Category: Reading

Tips To Improve Your Language Skills, Part 2

Posted on by Stephanie Dodaro

Tips To Improve Your Language Skills, Part 2

See part one in the previous post.  To continue our discussion on tips to improving your language skills, next up is:

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Teach Someone Else

This may seem strange or even hard to imagine for some people, but it does work! If you feel as if your language skills are at least at an intermediate level, you should be more than ready to teach a beginner. If you get yourself a good beginner’s textbook, the lesson plan is already made for you. By following the book, you will have a very organized and methodical technique for working with a beginner. It will be a fantastic way for you to review the basics and refresh your knowledge and understanding of the grammar and vocabulary that you may have forgotten. It will challenge you to improve and refine your language skills, so it is a benefit to you and your student! In addition to making this crucial revision in order to teach a new student, you will also gain a much-needed confidence in speaking and using the language. You will probably learn a lot of new stuff as you go along, like new words you’d never come across before, and you will even likely improve your own understanding of grammar points that you may not have perfected the first time around. Being able to explain grammar and vocabulary will come easier for you, since you had to learn it the hard way just as your students are doing. You will be able anticipate the difficulties they will encounter because you had the same ones, thus being able to better help them.

Join A Conversation Or Book Club Group

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If you do a quick search in your area, you may find a language school or Meetup group that hosts a conversation circle that meets maybe monthly or as frequently as weekly. Here, we have several Meetup groups that meet on various days during the week, daytime or evening. You can maybe find a group that meets your language level or interest. Sometimes the group may meet to discuss literature or simply to have drinks or dinner in the evening, or coffee or lunch during the day or weekends. Language schools like Alliance Française or Deutches Haus, in addition to language classes, may host free or low-cost events in which members may be able to participate. These could be book clubs, seminars, presenters, film clubs, or even parties for Christmas or national holidays. Participating in these may be beneficial for you to meet native speakers, or other language learners with whom you can practice speaking in a very relaxed atmosphere.

Create An Immersion Environment At Your Home (see blog)

I wrote about this recently, so refer to the blog I posted (March 2021) for more details. I just want to reiterate that having as much immersion in the language you are learning is crucial! Subscribe to magazines or newspapers, get CDs or stream music, watch the news, movies or videos in your target language, put up posters of verb charts or vocabulary, change your phone or computer language, anything and everything you can do to have the language all around you will reinforce and strengthen your confidence and abilities.

Talk To Anyone/ Everyone, Even If They Don’t Know The Language You’re Speaking!

There is also another option, which might annoy your family and friends, but which could be fun and interesting to you (and possibly to others), and that is to just talk in your target language every time you want to say something, and then translate it. If you want your spouse to pass you the butter, say it first in the language you are learning, and then translate it. It sounds nuts, but I have students who do this. It gives them the chance to practice their language skills, figure out how to say what they want to say, but still get the message across in the translation. Their family members may even learn something in the process! It’s a little like the one from part 1, in which I said you could just talk to yourself. However the difference (and maybe an added benefit) is that it needs to come out quickly and in good pronunciation, intonation and rhythm. Thinking to oneself is a little different from speaking out loud. Give it a try. You may realize that you are a little slower at speaking out loud than you are at thinking what you want to say.

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Write Daily

In an article posted on my blog (Feb 2017) I talked at length about writing to improve your language skills. For more details, please refer to this post. Briefly, I believe writing is critical to the development of language skills, and I have seen this put into practice with great success by many of my students. When students began a habit of writing daily, even as little as a few sentences to a few small paragraphs, they would often notice great improvement in their ability to form their thoughts and ideas in the language they are studying. It challenges them to think about how things need to be said in the language they are learning, for example, the vocabulary or grammar needed and so much more. Especially if you are going to be writing by hand, I believe the memory for words and phrases that you write down is stronger and will last longer. Whether it be personal memories, experiences, daily activities or even on more abstract topics like friendship or success, taking a few minutes every day to write in a notebook will work wonders on your skills in all areas.

Get a Tutor / someone to talk to to practice/ language partner.

