Why is it Critical to Study Idiomatic Expressions by Listening?

... went out the next day and heard real conversations in Japanese. Of course I heard the kanji based words. But I did not understand the meanings. Iheard the sound. Then I thought of all the kanji and what sounds they made. I finally matched the kanji to the sound. Then I remembered the meaning. Then the opportunity to speak was gone. I was too slow.

Study Idioms from a Book

Many students study idioms by reading. They get a book of idioms. Or perhaps they get an English language text. They read the idioms. Then they read the meanings. These written words are images. They are like pictures.

Picture to Meaning Connections

The pictures - that is, words - they see get changed into meaning in their mind. Reading and re-reading the words makes this connection stronger. Soon they remember easily what the meaning of the written idiom is.

Sound to Picture Connections

Then they mentally change the words to sounds. They may make the sounds correct, or they may make mistakes, but they change them into sounds. These sounds are isolated from the use in a sentence usually. And the sounds of each word in the idiom are distinct and clear. Easy to understand. Especially if they translate.

Then Translate

Some students then translate the English meanings into their own language. This is natural whe you are beginning to study a language. It makes it easier in the beginning. Of course, it is much more difficult in the intermediate and advanced stages. That is why many students do not progress to those stages.

Then Respond

After all this learning, they have to converse. They hear the idiom. Then they change the sound into pictures (words), and then into meaning. And some of the students translate the meaning into their own language. After these steps, they have to respond.

Opportunity is Gone

The problem is all those steps took a long time. And the opportunity to respond is gone, unless they always have very patient people around them. Conversations with one person are manageable, but they are impossible with several speakers in a group. What should these students do?

Study Directly

They need to study without making all these connections. They need to study directly. They do not need a connection between sound word and meaning. And they should not leave enough time to translate. I know. I made that mistake.

Sound - Meaning Connections

Study by listening and keeping the original meaning in mind as you listen. This will help make a direct connection between the sound (spoken words) and meaning. Then understanding will be direct. And your response will be faster.

How Can You Do This?

Reading is a valuable form of study. IT can dramatically increase your vocabulary. It is not as good for practicing conversation. For conversation, you must do listening practice to help build the direct connection between sound and meaning. Intensive listening is a great way to build this connection.

Lots of Shadowing and Listen and Repeat

Intensive listening is basically doing a lot of shadowing. And listen and repeat practice. This sort of practice should be done for short periods of time, and very often. Once a day is the minimum. In fact, twice or three times a day would be better. But you have to check that your practice is correct. You can check by doing shadow reading.

Shadow-reading Too

Shadow reading is just shadowing with the script open in front of you. You shadow by reading the script at the same time as you hear it on the audio track. Do not do this too often. Perhaps once in four or five practice sessions. Between practice sessions, do not read the script. You will pick up bad listening habits that way.

Summary:

Study from a book builds picture knowledge. Then you have to correlate the sounds to the written word, which connects to the meaning and then you sometimes translate. It is better to connect the sound directly to the meaning. Do this with intensive listening practice. This is things like shadowing and listen and repeat.

Next step:

Go to the story - Inspection Time - on this page and start practising shadowing and listen and repeat.