||suy ra|| ich|nie|kümmere|schließen||raten ||rahatsız olurum|çıkarım yapmak|| io|||inferire||indovinare es||||| |||推断|| ||obtěžuju|usuzovat||hádat 我從不費心去推論或猜測。

I, it just flows by me. |||passe|| |it|appena||| |es||vergeht|| |tas|||| |||пропливає|| |||plyne|| |||通り過ぎる||

But there is some benefit in encountering those words in this ||||||de rencontrer|||| ||||||encontrar|||| ||||||begegnen|||| ||||||incontrare|||| ||||||зустрічі з|||| ||||||setkání s|||| ||||||出会う||||

free voluntary reading format. freies|||format |||format |||形式

However, it's frustrating if you forever don't know what the words mean. Nicméně|||||navždy|||||| ||frustrant||||||||| ||frustrierend|||immer||||||

And that's essentially. ||v podstatě ||özünde

What's at the origin of link typically early on when I'm starting in a language, |||Ursprung|||typischerweise|||||||| |||başlangıcında||||||||||| |||始まり|||||||||||

it might have 30 percent unknown words. tas|||||

And I admit that's difficult. ||přiznávám|| ||priznajem|| ||zugeben|| ||kabul ediyorum||

And we track these statistics at link. ||sledovat|||| ||suivons|||| ||izliyoruz||||

And of course, initially you may know a bunch of words that the system |||zpočátku|||||spoustu||||| |||öncelikle|||||||||| |||zunächst|||||||||| |||initially||||||||||

doesn't yet know that, So that might also push the number up to 50%. ||||||pode||||||

If I were to go into Dutch, for example, it'll show me a large ||||||holandštině||||||| ||||||Niederländisch||||||| |||||||||o gösterir|||| ||||||オランダ語|||||||

percentage of words that I don't know. procento|||||| percentuale|||||| porcentaje||||||

And in fact, in the case of Dutch, I can infer the meaning of those words. ||||||||||inférer||||| ||||||||||suy ra||||| ||||||||||çıkarım yapmak||||| ||||||||es||||||| ||||||||||вивести||||| ||||||||||usuzovat|||||

But in Turkish, that's not the case.

Very difficult for me to infer the meaning of words unless they're ||||||||||pokud nejsou| ||||||||||à moins| sehr||||||||||es sei denn| |||||deduce|||||| ||||||||||a menos que|

connected to words that I already know. spojené|||||| saistīts||||||

So in terms of the percentage that I can deal with. |||||porcentaje|||||

15%, 15 to 20 percent is an acceptable level of unknown words for me. ||||přijatelná|||||| |||||līmenis||||| ||||akzeptables|||||| ||||許容できる||||||

And so I develop a strategy which says at an early stage, I want |||||||||||fázi|| |||||||||||Phase||

material that's five minutes long.

I want maybe 15 to 20 percent unknown words.

I want that to be about 20 words that I'm trying to learn. |||||||||||mācīties ||||||||ich|||

2025 words that I've never seen before.

And that is my strategy and it's an optimum position. ||||||||posição ideal| ||||||||最佳| |||||||||Position ||||||||ottimale| ||||||||最佳| ||||||||optimální|pozice ||||||||最適な|

It's a sweet spot in terms of increasing my vocabulary so that I can eventually |||||||zvyšování||||||| |||endroit||||||||||| ||guter|Stelle||||||||||| It is|||spot|||||||||||

reach the stage where I can read a paper book because I will have enough vocabulary dosáhnout||stádium|||||||||||||

so that I won't be guessing at every second or third word, but at the same ||||||||otrā||trešā||||| |||nicht||||||||||||

time, it won't be, only three, four words per page that are unknown to me because |||||||||lappusē||||||

then I'm not increasing my vocabulary. |||rozšiřuji|| |||erweitere||

Make no mistake. ||Fehler ||error

We need a lot of vocabulary.

Even low frequency vocabulary in order to enjoy free voluntary reading. |||vārdu krājums||||||| |||||||||voluntaria|

So we have to invest that time in getting our vocabulary level up. ||||investovat||||zvyšování|||| ||||投資する||||||||

But while we are doing that, we are increasing our familiarity with the ||||||||zvyšujeme||znalost||

language again, the research has shown that people who read a lot, they write |||||montré||||||||

better, they have better grammar.

They speak better.

There's tremendous benefits to this free voluntary reading, but |obrovské||||||| |great||||||| |büyük|||||||

you have to be prepared for it. ||||vorbereitet|| ||||preparato||

You have to build yourself up to be able to do it. |||costruire||||||||

If you try to do that from day one, I think it'll be quite difficult. ja||||||||||||||

One other strategy I have is to stay in a limited range, a |||es||||||||| |||||||||||rozsahu| |||||||||||faixa|

limited content area for a while. |obsah||||

So that if I'm doing history of say in this case, the Ottoman ||||||||||||オスマン

Empire, I will stay with that.

