I’ve just started about a week ago, but I have a question. I know that listening is very important. When I choose a new lesson to work on, I first listen to it about 4-5 times just to see if I can understand it a little. Usually I can only catch a few words or phrases on these initial passes.
I then get to work trying to read through the passage, identifying the LingQs and the known word, and trying my best to understand it. Luckily I’ve been able to get about 90% comprehension on these passages so far.
I then listen to the passage another 1-2 times, then work the LingQs using Cloze test and Multiple Choice, then listen to it one last time.
My question is: are the initial passes very useful at all? Or just a waste of time? Should I just skip this step and dive into trying to decode it directly?
First of all you don’t have to take too difficult text for listening. The quantity of unknow words must be less that 25%.
The second important thing - the topic must be interesting for you.
After making a choice I listen to the text for the fisrt time without reading.
The second time I listen and read at the same time; however, not the whole text without breaking,but with a break after each paragraph and make necessary lingQs.
After that I see through the new lingqs and listen to the text looking a bit at the text.
It’s enough for one day, but it’s better to repeat listening to the same text the next day for a good consolidation.
I think it is not so necessary to first listen to a new content about 4-5 times. (But it depends on the length of a text. If it is very short, you will listen to it many time before going to the next stage.) If you think the new text is a little bit difficult after listening to it , you had better read it carefully and lingQ new words if necessary. Then you will listen and read it again. Just after almost understanding it, you will listen to it without reading.
As for me, I use various ways of learning languages.
For example, yesterday I learned French as follows.
I imported relatively understandable contents of “Les 7 règles de français Authentique” for personal use. There were a few blue-highlighted words in these contents but most of them were conjugations or foreign language words,etc, so I just clicked “known” or “ignored” without glancing at whole text. Then, I tried to listen to them without reading. I think I got over 90% at this stage. However, I tried to listen and read them again in order to understand them perfectly.
After this kind of activities on LingQ, I randomly watched some Youtube movies or listened to Radio France International programs on my computer and listened to France Culture on my iPad. I did not get them perfectly but I was able to pick up something I already learned or my favorite subjects. I sometimes enjoy listening to natural resources as well as using LingQ.