From Language Learner to Language User
I’ve heard lots of discussions about what counts as being “fluent” in a language or “knowing” a language. I suggest one way to make this distinction is to think about the shift from using materials created for learners of the language to using materials created for speakers of the language. If I’m reading a textbook or a graded reader in a language, I’m doing so in an attempt to learn (or acquire) the language. But at a certain point I can start reading books created for people who know Spanish, as opposed to books created to help someone learn Spanish. If I switch from watching videos that are meant to help me learn Russian to videos that are created for people who know Russian, then I’ve crossed an important point in my experience with the language. I’m using the language alongside folks who have used the language their entire lives. Perhaps this is a high bar. I’ve only cleared it in one language so far, but I’m getting close in another. As I impatiently try to make this transition in Russian, I’m trying to apply what I’ve learned from that shift in Spanish.
In my previous post about reading, I explained that when I was in Peru I experienced a dramatic shift in how I read Spanish. For roughly a decade I had always read Spanish in order to learn Spanish. I was assigned stories or readings in my classes and I dutifully translated them (sometimes nearly word by word) and eventually made a bit of sense of them. But while reading about my own field of education in Peru I began reading naturally. Something clicked in my mind and instead of focusing on learning Spanish, I was interested in learning about education in Peru and Spanish wasn’t getting in the way anymore. Instead Spanish was helping me. Before going to Peru I had only been scratching the surface of using the language like this. I read a bit of news here and there, mainly on the BBC Spanish news site (which I found way easier to comprehend than sites from Spanish-speaking countries, perhaps some of the English syntax survived the BBC translation and made it a bit more comprehensible for me). I read a little Spanish literature in my highest level Spanish class, but I read it like a language learner, translating words, and generally struggling. I’d had some random one-off conversations in Spanish over the years, but nothing consistent. My focus was still on learning.
So, it was in Peru where this change began to take place. Both in reading and of course in speaking and listening. I had language classes as a Peace Corps volunteer, but I also spoke Spanish every day with my host family and with my local counterparts when I began my projects. It was complete immersion. As part of that immersion I also watched TV in Peru. One TV show I watched every evening with my host family was a Peruvian sitcom/telenovela called Al Fondo Hay Sitio. It has some of the most overdone, worst acting you can imagine, but this turned out to be a great support for me. Even if I couldn’t catch every word or conversation in the show, the overly dramatic acting drove home the plot, which in turn helped me understand and predict what was happening. This is the foundation of understanding any language: when the language meets expectations and predictions.
So despite the differences with my current situation with Russian (I was in an immersion environment and had far more time studying Spanish under my belt) there are still takeaways I can pull from this experience.
- Find topics I already know something about, and I’m interested in learning more about. (Straight forward enough)
- Find styles that offer support to me as I’m trying to make sense. (More on that below)
What kinds of supports help make this transition? What Frank Smith calls “normal language” is a must. According to Smith we can tell if something is normal language based on whether or not meaning is lost if we change the order of sentences. Activities in a text book with lists of separate sentences can be reorganized and no one would know. That’s not normal language. Sorry, grammar exercises, flash cards, and just about every language learning app. Those can certainly be used to complement normal language, but normal language is my priority. While I’m still making sense of language learning materials, I prioritize materials that use normal language: readings or videos that tell a story or describe a thing or an idea. Graded readers and “slow listening” videos are my favorites.
I’ve also spent lots of time watching Russian shows and movies with English subtitles. Now, if that’s the only thing I did, I would never learn Russian. But, I’ve noticed clearly over the last couple years that I progressively hear more and more of the dialogue and am able to match it up with the English subtitles. Not enough that I can turn subtitles off, but enough that I am encouraged. Plus, this keeps me engaged with the culture which is indispensable knowledge for making sense of a language.
I also started using italki and found a tutor for Russian conversation. Partially out of anxiety and partially out of laziness I waited almost two years into studying Russian to seriously focus on conversation. But this wait meant that I was ready for an hour-long conversation almost completely in Russian. And since it’s just me and the tutor we can choose topics of interest to me. Of course my tutor is effective at keeping his speech slow, clear and simple so that I can understand, helping prepare me for using the language outside a learning setting.
So, if those are my final steps with language learning materials, it’s time for the dive into content for language users…
One of my first forays into using Russian was reading hockey news (as I wrote about in my previous post about reading in your target language). I had to search various Russian sports sites until I found one with short enough and simple enough articles. They cover the hockey league I follow and give short summaries of every game. In a few sentences they cover who won, who scored and who each team is playing next. The articles have a consistent and predictable format which helps me navigate new or challenging words. And of course, I want to know who won.. So I keep reading.
I also love history and politics. So I searched for examples of history in Russian and came across an online collection of Soviet-era children’s books at Princeton. Since I’m such a colossal history nerd I decided to read these while also reading about the history of Russia and Eastern Europe in English. I additionally paired this with specific language learning materials that focused on history (you can see I’m still transitioning out of language learning materials). With the ability to triangulate between English history sources, Russian language-learning history sources and Russian children’s history I am able to interpret what is going on in the Soviet children’s books, for example how they served as propaganda at the time (apparently Stalin was a great guy!).
One of my goals for Russian is to eventually read the news. But news articles use far too large of a vocabulary and far too complex of grammatical structures for me to make sense of them, unlike the sports review articles I mentioned above which were short and repetitive enough for me to follow. But I’m finding some examples of news that offer me support in making sense. I’ve read a bit of BBC Russian news, which like I mentioned already seems easier to me than sites originally in Russian. I’ve also looked at some news sites from Eastern Europe with articles summarizing the day’s news in short blurbs, keeping the chunks of Russian I’m reading shorter and more digestible. It’s all still quite challenging, so reading about topics I’m already familiar with is a must.
Finally, I downloaded the free browser extension Language Reactor which for many YouTube and Netflix videos allows for simultaneous captions in English and the language being spoken in the video. This can be a lot of information on the screen, but I’ve been finding that if I choose to ignore the English until I need it, I can understand a decent amount and use the English subtitles (at the very bottom of the screen) as training wheels to catch me when I’m struggling to make sense. I’m also trying out exporting the subtitles and translations (which Language Reactor allows me to do on YouTube) from short videos and treating them as a reading text. Once I’ve worked through the reading, I can return to the video and watch it again, this time understanding more.
So, is the key to using language reading hockey news and Soviet children’s books? For me, yes. Because those are ways I can engage with the language, use it to learn about something I’m interested in and find sufficient supports to making sense of it. As I find content I’m interested in and that supports me while making sense, I’m building a bridge into content made for Russian speakers. And now that I am crossing that bridge the options for engaging with my target language only keep expanding.
