# Reading aloud



## islandlight (Aug 13, 2013)

I'm a former language teacher, but this has me stumped.

I started a Spanish conversation group for intermediate and advanced speakers, because I want to practice speaking. Two others have attended. One is more academically inclined, and his Spanish is at high beginner level. 

The other learned "in the street." From the texts he sent me, he seemed barely literate in Spanish, and I wasn't sure he even knew Spanish. But on meeting him, I realized his spoken Spanish is pretty good.

So far, Mr. Street and Mr. Academic have not attended at the same time. I hope they will in future, and I expect that others will join as well.

Mr. Academic said he wanted us to do readings, and I said okay. I thought it would be a short passage, to provide a focal point for discussion. But yesterday we spent almost the entire session reading aloud from an online article, full of long words that one wouldn't use every day. I found it pointless, difficult, and not very enjoyable. I asked him if he got a lot out of it, and he said yes. I asked him what, and he said pronunciation practice.

I don't understand it. Also, I'm pretty sure Mr. Street (and others) wouldn't like it.

Since it really isn't conversation practice, I think reading aloud would have to be a separate project. I'd be willing to meet with Mr. Academic separately from the main group, if he feels that it would help him. I could correct his pronunciation, although that puts me in a "teacher" position, which I don't want.

However, I'm not sure that reading aloud is even a good idea. What are your thoughts?


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## Red Panda (Aug 18, 2010)

I've learned 3 languages so far and reading aloud has always been part of the learning process, in fact sometimes I do it on my own as well because it can help me a lot. I can have the perfect inner-voice French accent but it doesn't do much if I don't actually practice learning how to make all the necessary movements to produce such very different sounds than my native. I think it can vary between languages cause not every language depends as heavily on pronunciation, English is certainly a lot more lenient in that regard but it still makes it a little awkward to have a very heavy accent if you want to communicate. Reading stuff aloud can help focus a lot more on this part since you don't have to work on creating the meaning yourself, plus it's still input you have to work your brain to understand and the teacher can find if there are errors in the student's understanding of syntax, grammar or spelling which are pretty important ofc. I've also learned a lot from mistakes other students do so it adds value for me.

Now I'm curious how come you don't see reading aloud as important, what kind of experiences do you have that go against that? both as a teacher and a student I suppose


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## islandlight (Aug 13, 2013)

Thank you, @Red Panda . After I posted, I read up on this a bit. I still feel confused. I'll try to explain myself!

My experiences as a learner ... I learned Spanish in the street, as an adult. I supplemented it with some private study (I used to enjoy reading the dictionary, etc.). So I don't have any experience with reading aloud, except in real-life situations, e.g., reading a brief instruction to someone over the phone.

As a teacher ... I taught ESL/EFL, which was geared toward communication and functional competency. Any reading aloud was limited to brief sample sentences related to the lesson.

One thing I learned as a teacher (of adults) was to change activities every couple of minutes, and not to do anything for more than 7 minutes. So when someone wants us to read aloud for an hour, I don't know ...

I guess I'm biased toward listening (input) and speaking (production), as these are what worked for me. I've been told my accent is near perfect. I'm literate in Spanish as well, but that's just because I'm a literate person, not from any formal study.

But that's my experience. I think Mr. Academic's needs are different. More academic.

If he wants to challenge himself by reading more advanced works, that's great. We should seek out resources that interest or excite us. But perhaps he should do this on his own, looking up difficult words as he goes.

As I mentioned, he is a high beginner. He needs to learn more about pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. For these, he might be better off with simple materials, and just a few sentences at a time (not a whole article). Preferably read-along materials, e.g., where you listen to a recording while reading the transcription, and then read aloud, trying to emulate the recording.

I'm not sure about this at all. Just putting it out there. I want to help him. At the same time, I don't want the conversation group to become a reading group or classroom.

Both Mr. Street and I just want to practice our conversation skills. I belonged to another Spanish conversation group before, and that's what we did.


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## Red Panda (Aug 18, 2010)

islandlight said:


> Thank you, @Red Panda . After I posted, I read up on this a bit. I still feel confused. I'll try to explain myself!
> 
> My experiences as a learner ... I learned Spanish in the street, as an adult. I supplemented it with some private study (I used to enjoy reading the dictionary, etc.). So I don't have any experience with reading aloud, except in real-life situations, e.g., reading a brief instruction to someone over the phone.
> 
> ...


Oh I defnitey agree that based on what you describe you are right in that situation - 1 hr of that was excessive and probably didn't help much. My comment was focused on how reading aloud can help in general. All the language lessons I've done were in classrooms and we all participated in reading the material for the whole class, so the most reading we did was maybe a few minutes each at a time and then did the exercises given in the textbook and/or by the teacher. That's my experience both as a kid and an adult in reading material in class (I did eng and german in school and french & german as adult), so nothing over the top but I still think reading aloud can help and be nicely incorporated in the learning process. 
Dunno why he thought that was a good idea - perhaps he misjudged if he doesn't know how languages classes flow smoothly and based it more on what he wants to do. I think you should prob talk with him about it for next time. I understand if you don't want to be a teacher in this but your expertise is valuable so maybe you can give some structure without taking the lead.


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## islandlight (Aug 13, 2013)

Thank you, @Red Panda . At the end of that session, after he said he found the reading aloud to be worthwhile, I kind of waffled, and said various things -- including that maybe reading aloud should be separate from conversation group.

Over the next couple of days, I found and texted him about an app that provides readings (a few paragraphs each) at his level. It also has good quality recordings to go with the readings, so you can read and listen at the same time. The recordings even have a slide to control listening speed.

He texted me and said it was great. I hope he really thought so, and wasn't just being polite.

Then we talked about our next meeting. I said I really want this to be conversation only, but I'd be happy to meet with him another time to do reading aloud. He said no, just conversation was fine. I guess that means the app was serving his needs.

He has mentioned getting together outside of conversation group, so that still might happen. (Not a romance, but we seem to have a lot in common.)

Thanks for your insights. I'm sure I read aloud in foreign language classes in my youth, and in English class (my native language), but I can hardly remember back that far.


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## John B Williams (Jun 6, 2021)

I'm a little bit lazy in reading


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## islandlight (Aug 13, 2013)

John B Williams said:


> I'm a little bit lazy in reading


Thank you. I know many people are. Reading is okay for some, but not everyone likes it.


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