Chapter 5: Selecting a Text
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In this chapter, I am using the term text to identify a written manuscript. A newspaper in English is usually an excellent source for a study text. Most newspapers use good syntax, relatively simple sentences, and common expressions. In addition to general vocabulary, newspapers will give you many common political, scientific, economic, and technical words. Generally, newspapers are also a good source of colloquial expressions.
As you begin language study, you will need both a manuscript and an audio recording of the text for pronunciation practice. In your initial selection of a study text, you will be faced with a choice between a printed text from a newspaper or spoken language from a radio broadcast.
I will explain the use of a newspaper as an English text in this chapter because it will help you to understand how the text would be used. However, if you are using the Spoken English Learned Quickly lessons, the text and the audio recordings are complete and all of the features in this chapter are already built into that course.
Fourteen of the 16 Spoken English Learned Quickly lessons begin with a Lesson Text section. This material may be read aloud exactly like a newspaper. If you are using the Lesson Text for your reading, you will have the added advantage of familiar vocabulary and audio recordings to guide your pronunciation.
After you complete the Spoken English Learned Quickly lessons, you will still want to read newspapers as you continue studying English. You can become very fluent in English — and develop an excellent vocabulary — if you continue to read English newspapers aloud. However, at that point you would not need to make audio recordings. Reading aloud and keeping a vocabulary notebook would be all you would need to do. By this time in your study, I am assuming that your pronunciation and voice inflection would be acceptable. If not, you would need to return to the Spoken English Learned Quickly lessons until your pronunciation was correct.
Going from a written text to an audio recording
In this chapter, I am merely describing the text itself. For the moment, I will assume that you would have a teacher who speaks English as his or her first language. I am also assuming that you would have audio recording equipment.
By now you realize that the purpose of using the newspaper is spoken language practice. You would always read the newspaper aloud, and would frequently read a sentence aloud and then look away from the text, repeating the sentence from recall memory.
Everything considered, you would probably find it easier to produce an audio recording from a newspaper text than you would to produce a text from a radio broadcast recording. It would be much simpler to have your English teacher record the text than to have the teacher transcribe the audio recording.
For your study purposes, a printed newspaper text would assure a more precise use of the language, better spelling, and a more easily preserved printed copy. Because live radio broadcasts are difficult to record with inexpensive audio equipment, you would likely have difficulty hearing all of the words. Therefore, it would be easier to get a good text and a usable recording by having the teacher read a newspaper text for the audio recording. The text would be recorded so that there would be adequate pauses for your study.
Using the newspaper for vocabulary
First, read the article out loud, identifying new vocabulary as you read. Whenever you read a word you do not know, stop and find it in your dictionary. Keep a vocabulary notebook. If a word you do not know is used more than twice in an article, put a check
)After you are more familiar with the process, select other newspaper articles and continue reading aloud while you look for new vocabulary words. When you find a word in a second newspaper article which you have already checked
))Whenever you are able to do so, write cognate forms of the same word. For example, to adhere, an adhesive, and adhesion are cognates. It will be helpful for you to learn multiple cognate forms of a word at the same time rather than learning each form as a new vocabulary word when you encounter it. Association of a single word in multiple forms with one root meaning will result in more rapid vocabulary retention. It will also teach you how to develop cognate forms of words as you speak English in the future.
Verbs should be listed in your notebook by their infinitive form (for example, "to remember") rather than by a conjugated form (for example, "she remembers"). After mastering the verb's conjugation, it will be far simpler to learn a single verb form than it will be to attempt to learn each form of a verb as an individual vocabulary word.
Spoken English Learned Quickly does an excellent job of teaching English verbs. Since you will learn each new verb in all its persons, tenses, and specialized forms, you will learn the English verb so well that you will be able to use every tense and person of any regular English verb. If you heard a new English verb, you would be able to use every person and tense in a spoken sentence even if you did not know that verb's meaning.
Using the newspaper for meaning
Read the article again for meaning. Always read aloud. If you do not understand a sentence, stop and figure out exactly what it means.
If some of the definitions you have written in your notebook do not make sense in the context of the article, find the word again in your dictionary and see if it has other meanings. If a second meaning for the word would make better sense, write that definition in your notebook.
