Which is better, and what more needs to be done?

Question

I watch English shows with the SAP and caption on, so I can hear is Spanish and read in english... and I also watch native spanish shows with the captions, so I can get used to hearing how the words I know should and will sound.... which should be my main activity for listening comprehension... and what other tactics would you advise!

What is your native language? - Gregory84, Feb 22, 2012

inglés es mi lengua natal. - Dejame, Feb 22, 2012

"Lengua materna" - --Mariana--, Feb 24, 2012

Answer 1

In my opinion, learning vocabulary is very important. Many times when I am listening to Spanish, I understand about every other word, because those are the words that I know. Of course, verb conjugations are important as well, and I am beginnning to understand that pronouns and their placement are also very important. To me, these are 3 things taht will greatly increase your comprehension.

Reading Spanish can be a great activity to help you accomplish these goals.

Thank you! I read lots of spanish on the site, although I've just been banned from the chat, which is really a negative because the native speakers were great to test things with etc. But I guess I'll move on to reading professional spanish. - Dejame, Feb 22, 2012

Answer 2

I agree with Kdrin that reading is very helpful for listening. However, I would suggest you read complete Spanish novels or well written articles(e.g newspapers, magazines), ideally the ones written by native Spanish authors rather than the ones translated from English to Spanish. Reading will not only increase your vocabulary in an easy and painless way, it will also get you used to Spanish sentence structures in a subconscious way. This subconscious understanding is even more important than explicit learning.

Once you start to read without having to do the Spanish-English translation, you will find your listening comprehension suddenly increase. (I am just reaching this point myself, after learning Spanish for 5 months, mainly through reading novels). This is because the main obstacle for listening comprehension is the talking speed.

I also try not to understand every words when I am watching Spanish TV/movies, but rather try to use other cues to follow the plot. If I cannot follow the plot, I try to find some other shows/movies which are simpler, so I can at least follow the main plot. I find only for this type of shows, the subtitle helps me understand the details, and my listening skill improve through out the show. For shows totally beyond my level of listening skills (such as the Movie Volver, TV show El Chavel, etc), to me at least, it is a wasting of time.

Here is a funny show in Spanish, designed for beginner/intermediate level student. I enjoyed it a lot and learned how to say some common expressions.

I am only a beginner, I look forward to see other people's suggestions.