Welcome to FREN202. This blog space serves as a springboard for your readings as well as for our class discussions. I will be placing things on the blog page for you to read, to explore, and to contemplate after every class period. As a student in the course, you are responsible for logging on to and posting to the blog page after every class. This is the only forum where the use of English is permitted! In class, we will speak French exclusively. I hope that you will find that this format contributes to your learning experience in this course.
Question of the day (please post) : How can you learn to read in a foreign language? What techniques do you think would be effective in developing better reading ability?
17 comments:
i think the best thing to help you read in another language is to use your english cognates. they can help you understand the meaning of a sentence or passage.
Taking it slow and having some sort of French english dictionary handy with knowledge of cognates would help.
I'm a big fan of cognates. Also, remembering that you don't have to understand every single word to get the whole idea helps too.
The way to understand while reading a foreign language is to use the english congnates, and the context of the sentence to your advantage. It also helps to keep the dictionary handy for quick translations. Reading the stories several times helps to figuare out the meaning.
I agree that looking for cognates is the best way to understand what you are reading. It's not necessary to understand every single word in the story, as long as you can understand the gist of it.
this whole blog thing was kind of confusing, I hope it works. ok im diggin the whole ENGLISH only blog page haha. It's definately challenging to only speak french in class, but I've found that as long you are patient with finding the right words, it's possible to speak only french in that class. Don't give up if you get stuck on a word and just start speaking in english. Memorize french phrases that ask for help! "Comment dit-on..." Be patient in class...it helps me some. And I agree, as long as you get the key words out, we know what you're talking about...
yeah talking in only french in class is kinda hard...at times i just want to talk in english so i know i'm somewhat close to understanding whats going on...but oh well hopefully it will get better
definatly using cognates is the way to go. but also a french-english dictionary helps a lot. i find it best to read the words that you know and underline one you dont, then look those words up and re-read the sentence again.
Cognates are a huge help. I think that sitting down and just reading through the work once and find what you understand and don't understand. Once you get the idea of what the story is about, you can go back and pick out details with a dictionary.
I have a hard time just using cognates. I try to read every word and get very confused. So I try to just read each paragraph and them summarize it in English.
It certainly great that there are so many cognates in the French language. I have found that determining the context of a reading goes a long way in helping to figure out what the author is trying to say. Also, wordreference. com helps :)
I also think that it is important to not be intimidated and try to read through at least one time before picking up a dictionary to work on the details.
Cognates, I love them. They help me understand what is being said without having to know every word but they sure don't sound the same that can be hard to remember.
obviously, like everyone else said we need to use the cognates to try to find out what words mean. also read slow, and see if you can pick out certain words and the "gist" of sentences or phrases. That is what has helped me the most this semester.
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