If you still cannot figure out the meaning of a sentence, it may be because two or more words are used together as a single expression. Try to determine the meaning of expressions. Look for similar expressions in other articles. If you still cannot determine the meaning of an expression, ask your English teacher for assistance.
Review your vocabulary meanings regularly with your English teacher.
Using the newspaper for syntax development
Reading a newspaper article aloud is an ideal way to reinforce your use of grammatically correct English syntax. Your goal is to retrain your mind, hearing, and mouth to understand and use English correctly. Reading aloud from a newspaper is one of the best ways to accomplish that.
The great advantage is that you will be reading a large number of different sentences which will all be organized according to the same grammar rules. Thus, you would be learning the acceptable range of the syntax of that language. That is, there may appear to be many variations from sentence to sentence, yet all of the uses would still be correct. For an example, you would learn that you can place the word "however" at the beginning, middle, or end of an English sentence. You would also learn that the position of "however" can make a slight difference in meaning, or it can enhance the style of the sentence.
In many respects, using the newspaper for syntax development is similar to using it for fluency enhancement and as an aid in conversation as mentioned below. The same exercises suggested below would be as profitable for syntax as they would be for fluency and conversation.
Using the newspaper in order to learn expressions
Expressions add richness to all languages. Identify expressions as you read the newspaper. Use a special mark to identify them in articles. Many expressions may be divided so that component words of the expression are separated by non-component words.
Try substituting other words while using the same expression. Say or write as many sentences using the expression as possible. To use an example, you may read a sentence in a newspaper which says, "The Governor announced Friday that he will not run for another term, putting to rest months of speculation about his future intentions." Most expressions can be used in different tenses with different people or things. For example, the expression "to put to rest" can be used in the present, "I want to put our disagreement to rest," in the future, "He will put his argument to rest," or in the past, "They finally put their rivalry to rest." Notice that in the last phrase, the component parts of the expression are separated: "They finally put their rivalry to rest."
To continue with another illustration, English uses word forms as a type of expression. For example, you may read a sentence in a newspaper which says, "We're getting all kinds of calls from people who are panicking and asking what they can do." This form of expression uses two or more words ending in "…ing" to describe two or more actions that the same person is doing at one time.
Using the newspaper for fluency enhancement
In this use of the newspaper, you would simply read rather than alternating between reading and repeating a sentence from recall memory. You would want to read the entire article aloud for fluency practice. Try reading the article as smoothly as possible without stopping. Read it aloud at least twice.
For more fluency practice, continue reading the article aloud until you can read it at the same rate of speed that an American speaker uses when talking. Practice until your pronunciation duplicates that of the American speaker.
Your purpose would not merely be to learn the vocabulary in these newspaper articles, but to learn to speak fluently. Keep practicing until you can read the article aloud so that an American speaker could clearly understand what you are saying.
Fluency is the ability to speak smoothly with proper intonation. Initially use single sentences for fluency drills, repeatedly reading a single sentence until you can read it smoothly. Eventually, do the same with multiple sentences or paragraphs. Even as a beginning student, there is value in reading a longer passage or entire article without break in order to establish the rhythm of the spoken language. This is excellent proprioceptive training.
Your natural tendency will be to move on to new articles too quickly. In reality, it would only be after you already know all of the vocabulary and can pronounce each word correctly that you would be ready to use the newspaper article to full advantage. You would not be fully retraining you mind and tongue until you could read the article at normal speaking speed with proper inflection and pronunciation. You would accomplish more in attaining fluent speech by rereading fewer articles aloud perfectly than you would by reading many articles aloud with faulty pronunciation.
Using the newspaper for conversation practice
In Chapter 2 I said, "You must never make a mistake when you are speaking." That objective will be the most difficult when you first begin free conversation. However, using a newspaper article will be a great aid in producing conversation which is essentially free of mistakes.
A newspaper article can give you a great deal of structure for conversation practice. This structure would give both you and your English teacher a defined group of vocabulary words, defined sentences with an understood meaning, and a defined context in which the vocabulary and sentences can be communicated. Your English teacher could use the newspaper article to structure free conversation.
To continue with the illustration, your English teacher could lead you in a discussion stemming from a newspaper article. You could easily have the following discussion after only four weeks of full-time language study. Notice that your teacher would ask each question twice, expecting that you will substitute a pronoun in the second response.