So finally, I will end with the obvious one. When all else fails or is still not enough, or when the above opportunities do not present themselves, and you just want or need more, you may just need to get a tutor or private teacher. Taking a class is great for the interaction that you will have, but it may not give you the individualized attention you need or want. If you have very specific goals in mind, for example to pass a test, to prepare for an upcoming trip or to apply for a job, then a tutor is probably the best option. I would also say that a private tutor is also best for someone with some experience studying the language here and there and may have a level that is difficult to place in a class. If you live in a very rural area and there are not a lot of language schools or tutors, there are plenty of tutors (like me) who are working online to deliver quality professional lessons. Don’t knock it until you try it! I know studying online may not seem like a great experience to you, but it is in the comfort of your own home or office, may fit in well when you have an unpredictable schedule, and you don’t have the hassle of commuting in traffic or going out in bad weather. It really can be quite convenient for people with busy schedules. If you are on a budget and just can’t afford the cost of hiring a private teacher, there are also programs that connect you with a language partner with whom you can exchange language lessons, dividing the hour between your learning their native language, and teaching your language to them. It may be a slow process, and they will possibly be amateur teachers, but if you both stay on task, you could get a lot out of it. Keep in mind that it also may be very irregular and some language partners are not as committed as you may be.

In Conclusion

All in all, language learning is a process. It can be a lifelong process, and at times frustrating or slow, but it is always well worth it. A second language is a valuable skill and useful in many situations, from travel to work. It keeps the mind healthy and young and can really change the way we see the world and others. So if you are committed, go all in. I hope the above tips prove to be as useful to you as they have been to me and to many of my students. If you can think of others, please add them in the comments below. I would be happy to see them, as well as many of my students.

Useful Tips To Improve Your Language Skills Part 1

Posted on by Stephanie Dodaro

Here Are Several Tips To Improve Your Language Skills

Part 1:

My students often ask me how they can improve their language skills. Of course there are some obvious answers, but sometimes it is not such a simple question. My answer really does depend on the student’s situation, where they live, what their level is and what they have the opportunity to do around them. It will depend on whether they are living in the country where their target language is spoken, whether they have friends or family that also speak this language, and so forth. Therefore, I wanted to create this blog to discuss some of the options that my students might consider trying. Add to the comments below your tips, or what you think of these mentioned here. As this started to become very long, I will have a part two coming soon.

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Talk to Yourself

Obviously, the best way to improve your language skills is to get a tutor, but we will discuss that later. If you have no one with whom you can practice your language, why not talk to yourself? I know it may sound silly, but let me explain This is a very valuable technique and one which I think often gets overlooked. Anytime I ever tried to learn a language or even practice one I knew well, I would find myself thinking about how to discuss a situation in which I might find myself and pondering the way I would or could express it. I could be on a bus or in a café while having an imaginary conversation with someone about what I did earlier, how I would say it, searching for the vocabulary I would need to have for this conversation. Then, possibly I would realize that I don’t know a certain necessary or important word, which would then lead me to the question of how I could rephrase it or describe the word that I am missing. Oddly enough, this kind of preparation could help a lot when you actually do find yourself having that very conversation one day. Maybe you imagine describing what you cooked earlier, what your recent trip was like, what kind of work you do, the book you’re reading now, or any other type of conversation you could have with a stranger or friend you encounter somewhere. When I was in Japan, I was alone and struggling with Japanese. I imagined any number of ordinary situations where I would have to talk to someone. It often helped later when I did have to have that discussion. Sometimes I would even go home later and search for the words I realized I didn’t know or ask a friend for help with it.

Labeling/ Signing

Labeling things in the house with little sticky notes is something I did when trying to learn Latin. It is another very useful technique, especially if you are at the beginning stage of learning vocabulary. Even more than that, in fact, you can take advantage of all those moments when you are doing something monotonous like brushing your teeth, washing the dishes, or folding the clothes by sticking up verb conjugations, word lists etc, by the place where you stand doing those things. Even just momentary glances at those lists can help with the memorization of words and phrases while you work.

