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Benvenuti, Bienvenue, Croeso and Welcome.
Hi, I’m Juliet. Join me on my language learning journey and discover my thoughts on different aspects of language learning with the A Language Learning Tale Podcast. Today, the subject is …
Intensive vs Extensive
Or
Different Reading Styles
There are two basic ways of reading in a foreign language and they both have different purposes and, I guess, comfort levels. These are Intensive Reading and Extensive Reading. You can, of course, use the same reading material to do both.
Intensive Reading
This type of reading is slow and methodical. The purpose of it is to get the maximum learning benefit from the text. Typically, intensive reading has a number of elements:
There is usually a specific aim to the reading. With language learning that will generally be to gain the maximum understanding from the text and the reading may well be something that is graded to your current level of comprehension, or just above your current level of comprehension.
In this situation, you will generally have the intention of reading the text multiple times. So, you might read one short story, or one chapter, or even get more micro than that and read a single paragraph.
The first time through, you might simply just read the text and see what you can glean.
The second time through you might read more slowly and look up words as you go to get a maximum level of comprehension. You might write this vocabulary down, too.
Then, you might read a third time, once you’ve understood everything.
There could also be comprehension questions, if you’re using a graded reader.
Only after all this would you move on to the next section.
Extensive Reading
This type of reading is much quicker and not really methodical, at all. The purpose of it is to consume as many words in the language as possible, thus increasing your vocabulary by repetition. Typically, extensive reading will involve:
Reading as you would a book in your native language, for enjoyment, rather than learning, as such.
Using cognates to help you understand.
Only looking up words if you absolutely have to.
Embracing ambiguity - in other words, accepting that you won’t understand everything, but aiming just to get the gist of the action.
It’s probably a good idea to do both kinds of reading at different times, although, I have to be honest, I’ve never truly done intensive reading in this way since I reignited my passion for languages. I’m quite comfortable with ambiguity, although the more you read in a language, the less the ambiguity exists.
What I have started doing recently, though, is a kind of hybrid, I suppose. I’ve read enough in Italian now that I don’t have a lot of trouble reading, at least when it comes to modern novels, once I’ve got through those first couple of chapters with potentially new kinds of language to get used to. Classics are another beast entirely. Don’t read classics if you want an easy time of it. What I am doing now, though, is focussing on interesting phrases as they come up. Mostly, I can understand what they mean, but I like to highlight them on my eReader so that after I’ve finished reading the book I can go back and look them all up and get a deeper understanding.
You might want to do some kind of hybrid, too. Where, perhaps, you read the first few chapters intensively, until you understand the writer’s style and then you move to extensive. Nothing is set in stone in language learning. Do what works for you and you’ll be happier in your language journey.
That’s all for today’s episode. Don’t forget to join me again next time, for more language learning tips, tricks and tales and in the meantime, check out the A Language Learning Tale YouTube channel for additional, non-podcast content.
Ciao, salut, hwyl and bye for now.