Language Helper: "What did the Governor announce on Friday?"Assuming that you had only been studying English for four weeks, your initial response to each question would be halting. You would also be looking at the printed text when your English teacher initially asked the question. But at least your answer would be word perfect. You would be training your proprioceptive sense by using perfect syntax. Now you would want to add perfect pronunciation and fluency to that.
Answer: "The Governor announced on Friday that he will not run for another term."
Language Helper: "What did the Governor announce on Friday?"
Answer: "He announced on Friday that he will not run for another term."
Language Helper: "Will the Governor run for another term?"
Answer: "No, the Governor will not run for another term."
Language Helper: "Will the Governor run for another term?"
Answer: "No, he will not run for another term."
Language Helper: "When did the Governor announce that he will not run for another term?"
Answer: "The Governor announced on Friday that he will not run for another term."
Language Helper: "When did the Governor announce that he will not run for another term?"
Answer: "He announced on Friday that he will not run for another term."
During typical English instruction, extra attention is usually given to poor performance. That is, when you use a sentence incorrectly, it is corrected with additional drills. On the other hand, when you respond correctly, the teacher moves on to the next sentence. That is not what you would want your English teacher to do for you now. Of course, you would want help with incorrect syntax and pronunciation. But in order to learn the language effectively, you would want to emphasize correct language use. To continue our example, say that none of the sentences in the above illustration would contain any phonemes which you could not reproduce acceptably. Therefore, your English teacher would continue to drill you on these same sentences until you could pronounce them perfectly.
She would again ask the first question twice, allowing you to respond accordingly.
Language Helper: "What did the Governor announce on Friday?"Now, however, you would not be looking at the text. Your English teacher would ask these two questions until you could answer word perfectly from recall memory.
Answer: "The Governor announced on Friday that he will not run for another term."
Language Helper: "What did the Governor announce on Friday?"
Answer: "He announced on Friday that he will not run for another term."
But she would still not be finished. She would now increase her tempo and would expect you to answer accordingly. She would persist until the two of you were conversing so quickly and naturally that if an American came into the room, he or she would hear a strange redundant conversation in what would otherwise be completely understandable English. It would be just as understandable to that English speaker as any conversation between two Americans in a grocery store.
This would continue — maybe for several days of practice — until the entire series of questions from that newspaper article could be asked and answered in fully fluent conversation.
You would be worn out by the time you had finished studying this intensely from a newspaper article. Yet, while others would be in the beginning language course after their initial four weeks of study, you — after your first four weeks — would already be speaking on an advanced level, even though you would only be using a relatively small number of sentences.
Congratulations!
Using Spoken English Learned Quickly
The Spoken English Learned Quickly lessons are designed exactly like the newspaper illustration described above. There is both a text and enough recorded audio lessons so that you would be able speak English for two hours each day, five days a week, for nine months. However, because you would have the recorded audio lessons, after you understood each new exercise, you would do all of your practice with your text closed.
Spoken English Learned Quickly was designed for students who do not have a teacher who speaks English as his or her first language. You would be able to do all of your study alone. However, if you are taking an English class using this course, your teacher should be able to use questions and answers with you in the same way illustrated in this chapter.
If your teacher does not speak English as his or her first language, then most of your time should be spent studying with the recorded Spoken English Learned Quickly lessons — it should not be spent in English grammar lessons. You have already studied enough English grammar in school. Spoken English Learned Quickly was designed so that you can learn to speak English as quickly as possible. Grammar lessons would only slow you down.
However, you must avoid a mistake too many students make. These students try to move too quickly and quit studying Spoken English Learned Quickly too soon. They study a lesson until they understand the meaning of the sentences and the vocabulary. Then they go to the next lesson. You must remember that these are not lessons in English grammar or vocabulary. These are lessons in spoken English. You have not finished a lesson until you can pronounce every sentence so perfectly — without reading from a text — that an American would think you were from the United States. Of course, we expect that you would make it more interesting for yourself by going to a new lesson, and then coming back and reviewing a previous lesson. But you must always remember, perfect pronunciation, perfect use of the English verb, and perfect intonation is your goal before you are finished with a lesson.
See Chapter 7 for links to English newspapers.
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