Narrow listening

Open Forum
1

Here is an idea from Stephen Krashen that could really work for us at LingQ.

Members can ask native speakers to record short passages, 2-3 minutes in length on specific topics of interest to them. Of course for LingQ this would also have to be transcribed. The person doing the recording and transcription would either receive points from the member requesting the recording or could undertake to do it for free and own the content in the library

We could ask members directly on their walls, or put up some desired topics and languages here on this forum.

Any thoughts?

Here is a blog post that talks a little about this idea.

http://www.everydaylanguagelearner.com/2011/04/07/language-learning-tip-narrow-listening/

2

In general I think this is a good idea. Other members and I have asked for the option to get the corrected writing recorded for some points earlier. It is no problem for texts that students have written by themselves. But you cannot share recorded texts from every source. The problem is to find texts which are not under copyright. I’ve searched for German texts which have a licence that allows the recording but I had a really hard time to find something. And the interest in these texts was not really high compared to the work to find and to record the texts. Maybe for English this could be more worth to consider it.

3

Vera, I was thinking more along the lines of the following. If I am interested in the recent election in Korea I would ask a Korean member to record a free flowing monologue with his or her views on the election, no longer than 3 minutes long. This could even be a course or a playlist.

Let’s call these vignettes. These would be member created but at the request of another member.

Someone else might want a vignette on modern German music in German, or gardening, or health foods. Or someone might want a vignette on anime in Japanese, or the city of Rome in Italian, or the new French president, or Portuguese Fados, or the Brazilian amazon, or simply raising children or shopping for food in different languages. Whatever our members are interested in would be fine.

4

Great idea. If anyone wants to kick this off with a Swedish vignette on music or technology, I’d be more than happy to donate a few points.

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5

Hi Steve,

I think this could be a good help for content creaters that do not have so many ideas for different topics. I’m not very creative in such things and maybe other people have the same problem. So why not collect suggestions of the learners? Sounds like a good idea to me.

Greetings,
Kathi

P.S.: I just noticed that I do not understand the phrase “narrow listening” in this context. What does that mean?

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Language Learning Tip: Narrow Listening
http://www.everydaylanguagelearner.com/2011/04/07/language-learning-tip-narrow-listening/

7

I have suggested something very similar, but to some of the members, themselves. I think it is an excellent way to consolidate vocabulary.

8

I am at everybody’s disposal to record short writings in Italian and transcribe audio files recorded in Italian and other languages I know well, in exchange for points.

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9

Hi Michele,
would you be able to transcribe videos of Luca in Italian such as this one?

This is really valuable content for many of us.

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10

I think this is an interesting idea; like Michele, I’m also available to record texts in European Portuguese or transcribe audio files, and points are ok.

11

@Axel: Please consider that you have to ask Luca for permission if you want to share his videos on LingQ.

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12

Of course you are right, Vera, but I think no authorization is needed for a private transcription.

Alex, write me what videos you’d like to have transcribed and we’ll talk about the points. :slight_smile:

13

I like the idea Steve. If lingq wanted to push users to do this, maybe a request vignette button could be added to the profiles of users that wanted to do them. To help out those requesting it might be useful to have users fill out a section of their profile with their interests. If this was done with categories that they check off as interests, this could be made searchable by users looking for vignettes to be recorded.

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14

I like Steve’s idea as well and I’d be open to doing some in English.

15

cgreen, good ideas. Give us some time and we will come up with something. Meanwhile nothing prevents people from making arrangements with each other now.

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@Michele: Yes, as long as the lessons stay private it’s fine.

17

If you grouped a few readings by different authors into particular courses by “vignette,” students would find it easier to find them. I, for one, would be willing to pay points for such courses.

18

I suggest that I start a new thread for people to request these vignettes. If we regularly post there about vignettes we would like to see in the library, or people who have created them let us know, and in general keep the thread visible, we won’t lose track of it. Eventually we at LingQ may find a way of keeping these lists of desirable topics in some way.

As for grouping vignettes from different providers, this is what the Playlist function is for. If you create a playlist, don’t hesitate to share it with others.

19

I am sure Lucca does not mind, however, in any case it is best to ask him.

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20

I have started a new thread on vignettes. Let’s hear from those what want vignettes and those who are prepared to provide them. I for one will do so for English. Some of you can help by spreading the word on other language forums here at LingQ.