cathmom Posted May 15, 2010 Share Posted May 15, 2010 Any suggestions on how to increase reading speed besides, well, just reading and then reading some more? :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ester Maria Posted May 15, 2010 Share Posted May 15, 2010 Read lots of different material - from newspapers to literary classics. That will expose you to different layers of the language. Read aloud from time to time and try to read the text the same way you'd read it in English. Memorize poems. I know it sounds like it has nothing to do with it, but in the process of memorizing and getting back to the poem you have to be able to quickly skim the poem to find the part you're memorizing, a lot of times. That's particularly useful for languages with a different script (my girls' reading of Greek improved dramatically after some memorization). Read news the way you're looking for a specific information - that way you practice skimming, which overall raises the speed. Or count how many times the word X is mentioned in the article. I can't think of anything else, but those should help a little. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathmom Posted May 15, 2010 Author Share Posted May 15, 2010 Thanks, Ester! I'm trying to increase my reading speed in German. A few years ago I did an experiment using similar books in English (my native language), German and Spanish. I could read the English in 2.5 minutes, the Spanish in 8, and the German in 9.5. That really explained to me why I get bored reading German because it's going soooo sloooooowwwwwly. (Just to clarify, that's reading 4 pages, not the whole book!) I just repeated the experiment last night with German and it still took me 9.5 minutes to read the same amount. I'm hoping after really reading a lot this summer that I can substantially increase that speed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joan in GE Posted May 15, 2010 Share Posted May 15, 2010 I forget which language(s) you are reading... If the written language is easy to relate to the spoken (eg not too many silent letters and not characters like in Chinese), I think that knowing the words from having heard them helps you read faster...because there is reading the sounds and reading with comprehension...You can know all the rules of pronunciation and still have not much clue what you are reading unless the language is similar to your own or another you have studied... JMHO, Joan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathmom Posted May 15, 2010 Author Share Posted May 15, 2010 Joan, we posted at the same time. I'm working on German. I speak at an advanced level and am planning to continue graduate school, so I need to increase my reading speed. That really handicapped me before when I was working on my MA! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joan in GE Posted May 15, 2010 Share Posted May 15, 2010 So you are doing German at the graduate level? so that presumes literature etc.? If so, I would try to read in the direction of the studies to develop your vocabulary...listen to literature on "tape"(really MP3) in the car and then read it (if you're doing literature, that is)...What is that site where you get free audio productions - LibriVox - which has books in various languages that are on the public domain...here are German ones.... I'm not trying to say that the reading itself is not important. But to maximize that time, if you can listen while doing dishes etc, times when you could not be reading... For literature at least you have audio books...If it is in a scientific field, then you're probably dependent on reading scientific works ahead of time to increase your vocab... This is actually a good preparation question for any of us eventually pursuing higher studies...even in English, the vocab is so important for example in a medical field, computers, etc...if we're reading ahead, then our vocabulary is already developed... Thought provoking question actually, Joan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathmom Posted May 15, 2010 Author Share Posted May 15, 2010 Yes, German literature is what I will be studying. That's a really good idea to listen to literature, I'll have to try to figure out the best way to do that. Currently, I have been reading the news headlines plus one article a day in German, children's chapter books from my library, and the Nibelungenlied in modern German. I also have a complete set of everything Kafka ever wrote from my MA days, including letters and diaries, so I was going to start with the shorter things and work my way up to his novels. Thanks for all the suggestions! It is an interesting question - how does one get to that top level, the one where you can confidently say, "Yes, I speak/read/write near-native German." It's fairly easy to reach minimum levels of competence in a language. It's very hard, especially in the American system, to reach fluency. In grad school, where I expected to perfect the German I had already learned, perfection was presumed and there was no support for improving. I have never so far been able to spend significant time in a German-speaking place either. So it's been a dilemma for me for some time. I had pretty much given up, thinking the only way to get where I wanted to be was to live there, and since that wasn't possible, too bad so sad. Now I have a new motivation and I am not going to make excuses anymore! I may not be able to go to Germany right now, but I can work to increase my vocab, my speaking ability, and my reading and writing while still here! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jld Posted May 16, 2010 Share Posted May 16, 2010 Wow! You have a great attitude, Cathmom! And how exciting for you to begin pursuing a doctorate in German literature! What a challenging endeavor! Good luck!:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathmom Posted May 16, 2010 Author Share Posted May 16, 2010 Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nan in Mass Posted May 16, 2010 Share Posted May 16, 2010 GROAN - You can always speed it up by skimming miles of national curriculum trying to decide where to jump in. My French reading has sped up considerably this last week as I did this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathmom Posted May 16, 2010 Author Share Posted May 16, 2010 Also a good idea, Nan! I should go try to find some standards for German or something like that. I would like to find a message board and/or blogs written in German. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jld Posted May 16, 2010 Share Posted May 16, 2010 Nan, lol! I'm sure your son will be grateful someday! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nan in Mass Posted May 16, 2010 Share Posted May 16, 2010 I hope so. This is all an enormous amount of work. I'm glad to do it because of the freedom it brings us and generally speaking, I don't mind working hard for my children, but it is certainly time consuming. I will be glad when I have the next school year planned and don't have that added to my normally busy schedule. At this point, summer is looking very nice GRIN. My son is ready for summer, too. He most definately is not grateful for being made to write in French, but he is happy to be able to communicate in another language. He takes it for granted most of the time but every once in a while he is reminded of how nice that is. And he isn't happy about being made to write in English, either, so... -nan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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