Sing Along With Music

Discovering great music in the language you are learning is a great way to help you along with your language skills in terms of vocabulary, fluency, rhythm, intonation, pronunciation and speed. I recommend finding good song writers, though. Watch out for pop songs that use too much slang or dirty language. That is why I recommend that you choose carefully; otherwise, you might risk learning some bad habits, or too much colloquial or informal language before really understanding it. Getting the lyric sheets or CD booklet to read along as you listen will be helpful in the beginning, not only to understand the words but to learn them as you listen. However, sometimes I just try to learn the words by listening to the songs over and over again. That is why I suggest finding something you like. Over time, I learned the words, started singing to it, while trying to keep up the speed. It was really challenging at first, but it made me so excited to be able to eventually keep up and sound native! Ask me for my recommendations for French music.

 

Read, Read, Read…

As I have written in many previous posts (Jan 2021), reading is one of the best ways to improve your language skills. You can search some of my older posts for information on why and how to go about it. I really stand by this one, as it is tried and tested and proven to work. I have rarely spent more than a few weeks in France and yet managed to develop a fairly good vocabulary, fluency and C2 level of French. Yes, I studied for many years in school. Despite that, upon leaving my program, I still felt as if my speaking level was lower than it maybe should have been after all those years. I feel that I mostly improved my speaking skills through abundant reading. Now, I am not saying to pick up any novel and just start reading if you are not at an upper intermediate or advanced learner. At A1 or B1 levels, I think it is useful to pick up what’s called a “graded reader”. These are student editions of popular novels, classics etc, scaled down to a certain language level with a certain vocabulary base, so that it can be understood by language students at that level. If you are a beginner, you may look for A1 or A2 readers, intermediate level B1 or B2, or maybe you are advanced then you can search for C1 or C2. These readers may have vocabulary listed in the margin, at the bottom or a glossary for students, maybe even comprehension and vocabulary exercises. For English learners there are the Penguin classics. For French learners there are all kinds of such readers. They are designed to be self-paced; however, I still think that these are probably useful done in coordination with a tutor.

Easy Readers/ Facile a Lire series: http://www.easyreaders.eu/french.aspx

Eli International: https://www.elionline.com/francais-fle/?idc%5B0%5D=482

Black Cat CIDEB: https://www.blackcat-cideb.com/en/catalogue/french/

Hachette Lire en francais facile readers: https://www.hachettefle.com/outils/hw_education_disciplines/lecture-13490

Cle Language direct easy reader: https://www.languages-direct.com/shop-by-language/french?book_format=278

 

Stay tuned for more tips. In my next post, I am going to discuss why teaching someone else might be one of the best ways of better learning what you are studying, as well as three other tips. As always, language learning is a life-long journey. There will always be something new to learn. Multiplying the number of things you do and varying your experiences will make it easier and sometimes even more fun.

 

The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary

Posted on by Stephanie Dodaro

In 1998 a book came out that detailed the birth of the first English dictionary which began in 1857.  No joke, there was nothing quite like a “proper English dictionary” before that time. It would take me nearly two decades to discover this book. The book is called The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester.  If the title alone did not whet your appetite, then possibly nothing will.  This was yet another lucky book fair find, and I could simply not resist this one.  It is the true story of the making of the famous OED (The Oxford English Dictionary) and of the famous or even infamous men who made it happen.  It is an absolutely awe inspiring story of the dictionary that almost did not happen, the dictionary that men died making never to see completed.   Our main characters are Dr. James Murray, editor of the OED, and Dr. W. C. Minor, main contributor of thousands of entries for the dictionary and permanent inmate at the asylum for the criminally insane.

There are many aspects about this book that I loved.  There are actual dictionary entries reproduced at the beginning of every chapter, almost setting the theme for the chapters themselves.  Chapter 1, for example, begins with the very lengthy listing for “murder”, with all the etymology and changes for the word over the years.  By seeing these entries, the reader gets a sense of the immense project it was to put together a dictionary of such scope.  It was a monumental task.  Even those taking on this task underestimated how long it would take, which in total took about 70 years. I also very much appreciated the author’s language, which is very elegant and sophisticated.  For “word nerds”,  myself included, it can be refreshing to read something so eloquently written, with such academic vocabulary, rich in meaning.

The book retraces the history of both men from childhood and how they found themselves in their individual situations, and to a degree, what made them the men they became, especially in the case of Dr. Minor.  It leads us to the moment when Dr. Minor finds a flier with a call for contributors for the dictionary.  Finding himself with a lot of time on his hands and an extensive library in his cell, he could work and occupy his time and his mind.  It could possibly have proven to be therapeutic in the end.