So the same vocabulary will repeat. |||||wiederholen

I have found that typically fiction is much more difficult. ||||thường thì|tiểu thuyết|||| |||||Fiktion|||| |||||la narrativa||||

There's a far broader range of words and given the tremendous Precipitous decline |||plus large||||||||précipité| |||||||||||steep sudden| |||||||||||acentuada| |||širi||||||||strmog| |||||||||||急劇的| |||breiteres||||||||steilen|Rückgang |||daha geniş|||||||olağanüstü|| |||||||||||precipitoso| ||||||||ņemot vērā|||| ||||||||||||下降 |||||||||||стрімкий|різке падіння |||||||||||dốc đứng| ||||||||vzhledem k||ohromný|strmý|pokles |||||||||||急激な| |||||||||||precipitado|

of frequency of words in any language. |fréquence|||||

You want to, have a strategy where you have a greater likelihood of meeting |||||||||||probabilité|| |||||||||||maior probabilidade|| |||||||||||vjerojatnost|| |||||||||||khả năng|| |||||||||||Wahrscheinlichkeit||Treffen ||||||||||daha yüksek|olasılık||toplantı yapma |||||||||||可能性|| |||||||||||ймовірність|| ||||||||||větší|pravděpodobnost|| |||||||あなた||||可能性||

the same words or related words again. ||||||wieder

So to summarize, many people like video. ||résumer|||| ||zusammenfassen||||Videos ||要約すると||||

I'm not a big fan.

I like video.

I like film, but for language learning, video is less effective.

There's a lot of dead time. |a|||dead|

Sometimes it's difficult to catch what people are saying. ||||verstehen|||| ||||entender||||

Whereas reading is pure words. |||čisté| Oysa|||sadece|

And to that extent, listening is pure words. |||míře|||| ||||klausīšanās||| |||o ölçüde|||| |||その程度|||| |||||es||

So that if we're talking not just about what's enjoyable, but how do |||||||||příjemné||| |||||||||agradable|||

we improve our vocabulary, how do we improve our grasp of the language, |||||||||maîtrise||| ||||||||our|||| |||||||||razumijevanje||| |||||||||anlayışımız||| |||||||||porozumění||| |||||||||理解|||

reading and it's associated activity of listening to my mind are the way to go. |||verbundene||||||||||| |||ilişkili||||||||||| |||関連した|||||||||||

And yes, you want to consume more and more of the language, more and more ||tu|||||||||||| |||||consumere|||||||||

extensive, more and more free, voluntary. mở rộng|||||

And above all, you don't. und|||| ||特に||

want to have too much teacher intervention. ||||||can thiệp ||||||Intervention ||||||müdahale ||||||intervento ||||||干预 ||||||zásah učitele ||||||介入

Teachers love to have pre reading questions and post reading questions and ||||vorbereitende||||||| ||||||||sonrası|||

comprehension questions and instructing you on how to infer and critical thinking. |||vous instruire|||||inférer||| |||instruindo|||||||| |||unterrichten|||||||| |||talimat verme|||||||| |||istruirti|||||||| |||інструктаж|||||висновок 1||| porozumění|||pokyny|||||vyvozovat||| |||指示する|||||||批判的|

I always quote Ruben Alves who says, nothing destroys the enjoyment ||cite|||||||| ||zitiere||||||zerstört|| ||alıntı yaparım|||||||| |||Ruben|||||||divertimento ||citát||||||ničí||užitek ||||アルヴェス|||||| |||Ruben|||||||

of reading as much as being asked questions about what you have read. |lecture|||||||||||

I may not understand it perfectly, but it's what I understood. es|||||||||| ||||||||||verstanden

I'm happy with that.

I don't want to be challenged. |||||vyzvánán |||||herausgefordert |||||sfidato

I just want to enjoy my reading.

The essence of free voluntary reading is to be free of those kinds of impositions ||||||||||||||impositions |nature|||||||||||||restrictions ||||||||||||||impositions ||||||||||||||imposições ||||||||||||||nametanja ||||||||||||||áp đặt |Essenz|||||||||||||Auferlegungen |özü|||||||||||||dayatmalar ||||||||||||||imposizioni ||||||||||||||обмежень |podstata|||||||||||||nátlaku |本質|||||||||||||押し付け ||||||||||||||imposiciones

from the teacher and free to explore the language following a strategy where you're from|||||||||||||

gradually increasing your ability to take on more and more difficult, potentially |zvyšující se|||||||||| |||||||||||潜在的に

more and more interesting material, longer material, and that way you will eventually ||||||||||||nakonec |||intéressant||||||||| ||||||||||||alla fine

achieve your language learning goal.

So with that, I wanted to leave you those references to people talking |||||||||Referenzen|||

about free voluntary reading and lend my support to free voluntary reading. |||||donner||soutien|||volontaire| |||||dati|||||| |||||leiste|||||| |||||destek veriyorum|||||| |||||poskytnout|||||| |||||与える|||||| |||||prestar||||||

One of Crouch's big bugbears, extensive reading. ||de Crouch||cauchemar|| ||||pet peeves|| ||Crouch's|big|problems|| ||Crouch||fantasmas|| ||Crouchs||Ängste|| ||||sorunları|| ||Crouch||preoccupazioni|| ||Крауча||постійні проблеми|| ||クラウチの||悩みの種|| ||Crouch||problemas||

As a relatively inexpensive and effective way to improve your ||relativement|inexpensive|||||| ||relativ günstige|preiswert|||||| |||uygun fiyatlı|||||| |||economico|||||| |||便宜|||||| |||недорога||||||

language skills in any language. jezik||||