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Overall the story of these two men, and the incredibly ambitious project they undertook was fascinating, to the point that I even found myself reading little bits to friends who were willing to humor my enthusiasm for this book.  To imagine that this was done mostly by mail, submissions on little slips of paper, handset typeface, and compiled manually, in the mid 19th century makes my head explode.  To think that in Shakespeare’s day there was no English dictionary, to think of having no way to check the meaning or spelling of a particularly strange or unusual or new word, is difficult to imagine.  We take it for granted.

So as you may imagine, I devoured this one not only as a bibliophile, but also a word nerd and lover of historical fiction and etymology.   It is meticulously researched and eloquently retold. Undoubtedly a must read for anyone looking to improve vocabulary (whether English is your native language or not!) and especially for someone who underestimates the importance of and need for a dictionary.

 

How Did English Become So…. Unique?

Posted on by Stephanie Dodaro

Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue, John McWhorter

Rarely can I walk through a bookstore without something catching my eye unexpectedly.  I was not looking for this book in particular and had not even known of its existence when I came across it.  It was particularly serendipitous for me as an English teacher to find this book. I dreaded having to answer the question “Why do we have to say it like that?” or “Why like this and not like that?” and those questions often come up.  Hallelujah! This book answered all of those questions for me!

For the language learner, no other language in the world seems like English.  In fact, according to McWhorter, “[T]he pathway from Beowulf to The Economist has involved as much transformation in grammar as in words, more so, in fact than in any of English’s close relatives.  English is more peculiar among its relatives, and even the world’s languages as a whole, in what has happened to its grammar than in what has happened to its vocabulary.” (Introduction, p. xii)  If you have ever wondered why English grammar is like it is, this book will help you understand.  What really happened to English along the way?   When did verbs lose all of their endings, except for the third person singular?  Many languages have very complicated verb conjugations and a whole pile of irregular ones, as well.  If it is a Germanic language like German, where are all of the noun declensions, case markers?  Why does it not look German-esque at all?   I studied German, briefly, and can say that it is very, very different. English grammar, McWhorter suggests, is quite easy compared to languages with all those things, at least in the beginning.  In my opinion, it is the massive vocabulary that makes English so challenging, not its grammar.

McWhorter tells a very animated tale of English through the ages, from the Viking invasions to Norman invasions, then Latin.  He can be quite humorous in his retelling of the history of the language, making it a rather enjoyable read. However, it is an academic text in which he explains the grammar and  history, which are at the heart of his study. However, the read is worth it because it is so important to understand why the language is the way it is.  This is especially important for me in teaching and explaining it.   He will show that the evolution of English is more than just the simple borrowing of words.  There was real grammatical evolution happening by the Welsh and Cornish, later the Vikings, who never managed to speak it well and thus how we lost most of the grammar that had remained by that time, and finally, this is what we are left with.  He will also explain that what is considered a grammar mistake by some grammarians is illogical.  His arguments for these are hard to refute.

There is only one part with which I did not quite agree.  He feels that grammar and language do not shape our thoughts or the way we see the world.  I have read other articles to the contrary and have tested this theory on many students in my years teaching.  I still read the chapter to see his arguments, but I have not been convinced by this part.  Maybe you will be, or maybe you will also not be convinced.  If you want to read the other side of the argument, ask me for links to two really well written articles.

One of the most interesting chapters is the last one, discussing what happened to English before it was actually English (Proto-Germanic), the changes to the language as it evolved as spoken by non-native speakers.

This book is cleverly written, entertaining, if not occasionally heavy and thick with grammar and sophisticated vocabulary, a very academic read, but worthwhile indeed.  I would highly recommend this for serious language learners, linguists, English grammar or writing teachers and lovers of historical linguistics. It is definitely a book I plan to review again and again.

How to improve skills in your second language… Read!

Posted on by Stephanie Dodaro

Many of my students ask me what I think is the best way to improve their speaking skills in their second language.  Of course the simple answer is to practice speaking.  The language student should seek any and all opportunities to speak their target language, even if that means traveling overseas where the language is spoken, joining clubs, language schools, speaking with international tourists that one may encounter, or with friends from school who are also studying the language.

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However, that is not necessarily the best answer, and it is certainly not the only answer. What would a person do if he has only few or no opportunities to speak the target language? This is often the case for a person learning a language in a country where the language is not widely spoken. I lived in Japan for a few years, and very seldom met people with whom I could speak  French. Even when that rare opportunity occurred, we were usually in a mixed group where the common language was English.  Even then, the French speakers were not likely to correct my French or offer assistance.  The only thing I could do to maintain my language skills was to read.

 

Speaking more, practicing conversation, to improve one’s speaking skills can only help if someone corrects the speaker.  Yet the student is not necessarily going to build on skills as much as maintain what he already has. The vocabulary already at his disposal is not likely to be forgotten, but he may not add much to it without the help of a teacher conducting a conversation class dedicated to building vocabulary and editing grammar.

 

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Why Reading Works

If one is living in a rural area without a multicultural population or in a small town without international tourism, expats, or access to conversation classes, then the argument for reading to improve speaking skills is much stronger and the overall benefits are numerous.  When reading, a person is going to see much more than vocabulary.  He is going to build on his understanding of syntax, the use of articles, verb tenses, prepositions, idiomatic expressions, the particular way a language expresses things, the way phrases are built, colorful, descriptive language, and so much more. These benefits don’t just come at the early learning stage, but throughout your language learning journey.  Just the other day, I came across a beautiful phrase in a French novel that I was reading  that I hope to use one day.  The author was describing a friend from her past, and said of her that she was “belle comme le soleil” (beautiful as the sun). I thought that this was such a lovely phrase and wanted so much to remember it for a future time when I can use it that I wrote it down in my notebook.  I also found equivalents to English idioms that I recognized, even though they were phrased somewhat differently. We really do continue to learn at any age, at any stage of our education.

 

Why Not Use a Dictionary?

The way students should deal with new and unfamiliar vocabulary is not to spend hours looking in the dictionary for every new word they come across.  Obviously that is dull, makes reading laborious, and can lead to confusion if they pick the wrong definition or if the word is part of an idiom or used metaphorically. The student should just keep reading.  Does the new word impede the meaning of the passage as a whole?  Is the general idea of what’s being said understood? If so, the student should just make a guess about the word and keep reading. If the word keeps popping up, and the student thinks that maybe it is important to know exactly what the meaning is, only then would I say it is best to look it up.  The student may find himself surprised to realize that he had understood it all along, which will absolutely help with his confidence for the next time.  Eventually this word may become part of this repertoire, adding to his growing vocabulary at his disposal.  I have very distinct memories of what book I was reading when I learned certain words.

 

Other Skills Learned through Reading

While reading, it is not just vocabulary that the student is developing.  He is also being exposed to the usage of prepositions, how and when they are used; articles, which ones are used and in which situations; and common expressions and how they are framed in the language that he is learning. We often make the mistake of simply translating expressions directly from our native language into the language that we are learning, and that often does not work well.  I can honestly say that my full understanding of which articles to use and when did not only come from my grammar classes, but by seeing their usage again and again in books I read. I would sometimes stop and reread a phrase asking myself why one article was used and not another. After some consideration of the meaning of the phrase, it would become clear why it was used. This momentary contemplation cleared up my confusion and has added to my understanding of the grammar.

Final Thoughts…

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This all can happen quite naturally, without distracting the student from what he is actually reading.  One word of caution, the student should not be translating in his head while reading. If the book is at the right level for the student, the words should be familiar enough for the student to simply read, as it is written, in the language and enjoy what he is reading.  If he is actively trying to translate simultaneously, or pronounce the words in his head, he will get lost in that activity and will lose the meaning in the process.  Therefore, when reading in a foreign language, it is especially important for the chosen book to be at the appropriate level for the student so that the student does not rely too heavily on translation or the dictionary.   Too much can be lost in meaning, and none of the other benefits will be gained from the reading.

So, what are you waiting for?  Pick up a great book and begin today!!

 

** Check out my Book Club courses for suggestions on great books to read for French or English language learners, and contact me for more information***